Ultimate credit card power couple

Good morning from Sapporo, Hokkaido, where snowy slopes and hot street ramen make the perfect combo.

Speaking of perfect combos… I’ve got some fun ones for you today:

• 💳 The ultimate credit card power couple

• 👀 This bank is teasing changes to one of our favorite cards

• 🏨 Earn 2,000 bonus points per night

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

💳 The ultimate credit card power couple

If you’re looking to earn serious travel rewards without juggling a dozen cards or paying a small mortgage in annual fees, this might be one of the most underrated combos in the game.

By pairing the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, you can build a two-card setup that earns transferable miles on almost all your daily spending — with just one (small) annual fee between them.

Card 1: Venture Card

• Annual Fee: $95 Annual Fee

• 2x miles on every purchase

• 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

• Points can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed at 1 cent per point to offset any travel purchase

Think of this as your flat-rate workhorse. You’ll earn double miles on everything you swipe, and get a nice boost when booking through Capital One Travel.

Card 2: Savor Cash Card

• $0 Annual Fee

• 3% cash back at grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target), dining, entertainment, and popular streaming services

• When paired with the Venture Card, your cash back converts into Capital One miles

How it all comes together

Let’s use examples to showcase how many miles these cards can earn.

If you spent:

• $500/month on dining and groceries → 18,000 miles/year via the Savor Cash Card

• $1,000/month on general spending → 24,000 miles/year via the Venture Card

• $2,000/year on travel booked through Capital One → 10,000 miles/year from 5x bonus

That’s 52,000 miles per year, plus 95,000 bonus miles from the current welcome offers (at the time of writing). That brings you to 147,000 Capital One miles in your first year.

Even if you offset travel purchases at one cent per mile, that’s already $1,470 worth of travel in exchange for your $95 investment.

Of course, the optimal way to use these points is to transfer them to partners like Virgin Atlantic, which offers flights to Europe for as few as 6,000 miles each way in economy class:

With deals like this, these two cards can get you and the family to Europe every single year (even without the welcome offers).

If you want to rack up miles fast without over-engineering your setup, this is about as elegant (and easy) as it gets.

Check out the cards below to learn more. 👇

👀 This bank is teasing changes to one of our favorite cards

Who doesn’t love a little anticipation for something really big?

Well, Chase is teasing some very significant changes to one of our favorite cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® — happening summer 2025…

…which is basically very soon. Because it’s already June.

It hasn’t spilled the tea quite yet, but we’ve already spotted what appears to be new card art — thanks to some billboards in NYC and teasers from the bank’s social media accounts.

Plus, it’s looking like we’ll be getting a brand-new business card, too…

All I can say is wowzers. And stay tuned… 😮

🏨 Earn 2,000 bonus points per night

Woah. This might be one of the best promos we’ve ever seen from Marriott Homes & Villas.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Marriott Homes & Villas is Marriott’s answer to Airbnb — but with the key difference that you earn Marriott Bonvoy points and elite nights like you would at a hotel.

And right now? You can earn 2,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points per night on eligible stays — which can really add up!

Here’s the fine print:

• Book by July 17

• Stay must be completed by September 30

• Minimum two-night stay

• Maximum of 20,000 bonus points per stay (10 nights)

• Minimum $1,500 total spend (more on that in a sec)

• You must register for the offer and be a Marriott Bonvoy member

Let’s talk about that $1,500 spend requirement for a sec. Yes, it’s steep if you’re just booking a quick two-night stay… but that’s not where this promo shines.

The real value comes when you book longer, cheaper stays — because the bonus is awarded per night, not per stay.

For example, here’s an 11-night booking at a gorgeous villa in Bali that clocks in just over the $1,500 threshold:

That would earn you the maximum of 20,000 bonus points, on top of the standard points and elite night credits you already get as a Marriott member.

And if you do have elite status? Even better — you’ll earn some bonus points:

Now here’s the kicker… even if you think you don’t have elite status, there’s a good chance you might actually have it without realizing.

Most Marriott co-branded credit cards include Silver, Gold, or even Platinum status automatically. In fact, even The Platinum Card® from American Express grants Gold Elite status, so odds are many of you reading this are already covered. 👀

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

And the winner is… San Diego International Airport (SAN)!

According to UP, San Diego’s airport scored highest out of the 50 busiest airports in the U.S. when it comes to layover-friendliness.

It could be because there are over 41 shops per mile of the terminal…

It even ranks low in flight cancellations and has a renewable diesel program, because of course it does. 🙂

If you’ve got time to kill in between flights (and find yourself over on the West Coast), San Diego might just be the only place to get excited about a delay.

Want to see how your home airport ranked? Check out the full list here.

That’s all for today, folks! Don’t you just love it when you can turn low-fee cards and cheap hotel stays into hundreds of thousands of points?

Make sure you tune in tomorrow for a cool (and cheap) way to book an around-the-world flight.

Until next time,

43.0618° N, 141.3545° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham, McKay Moffitt, and Benji Stawski