Japan Today: "When the flowers bloom, they transform the Japanese countryside into an achingly beautiful landscape of pastel pink flowers, and the only downsides are that the sakura are fickle about when they’ll bloom, and only stick around for a short time after they do."
"That means that timing is everything if you’re hoping to see the cherry blossoms in Japan. Thankfully, Japanese weather forecasting organization Weather News has released its first sakura forecast for the spring of 2024, and says that the blossoms will be arriving quite a bit earlier than usual this year. On Japan’s four main islands (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido), the first place to see the sakura bloom will be Fukuoka, on March 16, followed by Tokyo a day later, March 17, the forecast says."
Delta is offering up to a 20% bonus on Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) on flights to/from the Pacific Northwest. Clearly, Delta is going after people who would typically fly Alaska Airlines.
How The Bonus Works
Eligible Pacific Northwest Airports
You can fly to/from the cities to other cities in the U.S.
Important Terms
Points Wire Note:
If you're a road warrior who regularly flies Delta or you're going to be close to the next status level and could use a bump in MQDs, this could be useful. There's no reason not to register for it, but I wouldn't rework travel plans in the vast majority of cases.
Disclosure: I may earn a referral bonus or commission if you use the links below. I serve on an advisory board for Bilt.
If you have American miles and need a flight within the US or to Canada, you can book economy class tickets for as few as 5,500 miles one-way. The promo says "as low as 7,000 miles" but I see plenty of options lower than that.
As an example, I just pulled up Washington, DC (DCA) to Los Angeles (LAX) via Dallas (DFW) for 7,000 miles one-way so it's not just short non-stop flights.
Important Terms
Points Wire Note:
When booking award tickets, it's always a good idea to check cash fares to use as a point of comparison. You might find that you're better off paying cash and saving your points and miles for a future flight that you're confident will be much more expensive.
If you want to earn American miles with credit cards, you're limited to the Bilt Card and co-branded American cards from Barclays and Citi.
Loyalty Lobby: "Hilton has launched the Hilton for Business program aimed at small and medium-sized businesses that currently don’t have corporate partnerships with Hilton."
"Hilton for Business receives 7,500 bonus points after the first stay under the discounted rate and 5,000 bonus points for every 10 nights consumed using the negotiated rate plan."
Points Wire Note:
We'll see what kind of discounts it offers, but it could be a useful program. You'll even earn bonus points with your Hilton for Business account that can be transferred to your personal Hilton Honors account. You can also give points to your employees.
Alaska Airlines' shopping portal is running a promo in which you can earn bonus miles. Specifically, you can earn:
These are not cumulative. Rather, if you spend $300, you will earn an additional 800 bonus miles which bring you to a total of 1,200 bonus miles. For those doing the math, 1,200 Alaska miles for $300 spend is 4x per dollar. That's on top of what you'd earn shopping with a particular merchant.
This offer expires at 11:59pm ET on January 26, 2024.
Let's Get Nerdy (And Earn More Points)
The Alaska Airlines shopping portal is currently offering 4,500 miles for a purchase of The Motley Fool Stock Advisor. There's a promo code (SALE60) that will drop the price to $79. However, you don't want to use that code if you have the Amex Offer for $50 back on a $99 purchase from The Motley Fool (expires May 5, 2024).
If you have that Amex Offer, you will have $99 spent toward the $300 necessary to get 1,200 bonus miles. Your out of pocket will only be $49 once you factor in the Amex Offer statement credit.
Assuming you spend another $201 via the Alaska shopping portal, you'll end up with at least 5,700 miles for $250 out of pocket. Even if you were to only earn 1x on the remaining $201, you'd end up earning 23.6x Alaska miles per dollar.
Points Wire Note:
For those looking to earn more Loyalty Points with American Airlines, you can use the AA shopping portal with the Amex Offer to earn 6,200 AA miles and Loyalty Points.
The increased offers on the Chase Ink Unlimited and Chase Ink Cash are set to end the morning of January 18, 2024.
For several months, they've each had a sign-up bonus of $900/90,000 points after spending $6,000 in 3 months. Referral links are already showing a $750/75,000-point offer so I would expect all links to drop to that.
If you have an Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee, this bonus worth 90,000 points. You just 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.
The 75,000-mile offer is back!
Alaska miles are both valuable and tough to earn since Bank of America's cobranded cards are only practical way to earn Alaska miles with credit card spend. That means it's important to time your application carefully so you can get a large sign-up bonus.
Currently, the public offer for the Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card is only 50,000 miles.
However, you can get a 75,000-mile offer via a specific link. You just have to enter any 6-digit number in the referral code box.
This Amex Offer appears to be targeted to select members. If you have the offer, you can get $225 back when you spend $1,250+ with Air New Zealand.
Important Offer Terms
Points Wire Note:
Ideally, you'll get this offer on the Amex Platinum so you can earn 5x and be covered by the card's trip delay insurance. If you're applying for the Amex Platinum, remember that the public welcome bonus of 80,000 points isn't great.
Select referrals from cardholders offer 150,000 points. I collect referrals from Straight To The Points Premium members (join here) and distribute them via STTP's best cards page.
Travel on Points: "So, what makes the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite lounge access perk so good? I mean Priority Pass is Priority Pass after all. Isn't it? Kind of, but not really. We saw that when the Venture X card removed restaurants from their Priority Pass membership. Here are the 3 things that make this card's Priority Pass membership one of the best."
Mark argues that Priority Pass restaurant access, the ability to give Priority Pass to four people (without making them authorized users), and no published limit on the numbers of guests you can bring with you makes it the best card for lounge access.
I'm not sure only having Priority Pass access is enough to give it the top spot for me, but I love that he thinks outside the box!
Loyalty Lobby: "Hilton launched 2017 a one-time Diamond Status Extension program for Honors members who had held the status for a minimum of three years, consumed at least 250 nights, or earned more than 500,000 base points."
"The program was paused for the pandemic when everyone was extended or could requalify by staying once (there were several targeted offers last year). It has now returned for 2024."
Points Wire Note:
If you meet the qualifications and expect to have some Hilton stays this year, this could be a great way to keep your Hilton Diamond benefits. Keep in mind that this is a once-per-lifetime option. Make sure this is the right time to use it.
You can also get the Hilton Aspire Amex to get Hilton Diamond status.
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