Examples Utilizing Transfer Bonuses

We are going to Singapore and Maldives this fall to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary (which I'll recap in detail after the trip). While previously I booked the "major" flights, to/from Asia and U, I still had some "hopper" flights to book, ie the shorter flights between our destinations. Because these flights are shorter, they're also cheaper and were less likely to sell out, which is why I didn't book right away. I took a risk and was hoping to find transfer bonuses to align to those flights I needed. Lucky for me, it worked out!

In my last post (June 2025 Transfer Bonuses), I mentioned briefly that I was able to utilize current transfer bonuses to my benefit. In this post I'm going to share, in detail, which transfer bonuses I used, why, and how. 

Chase - Direct Book Flight Transfer Bonus (Example)

One of the flights I needed to book was a repositioning flight. A repositioning flight is flight to/from your home airport that gets you to another airport that's not your final destination. Using repositioning flights allows you to maximum your flexibility in order to book award flights.

In my case, we are flying back from Asia on a business class flight, but we're not flying directly to Denver, we flight to Toronto. Therefore, I needed to book hopper (aka repositioning flight) from Toronto to Denver. My first choice for hopper flights is Southwest, given that we have the Companion Pass, but because Southwest doesn't fly to Canada, this wasn't an option.

To figure out what my options where, I went to my default search engine for flight routes, which is Flightconnections.com. Using Flight Connections, I was able to easily determine that my only option for a direct flight from YYZ to DEN is through Air Canada or United.

Top left green indicate there are two direct route options

From there, I searched directly on both Air Canada and United's websites to confirm there was a direct flight option for the date and time I needed, as well as look at what the cash and points cost for the flight was.

Once I found a flight I wanted to book, I confirmed which banks transfer to Air Canada (as I already knew that ONLY Chase transfer to United). American Express, Capital One, and Chase all transfer to Air Canada! I figured that between one of the banks and given that I had a couple of months to book this, at least one option for a transfer bonus could pop up. (In my mind, this is why it's great to have flexible points amongst all of the major banks).

Low and behold, Chase was the first bank to offer the transfer bonus! 

To take advantage of the Chase to Aeroplan (Air Canada) transfer bonus I first had to calculate how many points I needed to transfer. I went to Air Canada and searched for the flight I wanted and found that for two people, I needed 15,700 points per person (or 31,400 points total) for our flight:

Flight cost per Person

With the 20% transfer bonus, 31,400 / 1.2 = 26,167 points. Therefore, before of the rule to transfer in thousands, I needed to transfer 27,000 points from Chase to Air Canada.

To do so,  I simply logged into my Chase account, navigated to Sapphire card > Ultimate rewards > Redeem > Travel > Transfer points to partners and located Air Canada (which I already had linked to my Chase account). Then I processed  my 27,000 points transfer request:

Transfer from Chase to Air Canada

Lastly, I logged out and back into Air Canada and was able to book our flights!

American Express - Airline Alliance Transfer Bonus (Example)

I'm sharing this example second, because it involves Air Alliances. I've talked about these before, but an airline alliance is a group of separate airlines who have united together in a group, that allows you to cross book flights from one another, which extends greater benefits without needing to book directly with one airline. 

Airline alliances can be a confusing part of the points game, but they can also be a pivotal tool to utilize to get you the best points value! After you've identified a flight you want to book, checking airline alliance partners may provide you a cheaper booking option or a method to book a particular flight when the bank points you want to use don't transfer directly to that airline.

Or, in my case, when you have a specific flight you want to book and one of the airline alliance partners has a transfer bonus. 

I needed to book us a flight from Maldives to Doha, in order to catch our business class flight back to North America. The only airline that flies direct from MLE to DOH is Qatar, so that part was easy to identify. I knew I would need to book a Qatar flight, so I searched Qatar's website and found the flight I wanted:

Qatar Airlines flight for Two

American Express transfers directly to Qatar Airlines. I could have transferred my points to Qatar Airlines and booked directly. However, in my wait to book these flights, American Express announced a transfer bonus to British Airways. From my research, I knew that British Airways is in the same airline alliance as Qatar (which is the One World Alliance). 

