Managing credit card benefits has basically become a part-time job with no pay. That’s why we built our Credit Card Benefit Tracker, and it just got a big round of upgrades. Meanwhile, Capital One wants to see whether your business can spend $120,000 in four months, Hilton is now letting points cover room charges, and one reader got five tickets to Morocco for fewer miles than Delta wanted for two.
- 💳 Big Upgrades to Our Credit Card Benefit Tracker
- 🤝 Deal of the Day: Your Ski Trip to Steamboat Under $299 RT!
- 📖 Gettin’ Booksy: Mary (& Her Whole Family) are Going to Morocco!
- 🤑 Capital One Venture X Biz Ups the Ante … If You Can Spend Big
- 🎙️ Travel Insider Zach Griff Joins the Podcast!
- 🛏️ Hilton is Rolling out ‘Pay With Points’ for Room Charges
- ✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
💳 Big Upgrades to Our Credit Card Benefit Tracker
A $10 monthly credit sounds like free money until you have three of them across two cards, plus a few on your partner’s cards, all resetting on different days. Managing those credits can feel like a part-time job that nobody signed up for.
That’s why we built our Credit Card Benefit Tracker. If you haven’t tried it, you can sign up for free, add the cards you have, and it lays out every credit and perk, shows what’s about to expire, and tells you whether each card is earning back its annual fee.
Yesterday, we rolled out a big batch of updates, and many of them came straight from your feedback.
Here’s what’s new:
✔️ Check off credits without digging: The Benefits Expiring Soon list on your Household Summary now has a “Used?” column. For simple credits like a monthly Uber or DoorDash credit, just tick the box. For credits that depend on what you spend, hit “+ Log” to enter the amount and date. Checked items drop off the list, and there’s an Undo button in case you tap the wrong one.
📱 A lot less scrolling: Cards with monthly credits used to show a long list of months you’d already finished. Now, used months fold into a single line like “✓ 8 used · $120,” and upcoming months tuck away too. Once you’ve used a benefit completely, it shrinks to its title with an “All used” badge. The only things left on your screen are the ones that still need attention, which is a big upgrade if you are accessing the tracker on your phone.
🔁 Your own benefits can repeat: Benefits you add yourself can now reset every month, quarter, or six months instead of only once a year. That’s perfect for a subscription credit or rebate that the tracker doesn’t already cover.
💸 See the true cost of a card: Some cards cost more than their annual fee, like a co-branded card that requires a warehouse club membership (looking at you, Costco). You can now add those extra costs, and the tracker measures the card’s value against the full price.
🔄 Product changes, handled: A product change is when you switch your card to a different one from the same bank without a new application, often to avoid an annual fee. If you switch to a card we don’t list, choose “My new card isn’t listed,” enter its name and fee, and it keeps its original open date.
🏨 Free nights stay with the card that earned them: Downgrade or upgrade a hotel card with an unused free night certificate, and its value still counts toward the card that earned it, even if you redeem it a year later. You can also add a certificate after you’ve made the switch.
There’s a long list of smaller fixes, too. Benefits now link to the matching Thrifty Traveler guide, anniversary benefits count down to your card’s anniversary instead of Dec. 31, and we squashed a daylight saving time bug that showed some March dates a day early.
Thank you to everyone who sent us ideas. Keep them coming.
Log in to Card Benefit Tracker. New here? Start tracking your cards
– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder
🤝 Deal of the Day: Your Ski Trip to Steamboat Under $299 RT!
Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥
Why we love it: Use these fares to book your Colorado ski trip to Steamboat Springs!
Fly from dozens of U.S. cities with fares starting at just $200 roundtrip from some cities!
Best availability this ski season (Dec. – Jan.) flying to Hayden (HDN) – just a 30-minute drive to the charming town of Steamboat!
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.
– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst
📖 Gettin’ Booksy: Mary (& Her Whole Family) are Going to Morocco!
Welcome to Gettin’ Booksy, a celebration of our favorite feeling: Booking something awesome! Book something lately? Let us know at [email protected]!
What Did Mary Book?
Mary booked her family of five on the Delta nonstop flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Marrakech, Morocco (RAK)!
How’d Mary Book It?
Mary had been working on a stash of Chase points for years, and after signing up for the Chase Ink Business Cash card, Mary earned a 100,000 Chase point bonus from a limited-time offer earlier this year to fill her account even more.
Then Mary transferred 238,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Air France/KLM Flying Blue to book her entire family of five on that nonstop route to Morocco!
What Makes it So Awesome?
Delta wanted 120,000 SkyMiles per person to book the exact same routing, which means two SkyMiles tickets would have cost Mary more than the five she booked through Delta’s partner instead!
