There are just two days left to take advantage of the 30% transfer bonus between Citi ThankYou Points and Flying Blue, and three days left to book Flying Blue's August Promo Awards...the cheapest of which will get you from New York City to Paris for only 8,000 ThankYou Points if you stack both promotions.

Right after the Marriott/SPG merger this past weekend, Marriott announced how hotel certificates from travel packages bought before August 18 would convert in the new travel package pricing system, at least for the remainder of 2018.

Your hotel certificates must be redeemed at its converted category (in other words, they aren't worth x amount of points to use at whatever property). The points pricing I listed to the right of the converted categories is standard, to represent the more accurate translation.

Through 11:59 PM PST October 4, 2018, you can buy Alaska Airlines miles with up to a 50% bonus. It is a targeted offer, but it seems pretty common to get targeted for the full 50%.

(1:30 am on August 19): You can now book Marriott awards--which also includes SPG properties--online at marriott.com.

Ultimate Rewards, the rewards currency of various Chase credit cards, transfer to nine airline loyalty programs...

Aer Lingus

British Airways

Iberia

Korean Air

Singapore Airlines

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

Virgin Atlantic

Flying Blue (Air France, KLM)

...and three hotel programs.

Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG
Marriott Rewards

As of August 25, you can cross Korean Air off of that list.
How bad is this?
First Class flyers to Asia are probably pretty pissed off.

August 18--the day Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott Rewards are merging into one unified loyalty program--is Saturday. Below is a checklist of things to make sure you've done before then, as well as some things you should wait to do on merger day/as close to it as possible (whenever their award booking reservation system comes online).

Identify SPG and Marriott hotels you want to book, and check if they are going up in price with the merger book before August 18.

If you're just starting to collect miles and points, possibly the single best piece of advice is to sign up for five Chase cards before moving on to any other bank's rewards cards. This post is going to talk about which five cards you should choose, depending on a few factors, and why.

The fact of the matter is that Chase will cut you off from eligibility for their travel rewards credit cards once you've opened five credit cards from any bank whatsoever in the last 24 months (not counting most business cards).

**Update: A document containing the apparent terms and conditions of the new merged loyalty program was leaked over the weekend, and in it says that members will not be able to book pre-merger SPG hotels via Points Advance.

Southwest held a meeting in Honolulu yesterday that revealed approximate dates Southwest flights will go on sale and commence service. We also learned that Southwest will keep its awesome two free checked bags/free flight change policies for flights between Hawaii and the mainland.

Executive Vice President; Chief Revenue Officer Andy Watterson told the Beat of Hawaii that the announcement of flights will come by October at the latest, and service would "begin possibly just weeks thereafter".

Aer Lingus was just added as a 1:1 transfer partner for American Express Membership Rewards.
Complete List of Membership Reward Partners
Membership Rewards can be transferred to 18 airline and two hotel loyalty programs at the moment.

Like British Airways and Iberia, Aer Lingus is owned by IAG, so it was already possible to circuitously transfer Membership Rewards via Iberia or British Airways Avios. Members of AerClub also earns rewards called Avios, that while a separate rewards program from Iberia Avios or BA Avios, has similar rules and redemption rates that are distance-based.