The Extra Mile, Nov. 10: Ranking Limited-Time Hotel Card Offers + More Bad News for Tulum

🏨 Ranking Limited-Time Hotel Card Offers, From 1st to Worst

It’s a good time to be in the market for a hotel credit card.

Four of the most popular co-branded hotel cards – all with annual fees in the $95 to $150 range … and all with the usual mix of elite status and anniversary perks – are offering big limited-time bonuses right now.

Truthfully, these are all pretty great offers … but some are no doubt better than others.

Here’s how we’d rank them.

🥇Hilton: 130K Points + 1 Free Night Reward

*Hilton Surpass*: bonus_miles_full

This one takes the top spot thanks to the free night award certificate. It’s uncapped, so you can redeem it for nearly any standard room in Hilton’s portfolio – including the Conrads and Waldorf Astorias that can easily run $1,000 a night or more.

Then layer on 130,000 points – which is enough for a standard award night at many of those same top-tier properties – and you’ve got at least two nights at a seriously spectacular hotel.

Having six months to hit that minimum spending requirement is a nice bonus, too.

🥈Marriott: 200K Points + Up to $100 Flight Credit

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card (for full disclosure, this is not an affiliate link): Earn 200,000 points after spending $3,000 on purchases within three months of opening the account. Plus, up to $100 in statement credits on purchases made directly with airlines, paid out as two $50 credits.

Just know: This is a really limited-time offer: It ends Wednesday, Nov. 11 … as in tomorrow!

Chase and Marriott have previously offered five free-night certificates (worth up to 50,000 points each) on this card, and those could arguably be worth more on paper. But points beat certificates in terms of flexibility.

Thanks to Marriott’s fifth-night-free perk on award stays, 200,000 points could cover a five-night stay at a hotel going for 50,000 points a night. Or you can split them up however you like, with no expiration dates to worry about.

The airline credits are just icing on the cake.

🥉Hyatt: 4 Free Night Awards

*world of hyatt card*: bonus_miles_full

That’s a better deal than this card’s standard “up to 60,000 points” offer in almost every way.

Hyatt Category 4 hotels cost up to 25,000 points per night at peak pricing. Do the math, and four nights there represent up to 100,000 points’ worth of hotel stays – well ahead of the usual 60,000-point bonus offer, which takes a whopping $15,000 in spending to fully unlock.

Sure, you’re limited to Category 4 and below, but Hyatt’s lower categories are packed with solid hotels in major cities across the globe.

🏅IHG: 180K Points

*ihg rewards club premier*: bonus_miles_full

Make no mistake: This is a strong offer in its own right – and with the card’s fourth-night-free perk on award stays, you can stretch those points even further.

But someone has to bring up the rear – and stacked up against these other bonuses, it lands at the bottom of our ranking.

⚖️ Bottom Line

Every one of these is among the best offers we’ve seen on its respective card. But if you’re shopping purely on value, the Hilton Surpass free night plus 130,000 points is tough to beat.

And if Marriott is your jam, don’t sleep on that Boundless offer: It’s gone for good after tomorrow.

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

🤝 Deal of the Day: An American Miles Sale You Need to Book!

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥🔥

Why we love it: American Airlines is running a sale on AAdvantage award flights that includes some crazy value for your miles this winter.

Heads up! You must book by tomorrow, Wed., Nov. 11 at midnight to get the lowest rates!

You can fly to Asia & Australia for 50,000 miles roundtrip, Europe and South America from 36,000 miles roundtrip, or the U.S., Mexico, or the Caribbean from 15,000 miles roundtrip!

Check out our post for a full roundup of the best deals included in the sale.

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

🔺 It (Somehow) Gets Worse for Tulum as Delta Announces Exit

Either Delta’s route planning team read the Friday edition of The Extra Mile or great minds just think alike. Just a few days after we published On Our Radar all about the collapse of flights to and from Tulum (TQO), reports say that Delta is ending all service in May.

Mexican news outlet Riviera Maya News reported Sunday that Delta’s sole remaining route from Atlanta (ATL) would shutter on May 3. In a statement to the outlet, Delta said it plans to resume the route in November 2027 and run seasonally.

I am skeptical that this route will return, especially since United announced it would also axe its own Tulum routes in January of next year.

The cancellation of the Delta route comes after the airline also cut nonstops from both Detroit (DTW) and Minneapolis (MSP) last year.

Before Delta’s announcement, summer capacity into Tulum from the U.S. was already set to be down 90% from its July 2024 peak. The removal of a daily flight will push that number even higher.

Delta is fleeing Tulum, just like the others, amid what is turning into a stunning collapse of a new airport in Mexico.

– Gunnar Olson, travel reporter & host of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast

🅿️ Uber Will Now Book Your Parking Spot, Too

Uber built its business on getting people out of the driver’s seat … and now it wants in on the trips where you drive yourself. The company has started rolling out a new parking tab in the Uber app that lets you reserve a spot at garages and lots in big cities and near airports ahead of time.

It’s powered by SpotHero, the parking reservation app Uber agreed to buy back in February, which works with more than 13,000 garages, lots, and valets across the U.S. and Canada.

The most exciting part? You can put Uber Cash toward a parking reservation. That’s the balance that builds up in your Uber account from gift cards or the monthly Uber credits that come with both the *amex gold* and *amex platinum* cards.

