Award Wallet: "Housed in the Capital One mobile app is a new lounge capacity tracker. You'll find it in the “Travel” menu under “Lounges.” Selecting a location will show real-time capacity, so you'll know whether the lounge is very busy or nearly empty. And if it's busy, you can join the waitlist and get a text when you're next in line."
"The waitlist is accessible even if you're not standing outside the lounge. This way, you can enter the lounge sooner after hopping off your flight — or get your name on the list while you're still in line at the TSA checkpoint. But after the confirmation text arrives, you'll have 15 minutes to check in at the desk; otherwise, you'll lose your spot in line."
Disclosure: I may receive a referral bonus if you use the links below.
Thrifty Traveler: "Here's your chance to book a stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, one of the best points hotels in Mexico and one of our absolute favorites."
"We just discovered a ton of standard room award availability from late February through April 2024 for just 120,000 Hilton Honors points per night, with almost every single night bookable over that span. That's as good as it gets for this high-end property, which rarely sees more than a few days a month of award availability like this, if any."
Points Wire Note:
If you find dates with Standard Room availability for 120,000 Hilton points per night, you can also use a free night certificate earned with one of the Hilton Amex cards. Additionally, Hilton Amex Aspire cardholders have Hilton Honors Diamond status which can be quite useful at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos.
There's an Amex Offer for stays at select Hilton properties. You can get $200 back as a statement credit if you spend $1,000+ at eligible properties until May 15, 2024.
Select properties in the following in the following countries are eligible: US, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Belize, Peru, Honduras, French Polynesia. See the full list of eligible properties.
According to the terms & conditions, you need to book directly with Hilton. This should mean Hilton Impresario bookings at Conrad, LXR, and Waldorf Astoria properties are eligible.
Hilton Impresario benefits include: Daily breakfast for 2, $100 property credit, one category room upgrade, double Hilton Honors points, etc.
Properties that are both eligible for this Amex Offer and participate in Hilton Impresario include:
If you'd like to book via Hilton Impresario, you can do so via our self-serve booking portal or, if the property isn't available via the portal, by submitting a request here.
Amex has released a great Amex Offer. You can get $100 back as a statement credit when you spend $500+ at Mandarin Oriental properties. I'll note that this Amex Offer seems to be targeted.
Important Terms
Points Wire Note:
Since MO Fan Club and Virtuoso bookings are direct bookings, you should be able to book through either of these preferred booking programs to get extra perks. Benefits can include: daily breakfast for 2, a room upgrade, a $100 property credit and more.
You need a travel advisor to help with your booking to use these programs. If you'd like to book, check out my hotel booking page.
Amex has been adding new welcome bonus restrictions to card families left and right recently. Recently, we saw the Amex Green get new restrictions. However, Travel on Points noticed the following language has been added to the Amex Platinum for Morgan Stanley:
"You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application."
Points Wire Note:
The recently card family rules from American Express have been rough. It makes putting a little thought into your your credit card choices even more important. Fortunately, there are still plenty of ways to earn lots of Amex Membership Rewards points. You just want to be intentional about how you go about doing so.
Disclosure: I may receive a referral bonus or commission if you use the links below.
Rakuten is running one of their famous 10x promos on select brands. If you haven't linked your Amex Membership Rewards account to Rakuten, you can still earn 10% cash back.
Some travel brands that stand out include IHG and Best Western. You can stack this with the Best Western promo to earn a free night. This promo could also help with IHG's fast track to Diamond status offer or the promo to earn a ton of bonus points on Iberostar stays.
Join Rakuten, earn $30 (or 3,000 Amex points).
Travel on Points: "If you have ever carried a Delta card and been looking at those new welcome offers longingly, then I have good news for you. There are some new Delta no lifetime language offers going out to targeted individuals. These no lifetime language offers are mostly sent out for business cards like the Business Gold and Business Platinum card. One of the exceptions are these Delta no lifetime language offers that come around from time to time. The cool thing is there is a link to check if you are eligible."
Danny the Deal Guru: "American Express has been introducing this bonus eligibility restriction on multiple family of cards recently. It started with Delta credit cards, then Platinum cards, Cash back cards, and more recently the American Express® Gold Card."
"When the Gold Card rules were introduced, putting it in the same family as the Platinum cards, it was strange that the Green Card wasn’t included as well. So American Express has done just that."
The new Amex Green Card's welcome bonus restrictions are as follows:
You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the American Express® Gold Card or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.
Points Wire Note:
If you want to get welcome bonuses for all of the personal charge cards that Amex offers, you now need to get them in this order:
With the Chase Offer for Marriott Bonvoy, you can get 10% cash back when you spend at least $100 at Marriott properties up to $80 back. That means you can get 10% back on up to $800. I love that this offer can be used globally rather than only in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
This Chase Offer expires on March 11, 2024 and appears to be targeted.
You should be able to stack this with a Marriott STARS or Marriott Luminous booking so you can get extra perks and save a little bit.
Frequent Miler: "American Express completely revamped its cobranded Delta credit cards yesterday, adding benefits while increasing both the welcome offers and annual fees. However, on at least two of those cards (the consumer Gold and Platinum) it’s possible to get a better offer when making a dummy booking on Delta’s website. These modified offers each include a $400 statement credit, but with 20K less SkyMiles."
Points Wire Note:
What's a dummy booking?
Sometimes, you can find better welcome bonus offers on co-branded airline and hotel credit cards on the checkout page of a booking. Whether you book or not, these offers can be displayed. Going through the booking process to find a card offer is often referred to as "dummy booking" since you're not actually planning to book a flight or hotel stay.
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