From Mary:
I’ve always had a trip to Morocco on my bucket list … I expected astronomical cash rates, but I was sad to see SkyMiles rates well over 120k round-trip for most of the winter season that the service runs. For 238k miles, I was able to book my family of 5 roundtrip to Morocco – less than what Delta was charging for two people!
Mary just executed one of the best bookings in all of travel – using Delta’s partners to save hundreds of thousands of points on Delta flights. This is one of the best examples I can ever remember! Thanks for sending this in, Mary! Enjoy your trip. 🇲🇦
– Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst and travel reporter
🤑 Capital One Venture X Biz Ups the Ante … If You Can Spend Big
Capital One just supercharged the welcome offer on the *venture x business*, making it one of the most valuable bonus offers we’ve ever seen on this card.
For a limited time, new cardholders can earn up to 300,000 bonus miles plus a $1,000 credit for bookings through Capital One Business Travel. That’s double the standard 150,000-mile offer, with a $1,000 sweetener thrown in for good measure.
There’s a twist, though. This one is a tiered bonus:
- Earn 150,000 miles after spending $40,000 in the first four months
- Earn another 150,000 miles (and the $1,000 travel credit) after spending $120,000 total in that same four-month window
That’s the catch … and it’s a big one. Spending $120,000 in four months works out to $30,000 a month, which pretty much rules out most small businesses and side hustles. Even the first tier is a steep climb for many.
But if your business has big recurring expenses like inventory, payroll-adjacent costs, or vendor invoices, the payoff is enormous.
Since the card earns at least 2x miles on every purchase, hitting the full $120,000 means at least 540,000 Capital One miles – 300,000 from the bonus plus 240,000 from the spending itself. That’s worth a minimum of $5,400 toward travel, before you even consider the travel credits or outsized value you can get from those miles when transferring to partners like Japan Airlines, British Airways, or Turkish Airlines.
Beyond that big bonus, you get an annual $300 Capital One Business Travel credit, a 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (starting in year two), access to Capital One Lounge and Landing locations (plus Priority Pass™ lounges), and up to a $120 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit … all for a modest $395 annual fee.
Do the math and that $300 travel credit + 10,000 miles (worth at least $100) is more than enough to cover the annual fee … before you add in everything else.
So it’s definitely not for everyone … or even most people. But for a business that spends big, it’s hard to find a better offer anywhere.
Get the full details on this card and its new bonus offer!
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🎙️ Travel Insider Zach Griff Joins the Podcast!
❓What aren’t the airlines saying out loud? How will tech and AI shape our travels? And what will the future of award travel look like? Those questions are big enough that the guys brought in another expert to tackle them: Zach Griff!
Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
🛏️ Hilton is Rolling out ‘Pay With Points’ for Room Charges
Let me start by giving some kudos to Hilton for this novel new feature … while almost immediately pivoting to questioning whether it’ll even be worth it.
Hilton just announced “Pay with Points,” a new feature allowing members with status (Silver, Gold, Diamond, or Diamond Reserve) to apply points toward in-room charges. Importantly, that’ll be available via your smartphone app – not some awkward song and dance with an agent at the desk.
It’s a first among the big hotel chains … but not a first, period. Travelers with Accor points can already wipe room charges from their statements.
With Hilton, this new option is starting small – very small. At launch, it’s available at just 150 hotels in the U.S.
Hilton says that it’ll expand to 800 properties in the U.S. and up in Canada by year’s end, then 6,000-some locations “in early 2027.”
But here’s the 150,000-point question: How much will your Hilton Honors points be worth covering meals, spa treatments, or parking fees?
Hilton isn’t saying. And let’s be honest: That’s not exactly encouraging. If it were a slam dunk of a deal, surely Hilton would be screaming that from the rooftops.
Hilton points are a mixed bag to begin with. They’re far easier to earn than the likes of Hyatt, but rates of 75,000 points or more for a mediocre night in New York City – or as much as 250,000 points for a fancy resort in the Caribbean or in Europe – mean they’re less valuable than other hotel points.
Listen to our podcast episode comparing Hilton and Hyatt!
Personally, I’m expecting something decidedly subpar from this new Hilton redemption option. Prove me wrong, Hilton!
– Kyle Potter, executive editor
✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
- ✈️ Capital One miles get a 30% bonus when you transfer them to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Virgin Red through Nov. 20.
- 🛋️ United opens its biggest lounge ever tomorrow: a 54,000-square-foot United Club in Houston (IAH) Terminal B with seats for 800. (CNBC)
- 🇯🇵 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles members can book Japan Airlines awards again in every cabin after this month’s freeze, though for how long is anyone’s guess. Surcharges are still steep. (LoyaltyLobby)
- 💺 Frontier is telling flight attendants its long-delayed first class launches March 5, 2027, with retrofits starting later this month, plus in-seat power and refreshed interiors in 2027, according to a leaked memo. (View from the Wing)