So instead of booking on Qatar, I went to British Airways website and searched with "Book with Avios" option for points flights, inputting my flights requirements. The results indicate that there are no British Airways flights available, but it does show me that same exact Qatar flight, as above, is an option to book.

Locating a flight via an airline alliance partner

Selecting the flight, I then saw that the flight was available for 35,000 points, the same as on booking direct with Qatar (note, British Airways also shows the fees up front. Qatar Airlines also would have charged fees at checkout).

Now that I confirmed the flight I wanted is available to book on British Airways, I went back to American Express to make the transfer. On American Express' website, Rewards and Benefits > Earn and Redeem > Transfer Points. I then located British Airways from the list of partners, double checked my British Airways linked account and calculated my points needed. 35,000 / 1.3 = 26,923 points, which rounds to 27,000 points needed.

American Express points transfer calculated conveniently confirmed transferring 27,000 points would result in the 35,000 British Airways Avios I needed to book my flight above.

Transferring points from American Express to British Airways

After transferring points, I logged back in to British Airways, my points were already there. I was able to proceed and book my Qatar flight with points on British Airways, which allowed me to take advantage of the 30% transfer bonus on British Airways, instead of booking directly with Qatar.

Another *important* thing to keep in mind

Not all bank transfers to travel partners are instant. Some transfers may take a few business days. For example, noted in the above photo, Estimated Transfer Time from American Express to British Airways can take up to 48 hours (however, in my case, the transfer was instant). 

This is important to remember, especially if you're trying to book a flight that shows there are only one or two seats left. There is a risk that you may transfer points and if it doesn't happen instantly, the flight/hotel you want to book may no longer be available and then your points are stuck in that travel partner.

Also, not all flights can be booked through an airline alliance partner. Typically only "Saver" flights can be booked via an alliance partner. For example, to take advantage of the current 20% Chase transfer bonus to Aeroplan and book United flights "20% cheaper" via Aeroplan, you can first search United's website for the flight you want and if it's indicated as a "Saver" flight, then it's more likely to be bookable via Aeroplan/Air Canada.

Note the top flight is a "Saver Award" but the lower is not

In Summary

With the two examples above, I was able to save over 12,000 points across these two transfer bonuses; which is easily enough points for a future flight or hotel night in itself! 

When aligned with trips you need/want to book transfer bonuses are a great way to use even less points!

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

June Transfer Bonuses

It's that time of the month again! Not that one, it's time for new transfer bonuses.

Every month the banks typically announce transfer bonuses, which means if you transfer points from the bank to the partner with the bonus, you’ll get more points for free with that partner! In order to take advantage of these bonuses, you need to transfer your flexible bank points to the travel partner with the bonus. You can learn how to transfer points here!

Put this on Your To-Do List: Partner Program Enrollments

You need to be enrolled in the travel partners program in order to connect your flight/hotel partner to the bank and to transfer points. Some programs require that you be enrolled for a certain about of time before you're eligible to transfer points in or book reward flights. It's best practice to spend a minute signing up for ALL of the travel partners a bank offers as soon as you can. That way, in the future, you won't miss out on a waiting period to be able to transfer and book.

How to Calculate How Many Points to Transfer

To figure out how many points you NEED to transfer, you take the amount of points needs to book your flight/hotel and divide that number by the transfer bonus (in numerical form, the percent plus 1). So say you want to book a 50,000 point flight and there's a 20% transfer bonus. You would calculate 50,000 / (1.2) to figure out how many points you need to actually transfer. In this case, it calculates out to 41,667 points. But most programs require you transfer points in 1,000 point increments, which means you'd transfer 42,000 points to book your 50,000 point travel.

On the flip side of the equation above, if come across a 20% transfer bonus, that means it you were to transfer 10,000 bank points to that travel partner, you would get 10,000 * 1.2, or 12,000 points with the travel partner after your transfer! 

Keep in mind... once you transfer points, you cannot transfer them back to your bank. They are then "stuck" in whichever airline/hotel partner you transferred to.

It is NOT recommended to transfer points from a bank to a travel partner, just because there's a bonus. It's generally best to keep your points flexible until you're ready to book travel, at which point you then transfer out of the bank.

