๐Ÿค‘ My Top Finds, Latest Deals, and Best Recommendations (9/14/24)


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๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi Reader,

Happy Saturday! Here's a sneak peek of today's newsletter:

  • ๐Ÿ’ฐ How we save $20k on a luxury Europe trip
  • ๐Ÿšจ Last call: Companion Pass for 2 years + 120k points
  • ๐Ÿ“ฑ Best iPhone 16 trade-in deal
  • ๐ŸŽ‰ Million mile giveaway!
  • ๐Ÿ›’ Samโ€™s Club membership for just $15
  • ๐ŸŽ Huge savings on gift cards!
  • ๐Ÿฉบ Highest ROI $100 health test and more!

As always, I hope you enjoy reading and please forward this to someone who might enjoy it too! And if that's you, make sure to subscribe โ€‹hereโ€‹ so you don't miss out on amazing deals in the future.

Thanks so much!

-Chris


๐Ÿ’ฐ Saving $20k on a Luxury Europe Trip

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We celebrated our 40th birthdays in Europe and ended up saving over $20,000 booking with points. We shared our entire process we used to find deals on business-class tickets and a five-star resort. My wife Amy also joined me to share highlights and recommendations from the trip!


๐Ÿ›ซ Travel, Points & Miles

๐ŸŽ‰ Best Rewards Programs and Million Mile Giveaway!

โ€‹point.me just released their report on The Worldโ€™s Best Airline Rewards Programs and is also giving away 1+ million Flying Blue miles since Air France-KLM claimed the top spot. Giveaway ends on 10/15!

๐Ÿ›ซ Last Call: Southwest Companion Pass for 2 Years

I previously shared how the best-ever 120k welcome bonuses on two Southwest business cards will help you earn Companion Pass for a year. However, if you time things correctly, you should be able to earn it for two years (2025/2026). I wrote up a post โ€‹โ€‹here with more details.

  • โ€‹โ€‹Card 1โ€‹: 60k bonus points after $3k spend in 3 months, plus an additional 60k after $15k spend in 9 months.
  • โ€‹โ€‹Card 2: 80k bonus points after $5k spend in 3 months, plus an additional 40k after $15k spend in 9 months.

Note: These offers expire on 9/17/2024 at 8am ET and for compliance reasons, we can't include the names of all cards/banks in this email.

๐Ÿ’บ D.O.T. Puts Pressure on Frequent Flyer Programs

The D.O.T. is demanding transparency from major airlines regarding their frequent flyer programs. I have no idea what comes of this, but it's super interesting to see them looking into points devaluations, dynamic pricing, and lack of transparency in fee structures.

๐Ÿš€ Where to Creditโ€‹: Maximize Your Miles

If you're ever flying on an airline you don't normally fly, I recently heard about an amazing site called Where to Credit that shows you which partner's frequent flyer programs give you the most for your flight.


๐Ÿค‘ Latest Deals

๐Ÿ“ฑ How to Save the Most on the New iPhone 16!

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Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 are live and there are some amazing deals to be had. My friend Stetson Doggett (founder of bestphoneplans.net) knows more about US cell phone plans than pretty much everyone and recently did in-depth analysis of trade-in credit from all the major U.S. phone carriers. If you've been considering changing carriers, also check out this video he made on the best phone plan at every price point.

It might be worth calling up your carrier to see what offers they have. Despite getting a $1,000 trade-in credit from T-Mobile last year, they offered us the same deal again for upgrading to an iPhone 16 Pro.

๐Ÿค‘ Up to 40% off Amazon with Amex

American Express cardholders can once again save up to 40% on Amazon by redeeming as little as 1 Membership Rewardsยฎ point. This is a targeted offer so check this link to find out what youโ€™re eligible for!

๐ŸŽ Pepper Rewards: Huge Cash Back on Gift Cards

The Pepper Rewards gift card app has been offering some crazy gift card deals the past few weeks. Earlier this week, I got 12% off Amazon Gift Cards, which was amazing. Deals go quickly, but new customers get 2x points for the first 15 days with a referral code (mine is 612342).

