A SUPER underrated chance to earn points

Good morning from 30,000 feet over Manitoba! I’m heading home after my Arctic adventure, and I’ve got some fun travel news for you.

Let’s get started before my airplane Wi-Fi cuts out for the tenth time:

• 💳 Earn an easy 25,000 UR points (but hurry)

• 🏨 Bilt is offering a subpar discount on hotels

• ✈️ 10% transfer bonus to Cathay Pacific

• 📶 US wireless service with free roaming in Europe

💳 Earn an easy 25,000 UR points (but hurry)

There’s a sneaky little no-annual-fee card that’s had one of the best welcome offers for the last few weeks, and you might not know about it.

And we just got word that the offer is ending soon on November 5 at 9:00 am ET… so this is your last chance to jump on it.

Specifically, the card is offering $250 cash back after spending $500.

If you like cash, that’s EASY money.

If you like points, it’s even better… 😏

That’s because if you hold a card that earns UR points, you can turn cash back from that no-annual-fee card into UR points.

So that $250 welcome offer becomes 25,000 UR points, which are almost always worth more than $250.

Fly to Europe and back in Premium Economy

You could transfer 21,000 UR points to Virgin Atlantic and fly round trip to Europe in premium economy.

That’s not a bad return from a no-annual-fee card that only requires $500 of spending to unlock the offer.

Then, you’ll have 5,000 UR points leftover, which is enough to transfer to Flying Blue and book a short-haul Delta flight in the U.S.

The card belongs in your wallet anyway

The reason you should have this card anyway is that it has rotating quarterly categories that let you earn 5% back (or 5x points) on up to $1,500 in combined purchases. You do have to manually activate the quarterly bonus categories (it’s easy… they send you an email), so don’t forget that part.

This quarter’s categories are grocery stores and dining… and I feel like everyone can get behind that.

But…

Since the card already earns 2% more on dining by default, you’ll actually earn 7% cash back (or 7x points) on dining this quarter.

That’s better than any card on the market, and this one doesn’t even have an annual fee.

The bottom line

If I hadn’t just signed up for a new card a few days ago (more on that next week), I’d probably apply for this one myself right now.

As I said, the offer is ending in less than a week, so I’d definitely consider jumping on it ASAP.

🏨 Bilt is offering a subpar discount on hotels

Bilt Rewards is out with another subpar Rent Day, which is the least surprising thing you’ll hear today.

There are a number of confusing and low-value things you can do on Rent Day, but there’s only one you should actually pay attention to:

A promo to earn up to $150 back in Bilt’s hotel portal, which could actually be interesting.

As you can see, this offer is tiered – and requires spending at least $350 to earn the $50 minimum back.

You can also already take advantage of this now through November 1st, so it’s not just one day like most Rent Days.

Still, if you have a stay to book before the end of the month, this could be an easy way to get some cash back.

For example, if you want to hop down to the Bahamas for a weekend, you could book this hotel through Bilt for $162 per night:

After tax, 2 nights would cost $391, which would trigger the $50 credit.

Make sure you crunch the numbers

I noticed that Bilt jacks up the price on some hotels in their portal.

Also, booking a chain hotel (like the one I showed you) will not allow you to get loyalty benefits, hotel points, elite nights, potential credit card multipliers, etc.

Between those things, the $50 credit could be pretty meaningless. So make sure you look at alternative sites before booking with Bilt.

Some more fine print

The nice thing is you can also combine this with Bilt cash at checkout, which could be a nice way to book a super cheap (or free) stay.

Sadly, travel credits you get with Bilt credit cards cannot be combined with this promotional credit.

Anyway, there’s not much to get excited about here. Let’s hope Bilt steps up their game next month. 🤷🏼‍♂️

✈️ 10% transfer bonus to Cathay Pacific

Citi ThankYou points just launched a new transfer bonus to one of my favorite airline programs, Cathay Pacific.

It’s only a 10% bonus, but honestly? Cathay already has such good deals that 10% just makes them even more exciting.

For example, you can fly Cathay Pacific itself from the West Coast to Hong Kong for just 27,000 miles in economy:

At that rate (and with this transfer bonus), you could fly a family of four to Asia for under 100,000 ThankYou points, which is pretty cool.

But if you’re looking for something more luxurious, you could use Cathay miles to fly British Airways in business or first class for less than what BA itself charges.

For example, this flight from Pittsburgh to London costs just 63,000 Cathay miles in business class. 👇

That’s a $10,000 flight for just a few hundred bucks in taxes and fees and just 57,000 ThankYou points.

So here’s the bottom line:

Cathay is a great program… I personally love my Cathay miles, and love flying Cathay Pacific itself even more.

If you can lock in the right flight, this 10% bonus could be sweet.

That’s it, folks! I hope you enjoyed this week of content, and I’ll see you next week when it’ll be NOVEMBER, which is wild.

Have a great weekend.

❤️

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.