💲One Bonus: $13,000 in Value...seriously

May 26, 2026 | View Online

I hope you’re all feeling fresh after your Memorial Day Weekend. While it’s not celebrated in Malaysia, obviously, they overcompensate here by adding as many as 25 other public holidays each year.

It’s a bit mad, and extremely hard to keep track of if, like me, you’re not really working on the calendar.

But aside from that, I’d really love to hear from you if you used points over the weekend or if you have any redemptions you’ve made recently. If so, just hit reply and I’ll be in touch to find out more!

Let’s get to the points:

• Is this the best points bonus of all time?

• A reader’s hectic points scramble

• Robinhood’s new invite-only card

Cheers,

Steven

| CARD OF THE WEEK

$13,000 in Value: Is This The Best Bonus I’ve Ever Seen?

I’ve been crunching the numbers, and I’ve concluded that this limited-time introductory offer might be the best pound-for-pound bonus I’ve ever seen.

It’s the same one I’ve been talking about for a few weeks now, offering 150,000 points after you spend $6,000 within three months of opening the card.

I value those points at just over 2 cents each, which means, in theory, that bonus is worth more than $3,000. To prove it to you, I’ll show a few ways you could use them.

Go hard with Hyatt

Hyatt just changed its award chart, but it’s still got value. You could transfer points from this card to World of Hyatt and book The Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris for three nights at 45,000 points. That could cost you almost $5,000 in cash. That’s $5,000 in value from $6,000 in spending on the card.

Flying Blue Saver Deals

Flying Blue (Air France and KLM) regularly prices saver flights for just 18,750 points. That 150,000-point bonus could grab you eight flights from New York to Paris at that rate. Considering those flights are currently running around $540, that’s $4,320. You’ll have about $137 in fees, so that brings the real value down to about $3,300. In this context, that’s a bad deal and still getting you 50% of your spending value back.

Let the Canadians Get You to Zurich

Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is the definition of reliable. With those 150,000 points, you could book two business-class flights from LAX to Zurich for just 70,000 points each, plus around $100. Those flights would set you back $6,584 EACH. That’s over $13,000 in value from the $6,000 in spend.

If I haven’t convinced you. Nothing will.

This card is good.

This bonus is unreal.

Learn more here.

| TRAVEL SECRETS

The Travel Secret Most People Never Hear About

There’s a reason most people never fly private… They don’t know this one thing.

Because once you do… You can fly for as little as $169.

Same goes for:

• $32/night 5-star hotels

• $26 Michelin-star meals

• Free luxury stays around the world

These aren’t “tips.” They’re industry secrets—rarely shared publicly.

Until now. 

A new FREE book reveals 101 of them.

International Living, America’s #1 magazine for a global lifestyle, is letting you in on all the most top-secret tips so you can travel like royalty while on a Motel 6 budget.

Don't settle for boring, mundane vacations. Supercharge your travel experiences to a whole new level.  

👉 Get your copy before it’s gone

| STEVEN'S TIPS

Nate's Calgary Predicament

Meet Nate. He’s been reading the newsletter for a few years now and has always reached out for advice when he’s hit a snag. 

He hit the mother of all snags this weekend, and when his message dropped into my Instagram account, I did what all responsible people do: I dropped all the paid work I was doing to help him.

What happened?

He was booked with WestJet to fly from New York to Calgary for a wedding in Banff. On a whim, likely because of the fuel crisis, they cancelled his ticket and rebooked him for Monday. Helpful, obviously. The wedding was Saturday, and he had a round of golf booked on Friday at 9:30 AM.

At the time, WestJet was useless, so we kicked into gear to find him another way there on Memorial Day Weekend. Good luck.

Cash flights were borderline abusively priced at $900 per person — ONE WAY. So that was a no-go. He originally paid $475 for a round-trip. That’s the climate we’re living in, guys.

There were no immediately obvious reward flights on the same route, so we had to get creative.

My advice went as follows:

• Search for flights to Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, and Portland (major cities fairly close by)

• Then, search for short flights from each of those (even cheap cash ones)

This provided some potential, but most had him missing his golf game and getting a poor rate on his points.

I then suggested the following:

• Look for Boston, Chicago, Philly, and even D.C flights

• Repeat the second point from each of those if there were no full itineraries

The Philly one reaped rewards. There was an insane 15,000-point redemption taking him to Calgary via Chicago. It would have got him in late morning, so he’d have to push golf, but he’d definitely make the wedding and for cheaper than before.

But he’s in New York, so I said he’d need to hop on a bus from NYC to Philly, jump on the airport train, and go from there. It would have added about $45 more.

In the end, WestJet did come through for him. It took five hours with customer service, but they managed to switch him to a different flight via Boston. 

But if they hadn’t, Nate only had a few choices:

1. Pay a staggering $1,800 for two one-way flights

2. Miss the wedding

3. Get flexible and hot-foot it to Boston or Philly to use his points

The moral of this whole story is that in the chaotic world of travel we currently live in, you need patience, and points are more valuable than ever — even if they’re being devalued. 

And as always, if you have questions for me drop them in the Typeform here. 

What is Travel Insurance and Is It Worth It?

Nate’s story up top should be a stark reminder that sometimes s**t hits the fan when traveling. His case was pretty standard these days, and there are things in place to protect him without needing insurance. But if other stuff went wrong, from weather and medical emergencies, to political turmoil and car issues, there are a million things that can go wrong. In short, travel insurance is a must. But what the hell does it actually cover?

Thankfully, we have you covered. Check out this article covering everything you need to know about travel insurance.

| TRAVEL HACKING NEWS

Credit Card News

If it wasn’t obvious from the headline, this is your news section.

Robinhood Launches Invite-Only Credit Card

Robinhood — the investment app, not the legendary 13th-century bow-and-arrow-wielding outlaw, has launched a new invite-only credit card. I’ve written an entire article about it here, where you can get all the details, but for now, it’s lining itself up with other points-earning premium cards. It comes with all the usual perks — lounge access, statement credits, etc — but it’s a cashback card, so you won’t be earning points. It’s interesting, but only going to interest specific customers.

British Airways Hikes Fees Again

Some bad news: British Airways is hiking its award flight fees. The airline was already one of the worst offenders when it came to fees, but it looks like they’re going up again. Here are the examples the airline offered on the website: not looking great.

• A round trip in Club World from London Heathrow to New York JFK will require 176,000 Avios + £499

• A round trip in World Traveller from London Heathrow to Cape Town will require 66,000 Avios + £190

• A one-way trip in Club Europe from London Heathrow to Rome will require 22,000 Avios + £20 

• A one-way trip in Euro Traveller from London Heathrow to Amsterdam will require 10,000 Avios + £2.50

| WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING

• 7 financial tools you need on your phone

• Is this the best all-round business card?

• 8 high-value ways to use Citi ThankYou points

• Transform your travel days with lounge access

• Nail your emergency savings budget