How to Visit National Parks for Free, Avoid Crowds, and Save on Lodging
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What are the latest travel rewards updates?
We are amid Amex membership week right now. That started on March 17th. This means a lot of Amex offers for eligible cardholders, which you can add to your card through the Amex app or website, and you get discounts when you shop at certain retailers. So on the travel front, you can earn $75 back when you spend $250 or more on qualifying purchases at select Hilton properties by May 19th, 2025. But remember, you got to add this offer to your card.
And you also have to remember that you have to book with Hilton to get this statement credit. So no going through an online travel agency like Expedia. Now, I actually say that's a good thing anyway. We generally recommend booking directly with the hotels so you can earn points and get your elite night qualifying nights.
I actually love these Amex offers for that reason alone. So good call out. And another reminder on the hotel front is that Hyatt's award chart is changing on March 25th. That means this is basically your last week to book before award prices at more than 100 Hyatt properties get more expensive.
Good reminder to book now, lock in lower prices before points rates on most hotels that are affected will go up.
Also, a new but ultimately kind of lackluster redemption option for Built Rewards members.
Yeah, so Built announced you can now connect your Built and Lyft rideshare accounts, and then you can redeem your Built points to pay for your Lyft rides. It's always nice to have another way to redeem points in case you're not using them for things like travel at hotels and on airlines.
If you want to get the most value out of your built points, though, I'd recommend you transfer them to high-value partners. When you redeem your built points for Lyft rides, they're worth 0.7 cents each. But if you transfer them to a partner like Hyatt or Alaska Airlines, it's easier to get more value.
If the listeners remember, we actually talked about built last episode when we drafted the best travel credit cards. So if you missed it, go back and listen. We can link to our guide to built rewards as well in the episode description.
I stand by my draft pick of the built MasterCard.
Fair enough. It wasn't for the Lyft deal, though. Yeah. Okay, so in aviation news, Spirit Airlines is out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Officially, they filed for bankruptcy protection back in November 2024. Court approved the airline's plan for reorganization in February.
Over the past few months, the budget airline Spirit has been reorganizing its corporate structure and debt. According to a press release, those investments will provide, quote, guests with enhanced travel experiences and greater value.
Do we actually know what those enhanced travel experiences will be?
Not exactly, but there are definitely some clues from last year that the airline wants to try courting passengers willing to spend more. So the airline introduced a new first class last year called Go Big, which was one of Spirit's big front seat. It's like a little bit of a bigger seat, bundled with in-flight snacks and alcoholic beverages.
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Chapters
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