Business class to Japan for 28k points

Good morning from crisp, cool northern Tanzania!

We don’t have any time to waste… there’s a bunch of important stuff to tell you about, so let’s dive in:

• 🤯 Business class to Japan for 28k points

• ✈️ Save 20% on Delta award flights (today)

• 🌮 The best card for dining and groceries

🤯 Business class to Japan for 28k points

Alrighty, folks… this one is crazy.

On March 1st only, Bilt Rewards is offering up to a 100% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines (JAL) for their Rent Day promotion.

As with all Bilt Rent Day promos, the exact transfer bonus will be based on your Bilt elite status level:

As you can see, even with NO Bilt status, you still get a generous 25% bonus.

This is one of the first months, however, in which you can upgrade your Bilt status with $135 of Bilt Cash.

So even if you don’t currently have any status, you could upgrade yourself to Silver status for a day and unlock a 50% bonus.

So why is this so good?

For starters, JAL has some of the best award rates on airlines like Emirates, Air France, and of course… JAL.

The headline here is that you can fly from the U.S. to Japan in business class for as few as 55,000 JAL miles.

With the top-tier 100% bonus, that’s less than 28,000 miles to fly business class across the Pacific.

But JAL miles are good for a lot more than just that. For example, a few months ago, I told you that JAL charges fewer miles than Emirates does for Emirates business class.

This fifth freedom flight between the U.S. and Europe on Emirates costs just 60,000 JAL miles, or as few as 30,000 with this bonus.

Oh, and if all of that wasn’t enough, there’s one more thing to keep in mind.

Capital One also currently has a transfer bonus to JAL, allowing you to transfer miles at a 1:1 (ish) ratio.

The Capital One bonus ends on February 28, and the Bilt bonus starts (and ends) on March 1.

If you recently signed up for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and unlocked that insane welcome offer, you could transfer some miles to JAL before Feb. 28, then transfer some Bilt points on March 1.

In other words, you can combine your points at much better ratios to unlock some of the crazy flights I told you about earlier.

This is an extremely limited-time opportunity, so you’ll want to act fast. Ugh… I guess I need to get a Bilt card, huh?

✈️ Save 20% on Delta award flights (today)

Speaking of extremely limited-time offers…

Delta is out with another flash sale on award flights to the Caribbean and Central America. And, as you might expect, it’s only valid today.

Most of the good deals are from Delta’s East Coast hubs like New York and Atlanta… and cities like Minneapolis and others are pretty meh.

If you go to the sale page, you can enter your city of origin and see what’s offered.

I saw some pretty solid deals from New York to destinations like the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Aruba for as few as 14,000 Delta SkyMiles round-trip.

The sale is only valid for travel in March and April, so it’s quite limited. But if you’re looking for a quick long weekend on the beach, these deals are fantastic.

I feel like we’ve been seeing more and more award sales like this from Delta. It’s just another reason to consider picking up a Delta co-branded card, as I did.

There’s never been a better time to have a stash of SkyMiles handy for times like this. 😉

🌮 The best card for dining and groceries

People often ask me the following question:

It’s a good question, and the answer is easy. It’s this card. And I think it often goes overlooked. So let’s talk about it.

The best card for dining and groceries

The main reason I think U.S.-based people should have this card is that it earns 4x MR points on dining and groceries.

If you redeem those points for around 2 cents each (which is reasonable to expect), that’s like getting an 8% return.

Given how much money most people spend on those categories, this alone can justify holding the card.

Dank credits

The card also comes with some handy credits. As you might expect, the heavy-hitting credits are related to dining (Resy, Dunkin, and others).

But the card also gives you monthly Uber cash, which you can use on rides or Uber Eats.

In the end, if you use all of the credits, the value you get can easily outweigh the annual fee.

The welcome offer

So now we’ve covered the basics:

• You’ll earn a lot of points

• The annual fee is easily justifiable with the credits

That makes the card worth holding year after year.

But don’t forget that when you sign up, you can also earn a massive welcome offer of points after meeting the minimum spending requirement.

You can then transfer those points to valuable partners like Delta, Hilton, Flying Blue, Avios, and more.

The bottom line

I don’t currently have this card. Since the credits and perks are only available in the U.S., it just doesn’t make sense for me.

But if you live in the U.S., eat food, and like to travel, I think this card makes sense for just about anyone to hold.

That’s it, friendos. What a jam-packed newsletter, eh?

I hope many of you can hop on at least one of the awesome deals we talked about today.

See you tomorrow,

3.3869° S, 36.6830° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt