Kyle is back from Costa Rica where he was breaking news from the beach! So the guys get caught up on all the latest travel news including a little-known Delta credit card perk he unearthed, some new credit card offers and rumors, some good news for travelers who love cheaper fares to Europe (but bad news for airlines) this summer, and more! Plus, a listener challenges our recent take … and the guys come up with a new bit. Yes, another one.
Kyle is back from Costa Rica where he was breaking news from the beach! So the guys get caught up on all the latest travel news including a little-known Delta credit card perk he unearthed, some new credit card offers and rumors, some good news for travelers who love cheaper fares to Europe (but bad news for airlines) this summer, and more! Plus, a listener challenges our recent take … and the guys come up with a new bit. Yes, another one.
Thank you to our sponsor Bilt Rewards! Earn points on rent and make your entire neighborhood more rewarding with Bilt. Sign-up at joinbilt.com/thrifty.
00:00 - Recapping Kyle’s Costa Rica trip
02:30 - Brian kicks off the show from Kenya
03:25 - Summer travel demand to Europe is dropping … and we love it
10:00 - A PSA to book (or re-book) your spring break flights
13:30 - Introducing our new daily (and free!) Extra Mile newsletter
15:35 - New Delta SkyMiles card sign-up offers …a nd upgrade offers
19:40 - Sky Club visits reset – plus our favorite way to add a few extras
22:00 - Kyle discovers the sneaky SkyMiles card premium snack perk
24:47 - A word from our sponsor: Bilt Rewards
25:50 - Rumors swirl about a souped-up Capital One dining card: The Savor X
29:05 - Boo: The Amex Platinum increased its spend requirement by 50%
31:25 - A sweet transfer bonus to Japan Airlines from Capital One
34:00 - Reviewing the Park Hyatt London River Thames
36:20 - Listener Question: Why no love for the Bilt Palladium Card (& our “U-Turn”)
42:10 - On the Spot: What are your airport code initials?
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Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunnar. That's Kyle, as always. Today we are all over the news. Uh, we're gonna go break down a bunch of stories that have changed things for travelers to start out this month. We've got some really interesting numbers about summer travel season. We have some Delta credit card news.
We have some last minute savings on spring break flights, and a lot more to cover in this news roundup. But first, Kyle, I need to find something out. How is Costa Rica? You're back from vacation? Do I look tan? You do. You look great Glowing? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. It was great. It was a great weekend.
Change off. I, every single time I leave for a vacation, I come back and I start trying to type something. I'm like, how do I do this? How do I use my hands? It's like I forget how to type by being gone from work for five working days. Yeah. Which is great. That's what you want. So don't hold your breath if you're waiting on Kyle's, uh, Waldorf Costa Rica review.
How was that stay by the way? That was, that was phenomenal. It's a great new property and a great location in, in Costa Rica, just like 30 ish minutes away from the airport. Um, we also stayed in a, in a. Tiny Beachside town called Potrero, which was really, really fun. It also included some of the highlights, like there's a great brewery in town, a lot of really good restaurants, as well as the low light of the trip, which is my wife and I were staying at our little Airbnb, uh, just outside of Potrero, and woke up at two 30 in the morning to the sound of a garage gate opening, and then 30 plus minutes of cattle being loaded into a trailer.
Literally right next to our unit, which must have spooked a skunk right next to our AC intake because our entire apartment unit, wreaked of skunk spray for about an hour and a half afterward. It was, it was like a little comical. At least you got to go. To the Waldorf after that, right? We, we, we staged the trip and sequenced it pretty well.
I think it would've been real tough to go from the Waldorf, which costs like $1,900 a night to a hundred dollars a night. Airbnb stay. That's outstanding. Well, with, uh, our producer Sylvia Thomas going to Costa Rica recently, and then you putting in a week down there too. I think Kyle Thomas, our video editor, and I need to go make a trip happen or something.
Right. Yeah. Sylvia gave us so many amazing recommendations. Uh, there's gonna be a lot of 'em in one of our newsletters coming out this week, which we're gonna talk more about soon. Awesome. All right. Today on the show, we're breaking down all the news you need to know from a new transfer bonus. From Capital One to Amex, raising the bar in a bad way on the Platinum card and a peek inside the park high at London.
All that and more live from the JW Marriott. Masai Mara. Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
All right. Welcoming us back to the show this week was Brian Barlow, who checked in from the JW Marriott Messiah Murrah in Kenya. He had to send in two videos, one with an elephant in the background and one with an adult male lion in the background, and he was noticeably a lot quieter with the lion behind him than he was with the elephant.
