Chase has increased the welcome bonus for its top-of-the-line Chase Sapphire Reserve® card to 80,000 points, making one of the best credit cards on the market an even better deal. As Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth at least 1.5 cents each with this card, this offer is worth a whopping $1,200 minimum.

With a wallet full of credit cards, it's best practice to commonly assess your credit card portfolio to ensure that the benefits you receive from the cards outweigh the annual fees that you pay. If not, it's time to close that card or cards in most cases.

It isn’t uncommon to book a trip with more than one destination. This is especially popular for travel to Europe. Who doesn’t want to visit Rome and Paris on the same trip? How about Madrid and Santorini? 

In order to do this, your travel plans will be multidimensional and not just round-trip so you’ll need to plan accordingly.

Recently, Southwest suddenly, and with no notice, devalued their Rapid Rewards points by 6%. While not super drastic, it’s still a surprising move.

Many travelers have Australia on their bucket list. There really is something for everyone, from the snorkeling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef to wineries, cool cities and spectacular beaches. 

The competition for the very limited number of award seats to get there, however, is fierce. Airlines’ frequent miler programs certainly don’t make it easy and finding award space on the nonstop flights from the U.S. could be quite a challenge.

During the coronavirus pandemic, banks that issue travel rewards credit cards had to pivot and added bonus earnings in various spending categories, such as streaming services, groceries and home improvement stores, to make their products more compelling when travel was put on hold.

Since then, card issuers also have added more ways to redeem rewards and travel credits. One of the most noteworthy redemption options is Chase’s answer to Capital One’s Purchase Eraser—Pay Yourself Back.

You might have noticed that the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve® get recommended a lot in the points and miles community. There’s a good reason for that.

Rewards earned with these cards can be transferred to a number of airline and hotel loyalty programs, making it possible to book all kinds of travel for free (or almost free).

If you’re a Delta Air Lines flyer, you might think the cards offer little value to you because Chase doesn’t partner with Delta SkyMiles. However, don’t dismiss the Sapphire-branded cards so quickly.

With its Giza pyramids, Sahara Desert and the Nile River, Egypt is known for many things and therefore is a popular travel destination. I must admit that this African country had been on my bucket list for an embarrassingly long amount of time, and I’m happy to share that I finally checked it off the list.

Egypt opened borders in July to travelers who can provide a negative PCR test for COVID-19. A visa is also required for U.S. citizens.

Last week I wrote about how and why you'd to want transfer Ultimate Rewards between accounts. If you haven't read it yet, stop and read before continuing with this post.