👋 Hi Reader,

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

• 🤔 9 things I've changed my mind about
• 💳 Best-ever 200K Marriott card offer ends on 11/11
• 🔁 7 new transfer bonuses to airlines and hotels
• 🏨 4 free Hyatt nights after a $5K spend
• 🛍️ Up to 17,500 miles from 5 airline shopping portal bonuses
• ✈️ Up to 25% off Southwest awards, book by 11/9
• ⏱️ Quick guide to better motivation

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

Chris

🤔 9 Things I've Changed My Mind About

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This week, I revisited the rules, products, and strategies I've changed my mind about, and I share what I'm doing differently now. I also cover a surprising airfare pricing quirk, major updates from U.S. Bank, Bilt, Alaska, and BoA, and why I'm scaling back my AI experimentation. Plus, new thoughts on browsers, AR glasses, skincare, and hiring.

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📋 My Past Week

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

• Amy and I just got back from spending 3 days at the Miraval Resort in Arizona and it was such a different and amazing vacation. We left our phones in our rooms for the entire stay and spent all our time relaxing, eating, and trying a ton of different experiences, including lots of meditation, spiritual drumming, hot stone massages, and so much more. I'll cover it more in a future episode, but it's such a fantastic use of points that I'd suggest it for anyone looking to relax or reset.
• While on our trip, we finished the latest season of Nobody Wants This, which we both enjoyed a ton. Next up is season 2 of Stick, and hopefully at some point we'll finally watch the latest season of Slow Horses. Despite how much we enjoyed the last 5 seasons, it seems like every time we're ready to watch a show, we're always in the mood for something funny and short, and the suspense/drama shows keep getting punted to the next time.
• In my quest to find the perfect replacement browser for Arc, I've now spent a week or two using Chrome and Dia, and am just starting a week with Safari. I'm surprised at how reliant I've grown on a handful of Arc features, but I'm even more surprised at how easily I've been able to recreate just about any feature I want with custom browser extensions I can make with Claude.
• With Halloween behind us, Amy is ready to put up the Christmas tree and start decorating the house. In the past I've strung white Christmas lights on the roofline of our house, but we just got these LED lights that are small enough we're hoping to leave them up all year and change the colors for different holidays. I can't endorse them yet, but hopefully they're as good as the ones a few of our neighbors have.
• I've been traveling 16 of the past 30 days, so it feels really good to not be going anywhere for the next few weeks, and even better to be home for Friday Pizza and a Movie night last night.

⭐ My Top Picks

🏨 New Bonus: Earn 4 Free Hyatt Nights

Another solid welcome offer just landed on a co-branded Hyatt card from a popular bank: four Category 1-4 free night certificates. It's not the best ever, but the spend is far lower than the old offer, and World of Hyatt is one of the most rewarding hotel loyalty programs out there. Category 4 nights can cost up to 25K points at peak, so this offer could be worth up to 100K points. Note that the certificates expire 12 months after they're issued, but they're also transferable. If you want to learn more about the WOH program, check out my recent episode below.

🛍️ Up to 17,500 Bonus Miles From Airline Portals

Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest and United are all running tiered spend bonuses in their shopping portals for up to 17,500 bonus miles. The best ones (e.g., Southwest) will earn an extra 6.25x on your shopping and with some airlines (e.g., Alaska), you can earn status points from their shopping portals. Expiration dates are in parentheses.

• Alaska Airlines: Up to 1,500 bonus points (11/20)
• American Airlines: Up to 4,000 bonus miles (11/20)
• Delta: Up to 2,000 bonus miles (11/21)
• Southwest: Up to 5,000 bonus points (11/23)
• United: Up to 5,000 bonus miles (11/20)

✈️ Southwest Award Sale: Up to 25% Off

Southwest's current promo is taking up to 25% off award flights, domestic and international, in any fare class, for travel through 3/10/27. You need to book by 11/9 (blackout dates apply). If you've already booked an award, check for lower prices and rebook. Full details here.

🔄 7 New Transfer Bonuses to Airlines and Hotels

November is transfer bonus season, with seven new transfer bonuses. Despite all these bonuses, I wouldn't recommend transferring points without a redemption in mind. That said, with so many great bonuses right now, it's a fantastic time to plan a trip.

• Amex → Virgin Atlantic: 30% bonus​
• Capital One → Flying Blue: 20% bonus​
• Capital One → Copa: 30% bonus
• Citi → Turkish: 40% bonus (max 50K miles)​
• Popular Bank → Avios: 30% bonus​
• Popular Bank → IHG: 80% bonus​
• Popular Bank → Wyndham: 30% bonus​

💳 Best-Ever 200K Marriott Card Offer Ends 11/11

This is the biggest points bonus we've seen on this Marriott card, and it's only around until 11/11. I prefer points offers over free nights, because the points don't have a hard expiration. If you have any Marriott plans in the future, this could be a great bonus for you.

⏱️ Quick Guide to Better Motivation

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Daniel Pink, bestselling author and 2-time guest on our podcast (Ep #40 & Ep #162), breaks down what motivates us in this short video. The big takeaway? Motivation isn't something you can simply give someone. It's about creating the right conditions for people to feel driven, take initiative and do their best work.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit cards & points

• Amex: Pay over time becomes mandatory starting 2/1/27​
• Bilt: New $50 Thumbtack Handyman Redemption​
• Capital One: Copa added at 2:1.5 with a 30% bonus​
• Citi: Limited-time offer of 75K points on AAdvantage business​
• Silo: Adds Avianca as first transfer partner — I'm excited they finally launched a transfer partner, but more excited for whichever airlines come next.

✈️ Airline news & promos

• American: Option to stand by for earlier flights and keep seats
• American: Flagship dining opens to biz at DFW, LAX, MIA​
• American: 10 miles per $1 donated to Red Cross — Only worth it if you're already planning to donate.
• Finnair: Buy Avios from ~1.06¢ — Pay in yen for the best price, and only buy for a specific booking.
• Flying Blue: 25% off award flights — A wider list than usual, worth checking if Europe is on your list this winter.
• Flying Blue: SAF XP cost up 50% — This is a bummer if you're looking to get to Air France Platinum status.

🏨 Hotel news & promos

• Hilton for Business: Double elite nights​
• Hyatt: American partnership ending soon — Link by 11/15 to keep earning through 2/28/27.
• Wyndham: Free one-level status upgrade before end of year​

🔗 Card-linked offers

• Any Airfare: $200 off $900 — This is one of the best offers I've seen in a while, as long as you have a premium Bonvoy card.
• Air France/KLM: $150 off $1,500​
• Avis: $75 off $350​
• Etihad: $200 off $1,000​
• Giftcards.com: 5% back, up to $40
• IHG: $50 off $250​
• Monarch: $50 off $69.99​
• Omni Hotels: $100 off $500​
• Southwest: $60 off $300​

🛍️ Other deals

• Grubhub: $100 gift cards for $79.99 at Costco​
• Lyft: New Lyft Go, 8% back, free with DashPass​
• Rakuten: $50 signup bonus extended to 12/31​
• Uber Eats: $40 off + ​$0 delivery​ with Amazon Prime​
• Visible: Visible+ Pro $225/year with code BLACKFRIDAY​

💬 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