This is jaw droppingly. Cool, Brian, well done. Brian, you're, I, I remember being in the messai rah on our own safari and seeing the really fancy trucks come by. I'm like, oh my gosh, who are these people with the fancy trucks? Everyone's got a nice cooler and big plush seats, and it's the JW Marriott, so you did it in style.
I'm really, really happy for you. Um, all right, let's get into the news. Um. This one is really interesting to me. Kyle. Last week, aviation analytics firm, Sirium released some data showing that not many of you out there are booking summer trips to Europe, and even fewer Europeans are booking summer trips here to the us.
So the study was over July for 2026. It was. Bookings from the Europe to the US are down 14% year over year. And in the other direction from here to Europe, bookings are down 7%. They did the study in the same time period in both years. So it's not, it's not like the obvious. Uh, obviously people haven't booked their summer trips yet.
It's only February. It's the same time period. It was like October through January, um, of booking. So. It's been worst for Frankfurt, which saw a 36% decrease to the US and a 29% decrease to Germany, which is staggering. Those numbers, uh, themselves probably inflated this quite a bit. Yeah, that's clearly a big piece of it, right?
I think really importantly in Syria. Itself stressed. This, this is a sample of a sample. They aren't taking this data direct from the airlines. They're looking at specific, um, online travel agency partners that provide like some broad booking data that shows travel is down. Now does that mean that Europeans traveling to the United States this summer is down exactly 14% this summer compared to last and down 7% from the US over to Europe?
Probably not, but it probably does mean that tra transatlantic travel is trending down for this coming summer compared to where it was at last summer, which I think is really important. Yeah, I, I think it's the most shocking to me because the Europeans are so uninterested in coming here during July, which is when the World Cup is being held in the US the most popular sporting event on Earth.
Uh, I just figured that at least, you know, there's obviously some anti-US travel sentiment. Out there right now. Some, uh, we'll call them political factors as to why people from Europe don't want to be in the us. Why foreigners wouldn't want to be in the United States right now. Is this about to become a four hour podcast episode?
Yeah. There's so many ways that we could dig into what that means, but just by sheer fact of there are 16 of the World Cup teams are from Europe, and the Europeans have just said. We're not coming. Yeah. Well, you know, a, again, a part of this is we're, we're looking at a snapshot. We're looking at data for what, at this point.
Five months in advance. So it could be that they'll make up for this in the months to come, that they'll make up for the flights that they're not booking right now and that they haven't booked already. You know, in March, in April it may be prices are just too high because airlines are looking to capitalize on what they expected would be sky high travel demand, and people willing to pay even more to come for the World Cup, and they're gonna bring those prices down.
So maybe they'll make up for it. But I think this above all, says. If transatlantic travel demand is down year over year, that's gonna be a huge opportunity for people who like bargains. Yeah. This is really, really good news for travelers. We can't stress that enough when, when demand is down this much and.
Flying capacity is up something like 7% year over year too. That is all really, really positive news for travelers. So I, I wanna use this example for Amsterdam because bookings were down 23% from Amsterdam to the US and they're down 7% from the US to Amsterdam according to this data. Yet KLM is flying almost 9% more transatlantic flights this summer than.
Last summer, uh, we also saw like ITA Air Lingus and lot Polish all added more than 10% capacity. Even though demand is way, way down, that means, in particular for Amsterdam, if you want to book a summer trip, I would keep a very close eye on flying in or through a MS for your trip. Yeah. Uh, and not just to Amsterdam, as you importantly pointed out, but connecting through it to go anywhere.
And I think really importantly. Keep a really close eye on these foreign airlines because airlines like American and Delta and United really only care about US Americans traveling. They can fill their planes and do fill their planes almost solely with American travelers heading over to Europe and back.
The Europeans are gonna feel this even more, which means I would expect them to be way more, um. Aggressive in cutting fares and offering good deals than we might see from the American Airlines. But then again, you know, because of these big partnerships and joint ventures between the airlines, so for example, Delta has a joint venture with Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic flying across the Atlantic, which means that whatever Delta does.
KLM does it too. Whatever KLM does, Delta does it too. Flying across the Atlantic, they act basically as if they're one airline. So it's gonna be really interesting to see how the airlines handle this as we get closer to summer. Yeah. Yeah. I really hope that we're in for a summer, like last summer where the.