June Transfer Bonuses

(these are subject to change/additional bonuses added)

American Express 

• British Airways: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025
• Aer Lingus: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025
• Iberia Plus: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025

Note, Amex will conveniently show you automatically how many points (in this case Avios) you'll get when you transfer your Membership Reward points, so you don't have to necessarily do the math:

Chase

• Air Canada Aeroplan: 20% bonus through July 17, 2025*

• Virgin Atlantic: 25% bonus through June 15, 2025**

Air Canada/Aeroplan Tip*

What's cool about Air Canada transfer bonus is that they are in Star Alliance, the airline alliance that includes United. So you could potentially book United flights for 20% off with this promo! However to do this, you need to search Air Canada and ensure that your United flight is bookable on Air Canada's website and actually book through Air Canada (after you've transferred your Chase points).

Virgin Atlantic Tip**

Virgin Atlantic also happens to be the lowest points options to book a flight from the US to Europe, at as low as 6k one way points. However, they do have higher fees than the traditional $5.60 of other airlines

Wrapping up... 

Will you be utilizing any of these transfer bonuses? I am using two! I'll create another post to share how.

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes for Southwest

If you've heard about impending Southwest Airlines changes and have been meaning to book a Southwest flight for sometime between now and 1/26/26 (what the current calendar is open through currently), here's why you may want to consider booking today. I'm not going to hit all of the nuances, but will cover some of the "major" changes, which will go into effect tomorrow, May 28th, 2025.

Southwest Policy Changes

The biggest change that has caused an uproar initially is that you no longer get 2 Free Checked Bags per Customer, however, if you a flight reservation that you've already made that flies after today, you'll still get your free bags. If you have a flight booked for yourself, but have not added a companion yet, you (primary flier) will still get two free checked bags, but if you add your companion after today, they won't. First bag will be charged at $35.

Buuuuut, not all is lost. If you have ANY Southwest credit card, then you and up to eight guests on your same reservation, will each get one free bag for flights booked after today, that utilize the credit card to pay fees/taxes at a minimum.  Honestly - we don't fly Southwest places where we need more than one checked bag per person, so this policy change doesn't have a huge impact to me personally.

Source: Southwest

Before you run out and sign up for a Southwest credit card right now... remember, if you're interested in earning a Southwest Companion Pass (SW CP), which gives you buy one, get one free cash or points flights for the remainder of year you achieve the bonus and the entire following year,  there is a timing strategy to open one or more card (typically 2 cards) in a calendar year; or at least time these cards so that the sign up bonuses hit in the same calendar year to earn a SW CP. Most people try to maximize this by opening Southwest cards at the END of the year. I'll hit on this more in a future post, but hold off on that Southwest card for now (or reach out if you want help strategizing the timing to earn SW CP).

Flexibility with Cheapest Fare is Leaving. Currently SW has 4 fare classes and all of them offer flexibility to cancel or change a flight with no fees. This has been extremely convenient because flight prices (cash or points), can be volatile and change. Southwest allows you to receive a credit if you notice that your flight dropped in price after you booked (see reel here showing how).

Moving forward, Southwest is creating a Basic Fare, which does not allow flexibility to change existing flights. However, you'll still be able to cancel a Basic Fare flight, and rebook if you see the price drop. However, when you cancel, you will not receive a cash refund. Your cash/points will stay within Southwest.

If you want the ability to change a reservation, then you'll need to have a Wanna Get Away Plus, Anytime, or Business Select fare. You can also upgrade from Basic Fare to one of those listed above.

Flight Credits are changing. Any flight credit issued before 5/28/25 will not expire. However, moving forward flight credits WILL expire within one year or less of issuance. The length of a flight credit's validity will depend on the fare type purchased.

If you currently have a flight credit to use, and use it after 5/27/2025 and later need to cancel that reservation, that flight credit will have an expiration date.

Earned Rapid Rewards for Paid (Cash) Flights are decreasing. Honestly, again, this isn't part of my household's strategy - earning RRs by paying for flights, but if you count on this, it's something to be aware.

Here's Southwest's summary card for new fare classes and benefits:

Really for us, since we both hold a SW credit card and primarily fly SW with points bookings; these changes don't yet seem too detrimental, that we will continue to fly Southwest. However, I'm curious to see if the rules for companion pass will be impacted in the future - which would change our strategy. What about you? How do you feel about these changes? 

