πŸ’° My Top Picks, Recommendation & More (9/12/26)


πŸ‘‹ Hi Reader,

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

  • πŸ’³ Best-ever card offers: up to 200k + free night awards & more
  • 🏨 World of Hyatt deep dive & latest updates
  • 🏦 $4,000+ in bank & brokerage bonuses
  • 🏑 How to make your home healthier at any budget
  • πŸ” A top travel card's DoorDash credit triples on 10/1
  • πŸ“± How to get the best deal on new iPhones
  • πŸ›οΈ 3x miles at Giftcards.com (and some could earn status)
  • ⛷️ Targeted Amex offer for $200 off an Ikon Pass

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


🏨 World of Hyatt Deep Dive & Latest Updates

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I did a deep dive on everything you need to know about going all-in on World of Hyatt. I covered Hyatt's brands and footprint, the best ways to earn points through credit cards and transfers, what Hyatt points are actually worth, every status tier and milestone reward, and how to get Globalist-like treatment without actually having status.


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πŸ“‹ My Past 2 Weeks

  • I thought I had a regular cold two weeks ago, but it turned out it was a significant sinus infection that came with a painful headache for days. It ultimately led to me getting a CT which showed that the large sinus in my left cheek was completely filled with fluid and its drainage pathway was blocked. Fortunately, a prescription for some steroids helped clear things up quickly and I'm feeling much better now.
  • Interestingly, after I got the CT scan, they told me it would take 48 hours to get the results from the radiologist, but when I asked if I could have the images myself, they offered to put them all on a CD for me. Thanks to a neighbor who still has a CD drive, I was able to put all the photos in a folder and run them through Claude Code, which pretty accurately analyzed the results and even marked up some slices to explain what was going on (see below). I still got my ENT's take on the results the next day, but it was really impressive to be able to understand what was happening less than an hour after getting home.
  • Strangely the night before getting my CT, my youngest daughter had a pretty terrible ear infection that resulted in her ear drum rupturing. While she was in a lot of pain an hour or two before it happened (which was in the middle of the night), she didn't have much pain after the rupture.
  • Unfortunately, both our Doctors recommended we avoid flying for the next two weeks, so the two of us had to cancel our plans to go to Colorado for Labor Day weekend, while my wife and oldest daughter traveled as planned. It was the first time we've ever split up like that or that long (5 nights), but it was so much fun to get to bond 1:1 with one kid that I think we'll probably start incorporating more trips/experiences with one kid in the future.
  • Outside of all that, I've been spending the last week finalizing my Bookkeeping setup in advance of needing to file our business tax returns next week. I had previously switched from Quickbooks to Kick, and now that everything is dialed in I am so happy to have made the transition.

⭐ My Top Picks

πŸ’³ 10 New Card Offers: Up to 200K, Free Nights & More

It's been a busy week for new welcome offers on a ton of cards:

  • Hilton cards with increased offers that include free nights
  • Refreshed airline card with a 100k+ best-ever offer
  • Three Capital One cards with increased offers
  • Two new Marriott co-branded offers, with Free Nights
  • No-annual-fee cards with 100k bonuses ending next week

I wrote a blog post with all the details here:

πŸ₯‘ $15 Monthly DoorDash Credit Starting 10/1

Starting 10/1, the $5 monthly restaurant credit on a popular travel card becomes $15 good on any order, not just restaurants. The card still continues to give you free DashPass as well. From my perspective this is a big value-add to the card, since I'm not often able to use the $10 non-restaurant credits the card also has.

🏑 Make Your Home Healthier at Any Budget

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On Ep #293, Dom Francks​ (a Stanford-trained engineer and former climate-tech product leader) and I talk about ways to make your home healthier by focusing on the environmental factors that actually matter. We break down how to improve air and water quality, ventilation, mold prevention, lighting, and EMF exposure, plus what to prioritize in your bedroom and the best upgrades at any budget. Also check out this guide he put together after the episode.

πŸ›οΈ Up to 3x Airline Miles at Giftcards.com

All the major US airline shopping portals are offering up to 3x miles or points/dollar spent at Giftcards.com. This can be a good way to earn extra miles on gift cards you'd buy anyway, especially if you can stack the portal bonus with a credit card that earns a bonus on the purchase.

Just make sure you read the terms, since some portals have purchase limits or restrictions on which gift cards qualify.


πŸ“± Recommendation: Save on iPhones

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My friend Stetson Doggett is the most knowledgeable person on cell phone plans and deals. He runs BestPhonePlans and just put out this video that covers 6 reasons you should be buying your next iPhone straight from Apple instead of your carrier (even if you want a huge trade-in offer from your carrier). If you're buying a new iPhone 18 or Duo, definitely watch this first.


πŸ“° The Rest of the Week

πŸ’³ Credit Cards & Points

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

  • Accor: 4x points at new hotels β€” Book by 9/27 for stays through January, and only worth it if an Accor stay is already planned.
  • Hyatt: 2x points at Thompson Hotels β€” Capped at 30,000 bonus points, and you have to register in the app before 11/10.

πŸ’Ž Award Deals

πŸ”— Card-Linked Offers

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses


πŸ’¬ Parting Thoughts

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

Chris

Chris Hutchins

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

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