👋 Hi Reader,

Happy Saturday! Here are some highlights from today's newsletter:

• 💳 What's in my wallet for 2026
• 🛏️ Big welcome offers with free night awards on Hilton cards
• 🇯🇵 Up to a 125% transfer bonus to JAL on Bilt Rent Day (3/1)
• 💰 How to find free unclaimed money
• 🏨 Big Hyatt devaluation coming (costs rising up to 67%)
• 🔁 Latest hotel & airline transfer partner updates
• 🩺 50% off a Function Health membership
• 🌮 Free $35 InKind dining credit
• 🍳 The Four Burner Theory and more!

If you enjoyed reading, please forward this email to someone else who might too (and if that's you, make sure to subscribe here). Thanks!

Chris

💳 What's in My Wallet for 2026

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If you're curious about what my credit card lineup for 2026 looks like, this week I share which cards I'm keeping and canceling and why. I also cover how I evaluate annual fees, the best cards across major spending categories, and the apps I use to stay on top of it all.

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📋 My Past Week

Here's a quick recap of what I was up to last week:

• This past weekend we went back to Disney on Ice and used up both of our $150 semi-annual Stubhub credits. We haven't taken the kids to a Disney park yet, but they seemed to think this was the coolest thing ever and it was so much easier (and cheaper)!
• My wife Amy has been on a mission to make every room in our home look incredible. We completely redid the guest room earlier this month and just finished the family room. The best part is that she's doing it all herself (with some AI help of course) and finding amazing deals for everything. It's incredible how a few changes can make a home feel brand new
• I've stepped back a little from building AI agents/assistants and started to focus on building more functional products for my work and life. For example, I built one tool to aggregate podcast analytics from Spotify, Apple and YouTube and I built another tool to streamline our production process that does 5-10 different functions in the background but runs entirely as an interactive bot in Slack.
• Normally we plan our trips last minute, so it was a bit relaxing and exciting to have planned out upcoming Japan trip almost a year out. That said, since we had the important stuff figured out (Flights/Hotels) we didn't work on planning the rest of the trip with much urgency and are doing a bit of last minute planning to make sure we actually have everything lined up to go smoothly. It's probably time to spin up another AI agent solely focused on travel planning!

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

💳 Free Nights and Big Welcome Offers on Hilton Cards

While Hilton points aren't nearly as valuable as many other programs, three of their four new increased welcome offers include a free night award, which can make them even more valuable. Hilton Free Night Awards can be used for standard award stays at all properties, even if they cost 200k+ points. So spending $3k to get the bonus on the Surpass card could earn/save you >300k points, which is >100x pt/$.

• ​Hilton Honors American Express Card: 70K bonus points + 1 Free Night Reward after a $2K spend in 6 months.
• ​Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: 130K bonus points + 1 Free Night Reward after a $3K spend in 6 months.
• ​The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: 175k bonus points + 1 Free Night Reward after an $8K spend in 6 months.
• ​Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: 175K bonus points after a $6K spend in 6 months.

🇯🇵 Up to 125% JAL Transfer Bonus on Bilt Rent Day (3/1)

Bilt's March Rent Day is offering ​up to a 125% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank​ on 3/1 (tomorrow). I'm very excited for this one because JAL makes a ton of award space available to their members and you can get to Japan in business class for as little as 55k miles each way. To get 55k miles with the full 125% bonus, you'd only need to transfer 25k miles, which might be the best deal ever for international business class.

If it weren't for the fact that JAL miles have a hard expiration after 3 years, I'd probably transfer my entire Bilt balance over. So instead, I think we'll probably transfer enough for one more trip, which means we're probably going back to Japan before 2029! Also, keep in mind that JAL restricts award redemptions to family members only, and new accounts have a 7-day hold before miles can be used.

🏨 World of Hyatt Award Costs Rising Up to 67%

World of Hyatt just ​announced its biggest award chart change since 2021​​. Starting in May, they're replacing the 3-tier pricing (Off-Peak, Standard, Peak) with a 5-tier system (Lowest, Low, Moderate, Upper, Top). The ceiling on pricing is going way up, Category 8 properties (i.e. Park Hyatt Kyoto) jump from a max of 45k to 75K points per night (a 67% increase!), and even mid-tier Category 5 hotels go from 23 to 35K.

Hyatt says they'll "grow into" the new chart gradually, with only a limited number of properties hitting the top tiers in 2026. Your free night certificates (Cat 1-4 and 1-7) will still work regardless of pricing level, which is great but if you've been eyeing a big Hyatt redemption, book before May to lock in current pricing.

🔁 Latest Hotel & Airline Transfer Partner Updates

🏨 Popular Bank → Wyndham: Cardholders of a popular bank now have a new transfer option to Wyndham Rewards at 1:1. Wyndham points lost some value after dropping Vacasa, but their massive hotel footprint makes this a nice option for budget-friendly stays. I wouldn't rush to transfer, but it's good to have this option for when you need it.

