There have been several new developments in the miles and points world over this past week. Be sure to follow Miles For Family on Facebook to stay in the loop on breaking news.
1). IHG PointBreaks are now live for August through September stays. These hotels were released a week earlier than normal. See the full list here. Award stays are available for 5000, 10000 and 15000 points per night. Keep in mind that you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to IHG, buy IHG points and use a Cash + Points trick to get more IHG points (see this post).
Will you be booking anything on the IHG PointBreaks list? For me, this Candlewood Suites in San Antonio at 5000 points, the Hotel Indigo at San Antonio Riverwalk for 15k and this Holiday Inn Express in Galveston for 15k are appealing. There are also two hotels near Disney and Universal, an Orlando airport hotel, a Virginia Beach location, a Gulf Shores hotel and more. Overall, I’m more impressed with this list than I have been with other PointBreaks lists in the past.
2). Citi ThankYou Premier has a public 60k bonus points offer. This card is in our affiliate network and we receive a commission if you apply through our site. You must spend $4000 within the first 3 months, and the annual fee of $95 is waived the first year.
The bonus points are worth $750 in travel through Citi’s travel portal. I had this card a few years ago and used the points to book an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta. Keep in mind that in order to receive this bonus, you cannot have opened or closed any Citi ThankYou card (including the Citi Prestige) in the past 24 months.
3). Chase recently released a Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card. This card is now in our affiliate network. The bonus is up to 65,000 points.
- Up to 65,000 points. Earn 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Plus, earn an additional 25,000 points after you spend $15,000 total on purchases within the first year.
- 7,500 bonus points after your Cardmember anniversary.
- $75 Southwest® travel credit each year.
- Four Upgraded Boardings per year when available.
- 20% back on in-flight drinks, WiFi, messaging, and movies.
- 2 points per $1 spent on Southwest® purchases and Rapid Rewards® hotel and car rental partner purchases.
- 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
The annual fee of $149 is NOT waived. I plan to devote a full post to this card. Keep in mind that per new Chase rules, you can only have one personal Southwest card at a time. This card is subject to Chase 5/24 restrictions.
4). Don’t forget to use shopping portals for online back-to-school shopping. Five major airlines are currently offering bonus miles (see this post from The Points Guy for more details). If earning airline miles isn’t your goal, check sites like evreward.com and cashbackmonitor.com to see where you can get the best rewards for shopping.
5). Million Mile Secrets Guide to Train Travel with Pets. This is a great post for those who wish to travel with pets. Did you know that Amtrak now allows you to travel with your pet? (In case you missed it, there is a 30k Amtrak BoA card offer right now).
Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
It’s weird that the new pointbreaks list is just two months, no?
@HML Yes, I agree. Last year the dates went through October for this release.