Let's Talk Business (Cards)

This post has been a long time coming. If you've been playing the points game, you likely already know about the power of business cards; but if you're just starting to dabble in points travel - you're probably thinking business cards don't apply to me, and that's where you may be wrong, and want to read on.

Below are some things to know about obtaining a business credit card and their importance of sustainability in opening credit cards for points travel, but let's start with the most obvious reason why people get business cards, if they don't have a "real business" and that is...

Why to Pursue Business Credit Cards

Strategy!!! 

This goes back to that critical rule: Chase 5/24. Remember how I said that Chase won't approve you for a new credit card of any kind (personal, business, co-branded, Chase exclusive) if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the past 24 months? 

Well, it just so happens that business credit cards don't count in this 5/24 rule. Why? Because while you will have a credit pull to open a business credit card, once opened, business credit cards generally do not show on your personal credit report. Business credit cards are associated with a business and not an individual person.

Therefore, opening business cards for sign up bonuses and not having it count against your 5/24 is a major strategy to allow you to open more cards and maximize your point earn. Using business cards as part of our household strategy and referring one another to business cards, allowed my partner and I to earn hundreds of thousands of points!

In addition your points earned from your business cards are easily combinable with your points from personal cards (American Express combines these automatically for you).

You don't need a registered business to open a business card

What?! That's right, while registered businesses certainly can open business cards using their Employer Identification Number (EIN), which is a unique nine-digit number that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assigns to business entities operating in the United States (sort of like a social security number for a business); individuals actually can open a business credit card as a Sole Proprietor, utilizing your social security number instead of an EIN.

Okay, so what does that mean?

It means that if you do anything outside of your W2 job with the intent to make money, then you can qualify that as a business to open a business credit card under sole proprietor. Drive for Uber or Instacart? Business. Babysit or walk dogs? Business. Sell your used items on Marketplace or locally? Business.

Not to be confused with EIN above, but these types of sole proprietor businesses should report income of $400 or more to the IRS, but the business itself isn't taxed separately from its owner.

(I'm going to out on a limb and guess that many of may already be "running" a "business" and not even 

know or report those earnings)

Okay, ready to fill out a business card application? Here's how!

Here are step by step instructions for Chase; but all banks are generally similar.

1. Authorizing Officer: Select "Owner" from the dropdown

2. Fill out your Personal Details.

3. For Identification: fill out the information requested. Ensure that the Tax-ID is selected as Social Security Number and enter your SSN.

4. Fill out your home address.

5. Provide your contact information.

6. Authorize the SS check.

7. Provide your gross annual household income (reminder: this is not only for yourself, but also includes the income of anyone living in the same household).

Here's where things get more "business-y".

8. Legal Business Structure: select "sole proprietorship"

9. Legal business name and name on card: This should be your legal name. That's it, nothing else.

10. Select "No" for DBA.

11. Input "0" for Number of employees

12. Under Business Tax ID, from the dropdown menu, select Social Security Number and input.

13. Select "yes" your business address is the same as your personal address.

14. Provide your personal phone number.

15. Business Financials: input your anticipate annual revenue (how much many you guess you make in a year). Honestly, I know people who have put $500 and gotten approved. There's no verification or uploads required to prove this number.

Similarly, for estimated monthly spend - there is no one tracking your spend on a business card nor is it monitored by the IRS. When we are working to hit the minimum spend on a business card, we put all of our life charges on that card, so my estimated monthly spend is usually a few grand.

16. Business Classification: This is really the last step of the business card application, and maybe the most daunting for some. There is a drop down window to select from. While you may not see your exact business model, select whatever you find is closest.

(For me, I resell a lot of items on various Facebook groups. I select Retail: Books, Music, Sports, Hobbies, Health, Fashion, Gas, Misc, for my category).

17. Once you select a business category, a new box will pop up for Business Type.

(Again, since I sell used items, for my business type, I select Used Merchandise Stores, which leads to a Sub-Type and I select Used Merchandise Retailers).

18. Employee Card: I do not add any employees (ie my husband). I keep that at 0.

And that's it! Then you submit your application and cross your fingers!