✈️ Amex → Cathay Pacific: Starting 3/1, Amex is dropping its Cathay Pacific transfer ratio from 1:1 to 5:4 (a 20% devaluation). If you have any plans to use Asia Miles (or Cathay flights, British Airways redemptions, or Oneworld awards), transfer your points ASAP (ideally today!).

🍽️ Resy To Add 25K+ New Restaurants and Wineries

If you're a foodie using an Amex card with Resy credit, you'll love that the Resy platform will add 25,000+ venues, including Michelin-starred restaurants, plus over 1,200 wineries as part of the merger with Tock.

P.S. This guide/map helps find restaurants you could buy gift cards from if you don't have plans to use the credit and want to gift someone!

✈️ Flying Blue Improves Miles Expiration Policy

Right now, Flying Blue has separate expiration rules, where flight activity only extends flight-earned miles, and partner activity (like credit card transfers or hotel bookings) only extends miles earned from those partners. Starting 5/4​, any earning activity will extend your entire balance by 24 months, giving you one simple expiration date!

📣 New Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Award Flight Deals

• 🇳🇿 Auckland: Business class from 80K AAdvantage miles​​
• 🇮🇸 Iceland: ​Business class from 47.5K Virgin miles​​
• 🇫🇷 Paris: ​Business class from 58.5K Virgin points​
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Upper class from ​21K Virgin points​​

Hotel Promos

• Marriott: ​Up to 20% off stays booked by 3/1 (with promo code QRI) and completed between 3/2 and 3/22.
• Marriott Bonvoy: ​​2,500 bonus points per stay, plus 1 bonus elite night per brand​ for stays between 2/25 and 5/10. ​​Register before 4/26 to qualify.
• Hilton: ​Up to 20% on stays​ through 12/15, booked before 3/3.
• Hyatt: ​Up to 40% at All-Inclusive resorts in Europe​. Book by 3/2 and complete the stay by 12/31.
• Preferred Hotels: ​Up to 35% on stays booked by 3/2 and completed by 4/4.
• IHG: 0.5¢ per point with a ​100% bonus​ until 3/17.
• Wyndham: ​25% transfer bonus from a popular bank until 3/21.

Airline Promos

• Air Canada: ​​2x points on all flights in 2026​​. Book by 3/3.
• Southwest: 1.65¢ per point with up to a ​45% bonus​ until 3/2.
• Virgin: 1.47¢ per point with up to a ​70% bonus​ until 3/31.

🚢 "Free" Norwegian Cruise for Caesars Diamond Elites

Caesars Rewards has added a ​complimentary 7-night Norwegian Cruise​ for Diamond Elite members. Diamond Elite requires 75K tier credits in 2026, so this isn't easy unless you're a big Caesars spender, and you're still on the hook for taxes, port fees, and other charges.

🤑 Latest Deals

💰 Find Free Unclaimed Money ($75 Billion Reported!)

Did you know there's $75 billion in unclaimed funds held by state governments? It only takes a few minutes to search your name (and family members), and you might find forgotten bank accounts, unredeemed gift cards, uncashed checks, or old utility deposits. After sharing this last year, countless people found out they're owed $100+, and a few even found more than $1,000. So definitely try it out!

🩺 Function Health: 50% Off Annual Membership

​Function Health offers comprehensive health testing with 100+ biomarkers that detect 1000+ conditions. And if you use a credit card from a popular bank to buy an annual membership, you can get 50% off ($182.50 value) before 3/31.

🍽️ Free $35 InKind Dining Credit

​InKind is a free dining rewards app that’s helped me save $100s at amazing restaurants. Right now, you can get $10 off $30+ before 3/1, plus new users can get a $25 referral bonus (here's my link).

🔗 Card-Linked Offers Worth $700+

Card-linked offers are a great way to save on shopping you're already doing. Here are some I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses.

• AT&T Wireless: ​$75 off $100​ (today, 2/28)
• Viator: ​Up to $50 off $200​ (3/24)
• Hilton: ​10% off, up to $65​ (3/31)
• DirecTV: ​$50 off $100, up to 2 times​​ (5/5)
• Icelandair: ​$225 off $1,500+​ (5/24)
• IHG Hotels: ​$50 off $250​ (5/26)
• Turo: ​20% back, up to $30​ (5/31)
• Hilton (Mexico & Caribbean): ​$200 off $1,000+​ (6/16)

Please note that some of these are targeted offers, so I recommend using CardPointers Pro (get 30% off here) to automate them.

🕵️ Top Finds

I really enjoyed reading this thread on X. I'm not sure I'd stand by the claim that "once you understand, your life will never be the same", but it certainly gave me a lot to think about. It's especially relevant as my "work" burner has been on high the past few weeks as I've been so excited about building AI tools, agents, apps and more. On the same topic, James Clear also wrote a good post on the same theory.

The Curious Tales @thecurioustales 🚨 I just learned about a concept, I can't stop thinking about. The Four Burner Theory. It destroyed Elon Musk's first marriage. It explains why Bezos is jacked but divorced. And why Zuckerberg has no real friends. Once you understand it, your life will never be same:🧵 2:30 PM • Feb 15, 2026 4106 Retweets 23202 Likes Read 654 replies

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💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris