You can now book Southwest flights via the Chase travel portal. I saw this shared by Redditor Scolor and was able to confirm with my own search on the Chase travel portal.
Points Wire Note: If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you might get slightly more value out of your points by booking through the portal instead of transferring points to Southwest Rapid Rewards. When Southwest devalues in early 2024, this will become more common.
Award Wallet: "Not many people are familiar with Condor, a German airline focused on leisure routes. Condor isn't a part of an airline alliance and, until recently, you could only book Condor using miles through the airline's partnership with Alaska Airlines."
"However, Condor and Emirates just struck a new partnership agreement that allows Emirates Skywards members to earn and redeem miles on Condor-operated flights."
Frequent Miler: "Alaska made a splash yesterday with the release of its new “unified award chart,” which takes affect in March, 2024. This has been in the works for awhile, but it was something that many Alaska frequent fliers (and points and miles enthusiasts) had a fair bit of trepidation about."
"There are losers to this new award chart, for sure. However, I think that it strikes a sensible balance between pricing and increased utility. It’s not as fun as the old motley patchwork of different award charts for each partner (that also created some incredible values). But, going forward, I think it will make it easier for more people to use Alaska miles more frequently and at reasonable prices."
You can use 50,000 Alaska miles to book Qantas business class one-way between the US and Australia. You can include domestic connections on Alaska and connections within Australia or to New Zealand on Qantas for no additional miles. Plus, you can include a stopover on a one-way award for no extra miles so you can see two cities for the price of one.
Your only options for earning Alaska miles with credit cards are their Bank of America co-branded cards or transferring points you earned with the Marriott Bonvoy cards.
Unfortunately, Alaska Mileage Plan is revamping their award chart as of March 2024 and this rate will jump to 85,000 miles one-way. It's not an entirely unreasonable award rate, but it's a huge jump.
One Mile At A Time: "Major adjustments are coming to Alaska Mileage Plan award redemptions in early 2024, as just about everything is changing. Let me just say upfront that Alaska isn’t pulling a Delta SkyMiles here, in terms of trying to destroy the value of its program. While the current sweet spots are largely being eliminated, the program will become much more widely useful."
Points Wire Note: While some short-haul award rates are improving, long-haul business and first class award rates on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Qantas are taking a huge hit. I think Alaska needs a transfer partner or two given the rates they're going to charge.
Other positives include the ability to book multi-partner awards, partner award sales, and more redemptions that don't touch North America.
Frequent Flyer Bonuses: "Use your Marriott Bonvoy points to book award nights at select Maui properties and receive a 10k point reduction upon booking."
Eligible on select dates until March 1, 2024.
The Chase Ultimate Rewards 30% transfer bonus promo to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club ends at 11:59pm ET on November 15, 2023. If you're about to book an award ticket with Virgin points, make sure you transfer before it ends.
Bookmark our current transfer bonuses page.
Points Wire Note: I wouldn't transfer points unless you are ready to book. Keeping your points with Chase provides more flexibility and reduces the chance you'll be negatively impacted by a devaluation.
Award Wallet: "JetBlue and Qatar have been partners since 2013, but this partnership has only gotten really interesting in the past week. After teasing reciprocal award redemptions since 2021, Qatar Privilege Club finally added JetBlue award redemptions on November 6 — just to nerf the value of these awards a few days later. And now, JetBlue just added the ability to book Qatar awards using TrueBlue points."
Points Wire Note: The sweet spot is 70,000 TrueBlue points for a nonstop one-way Qatar Airways business class award flight between the US and Doha. You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points to JetBlue at a 1:1 ratio.
Hilton: The Trump Hotel Waikiki is being reflagged as Wākea Waikiki Beach – LXR Hotels & Resorts in February 2024. Once the property is an LXR, you'll be able to use Hilton points to book.
Points Wire Note: I would expect standard rooms to require at least 90,000 Hilton points per night as this is one of Hilton's three luxury brands and Waikiki Beach is a popular destination.
I would expect you'll be able to book cash rates via Hilton Impresario as well. Impresario benefits include: Daily breakfast for 2, $100 property credit, room upgrade on arrival, double Hilton points, etc. You can book Impresario rates at Conrad, LXR, and Waldorf Astoria properties via our self-service portal.
Danny the Deal Guru: "Southwest says that starting on January 1, 2024, the number of Rapid Rewards points required per dollar of base fare will increase by approximately 4%. This change will not affect flights booked before that date, even if travel takes place next year.
So with this 4% increase, that same $140 flight that we took as an example above, will cost 10,400 Rapid Rewards points starting next year. That’s not a huge devaluation, but it is a devaluation nonetheless. That brings the value of Rapid Rewards points to about 1.35 cent each."
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