A Few Things To Note

Credit Limits: Especially with Chase, Business card credit limits can be infamously low, especially if you're applying with a business that only anticipates to make a few hundred bucks a year. Don't be discouraged by this, especially when trying to hit a minimum spend requirement that is higher than your credit limit. Simply spend, pay off, and spend more to get to that limit (It is NOT recommended to call immediately and request that the bank higher your credit limit).

Business Card Options: Like personal credit cards, there are a variety of business cards with various benefits and differences. In addition, the right business card for the right minimum spend can be a great way to take advantage of upcoming large costs or projects you have (for example, if you're getting a new deck and going to be spending thousands on it, consider getting a business card with a higher minimum spend (and therefore higher sign up bonus), than you could usually afford with you every day spends like groceries, insurance, utilities, and childcare. I did this with American Express Gold Business, when I realized how much we would owe on our federal taxes). I will go in to detail on some of these card options in a separate post.

Accessing Your Business Account: For Chase, you WILL need to create separate business log in credentials from your personal account. However, you can then call Chase and have your personal and business accounts linked. That way, in the future, when you log in, you can view both your personal and business accounts simply by using your business login credentials.

That's all folks!

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Ways to Use 100,000 Chase Points

I shared in my rule of thumb post what's considered a "good point cost" to spend points hotels and/or flights, but here are some other ideas of what I'd do with 100K points from this card. Keep in mind, the examples shown are utilizing Transfer Partners and NOT booking through Chase Travel Portal, but by transferring points outside of Chase and booking direct with hotels/airlines.

Note, in addition to getting 100K points for hitting the minimum spend, every dollar you spend on that card earns points. So for spending the sign up $5,000, you'll earn a minimum of 105,000 pts (100,000 pts from the sign up and another 5,000*+ points for the money you spent. *This will be higher if your initial $5,000 spend includes dining where you earn 3X points and/or travel, which earns 2X points for every dollar spent)

Keep in mind with Hyatt (and Hilton), you don't pay daily resort fees with you book with points!

Here are some ideas as to how you can utilize 100,000 Chase points.

• Hyatt Regency Maui - 5 nights 105,000 point ($3,627 cash value) 

 vs 

We stayed at Hyatt Regency Maui in December 2024 and loved it!

• Chicago (or Staycation for my IL/IA friends): there are so many great hotel options in Chicago that are Hyatt-owned and on public transit
• Hotel Lincoln (right across from free Lincoln Park Zoo), starts at 15,000 points per night

• Hyatt Place Wicker Park (awesome rooftop views, walkable to Piece Pizza, and free breakfast for all (regardless of status)

• Or if you prefer to be down in the heart of tourism you have plenty of options where you could still get 3+ nights out of 105,000 points

Maybe hotels aren't your thing (honestly, they weren't our thing until we really got going on points. Now that our kids are a little older and we realized we can all relatively go to bed at the same time)

105,000 points could also get:

A family of 4 (with 2 adults and 2 kids under age 12),  one-way economy flights to Europe from the US!!
        

By transferring and booking directly with Flying Blue (KLM/Air France); which offers a 25% discount to kids 11 and under; 87,500 points (+ taxes and fees, but you'd still have almost 20K  points leftover!), compared to a cash price of over $3,900!!

(and Flying Blue often has Transfer Bonuses, where you get extra bonus when transferring from              the bank to Flying Blue; so this easily could be gotten for even less than 87K pts!)

Domestic Flights: potentially 4 roundtrip tickets, or like this one-way United flight from Denver to Chicago, at under 10K points one-way per person, you could flight a family of 5 roundtrip with 105,000 points (which would cost over $1,600 out of pocket):

vs

As you can see, 100k points can go a long way across a variety of uses. I am available to consult for a fee on points bookings if you have points but aren't sure how to use them! (If you need a refresher or quick tutorial on HOW to transfer points out of Chase to Travel Partners, read here)

June 2024, we used 107,000 points for a 4-night trip to Chicago, including 3 nights in a hotel suite,
 which gave us two separate sleeping areas and a little more space!

Overall, if you are spending the money anyways on your day-to-day obligations like groceries, child care, insurance, utilities, kids' activities, gas, etc; this is a good time to consider how much those costs add up and if it's worth making your dollars go farther by putting those expenses on a credit card and paying it off with the cash you would have spent directly on your needs. By spending smarter, not more, you can earn a sign up bonus and utilize those costs to earn points for travel!

If you're interested in starting with the elevated Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 point offer, I'd appreciate if you utilize my referral link  (be sure to open in an external web browser, outside of Instagram or Facebook so that your personal information is kept safe:) This offer is available until May 12th, 2025!

5/13/2025 Update: the 100K referral offer has ended (don't use my link to get the best bonus!). However, you can still find 100K sign up bonus through affiliate links and directly from Chase.com until 5/15. The 100K offer is said to be available in a local branch until 5/17/25.

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Congrats, it's a... Venture Card! (+ Capital One Partners)

That's right, Ben's first card of 2025 is a Capital One Venture card! Here are some factors that went into my decision making process:

• 5/24 Count: Prior to this application, Ben only had opened two personal credit cards in the past 24 months, putting him at 2/24. This meant, he still could get another personal credit card without jeopardizing his ability to open future credit cards with Chase as well as still have a 5/24 spot for any future elevated offers that seem worth getting. Now with the Venture approval, he's at 3/24.

Remember, the Chase 5/24 rule is that if you've opened any 5 credit cards from ANY financial institution/store (not JUST Chase), in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve you for a new credit card (personal or business). The 24-month period is rolling, so as time progresses, cards you've opened will drop out of your 5/24 count.

• Elevated Offer:  The standard typical Capital One Venture card offer is 75,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card. However, there are currently two elevated offers that you can pick from. These elevated offers are scheduled to end May 12th, 2025:
• 75,000 points + a $250 travel credit (to be used in Capital One Travel portal) for $4,00 spend in 3 months. This combination of points and travel credit is worth at least $1,000 of travel.
• 100,000 points for $5,000 spend in 3 months (also worth at least $1,000 of travel)
• Points Diversity: We started into Capital One points' ecosystem last year and plan to book a trip later this week, which will utilize our existing C1 points. Signing up for this Venture card at the elevated offer is a great way to replenish our C1 points and maintain point diversity across the major banks.
• Recent Inquiries: Capital One is known to be inquiry sensitive, meaning if you've had more than one credit pull in recent months, you may automatically get denied from a C1 credit card application, just based on credit inquiries alone! Since Ben hadn't applied for a credit card in close to six months, I assumed it would be a good time to apply to Capital One (and it was!)

Note: some people say that if you've had a few inquiries in the past six months, a work around is to freeze your credit for roughly a week (or more) before applying for a Capital One card. Unfreeze immediately before applying.

• Spend! We never open a credit card without first having a plan on how to hit the minimum spend. In our case, we have an upcoming Airbnb charge we need to make, as well as the fact that we've already starting paying for kids' summer camp; and then we have our normal routine spend like utilities, groceries, dining out, insurance, etc on top of that. I know we can fit this minimum spend before the three month time period is up.

Capital One Venture Card Benefits

On top of those personal considerations, the Venture Card offers the following appealing major benefits:

• $95 annual fee
• 2x points on all purchases
• 5x points on travel purchases booked through Capital One Travel (including rental cars)
• No foreign transaction fees
• Up to $120 credit towards TSA PreCheck or Global Entry when you use this card to apply (note, credit is available once every 4 years)
• Ability to combine points with other members of your household
• Ability to transfer points to Capital One Travel partners for direct bookings and to gain larger value from points (compared to Capital One Travel portal, where 1 point equals 1 cent). More below
• Ability to redeem miles for travel-related purchases (as long as the purchase is coded as "Travel").

Capital One Travel Partners

Similar to Chase and American Express, Capital One has it's own partners that you can transfer your points to, which typically helps you book travel for less points than the portal; thus making your points go farther!

To transfer points, log into your Capital One account and click on "View Records", then navigate to "Transfer rewards" (as shown in the photo above).

Capital One has 16 travel partners: 

Plus, don't forget airline alliances! If you are not be able to transfer your C1 points directly to a specific airline you want because they're not a Capital One travel partner, if they're part of an airline alliance, you may be able to locate that flight you want on an airline partner and transfer/book with the partner.

For example, you cannot transfer points directly to Delta, but you can transfer points to Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) and you may be able to book the exact Delta flight you want through/on Flying Blue. Note: not all flights are available through partners, so first search the partner you can transfer to, to make sure the flight you want is bookable.

