👋 Hi Reader,

Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here's a quick sneak peek into today's newsletter:

• 🙌 How to actually live the life you're optimizing for
• 💳 $1,500 offer on the new Amex Graphite Business card
• 🤖 Amex Gold/Plat business cards to add $300 ChatGPT credit
• 💺 United to launch "Relax Row" economy seats
• 🏦 Bank bonuses worth $2,000+
• 🏨 $500+ in card-linked offers for hotels
• 🇨🇦 Vancouver will pay you up to ~$365 to visit
• 🧔🏻 10% off Wild Roman (natural skincare products for men)
• 🍽️ MealMaxxer: one map for all your dining credits, and more!

If you enjoyed reading, please forward this email to a friend who might too! And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here. Thank you!

Chris

🙌 How to Actually Live the Life You're Optimizing For

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This week I sat down with Sahil Bloom to talk about why the constant pursuit of optimization might be steering you the wrong way. We explore the Doorman Fallacy, why big life decisions should happen fast, how to use AI as a thinking partner, and why systems beat motivation.

💸 Take Control of Your Money

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📋 My Past Week

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

• In anticipation of some upcoming travel, I've been trying to get ahead on the podcast and actually managed to get 4 episodes recorded in the past week, which feels a bit crazy. I'm looking forward to all of them, but especially excited about testing out a new narrative format where I'll be sharing the fascinating history of credit cards, points and miles.
• Q1 comes to an end on Tuesday and I managed to use all my March + Q1 credits. It's a bummer that Lululemon stopped selling gift cards online, but fortunately I happened to be right near one this week. Only credits I have left are 4x $50 Hilton credits, which means that if the kids are interested in a trip to a nearby Hilton to raid their lobby market, we'll do that this weekend. Otherwise, I'm totally fine letting them go this quarter.
• Huge thanks to all the readers that sent a suggestion to introduce our kids to Geocaching as a way to make hiking and exploring more fun. Going to go on our first geocaching adventure this weekend. If you're not familiar check out (paid) and (free).
• Last weekend we had kids from 3-8 years old over and it was amazing to see how well our Nex Playground was able to keep the entire age range entertained after taking a break from the heat outside. The hardest part was getting them to all agree on which games to play, but we ended up giving each kid a piece of paper to pick one game and told them that until they put them in an order they all agreed on they couldn't start. It worked way better than I had imagined until the oldest boy was less than thrilled to be playing the Barbie Let's Dance game 🤣.

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

🤖 $300 ChatGPT Biz Credit on Amex Gold/Plat Biz Cards

Amex is adding a $300 annual ChatGPT Business statement credit to both the Business Gold and Business Platinum cards. I was actually just about to cancel these cards, but this will actually change my mind, given that we're already paying for two ChatGPT accounts in our home.

Here's the catch: While a ChatGPT Business account is $300/year, it also requires a minimum of 2 users. My plan is to pay monthly ($30/mo/user) and switch cards every 5 months. Or if you don't have a partner, you could probably find a friend to join a business plan with and swap cards every 5-6 months. While the perk hasn't gone live yet, you can sign up to get notified when it does here.

💺 United to Launch "Relax Row" Economy Seats

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United just announced Relax Row, which will be economy seats that fold up into a couch-like surface, complete with a mattress pad, blanket, extra pillows, and a travel kit for kids. It's just like Air New Zealand's SkyCouch and I'm pretty excited to try it out (though it's not launching until 2027).

💳 $1,500 Bonus on the New Amex Graphite Biz Card

The new Graphite Business Cash Unlimited Card is officially out with a $1,500 welcome offer after a $50K spend in 6 months, which means it's a ~5% cash back card on the first $50K. While that's a decent ROI, the value of the card beyond the bonus is pretty limited (there are plenty of 2% business cards that earn more for a lower annual fee). So I'm not excited about it, but if you're looking for a 2% card, the bonus definitely covers the fee.

👫 Bilt: Authorized Users Can Earn Their Own Points

Earlier this month, Bilt updated its terms and authorized users can now keep their own rewards. Primary cardholders can choose whether Bilt Points and Bilt Cash earned by authorized users go to the primary account or the AU's own account, making it easier for two-player households to both earn Bilt status with one card.