Business class award space was just wide open and abundant, and the flight deals were really good, like some of the lowest fares we've ever seen. Even in the peak summer, I had made a prediction in the, uh, what's, what's in store for airfare in 2026 that summer flight prices would rise again. And I really, really hope I'm wrong on that one.
I hope everyone can come at me in the comments about that one. I think it's too early, early to throw up a w just yet. Or in your case an L. But I do think it's, it's quite possible that this is gonna be a good one. I think, especially for cheaper economy, round trip fairs to Europe in July and especially August.
I think it's gonna take some time to figure out whether this is also going to result in, you know, a big win. Business class award space to Europe in peak summer. That's the stuff that I think we all know and have heard repeatedly, that airlines aren't having trouble selling. That's true. Um, another kind of word of warning, maybe a devil's advocate argument is that the airlines who all cut capacity to Europe in the last year were all the low cost carriers.
So we saw play and play ceased operations to the US Norse. Cutback, uh, they made some more cuts over the weekend. Even Iceland, air Cutback, condor, cutback, uh, those are the airlines that are typically gonna drive cash prices down on the major carriers. So if, if there's any kind of, uh, word of warning, it's that all of those airlines either predicted this trend correctly or just had to cut back, and now we are losing, you know, a little bit of capacity on the airlines that are gonna help save you money.
So that would be just the one thing I'm looking at with a, a little bit of concern. So if there's like. A takeaway after this eight minute conversation. It's, we have no idea what's going on or what's gonna happen. You're welcome. But we're so hopeful. Yes. Um, let's talk about another hopeful trend in airfare, uh, spring break flight deals for this year, this spring break 2026 are still good right now.
Uh, time is definitely running out. Um, by the time you listen to this and in the next few days, the best of the spring break airfare, depending on when your spring break is, uh, are probably going away. But just over the last week or two, we've seen so many good deals that included, like that peak march or early April, uh, spring break travel period, we saw this.
That crazy Sky Miles mistake. Fair. It was kind of a mistake fair to Europe where they were pricing basic economy in main cabin, the same at 28,000 sky miles round trip, um, or even less if you have a delta sky miles cart, right? It didn't last very long, but we, we heard from several people who rebooked their spring break trips to do that.
We had. A Phoenix first class deal where you could book American Airlines first class to Phoenix using Alaska miles, um, which was a stunning deal too. We had LAX to Auckland. That nonstop flight was under $700 round trip, uh, all throughout March and April. And then we also had some other ones like West Little Sun Valley ski trip, one that caught my eye for some reason.
But there's basically my, the gist is the spring break flight deals. Came right at the last minute this year, which is usually, which is unusual. I guess. I, you know, I think it, it goes to show you that it, it always pays to plan far ahead for especially busy travel periods like spring break, right? You don't want to get into March and April and only then be like, well, I want to go somewhere, because that's a recipe for paying a lot.
But that said, that doesn't mean you should be booking your flights 11 months out. Or at the very least, you shouldn't be booking a ton of non-refundable expenses for your trip because maybe you say, okay, we found a decent deal to somewhere in Florida or to Phoenix or to Tucson or wherever, but it's not the best.
But you booked it 10 months ago, so you feel like you're locked in. And so then you book your rental car and your hotel and, and everything else, only to see one of these amazing deals. Like, oh, I could go to Europe for fewer sky miles than it normally cost me to fly down to Miami for spring break instead for, you know, a long weekend or a full week.
Then this way you can take advantage of something new or rebook, something that you've already booked so long as you book a main cabin fair and not the stingy basic economy fairs that can't be canceled without a huge fee. This is, this is really, in some ways, I think the same pattern playing out, which is if you give yourself some flexibility and some time to pivot or rebook the trip that you're already planning on taking, that really is the key to saving even more.
Yep. If, if you book flexibly, the re bookers are always the ones who are gonna win out in situations like this, especially for spring break. Our colleague Nick booked actually that Phoenix first class deal, but a long time ago. So he, he booked American Airlines first class to Phoenix for his family of five, and then.
You know, just a couple of days ago when that Sky Miles deal came up, he booked the family of five to Amsterdam. So now he has both bookings and they're trying to figure out what they want to do. And, uh, he so far hasn't been able to convince his daughters that Amsterdam is a better idea than Phoenix, but he's working on 'em, he's working on 'em.
He'll, he'll win, he'll win. I have faith in Nick. He'll win in the end. Um, but I mean, that's the perfect example of being flexible. And now they get to decide between two awesome trips and either way they're covered and, um, booked with. Points and miles. So when they cancel they get everything back pretty easy.
