Advertiser disclosure
Contact
Reading Time: 8 minThis week a fast-growing rewards program added another U.S. airline as a transfer partner, and there could even be a big bonus on the way. Meanwhile, a major bank is offering a 30% transfer bonus that can make flights across the Atlantic cost fewer miles, and seven travel cards have elevated welcome offers right now, including one deal that ends this Thursday.
Plus, one U.S. airline is making its top elite tier harder to reach next year, and our exclusive VIP membership club here at Points Path has reopened its doors for a short time with a new feature that lets you track points for your entire household. Here’s the full rundown of what you need to know about all of this week's travel news and deals.
Managing points for an entire household usually means juggling logins, spreadsheets, and guesswork. But we’ve been working on a better way to keep track of it all.
The Points Path Founders Club is currently open to new members, but only for a limited time. And it comes with an exclusive feature: you can add up to five total people to your Points Wallet. Partners, kids, parents, or anyone else whose accounts you can access all qualify.
Once their airline, bank, and hotel programs are linked, balances update automatically whenever you log in to those sites. You can view combined totals and estimated value for everyone, or click a name to see one person’s balances, elite status, and last update. And the best part is that all that info then feeds into your search results whenever you use Points Path with Google Flights.
Membership in our Founders Club also includes everything in Points Path Pro, such as live points pricing for 18 airline programs, up to 50 Flight Alerts and five Flex Alerts, our points calendar, and much more. You’ll also get access to our private Facebook group, priority support, and monthly members-only AMAs with me.
If you're already a Points Path Pro or Alerts subscriber, you'll only pay the prorated difference to upgrade, so if you previously locked in a discount, you won't lose it. But I only keep the doors to our Founders Club open to new members for a short time, so if you want in, now's the time to grab it.
If you have Bilt Rewards points and do much of your flying up and down the East Coast, your options for using them just got bigger.
This week, Bilt added JetBlue as a 1-to-1 transfer partner. That ratio matches Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo, and beats American Express at 250-to-200 and Capital One at 1,000-to-600.
With Bilt on board, TrueBlue now accepts transfers from six different major bank points currencies. For anyone who flies JetBlue regularly, that means there’s almost always a way to top off an account.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but Bilt’s next Rent Day on November 1st is worth watching. Recent transfer partner additions have typically been followed by a Rent Day transfer bonus of up to 100% or 125% depending on your Bilt elite status. So if you’re sitting on Bilt points and have a JetBlue trip in mind, it may pay to hold off to see whether a bonus materializes.
The roster of Bilt partners keeps growing at an amazing pace, and while I'm a huge fan of Bilt’s credit cards, they aren’t the only way to earn Bilt points. With the free Bilt Neighborhood Benefits program, you can link any credit (or even debit) card and earn bonus points at participating restaurants, Walgreens, and Lyft, on top of your usual rewards. Our guide walks through how it works.
Flying across the Atlantic on points doesn’t always require a huge balance, and one of the more efficient ways to get there is now cheaper for a few weeks.
Capital One is offering a 30% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club through November 20th. Capital One normally transfers at 1-to-1, so every 1,000 miles becomes 1,300 Virgin points during this promotion.
Economy flights from the U.S. to London on Virgin Atlantic start as low as 6,000 points, while business class starts at 29,000 points. You can also use Virgin points to book ANA first class to Japan from 72,500 points.
However, the catch is fees. Business class awards on Virgin’s own flights to London carry $600 to $700 in taxes and fees, and trips departing the U.K. cost even more. If you can find award space through a U.S. program instead, the fees are often much lower, especially from North America to London.
Virgin points don’t expire, but it’s still smart to confirm award space before transferring, since transfers can’t be reversed. Points Path Pro and Founders Club members get live Virgin points pricing right in Google Flights, and our bank transfer indicators automatically include transfer bonuses like this one when calculating how many miles you'll need for a flight.
If you’ve been thinking about adding a travel credit card to your wallet before the end of the year, the timing this week is better than usual.
Seven cards from three banks have increased welcome offers right now, including one of my personal favorites. Here’s how the entire group breaks down...
The first card on the list — the Atmos Summit card — is a top pick in my book. Yes, it has a significant annual fee, but the perks are amazing, and Alaska miles are very valuable. It's my primary card any time I'm traveling overseas or making international purchases, thanks to its 3x bonus category on foreign transactions.
The Venture X Business offer looks gigantic, but the spending requirements are steep. Even reaching the first tier takes $40,000 in four months, and the $1,000 travel credit only comes with the full $120,000 in spending. Capital One markets it as $1,300, but $300 is the card’s standard annual credit.
The Avios offers are time sensitive since they end in a few days on October 29th. They’re 15,000 Avios higher than usual, but all three cards are subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule, so you can only get one if you’ve opened fewer than five cards in the past 24 months.
Finally, frequent flyers on United are going to have fewer ways to qualify for elite status next year, though some travelers will feel the change more than others.
Starting January 1, 2027, United MileagePlus will drop Premier Qualifying Flights entirely, so elite status will be earned only through Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs). Members will still need at least four flights on United or United Express each year to qualify for any tier.
The PQP-only thresholds stay the same for Silver, Gold, and Platinum, but Premier 1K rises from 28,000 to 32,000 PQPs. Travelers who reached status with a mix of flights and points get hit hardest, since Premier 1K previously required just 22,000 PQPs alongside 60 flights.
United Club cards earn 1 PQP for every $15 you spend on them, and the current annual cap on earning PQPs this way will rise from 28,000 to 32,000 PQPs to match the increased Premier 1K threshold. But reaching 1K through credit card spending alone would take a massive $480,000 a year.
There’s a silver lining for some. Members who earn status in 2026 and have a United credit card still get a 5% PQP head start next year. And at least in theory, if fewer travelers qualify for elite status, existing Silver, Gold, and Platinum members could see better upgrade odds.
However, at this point you're often better off just paying for first or business class instead of hoping you'll get a free elite upgrade. And if you have a United credit card, there are regularly major discounts on United business class awards. Points Path Pro and Founders Club members can see these discounted prices in Google Flights when they turn on the option in the Settings panel.
That’s all the points and miles news worth knowing about this week. But check out our new review of the inKind dining app and how one of our writers recently used it to cut a restaurant bill by 35%. Have a great weekend! ✈️