It's important to be familiar with travel partners and consider how you'd use points with a bank before you start collecting. As you can see above, Capital One doesn't have a lot of direct US airline partners - however it's possible to book US flights through airline alliances as mentioned above.

Another tip for lodging is that you can book short-term rental properties via Wyndham. Wyndham has a partnership with VaCasa. By transferring points to Wyndham you can then book VaCasa properties, if you prefer non-hotel lodging.

That's all on Capital One for now! Don't forget, the current elevated offers are scheduled to May 12th. If you're interested in applying, here are referral links! Thank you as always for your support!

75,000 points + a $250 travel credit for $4,00 spend in 3 months

OR

100,000 points for $5,000 spend in 3 months

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Shopping Portals + Rakuten Big Give

I've talked, and blogged, about Rakuten before, but if you're not familiar, it's an online shopping portal and it happens to be having enhanced sign up offer and rebates right now, with "Big Give Week"

Well, what's an online shopping portal??
Per Google AI, a shopping portal is a website or platform that acts as a gateway to online retailers, offering bonus rewards like cash back, airline miles or points, for purchases made through the shopping portal. Instead of going directly to a retailer's website, you visit the shopping portal first, search and click on a link to your retailer of choice, and then make your purchase from the retailers website. The portal tracks your purchase (but not your personal information like shipping address and/or credit card number), then credits your account with the bonus rewards offered.

Why use a shopping portal?
To earn extra points, miles, or cash back!

How do shopping portals make money?
Through affiliate links and commission paid by the retailers.

Tell Me More...

Nowadays there are a lot of options for shopping portals, most airlines and major banks have them, and the majority of those even having apps and/or web browser extensions that you can download. This way, when you go to any retailer website, you don't even have to think or remember about going to a shopping portal first, the browser extension will recognize you're shopping and pop up with the offer for that specific retailer. 

For example, I have extensions downloaded for Rakuten, Capital One, Southwest, and United. I can simply look at all of the "offers" at once, and activate whichever is highest for the website I'm shopping:

Note, Chase doesn't have a browser extension, but they do offer a shopping portal. This can be accessed by logging on to your Chase Account and navigating to Chase Ultimate Rewards (CURs). One way to do this is to log in, click on any of your credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards, on the credit card page, click "Redeem".

Once CUR page, scroll down to the near bottom and click "Shop and earn bonus points"

This will take you to "Shop through Chase" which is their shopping portal. Definitely not as convenient as having a browser extension pop-up reminder, but a great way to earn more Chase points!

Back to Rakuten...

If you don't already have Rakuten, you can sign up now and earn $40 cash back OR American Express Rewards points. This is an elevated sign up offer, which ends 5/12/25. In order to qualify, you must use Rakuten to made a $40+ purchase in the first 90 days of opening your account. Cash back is paid out quarterly from Rakuten. Before I had an Amex card, I kept my Paypal tied to Rakuten, but you can also get a check in the mail if you prefer. Over the years I've earned hundreds of dollars back and since switching to points, I've earned thousands of MRs, simply for clicking a button and not spending anything more than I'd already planned (and also not by obscene amount of shopping :)

Linking your Amex

If you have an American Express card, any Amex card is eligible to be connected to your Rakuten account to earn points instead of cash back (note: co-branded cards like Amex Hilton are not eligible). To link an Amex for points:

• Log into your Rakuten account
• Find your name at the top right and click on "Account"
• Click on "Account Settings" on the left and scroll down to "How You're Getting Paid"
• Select "Membership Rewards points" and add your Amex details.

A common question: You do NOT have to use this linked Amex card to pay for your purchase in order to earn points!

And back to the Big Give

Now, on to some of the great Rakuten current offers! If you have been thinking about opening a new Chase card and you don't have a player 2 to refer you, you may want to consider using Rakuten links (as much as I would love for you to use my referral links!!)

Right now you can earn up to 30K MRs when opening a new Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Unlimited card, and yes, this is ON TOP of the Chase sign up bonuses!

If you prefer the cash back option, instead of getting 30k MRs, you'll get $300 back!

In addition, several stores have elevated offers if you have some shopping you need to do.

What do you think? Have you used shopping portals before or is now your time to start? Sign up for Rakuten here!

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!