If those credits keep expiring because you don’t ride or order delivery much, parking near the airport for a few days is a pretty great new way to put them to work.

Parking is live in 15 cities to start:

• Atlanta,
• Austin
• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Denver
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Nashville
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington, D.C.

Even in those cities, the rollout is spotty. You’ll need the latest version of the app with your location set to a participating city, and some travelers still aren’t seeing the option at all.

And as always, compare prices before you book. A reservation app isn’t automatically cheaper than the airport’s own economy lot.

Uber also says Uber One members will get 10% back in Uber One credits on eligible parking.

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

💬 Join the Conversation in Our Premium Slack Community

A helpful recommendation or a new points strategy could make all the difference for your next trip!

Our Premium Slack Community connects you with fellow travelers to ask questions, share advice, and learn from each other’s travel experiences. Thrifty Traveler team members join in, too!

Take a peek at the conversations happening in the Premium Slack to see what members are sharing! Access is included with your Premium membership.

Join the Thrifty Traveler Premium Slack Community here!

– Kat Erdahl, community marketing manager

🎙️ New Starter Kit: Six Experts Share Their Best Travel Tips!

😎 Starter Kit, Vol. 6: Six Other Experts Share Their Best Award Travel Tip

📝 Gunnar and Kyle invited some of our favorite travel experts to give their best travel advice in this latest episode of Starter Kit! We react to some stellar advice, including why you shouldn’t let perfect redemptions get in the way of good ones, why you should be practicing searching for award space, and a great tip on how to earn more points on the spending you already do every day!

Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And stay tuned for the next installment next week!

🏆 The Best Flights of My Life

Travel should be about experiences, plain and simple. It shouldn’t be about the number of miles you fly and certainly shouldn’t be solely focused on the exact cents-per-point value you got out of your miles. The point of the flight is to get you somewhere.

… but if you can have both – a great experience on the flight en route to a great experience on the ground – that’s just a bonus.

So as I look back on my last decade of travels, a few flights stand out.

💸 The best price: $84 to Vegas

Around this time of year in 2020, my buddy Jim and I booked flights to Las Vegas (LAS) for a quick trip.

That’s $84 roundtrip, not each way. And not on Frontier, Sun Country, or Spirit (RIP), but flying Delta nonstop – for a main cabin economy fare, no less!

Current price for similar flights this fall? $469.

🤑 The best price, business class edition: $660 to Vietnam

As tempting as it is to put some business class award ticket here, nothing beats the rush of booking a mistake fare.

Well, one thing tops that: Actually taking that trip.

Read more about this crazy mistake fare here.

🍣 The best food: Japan Airlines First Class

It’s been seven years since I took this flight home from Tokyo, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. This eight-course Japanese extravaganza wasn’t just the best meal I’ve had on a plane – it was one of the best meals of my life, period.

The $1,200-plus bottles of Salon champagne onboard and chilled tea so fancy it was served in a wine glass just made it even better.

😴 The best bed: Cathay Pacific First Class

Let’s be real: A lie-flat seat on any plane is a godsend. But Cathay Pacific’s ludicrously wide first class seats with plush cushions, a mattress pad, and heavenly bedding made for the best night of sleep I’ve ever had in the sky.

🏝️ The best landing: Air Tahiti in Bora Bora (BOB)

A smarter person than I (low bar) coined the phrase: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

So in lieu of 1,000 words, here’s this.

🤏🏼 The biggest “pinch me” moment: Lufthansa First Class

I didn’t know what else to call this. But boarding Lufthansa First Class on a 747, flying overnight to Frankfurt, walking to the First Class Terminal (not a lounge, a whole dang terminal), taking a nap in a bed, freshening up with a shower, and then getting whisked away to our connecting flight IN THE BACK SEAT OF A PORSCHE felt like a points-and-miles-fueled fever dream.

I wrote at the time that I loved it, but I would never do it again. I was right … and odds are, neither will you: Lufthansa First Class is no longer bookable through partner airlines like Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles.

Sorry. And pour out a glass of schnapps, I guess.

😻 Most Hello Kitty Flight: EVA Air’s Hello Kitty flight

I mean, could it be anything else?

To this day, one of my favorite stories I’ve ever written is the definitive ranking of every aspect of this flight – not on quality, but on Hello Kitty-ness. You’ll be relieved to know there were a few Five Kitty rankings!

And people say I’m not a journalist anymore…

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 🔎 Through 11 a.m. CST on Thursday, Nov. 12, Points Path is making its Pro features free for everyone. That means award searches across 18 airline programs right inside Google Flights, award alerts, and a seven-day points calendar, with no credit card required. (View from the Wing)
• 💳 Amex Membership Rewards points now transfer to FanCash at 1,000 points for $10, making Fanatics the program’s first sports transfer partner. (Fanatics)
• 🛋️ United’s new Concourse E at Washington Dulles (IAD) opens to travelers today, with 14 new gates and a nearly 40,000-square-foot United Club, the airline’s second-largest. (United)
• 🏘️ Bilt is moving beyond housing: Its new “Neighborhood OS” brings rewards to local restaurants, shops, and gyms. Hyatt and Marriott are on board, with NBA and NFL team loyalty programs coming in 2027. (CNBC)
• 💺 First class … on Frontier? The budget airline’s new cabin is now bookable for travel starting March 5, 2027, with a 2-2 layout, up to 37 inches of seat pitch, two checked bags, and a carry-on included. (Upgraded Points)