👋 Hi Reader,

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start. Here are some highlights from today's newsletter:

• 🤔 What happens to your points & miles after you die?
• 💳 Increased offers on all Delta Amex cards (up to 200K miles)
• 🤩 Best-ever 125K bonus on refreshed Citi AA Executive
• 🍽️ Earn up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ restaurants
• 🚴‍♂️ BMX tricks these days are so incredible
• ✈️ 10 chances to win 1M Alaska points
• 🔍 Google Flights now showing award pricing

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 so much!

Chris

🤔 What Happens to Your Points After You Die?

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Have you ever wondered what happens to your points and miles when you die? And how can you make sure they don’t disappear? This week, I break down how major banks, airlines, and hotel programs handle rewards after death, strategies to protect or transfer your points, and the steps you can take now to make things easier for your family. Plus, learn what to do if you’re already dealing with a loved one’s rewards.

🎙️ I Stopped Typing and Nobody Noticed

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… Wispr Flow​​

I'm a huge fan of Wispr Flow. It turns the way you naturally talk into clean, ready-to-send text in any app on Mac, Windows, or iPhone. I hit a hotkey, talk, and the text appears, ready to be sent.

The thing most people miss: talking is faster than typing. What takes two or three minutes to type takes 20 seconds to say.

And it's nothing like the dictation you gave up on. It cleans up filler words and mid-sentence corrections, and it learns your tone, your shorthand, and the names and acronyms you use.

Try it for free at chrishutchins.com/wisprflow.

📋 My Past 2 Weeks

• My youngest daughter might be in pre-school, but she absolutely loves taking photos, so sharing a photo she took of me during her older sister's first day of school.
• Sadly, I've spent most of the past week being sick with what seems like your standard viral infection that comes with congestion, headache, body chills, etc. Not fun, but hoping that I can kick it by the end of the weekend so I can try to have a productive week next week!
• When I was at the doctor to figure out this sickness I did an InBody scan (similar to dexa scan) and it was cool to see that lifting weights more regularly actually showed up in the data, with my muscle mass going up and my body fat going down.
• One of our two kids went back to school this week, which felt a bit chaotic, but I'm just so glad she's such a fan of her school, teachers and classmates. Looking forward to getting our other daughter back in school after labor day, which will finally free up a bit more time during the week for the adults to get things done!
• Speaking of getting things done, between two weeks traveling and being sick, I feel so behind on everything work-related. As much as I love running a business without any W2 employees, I'm starting to wonder if bringing an experienced full-time person on board to help with everything from research to podcast planning to creative work makes sense. Still an open question, but something I'm considering.
• For our Friday Pizza and a Movie night yesterday, we watched Toy Story 5, which was better than I expected for the 5th movie in a franchise. While our kids don't spend much time on devices, the entire premise is around how being too wrapped up with screens gets in the way of "play time", which I think is something we can all strive to do a bit more of (no matter how old you are).

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 Best-Ever Offers on Delta Amex Cards: Up to 200K

There are increased offers on all 6 co-branded Delta cards through 11/4/26. If you fly Delta regularly, the combination of these bonuses and Delta-specific benefits might be worth a look. I'm especially intrigued by the personal reserve card bonus, which could be worth $2k+, depending on the flights you book with it.

• ​Delta SkyMiles® Reserve​​: 50K bonus miles plus 2 round-trip Delta Comfort Flight Certificates (valid to the US) after $10K spend in 6mo.
• ​​​​Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business​: 200K bonus miles after $20K spend in 6mo.​​​
• ​Delta SkyMiles® Platinum ​: As high as 90K miles after $4K spend in 6mo, plus $300 statement credit with same spend requirement as bonus miles.
• ​​Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business​: 100K bonus miles after an $8K spend in 6mo.
• ​​Delta SkyMiles® Gold​: As high as 80K miles after $3K spend in 6mo, plus $250 statement credit with same spend requirement as bonus miles.
• ​Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business​: 90K miles after $6K spend in 6mo.

🤩 125K Miles Bonus on New Citi AA Executive Card

The refreshed Citi AAdvantage Executive has a best-ever offer for 125K AA miles after $15K spend in 5 months (roughly $1,750 at 1.4¢ each). That makes up for the $695 fee the first year, but going forward it comes down to whether Admirals Club access and other perks can make up for the cost.

🍽️ Earn Up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ Restaurants

​Rove has expanded beyond its travel and shopping portal with dining, gift cards, and in-store offers. You can now earn up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ restaurants, with many offers in the 6–8x range. Spending is capped at $3,500 per transaction, but probably plenty for any meal out. Plus, the points are transferable to 20+ hotel and airline partners.

The new gift card feature is also interesting because miles are awarded instantly. So if you're 2K miles short of an award, you could buy a gift card for something you'd purchase anyway, earn the Rove Miles, and transfer them to a travel partner right away.

✈️ 1M Alaska Atmos Point Giveaway (Ends 9/1)

I don't usually cover sweepstakes, but this one is free (no purchase or T-Mobile account is required) and takes ~30 seconds to enter. T-Mobile is ​giving away 10 prizes of 1 million Atmos Rewards points​, and each winner also gets an $8,571 check to cover the taxes. The odds aren't great, but if you actually win 1M Atmos points, it'd be amazing!

🔍 Google Flights Now Shows Award Pricing

You can now ask AI Mode in Google Flights for pricing in a specific currency and get real-time award prices back. Supported programs are limited for now (Alaska, AA, Choice, Hilton, and Wyndham), so it's not as comprehensive as other tools out there, but it's very interesting to see Google get into the award search game. In my limited tests, it also feels a bit glitchy, so I wouldn't expect too much for now.

🛫 United & American Add 20 New 2027 Routes

United and American Airlines dropped their summer 2027 international schedules/routes this week, and there's a lot of new territory covered.

• United: 10 new destinations across Europe & Japan — Its largest route drop ever, with 8 of the 13 routes from Newark.
• American: 7 new routes, on sale 8/31 — Vienna, Porto and Reykjavik are new.

🚴‍♂️ Recommendation: Crazy BMX Skills

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I used to ride BMX bikes ~25 years ago and now that my youngest daughter is riding her bike on her own, I wanted to find a video of some of the craziest things people can do on a bicycle. I don't know how, but I completely missed the unbelievable progression the tricks in the sport have had since I was a kid. We just missed the X-Games in Sacramento in June, but I already have my daughters excited to go next summer!

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Bilt: Up to 100% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic (only on 9/1) — The bonus depends on your Bilt status and is capped at 150k points transferred. I normally wouldn't transfer speculatively, but if you buy up to a 100% bonus, it could be worth it.
• Citi: 25% bonus to Leading Hotels of the World (ends 9/19) — Gets you 2¢/point, but probably only worth it with a stay in mind.
• Citi: Grandfathered Aviator perks end 10/25 — Burn any leftover Companion Certificates, then reassess the annual fee.
• JetBlue: BlueHouse Boston opens, free for Mint — Unlikely I'll ever make it to this lounge, but looks nice.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Accor: 2-3x in Europe, 4x at new properties​
• Accor: Free Silver status (targeted)
• IHG: 14 Kyoto Hotels joining IHG — Having more Kyoto award options is great given how pricey that city gets.
• Under Canvas: 50% off every 2nd night (book by 8/30)

💎 Award Deals

• 🇺🇸 Berkshires: Miraval from 60K Hyatt points — Wide open in early 2027 with $1,250+ cash rates.
• 🇩🇪 Germany: Biz class from 60K Aeroplan​
• 🇮🇹 Italy: Biz class from 55K Flying Blue​
• 🇲🇽 Mexico City: Park Hyatt Polanco from 20K points​

🏦 Bank Bonuses

• SoFi: $400 checking & savings bonus + 3.80% APY (ends 12/31)
• Wells Fargo: $500 checking bonus (ends 10/6)

🛒 Other Deals

• Amazon.com: $15 off $50 household purchases — Stackable with P&G rebates for Tide or Bounty products.
• CLEAR+: $149, or as low as $129 for Alaska elites — Plenty of cards cover CLEAR+ outright, so check your credits first.
• Kroger: 4x fuel points on 3rd party gift cards (ends 9/1) — You can redeem them toward grocery purchases, up to $10/day.
• Sam's Club: $100 DoorDash gift cards for $80 (Limit 2)

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris