Points and miles have never been easier to earn … which is exactly why they’re worth less every time you go to redeem them. Plus: Kyle’s fresh off 36 hours in Tokyo with tips worth stealing, and Bilt just made it a lot easier to burn your Bilt Cash on a helicopter ride instead of battling Manhattan traffic.
📉 The Real Reason Your Points Keep Getting Less Valuable
Ever notice how every time a new record-breaking bonus offer drops, your points buy a little less the next time you go to book a flight or hotel? That’s not a coincidence – it’s basic inflation, and the banks are the ones printing the points.
Not long ago, the American Express Platinum Card® came with a 60,000-point welcome offer. Now, it’s as high as 175,000 points after spending $12,000 in six months – exactly what offer you’re eligible for (if any) will vary, and you’ll find out before you officially submit your application and apply. Multiply that across every major issuer, and you’ve got millions (if not billions) of new points hitting the market every single day.
Airlines and hotels have to do something with all those points entering the rewards ecosystem, so they raise the price of admission. Here’s a small sampling of the devaluations we’ve seen in recent years:
- Turkish Airlines jacked up rates to Istanbul (IST) and beyond, before wiping out one of the sweetest sweet spots of all: Flying United to Hawaii for just 10,000 points each way.
- Avianca LifeMiles has repeatedly raised rates, axing many of its best premium cabin sweet spots.
- Top-tier Hiltons now cost as much as 250,000 points per night, and even our beloved Hyatt made big, bad changes to its award chart earlier this year.
- British Airways, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Emirates, and Virgin Atlantic have all made similar, customer-unfriendly moves in recent years. The list goes on and on …
None of that happens in a vacuum – it happens because the banks flooded the system first.
The wildest part is what’s actually driving this. Travelers like us aren’t really the customers here – we’re the product. Airlines and hotels pre-sell points to banks in bulk, banks turn around and dangle them at us as bonuses, and the loyalty programs get their real payday long before you ever redeem a mile.
Does it really matter? It depends on how you’re earning points and miles in the first place.
If you’re chasing new card bonuses every year (especially cards with transferable points), you’re mostly insulated from any one devaluation – there’s always another haul of points right around the corner.
But if you’re earning the old-fashioned way – actually flying or staying loyal to one hotel brand – these hikes sting a lot more. That’s exactly why we keep telling travelers to earn transferable currencies like Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards instead of miles on a single airline or points with a specific hotel chain. When one program devalues, you can typically pivot somewhere else.
The banks aren’t going to stop handing out record bonuses anytime soon. So the real move is making sure you’re not stuck depending on just one loyalty program when the next round of hikes lands.
Check out our story for the full breakdown!
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🎙️ New Podcast Just Dropped!
💸 Airfare Absurdities, the Battle for Seattle & Other Travel News
🥊 From a bizarre (and arguably absurd) Delta flight pricing quirk, new and disappearing Alaska Atmos redemptions, American’s late premium push, or the ongoing “Battle for Seattle,” there’s no shortage of travel news for Gunnar and Kyle to break down on the show this week. Plus, the guys help a listener with that age-old question of award travel: should you book a flight with lower mileage rates or fewer fees?
Tune in now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
🤝 Deal of the Day: Phoenix from 7K Southwest Points RT!
Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥
Why we love it: Use your Southwest Rapid Rewards points (or your Chase/Bilt points that transfer to Southwest) to avoid high fares to Phoenix this year or next!
Flying from dozens of U.S. cities under 19,000 Southwest points roundtrip. Best availability this fall and winter.
Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.
Already a member? Log in to see all your deals. (Not seeing it? Remove your airport filters to see every deal.)
– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst
🚁 Bilt’s BLADE Partnership Just Got Easier to Use
Bilt just made it a lot easier to skip Manhattan traffic … and use up that pile of Bilt Cash you’ve earned from swiping your Bilt Card.
Starting today, you can book BLADE – the helicopter service, best known for shuttling travelers between Manhattan and New York (JFK) or Newark (EWR) – directly inside the Bilt Travel Portal.
The bigger change is how you pay for your chopper ride. For the first time, Bilt Points and Bilt Cash both work at checkout, either on their own or combined with each other or a linked card.
Unfortunately, the redemption rate for redeeming points toward BLADE transfers is quite poor – just .7 cents per point, compared to the 1.25 cents you’ll get when booking other travel. And that’s before taking into account how far you can stretch your points when moving them to Bilt’s stable of transfer partners, making this a pretty easy pass for savvy travelers.
Using Bilt Cash is the more straightforward (and useful) option. You can apply up to $350 of Bilt Cash per seat, on up to two BLADE flights per year – for a maximum of $700 annually. Since Bilt Cash redeems dollar-for-dollar, this is just a discount using the Bilt Cash you’ve already earned through card spend or status. If your seat costs less than $350, you simply use what you need, but just know: Your leftover allowance doesn’t carry over, and the two-flight allotment resets every January 1st whether you’ve used it or not.
There are more benefits for Bilt members booking BLADE, but none of these are exactly new. Here’s a refresher on what else you get with this partnership:
- Silver, Gold, and Platinum members still get 10% off BLADE bookings made through the Bilt app
- Everyone earns 2X Bilt Points on BLADE bookings through the portal
- Gold and Platinum members also get BLADE lounge access … even on non-flying days (two drinks included)
- Platinum members get one complimentary BLADE flight per year between Manhattan and JFK or Newark.
Is it worth it? BLADE advertises fares starting at $195 one-way, though in practice you’ll more often see transfers in the $250 to $300 range, with Newark typically pricing a bit higher than JFK.
That’s steep when compared to a $70-$100 cab or rideshare – but for a solo traveler in a hurry, trading an hour-plus crawl through Manhattan traffic for a 5-minute flight can be worth the premium, especially once a 10% status discount or Bilt Cash chips away at the price.
All in all, this is a mostly positive change as it allows Bilt members to more seamlessly book BLADE rides and use up their balance of Bilt Cash before it expires at the end of the year (you can only rollover $100 of Bilt Cash). Just don’t make the mistake of redeeming points for your ride …
Read Bilt’s full press release
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🇯🇵 Highlights, Tips & Takeaways from a Quick Trip to Tokyo
A note from Kyle: This is the latest dispatch from a quick trip to Tokyo last week – previous Extra Miles covered lounge-hopping through Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Japan Airlines’ new business class suites & the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Stay tuned for more!
Virtually everyone who has been to Tokyo will tell you some version of the same two things:
- Every last detail, blow-by-blow, about their trip for the next four to five weeks, because visiting Japan’s sprawling capital city immediately becomes part (if not all) of your personality, because…
- … Tokyo changes you. It might take a while, but it enters your bloodstream and quickly becomes the benchmark against which you compare every subsequent trip.
I experienced that firsthand all over again last week. Even 36 hours in Tokyo was enough to fall in love with it all over again.
Would I rather spend seven-plus days in Tokyo? Yes. Is 36 hours enough to get a taste of one of the world’s most electric, engaging cities? Also yes.
With the benefit of hindsight – this was my (checks TripIt) sixth time in Tokyo in the last seven years – here are a few tips, takeaways, highlights, and semi-coherent ramblings from one of my favorite cities.
Tokyo is challenging – and I mean that as the ultimate compliment. I will never forget my first time touching down in Tokyo almost a decade ago and immediately feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the city, the mystifying signage and digital interfaces that don’t neatly fit into our Western sensibilities, and the crowds and lines of people seemingly everywhere you go.
But that challenge makes it that much more rewarding when something clicks – and I promise you, it will click. There’s nothing like the feeling when, after a day or two of soaking it all in, you step outside out of your hotel and think: “You know what? I get this city now.”
Almost 10 years later, I’m still chasing that feeling of discovery to this day.
It’s an equally amazing feeling to, at one moment, look out over Tokyo’s never-ending skyline…
… only to step out onto the street a moment later and find yourself in your own little world. Tokyo is like that: It’s less a massive metropolis than a collection of neighborhoods, streets, and alleyways – all with their own character. How a city this big can feel so intimate amazes me.