In other Bilt news, a new award pricing comparison tool launched in limited beta, letting you compare how many points you'd need across different loyalty programs for the same flight.

🇨🇦 Vancouver Will Pay You Up to ~$365 to Visit

If you've been thinking about visiting Vancouver, book a hotel on this website using promo code PrepaidCard and you'll get a CA$250 (~USD$180) prepaid Mastercard for a 2+ night stay or CA$500 (~USD$365) for 4+ nights. Valid for stays through 4/30 and can be used up to three times per guest.

📣 New Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Business Class Award Flight Deals

• 🇩🇰 Denmark: From 60K Virgin points​
• 🇩🇪 Germany: From 62K KrisFlyer miles when booked before 3/31 and flown between 4/1 and 4/30.
• 🇬🇷 Greece: From 87K Skywards miles​
• 🇮🇹 Italy: From 55K Atmos points or AAdvantage miles​
• 🇯🇴 Jordan: From 70K Atmos points or AAdvantage miles​
• 🇵🇪 Peru: From 27.5K AAdvantage miles​

Transfer Bonuses

As always, I recommend not making any speculative transfers unless you have a specific redemption in mind.

• Citi → Avianca LifeMiles: 25% transfer bonus until 4/18.
• Citi → Virgin Atlantic: 30% transfer bonus until 4/18.
• Bilt → Wyndham: Up to a 125% bonus on 4/1.

🤑 Latest Deals

🚗 Free Day With National Car Rental

If you have travel plans in the next few months, National Car Rental is offering a free rental day when you book 2 eligible rentals (min. of 2 consecutive days each) between 4/6 and 6/7. Normally, Emerald Club members need 5-7 rentals to earn a free day depending on status tier.

🏦 Bank Bonuses Worth $2,000+

• ​$500 from Relay Financial: Open a new account and deposit $10,000 and complete the qualifying requirements.
• ​$500 bonus from U.S. Bank (State Farm customers only): Open a new account with a minimum deposit of $25 before 6/30 and complete the qualifying requirements.
• ​$400 from Capital One (widely targeted): Open a new 360 Checking account using promo code GET400 before 5/19 and set up qualifying direct deposits.
• ​$400 from a popular bank: Open an eligible checking account before 4/15 and complete a qualifying direct deposit.
• ​$300 from Capital One: Open a new 360 Checking account using promo code OFFER300 and set up qualifying direct deposits within 75 days.

🧔🏻 10% Off Wild Roman: Natural Skincare for Men

I'm a big fan of Wild Roman, which if you missed episode #271 above, is Sahil Bloom's recently launched natural skincare product range for men. I've been using it for the past few weeks and I'm a big fan of all the products I've tried, especially because they have such a clean ingredient list. And right now, you can get 10% off your entire order with promo code CHUTCHINS10.

🏨 $500+ in Card-Linked Offers for Hotels

There's been a heap of card-linked offers for hotels this week. Here are the best ones I found with expiration dates in parentheses.

• Hotels.com: 10x Membership Rewards points on prepaid hotels​ booked via hotels.com/amexbusiness (6/30)
• Homes & Villas by Marriott: $250 off $1,000+ (5/24)
• Hyatt (Select Properties): $75 off $300 (6/30)
• Hyatt Unbound & Park Hyatt: 15% back, up to $70 (3/31)
• Marriott (Select Properties): 15% off, up to $75 (3/31)
• Sonesta: $60 off $300+ (6/26)

Some of these are targeted, so I highly recommend using CardPointers Pro (you can get 50% off through 3/31) to find and automate them.

🕵️ Top Find

💳 What's Inside a Credit Card

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One of my favorite YouTube channels (Veritasium) just released this fascinating video about the technology inside credit cards and how the chips actually work.

🍽️ MealMaxxer: Mapping All Your Dining Credits

If you use dining credits from platforms like Resy, inKind, Bilt, Seated, OpenTable, check out MealMaxxer (ht Frequent Miler). It's a free map tool that overlays these dining programs onto one view, so you can instantly see which restaurants near you qualify and, more importantly, where you can stack multiple credits on the same meal.

💬 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