Um, alright, Kyle, tell me about this new extra mile newsletter. So we go the extra mile on the pod almost every week. Sometimes we skip it like this week. Um, but we also have an extra mile newsletter, which our colleague Jackson writes every Monday morning. Um, a great kind of. Big Digest of all the most important news from the last week, and it's been incredibly popular because it's clear that people want something in their inbox, not just on Mondays, but every day.
So what we're doing is we are expanding our extra mile newsletter to be a daily newsletter every weekday morning, Monday through Friday. Sign up now and you can start getting. Really everything you need to know in one like five minute read. So we're going to cover some of the stories that we write on our website every day and some of the stuff that we talk about on our podcast.
But there's gonna be a lot of stuff in this newsletter that you're not gonna see anywhere else. You know, booking tips from a trip that we just booked. Something that we learned from booking, you know, Hawaiian Airlines. First class from Seattle to Honolulu for your trip or Cafe Pacific. First class from Hong Kong back to LA for my trip this spring.
So we're really excited to, to spend a little bit more time and care on this and turn it really into a kind of single solution tip sheet every single day in your inbox. Yeah, I love you calling it a tip sheet actually. It's, that's really smart. And yeah, Jackson and, and Kyle and Nick will, uh, make this thing really, really useful and valuable.
And then I promise to add just a little bit of frivolity, a little bit of Tom foolery at the end, somewhere in the. Email him somewhere in the email, you'll get a little bit of nonsense from me. How often do you use the word Tom foolery? Way too much. Way too much. Really. I was gonna say, not often enough.
It fits. It fits into a lot of what I do. It fits into a lot of my vibe. That's true. Yeah. Uh, thrifty traveler.com/extra mile. If you haven't already signed up for our weekly email as we've been sending it for the last year, and change thrifty traveler.com/extra mile. If you're already on the list, you'll.
Have gotten an email and will continue to get emails to opt in for the daily one instead of just getting it every Monday morning. But yeah, keep an eye on your inbox. Yeah, this is really, really exciting. I can't wait for y'all to see it. Alright, let's jump into some Delta News. We have Sky Miles news. We have Sky Club News.
Let's just get into all of it. Kyle. So to start out the. Delta sky miles. American Express credit cards are out with new signup bonus offers right now up to 125,000 sky miles after you spend $9,000 in six months is the signup bonus for these cards. Um, obviously a lot less for the gold and platinum cards.
That was the offer for the reserve. These offers end April 1st. Um, they're really great offers. Recommend that you take a look if you're in the market for a Sky Mouse card, but Delta is also doing some sneaky things to try to get you to not take these really smart bonus offers. If you already have a card, tell me what they're doing.
Well, I think first and more importantly, they're doing something a little bit different for how you can earn. These offers. So most travel credit cards over the course of the last decade and change, you spend $4,000. You earn the bonus, you spend $3,000 in six months or three months, you earn the bonus and Delta is kind of doing a stretch offer.
So you earn on the gold card, for example, 70,000 miles after spending $3,000, but then you can earn another 20,000 for a total of 90,000 by spending another. $2,000 in six months. So if you end up spending $5,000 within the first six months, you can earn that full 90,000 point bonus on the reserve card that goes as high as $125,000, but you have to spend $9,000 in that same six month span.
This is different for Delta. We've never seen them done. Do this before. We've seen other credit card companies do it, um, and other airlines. But this is a first for Delta. And I would imagine this is, this is gonna be another trend that we're gonna see, not just with Delta, but with every airline and bank.
I bet. Yeah. It makes sense for the banks, you know, even though it's a little annoying, it does make sense for them to want to create. Uh, a little bit more habitual spending from right, uh, travelers, specifically people who are known for picking up cards and churning them. Instead, you're kind of drawing it out just a little more, adding a little more spend and, um, maybe hoping that somebody carries a balance down the line.
But, um, so we really, I mean, I like these offers, especially if you wanna earn as many sky miles as possible. Some of these are really, really high. Um, but it appears that, uh, Delta has also come out with some. Upgrade card upgrade offers if you already have a Delta Sky Miles card. Uh, and those offers are very, very small compared to these.
We've, we've seen, you know, our, our colleague Nick was targeted for an upgrade offer that was, you know. Way, way, way less than these, these bonuses you get for just signing up for the card outright. So it's just something to be aware of. Yeah, Delta, I mean, Delta will send you targeted emails or, or have popups on the delta.com account or in your smartphone app trying to convince you, Hey, you've got a gold card, but get more benefits with the Sky Miles platinum card.