You need to make peace with the Tokyo subway system. It’s cheap, can get you anywhere in 20 minutes, and is unbelievably reliable – like, down to the second. Google Maps is your gospel for navigating this incredible city by rail. Trust it with your life.
Pro tip: Rather than buying individual tickets (or even a Japanese SUICA card), just follow Google Maps’ instructions, add a credit card to your contactless phone app, and tap in and out at each turnstile.
That said, get ready to walk. Tokyo is a city that needs to be explored on foot, with the freedom to wander down whichever avenue or alleyway piques your interest. You can and should have big plans and reservations … but the real magic of Tokyo is in wandering into some bar, restaurant, ramen shop, or sushi counter just because it “looks good.”
Spoiler alert: It (almost) always is. I put on 45,000 steps in a single day last week, and I don’t regret a single one of them.
OK, I’ve been holding out on you. A few recommendations, can’t misses, and under-the-radar spots:
- Embrace the convenience stores. “Konbinis” like 7-Eleven, Lawson’s, and Family Mart are a way of life here but also delicious. A few onigiri rice balls and a can of coffee make the perfect $4 breakfast ritual. The egg salad sandwiches (yes, really – I’m talking about eating egg salad sandwiches in one of the best food cities on the planet) are almost unbelievably good. Trust me: I ate like … five of them last week – and not just for the bit.
- A morning stroll through Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu shrine are the perfect way to cope with your jet lag.
- The busy neighborhoods of Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza and Asakusa get all the love but don’t be afraid to dig deeper into Tokyo. I loved exploring Harajuku, Roppongi, and Ogikubo.
- Some spots are popular for a reason. Tsukiji Market and Golden Gai – a tiny chunk of Shinjuku filled with even tinier bars – both fit that bill to a T.
- From the conveyor belt restaurants to $400-plus omakase counters, you won’t find a bad bite of sushi in the city. A few of my favorites over the years include Sushi Komari, Sushi Yuu, and multiple locations of both Sushi No Midori and Uogashi “Standing Sushi” bars.
- But Tsukiji Itadori Bekkan takes the cake for me. This 12-seat counter tucked away inside a winding corridor of the Tsukiji market is just magical to me. I make it a point to go every time and it never disappoints – and my bosses, Nick and Jared (whom I sent here a few years back), would agree.
- For ramen, you can do better than Japan’s world-famous Ichiran chain … but honestly, you should still try Ichiran. The long queues and goofy single-serving stalls are part of the experience. But I’m still drooling about the bowl of tonkotsu ramen from Ramen Takesaburō in Asakusa last week…
- When you’re ready for a nightcap, it’s well worth the jaunt to the Park Hyatt Tokyo and an elevator ride up to its iconic New York Bar. Sipping on a negroni and looking over the vast, twinkling skyline while listening to that night’s jazz band play “What a Wonderful World” last week was one of my favorite moments in almost 10 years of visiting Tokyo.
- By far my funniest moment came at Rock Bar Mother, a quirky bar in Shinjuku where each drink order also gets you the privilege of picking the next rock or metal song. Let’s just say I got a little too … ambitious with my song selection and learned quite quickly that neither my fellow guests nor the bartender were big Dillinger Escape Plan fans.
I’ll be honest: I shouldn’t like Tokyo. Big capital cities generally don’t do it for me.
But like I said at the top, Tokyo is in my bloodstream now. I can’t quit it. I’ll be back – hopefully for longer next time.
– Kyle Potter, executive editor
✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
- 📦 Memphis International Airport has been renamed Frederick W. Smith International Airport, honoring the FedEx founder. FedEx marked the occasion by bringing back a retro aircraft livery inspired by the original Federal Express look. (FedEx, via X)
- 🏨 Amex Travel just added more than 350 hotels to Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection, marking the 35th anniversary of the program and bringing the combined portfolio to over 3,400 properties in 116 countries. (American Express)
- 🇫🇷 Delta is reportedly set to announce new nonstop routes from Austin to Paris (CDG) and San Diego (SAN) today, according to aviation journalist JonNYC. (JonNYC, via X)
- 💳 A glitch appears to be giving new United Debit cardholders expanded saver award space immediately, skipping the usual $10,000 spend requirement. (Travel on Points)
