The Points Guy: "Beginning Friday, March 22, travelers will be able to sign up for seat notifications and get automatically moved if their preferred seat is not available at the time of booking, as confirmed by a United spokesperson."
"When booking (or managing) a flight on the mobile app, you'll be able to request your desired seat while browsing the seat map."
View From The Wing: "American’s status year runs March through February. All loyalty points earned before the end of February count towards that year’s status. In the past what mattered was the date Barclays or Citibank sent the batch over to American."
"Under the new approach, card charges dated in February count towards status in one member year, while card charges in March count towards status in the next member year – regardless of your credit card statement close date. In the past, savvy customers would decide for themselves when spend counted by changing their Citibank statement end date. That no longer works."
Chase has released a new and improved offer for the Chase Ink Business Cash.
The standard welcome bonus offer has been $750/75,000 Ultimate Rewards points if you spend $6,000 in 3 months.
New Ink Cash Bonus Offer
Turn Cash Back Into Transferable Points
For the cash back to become Ultimate Rewards points, you need one of these cards: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred. By pairing with one of these cards, your cash back/points can be transferred to any of Chase's airline and hotel partners.
If you decide to apply, we appreciate you using the links above!
Points Wire Note:
As these are business cards, you'll need some kind of business to qualify. However, this can be a side hustle that you operate as a sole proprietor such as selling items on eBay/Amazon. It doesn't have to be your full-time job.
Generally, you need to be under 5/24 to get approved. For those unfamiliar, the Chase 5/24 rule is pretty simple. If you've opened 5+ personal cards from any bank (and select business cards from Capital One, Discover, and TD Bank), Chase won't approve you for a new card.
Basically, if a card shows as an account on your credit report, it counts toward the 5 cards.
Update: The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card is now available for application.
Let's take a quick look at the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card which comes with a reasonable $95 annual fee.
Welcome Bonus
You can earn 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in 3 months.
Bonus Categories
Benefits
Transfer Partners
The transfer ratios are 1:1 unless noted otherwise.
Supplementary Cards
You can pool points earned from the Active Cash (2x on everything) and the Wells Fargo Autograph Card with this card.
Points Wire Note:
The ability to earn 5x transferable points on hotel stays stands out for me and 4x on flights only trails the 5x you can earn with the Amex Platinum. I'll be curious to see what kind of trip delay coverage the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card offers.
While it's great to see Wells Fargo finally add transfer partners, the options are a bit light. LifeMiles covers Star Alliance, Flying Blue covers SkyTeam, and British Airways + Iberia cover oneworld. Hopefully, they'll make progress on adding additional partners.
Considering this card has a $95 annual fee, it's a pretty impressive offering.
Of course, Wells Fargo's reputation has taken quite a few hits in the last several years so it'll be interesting if that makes it tough for them to gain a foothold in the points community.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission if you use the links below. I always appreciate your support!
If you don't have the time or energy to search for award space and you need to travel on specific dates, Point.me is running a 15% discount on their concierge services. They'll search for award space on your behalf and take care of booking your award tickets for you.
The usual price is $200 per person, but the 15% discount brings it down to $170 per person. The best part is that you don't have to use the service immediately. These credits can be used in the future when you're ready to book. You can buy up to four concierge bookings at the discounted rate.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission if you use the links below.
One Mile At A Time: "Frontier Airlines is launching service to New York Kennedy, and is returning to Newark. The airline is seemingly doing this with one goal — serving San Juan, with two daily flights from each airport. These are already very crowded and competitive markets, with fairly low fares. I’m curious to see if Frontier can make these routes work, or if this is an experiment that lasts for a few months."
Thrifty Traveler: "It’s an annual ritual for Hyatt, but that doesn’t mean it feels good. In all, 183 hotels are changing award categories: 137 properties are moving up to a higher category and therefore will require more World of Hyatt points (or transferrable Chase points) to book a free night while just 46 properties are moving down – requiring fewer points to book a free night stay."
Property Highlights
IHG One Rewards has a new promo in which you can earn 2,000 bonus IHG points for every two nights you stay. You need to register before earning bonus points. Stays between April 1 and May 31, 2024 will be eligible.
Some Important Terms
Direct link to register and full T&C
Points Wire Note:
IHG Luxury & Lifestyle bookings should qualify so you can get extra perks at luxury and lifestyle properties plus earn bonus points. You can use our self-serve portal to book many luxury IHG properties.
IHG Luxury & Lifestyle benefits can include daily breakfast for 2, a room upgrade (if available), $100 property credit, guaranteed late 2pm checkout. Benefits vary by property, but you can expect luxury properties such as Intercontinental≤ Regent, and Kimpton (outside the US) to have better benefits than Kimpton (in the US) and Hotel Indigo.
Marriott announced a new partnership between Marriott Bonvoy and BetMGM. You will be able to earn Marriott Bonvoy points via the BetMGM app.
"Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International's award-winning travel program, and BetMGM, a leading sports betting and iGaming operator, today launched an unprecedented rewards collaboration in the online sports betting and iGaming industry, giving fans an extra stake in the game."
"Players in licensed states can link their Marriott Bonvoy and BetMGM accounts and earn BetMGM Rewards points when they wager using the BetMGM sports betting app or play at the award-winning online casino. They can then exchange BetMGM Rewards points for Marriott Bonvoy points, up to 100,000 points annually, which they can then use to redeem extraordinary experiences, including future free nights with Marriott Bonvoy's more than 30 hotel brands and 10,000 destinations globally."
JetBlue is cutting a third of its routes from Los Angeles, several routes from Fort Lauderdale, New York (JFK) to Detroit, and Tampa to Aguadilla. Additionally, they're cutting all flights to Bogota, Lima, Kansas City, and Quito.
View From The Wing had this to say: "Their West Coast operation performs poorly. It was logical to cut. JetBlue needs to build back Boston. They’ve allowed Delta to grow as they focused on New York during the time of their American Airlines partnership. They should clearly re-engage American Airlines on a partnership, pull back from the West Coast, and focus on the Northeast – a return to their roots."
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