We'll give you. 30,000 miles and maybe a $250 credit. And that brings up two really important points. There is, for the most part, nothing stopping you from having a gold card and then opening a platinum card and then even a reserve card, you can earn the bonuses on all three. But the second half of that coin is you have to do it in that order.
You have to work from the bottom all the way up to the top. If you start at the top or in the middle, you make yourself ineligible for some of those lower tier cards. So, you know, I know a lot of people, you know, thumb their noses at. Delta sky miles and think that they're worthless. And I get it, but you're wrong.
These are worth caring about. Especially, you know, just a couple of minutes ago we talked about flying main cabin economy to Europe for as low as 23,000 sky miles round trip. There's a lot of potential value here if you know how to use them. So these are worth caring about. But if you are gonna jump on this, you really do need to be strategic about which card you're opening when.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, let's move on to, uh, Delta Sky Club visits, which have reset for the year on February 1st. Uh, Delta. Sky Miles Reserve card holders get their 15 Sky Club visits back in their account along with their four guest passes. And, uh, Amex platinum card holders get their 10 Sky Club visits reset for the year as well.
So you should have a nice, uh, stash of visits left in your accounts so far. Um, for the Delta or for the Amex platinum card holders. Rather, there is a sneaky way for them to get a few extra visits. What is it, Kyle? So every year on the Amex Platinum card, not the Delta Platinum card. I really wish they would change this.
It causes so much confusion. Just rename one of these, please. Anyway, but for the non Delta Amex Platinum card. You get 10 visits per year, but you also get a $200 airline incidental fee credit, which covers, I mean, you can cover checked bags by charging it to your platinum card. You can cover seed assignment fees, even award taxes and fees.
When you book one of those awesome Delta sky miles deals to Europe and back, but you can also use them to cover. Entrance fees at the Sky Club. So once you've used up those 10 visits that you get per year, it costs you $50 to get in. So if you charge that to your Amex Platinum card. That incidental fee credit, so long as you've selected Delta as your, as your airline that you want to use that credit for will kick in to cover it, which means that $200 can get you another four visits for 14 total.
I thought that this was gonna be like a no brainer for me, and then it turned out I went through the year and I didn't even use all of my 10 visits on my Amex Platinum card. So this is just something to keep in mind, I think, especially as you get towards the end of the year, and maybe you're running up against that 10 visit limit.
Just knowing that you can use this to buy your way for a couple more if you haven't used that airline fee credit already. Yeah, it's really smart. I actually don't know this, so I'm asking you off the top of your head, can you use this on guests too? Do you get $50 guests for a platinum card holder as well?
You can also use it for guests. It'll kick in and cover that as well. Man, that's really nice as well. Uh, that's a great way to use that incidental fee, especially if you're, you know, getting towards the end of the year and, and, you know, you haven't used it all yet. Um, bringing a guest in or getting another couple Sky Club visits might be the best use for you.
Okay. Another skymile credit card benefit that you stumbled on this week. I think you may have broken this news worldwide. Yeah. Big deal. Big deal. I saw in this, so I'm just gonna pass this to you. What did you find? So, my, my, when my wife and I were flying down to Costa Rica a, a couple of weeks ago now, I logged into the free wifi with my Sky Miles account and then just saw, get a free premium snack in the, on my phone.
And so I clicked it and it turns out, and this is something that. I might have been announced, but it was, I think it was pretty haphazard, and it really isn't advertised anywhere. Any Delta skymile credit card holder can get a free quote unquote premium snack on all Delta flights that are 900 miles or longer.
So that covers. E every trans continental trip across the country. Many longer domestic trips, but basically everything that goes down to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. So all you have to do is you log in with your Sky Miles account, you don't need your delta. SkyMiles card with you, it's just attached to your account.
So once you're logged in, you're good, you click this option and you show the flight attendant, Hey, I've got this, you know, confirmation for my free snack. And you can pick between dots, pretzels, nerds, gummy clusters, which no brainer choice, amazing snack, and, uh, a, a can of Pringles. So, I mean, these are things that would typically cost, you know, seven or $8, I think most importantly.
This isn't a one and done thing, you get one time. You can do this as many times as you want on these eligible flights. So we did it on the way down to Costa Rica, both my wife and I, and we did it on the way back as well. And currently this is set to end, um, June 30th. So you've got another couple of months and there's no telling whether Delta is gonna extend this and maybe even make this a permanent benefit of those cards.
