Nick Serati

5 days ago | thriftytraveler.com | Nick Serati

We’ve been singing Hilton’s praises lately – even floating the idea that Hilton could dethrone Hyatt as the best hotel loyalty program. But recent developments could turn that on its head. Late last year, Hilton quietly raised award rates at many of its top properties. Just weeks ago, Hilton did it again: standard room awards that once maxed out at 150,000 points per night now top out at a whopping 200,000 points per night.

1 week ago | thriftytraveler.com | Nick Serati

We’ve been vocal in our criticism of American Express lately – and for good reason. Skyrocketing annual fees paired with a maze of complicated, “use-them-or-lose-them” credits have made it increasingly difficult to justify the value of many Amex cards. In fact, we’ve gone so far as to say that Amex card benefits are officially out of control. But there’s one area where American Express deserves credit: how it structures the timeline to earn welcome offer bonuses.

1 month ago | thriftytraveler.com | Nick Serati

Chase just rolled out one of the biggest, limited-time offers we've ever seen on its popular *chase sapphire preferred*: bonus_miles_fullBut that doesn't mean you should stop there – just the opposite. Once you've earned that massive welcome bonus on the Sapphire Preferred, you're generally much better off putting your everyday expenses, like gas and in-person grocery purchases, on a different credit card that earns you more points.

1 month ago | thriftytraveler.com | Nick Serati

Bilt Rewards just made another big move: As of Thursday, you can now send Bilt Rewards points to Southwest Airlines, its 19th transfer partner. It becomes Bilt's third U.S. airline to which members can transfer points, alongside United and Alaska Airlines – a rarity among the big banks which typically partner with one or two big U.S. carriers at most. And it's also surprising to see Southwest branch out from Chase, the bank behind the airline's portfolio of co-branded credit cards.

1 month ago | thriftytraveler.com | Nick Serati

The *chase sapphire preferred* is currently offering a bigger welcome bonus of 100,000 points after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first three months. And the entire team here at Thrifty Traveler HQ started thinking about how we'd put all those points to use. That's up from the standard bonus of 60,000 points, making this one of the best bonuses you can get on this card – or any travel card right now, period.