The points system is a bit confusing โ€“ you earn "points" instead of cash back, and you get the base (4x) points instantly while bonus points pay out a few weeks later. So when I got 12x on Amazon, it was 4x right away (worth 4% back) and 8x in 3 weeks (worth 8 more % back).

๐Ÿ›’ $15 Samโ€™s Club Membership (Save $35!)

New members can get a Samโ€™s Club membership (normally $50) for just $15 with this limited-time offer expiring on 9/27. I did this last year and honestly haven't gotten much value from it, so probably not worth it unless you're pretty sure you'll use it, but if so, it's a great deal.

๐ŸŽฏ Target Car Seat Trade-in Event

From 9/15 to 9/28, you can trade in old, expired, damaged or outgrown car seats and boosters at Target and get a 20% off Target Circleโ„ข Bonus, good for car seats or select baby gear until 10/12.


๐Ÿ•ต๏ธ Great Finds

๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Howard Marks + Morgan Housel: The Impact of Debt

I love Howard Marks' Behind the Memo podcast, but his recent episodewith Morgan Housel on the impact of debt was one of the best podcast episodes I've listened to this year. They discuss ideas from one of Howardโ€™s memos which was inspired by Morganโ€™s article How I Think About Debt. I highly recommend giving this a listen!

๐Ÿฉบ The Best $100 to Spend on Your Health

As someone who's had cholesterol issues for most of my life, I really loved seeing this article call the coronary calcium score test "the highest ROI $100 you can spend on your health." After years of following conventional advice for my high cholesterol and having no improvement, my calcium score is what led to take a more aggressive course of action, which has lowered my cholesterol significantly!

๐Ÿ“ New Free E-Signature Platform

My go-to for e-signatures used to be HelloSign, but since being acquired by Dropbox, there's no free option. Then I got excited when Google Docs launched free e-signature, but so far, I'm unimpressed. So naturally, I was so excited to see Agree launch free e-signatures last week and am hoping it'll be my go-to service in the future.


๐Ÿ’ฌ Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading - I hope you enjoyed it!

Please feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts, feedback or even if you just want to say hi! :)

Chris

Chris Hutchins

Discover the latest and greatest hacks, deals and recommendations to upgrade and optimize your life, money and travel โ€“ all while spending less and saving more.

Read more from Chris Hutchins
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๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi Reader, Happy Saturday! Hereโ€™s a sneak peek of todayโ€™s newsletter: ๐Ÿค‘ 10 million points giveaway ๐Ÿฅ— The science of nutrition ๐Ÿ’ธ 3 ways to earn a free $40 shopping online ๐ŸŽ Latest gift card deals ๐Ÿ’ฐ 30+ card-linked offers for $5-200 back ๐Ÿ  Earn points on a home purchase ๐ŸŽ“ Maximize college savings and more! I really hope you enjoy reading, and please don't forget to forward this to someone who might enjoy it too! (And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here). Thanks so much! Chris ๐Ÿ’ฐ Donate...

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi Reader, Hope your Saturday is off to a great start! Here's what's included in today's newsletter: ๐ŸŽ My holiday gift guide (+ ways to save up to 25%) ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ธ Video Highlights from our Iceland Trip!!! ๐Ÿ’ณ New 4% cash back card ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Latest gift cards deals (save up to 20%/$50) ๐Ÿ’ฐ Free $40 from Rakuten ๐Ÿงพ Are credit card rewards taxable? and more! One small favor: if you enjoyed reading, please forward this newsletter to someone else who might too! And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here :)...

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi Reader, Hope your Saturday is off to a great start! Here's what's included in today's newsletter: ๐ŸŽ My holiday gift guide (+ ways to save up to 25%) ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ธ Video Highlights from our Iceland Trip!!! ๐Ÿ’ณ New 4% cash back card ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Latest gift cards deals (save up to 20%/$50) ๐Ÿ’ฐ Free $40 from Rakuten ๐Ÿงพ Are credit card rewards taxable? and more! One small favor: if you enjoyed reading, please forward this newsletter to someone else who might too! And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here :)...