Saturday Roundup
Quite a few interesting minor stories in the points and cards world lately:
Venture Rewards bonus ending. If you want to take advantage of that massive offer on the Venture Rewards card, do it soon—the offer ends Monday.
GasBuddy joins the ranks of dining programs. Dining programs are great, and if you want a good, simple option, consider signing up with GasBuddy. The gas-savings app has a new dining program and it offers 4% back on dining at eligible restaurants, which can be redeemed for gas credit or gift cards at merchants like Amazon.
Bank travel portal prices on flights are mostly consistent. Ever wonder how the prices on the big bank (Amex, Chase, Citi) travel portals stack up to booking directly with the airline? ThePointsGuy did some research, finding that most travel portals tracked domestic flight prices pretty closely (although Amex outperformed the others), while Capital One and Chase came pretty close on international flights, while Citi generally charged more than booking directly. Head over to TPG for the full analysis.
Free night on the no-fee Marriott Bold. Chase is currently offering a welcome bonus of 60k points plus a free night (redeemable up to 50k points) on the no-fee Bold card. This is the best-ever offer on this card, and it’s an interesting player in the hotel space. Offering 14x points per dollar on Marriott stays and Silver Bonvoy status, it’s a useful option for the occasional Marriott user who doesn’t want to invest in an annual-fee card.
Free Whoppers and 25% off at Burger King for Amex Platinum holders. Burger King has a deal with Walmart+ who has a deal with Amex for the Platinum. Thrifty Traveler explains here.
AA’s Million Mile Giveaway is back. It got a full (kind of) post last year: AA’s cruise division has a sweepstakes with some massive prizes. Sign up here for some spam emails about cruises and a chance to win 500k AA miles and a cruise.
Earn Delta miles for donating to charity. Another repeat. Earn 1,000 Delta miles for a $50 donation to United Way, or as many as 5,000 for a $300+ donation.