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The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card has a new limited-time offer that is unusually strong for a $95 hotel card: up to 125,000 points, a free night worth up to 50,000 points, and up to $100 back on airline purchases. It is a card worth getting for the bonus—and, because of the annual free night and elite night credits, one many travelers should keep. Chase reports that the offer is ending soon.
A tourist’s Italian vacation turns into two kidnappings in a single day, while Chase launches 10% back on Lyft rides. Plus 15x StubHub rewards, details from the upcoming DFW Sapphire Lounge and the surprising overlap between the Wright brothers and “Danger Zone.”
The biggest rewards credit cards are easier to understand when you strip them down to what they actually do best. Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, Venture X, Citi Strata Elite, Bilt Palladium, Bilt Blue, United Explorer, and Citi AAdvantage Business all have real strengths, but each one also has limits. The key is knowing whether a card is worth getting for a bonus, keeping for benefits, or actually using for spend.
Chase’s planned Miami Sapphire Lounge will bring nearly 14,000 square feet of premium lounge space to Concourse E, with proposal details showing a Cuban coffee window, rum bar, dining areas, and Miami-inspired design. Based on the project timeline, the lounge may not open until 2029.
Most people ask for the best rewards credit card, but the better answer is often a pairing: one card that earns the most in your biggest spending categories and another that earns more than 1x everywhere else. Signup bonuses and benefits matter, but ongoing spending should be judged separately, whether that means pairing Ink Business Preferred with no-fee Chase cards, Citi Strata Premier with Double Cash, or using Bilt Palladium as a powerful catch-all.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee, but its real value depends on understanding how the credits, lounge access, travel protections, transfer partners, authorized user benefits, and new earning categories actually work. These 30 details cover the fine print that can help cardmembers stack benefits, avoid clawbacks, earn more points, and get more from the card than most people realize.
Chase is set to win a 13,793-square-foot Sapphire Lounge in Miami’s E Concourse after a bid projected to generate nearly $94 million for the airport over 15 years. The deal appears to beat a likely Capital One partner and shows how premium card lounge awards are increasingly won: design matters, but money to the airport matters most.
Chase Sapphire Preferred’s refreshed benefits are now live with a 100,000-point initial bonus, new 3x categories, a $100 Chase Travel hotel credit, and added trusted-traveler credit. The big downside is that Hyatt transfers fall from 1:1 to 4:3 for new Preferred cardmembers.
Emirates first class loads are down by 50% amidst the Iran war. That’s actually great news for using points, since Emirates actually makes first class upgrades easy you can even upgrade an award ticket and every empty seat is available for upgrade at the airport (and even onboard). Plus Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus, and free Thai Airways miles.
Retailers are back to arguing that credit card rewards hurt poor cash and debit customers, this time with a new Harvard paper getting attention. But even taking the paper on its own terms, the redistribution claim is much smaller than advertised — and the Durbin-style fee caps retailers want may hurt lower-income consumers more than the rewards system they’re attacking.
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 »
