I applied for Bilt’s new Palladium card and three things didn’t match what I expected: the credit line came in far lower than my old Wells Fargo Bilt card, I got a hard pull, and I never saw the promised option to close my Wells account. Then I realized there’s also a materially better bonus offer floating around elsewhere—so here’s exactly what happened and what you should know before you apply.
Hyatt is back with a rare World of Hyatt Credit Card bonus that can earn five Category 1–4 free nights—and the spend required to unlock all five also puts you in position to earn a sixth Category 1–4 night. If you can use the certificates well (and before they expire), this is the most compelling Hyatt card offer we’ve seen in a long time.
A mom went viral after complaining she was stuck without “extra room” on a 12-hour Delta flight—because the plane was sold out. The catch: she bought two seats for herself and one child, while her second child flew as a lap infant, so she was always betting on an empty seat that never existed to begin with.
Chicago is exploring selling sponsorships and naming rights across O’Hare and Midway—everything from terminals and people-mover stations down to restrooms, trash cans, and pet relief areas. A new RFI asks brands what they’d pay for and how they’d activate it, as the city looks for ways to offset major expansion costs—while keeping the O’Hare and Midway names themselves off the table.
Trump has now endorsed the Durbin-Marshall swipe fee bill, pitching it as “competition” and consumer relief. In reality it shifts value from cardholders to retailers—cutting rewards, pushing issuers toward higher fees elsewhere, and shrinking credit availability—without any reason to expect lower prices.
An Air Canada flight out of Toronto started taxiing when passengers say they heard someone yelling from the cargo hold. The aircraft returned to the gate, the worker was freed, and the airline says no one was hurt. Now Air Canada is investigating how the doors were closed with a crew member still inside.
It’s hard to imagine anyone that won’t find this to be incredible for a year. After that, it’s up to you.
Vasu Raja is headed to United to work on monetizing passengers through inflight advertising, but that’s not the part of this story most people are getting wrong. The real mistake is the narrative about his tenure at American: he became the face of a broader strategy signed off at the top, and American’s ongoing struggles long outlasted— and outgrew —the distribution fight he was blamed for.
News and notes from around the interweb: MileagePlus members, be afraid. ($$) Veteran of Apple Card (all branding, very little consumer value) and… Delta. Richard Nunn, a former Comcast executive hired in May 2023 as CEO of the loyalty platform and to launch Kinective Media, is leaving. So is Luc Bondar, the vice president of loyalty, who has run MileagePlus day-to-day for nearly 10 years. United has made a splashy permanent hire to replace Nunn and Bondar, naming Jarad Fisher as its new vice president for loyalty and president of MileagePlus. Fisher helped build Apple’s credit card from 2015 to 2020, and earlier in his career, he worked in loyalty at Delta. I flew American Airlines on four different days in the eight days following their launch of free wifi, and I finally got an…
Ryanair’s CEO says Starlink inflight WiFi would add a 2% fuel penalty from added weight and drag, making it too costly for the airline’s short flights. Elon Musk jumped in to say the CEO is “being misinformed,” arguing the incremental drag is effectively negligible—setting up a public spat over what Starlink connectivity really costs airlines to install and operate.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
