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.

Reminder: The 100k sign-up bonus offer for the Amex Business Platinum ends tomorrow. 

Through August 8, 2018, the American Express Business Platinum Card is offering 100,000 total bonus Membership Rewards after spending $25,000 in the first three months:

50,000 bonus points after spending $10,000 in the first three months
50,000 more bonus points after spending another $15,000 in the first three months

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Credit Cards.

This is a big

The Starwood Preferred Guest Luxury Card, which will be the latest addition to the Marriott family credit card portfolio, is actually scheduled to launch August 23, 2018.

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card is now offering 60,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. For the majority of 2016 the ThankYou Premier had no sign up bonus whatsoever, then Citi came back with 40k points for a $3k minimum spending requirement bonus in December 2016. Since then we’ve seen the bonus fluctuate between non-existent to typically no higher than 50k. 60,000 ThankYou Points is the biggest bonus the card has ever offered.

Despite the fact that Marriott and the Starwood Preferred Guest programs are merging into one unified loyalty program on August 18, both Marriott and SPG credit cards will continue to be issued for the time being, by Chase and Amex respectively. Both banks have published new terms for all current (and future) Marriott-family credit cards that define who is and isn't eligible for sign up bonuses, as of August 26.
Why These New Rules are Different
Sign up bonus rules are not new to the miles and points community.

October 11 is the day Singapore resumes services on the longest flight in the world between Singapore and Newark. Singapore previously flew this route until 2013 when they got rid of the one type of plane they had capable of the long haul flight. One of Singapore's new A350-900ULR, loaded only with premium economy and Business seats, no economy, will make the ~18 hour journey in each direction.

While the Singapore to Newark route was announced (and went on sale) at the end of May, premium cabin award space wasn't too hot until just recently.