Update 7/6/18: The most expensive, off the award chart all-suite SPG properties will actually be bookable for 60k Marriott Rewards in August. Read New Marriott Award Category Assignments & Strategy Moving Forward for further info. 

In August of this year, SPG and Marriott are merging their loyalty programs.

Alaska is tightening their the policy on change and cancellation fees in a couple weeks.

As of June 5, you will no longer be able to change or cancel an award 60 days or more prior to departure for free. The only window of time you'll have to make free changes or cancellations will be for 24 hours after booking. Any change or cancellation made after the 24 hour window will cost $125.

Update 5/21/18: It’s been a year since I originally published this Transfer Bonus series, so I've updated all three posts with transfer bonuses over the last 12 months.

This promotion is only for those who have never used Plastiq before. If that's you, keep reading.

Plastiq is basically bill pay with benefits. They make it possible for you to use a credit card for many expenses that otherwise require a check, because they send the check for you.

The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard is now offering 60,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. We've seen this offer before on the personal card. Citi rotates in a out a couple times of year typically.

The CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard is offering 70,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $4,000 on the card in the first three months.

*I am bumping this up to the top of the blog roll as I added a section towards the bottom of this post regarding a new benefit coming August 1 that could be a largely influential factor in whether or not you keep your SPG Amex Card open. Thanks to Reader Jon for reminding me.*

I hold both the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express and the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express.

If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card, you should have already gotten a notice in the mail about a few changes to your benefits effective August 26, 2018. But let's get real. I'm sure many of you throw that mail away without even looking at it. Here are the changes it went over.
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Update: 5/8/18: I originally posted this at the end of April to report on Lufthansa First Class award space open specifically between San Francisco and Munich, but it looks like there is now plenty of space on various other routes as well!

Delta SkyMiles is offering a 10% rebate on awards booked by May 13th, for travel between the dates of August 14 and November 14, 2018. The maximum amount of miles you'll get back is 100,000.

This offer is not available to everyone. Check here to see if you were targeted.

To be clear, you must have the total amount of miles required to book the award. Rebate will apply to entire amount of miles redeemed, even if there are others aside from you on the reservation.

For the next six weeks you'll earn 250 SPG points each time you check in for your stay at a St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, Tribute Portfolio, Four Points, or other participating Marriott/SPG hotel through SPG's mobile app.

There is not a cap to how many points you can earn through this promotion, but only check-ins through June 15, 2018 that you booked directly with SPG on its website or in the app will count.