Yeah, that's a pretty awesome benefit, man. I would be in decision hell between those three. I love Pringles. I love dots and nerds. Gummy clusters are also amazing. The problem is, I know. I know that they would short me on the amount of nerds, gummy clusters, and I want like a mouth numbing amount of nerds, gummy clusters.
So it's not a mouth numbing amount. I apologize in advance. It is, it's like a movie theater box. It's not like a teeny tiny one. And this the dots, pretzels bag is actually. Pretty big. Yeah. Like I, I didn't finish it on a flight. I had something to bring home. Wow. In each case. So it's, it is truly a meaningful benefit, I think.
Yeah. Go take advantage of that benefit Tweet about it. So Delta, Delta keeps it in the repertoire, and we can continue getting free snacks on some of those longer flights. That's an awesome. Alright, let's take a quick break. You've heard me talk about Built as the loyalty program that lets you earn points on rent wherever you live, and they just leveled up even more.
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In particular, this is what would be a kind of mid-tier Capital One Saver X credit card. Um. There's already a no annual fee, capital one saver cash card that earns three x on groceries, dining, entertainment, streaming services. But this new card would kind of take it to that next level, that kind of Amex gold card level.
Um, what are your thoughts on this after you saw this rumor? I think it makes a lot of sense. Um, Jackson on our team wrote up a story based upon what we know, which let's stress. We don't know for sure whether this is happening. We don't know when it might happen. There's a lot of details here that are up in the air, but all of the big terms and benefits about this card, if it is going to happen, are out there.
And yeah, I mean, I think it, on the one hand makes a lot of sense for Capital One to try to corner some of the market of. Wealthier Americans who are spending a lot at restaurants and on groceries and filling a gap in the market that really only the American Express Gold Card has right now. They really have kind of cornered that market.
So it's smart of Capital One to do this at the same time, you know, the, the annual fee at a supposed $295 feels a little steep. The Amex Gold card is currently $325 a year, but that's a much more established card. It's been around now for. You know, two, two-ish decades, right? So, I don't know, I don't know if this is, this one is gonna get a spot in my wallet or not, but, um, I'm interested to see if and when they move ahead with this.
Yeah, I'm interested in what the bonus would be to sign up, but I mean, at 2 95 annual fee, again, if these are the details. Uh, a hundred dollars travel credit, a hundred dollars dining credit, $120 a year at Starbucks. That's not bad. Are there any cards with Starbucks credits out there? I'm not sure. Yeah, just please Capital One.
If you're listening to this, don't split it up into $10 a month. I know you're going to just, just please, I need another $10 monthly credit. Like I need a hole in the head. Just please save us from ourselves, capital One. That's absolutely what it's going to be. It is. And actually, now that you said that, I'm out.
I don't love this card anymore. Um, but anyway, that's interesting. Rumor. If you wanna read more about it, uh, we have, we will link it in the show notes. And, um, Jackson did a really good writeup about what this card might have and what it might mean too. Um, anything else on the SaveRx? I think just an important wrinkle here is that supposedly, according to the rumors that have circulated primarily on Reddit, this would earn four x on dining and entertainment.
But three x points per dollar on groceries, which, you know, if you lean more towards restaurants and entertainment, depending on how they define that, that could really kind of tip this, especially if you need or want more Capital One miles. If you're much more on the grocery side, that might alone be a disqualifier.
Okay. Um, let's move on to the Amex Platinum card, which, uh, as we said in, in the open, has raised the bar again, but not in a good way this time. Uh, with no notice. Amex raised the minimum spending requirement on new card signups by $4,000 for the Platinum Card from 8,000 up to now, $12,000 a 50. Percent increase.
Uh, you still have six months to do it. Amex does tend to give you a little bit longer, but it's more than double the spend you need for its competitor cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the City Strata Elite, which are both 6,000 in spend in three months. Tough news for you to read on the beach in Costa Rica about the new minimum spend requirements.
Huh? Oh, I didn't read any news on the beach. Sorry. Sorry to disappoint you. This was all news to me this morning as we're recording this. Yeah, it's. It's tough. 50% no warning effective immediately. For people who are now opening an Amex platinum card, that's a lot of money. On the other hand, you know, divided over six months, that's $2,000 a month, which is much more reasonable when you look at it that way.
But this is just continuing. The same trend that we talk about, talked about with the Delta offers, what we've seen with basically every credit card on the market, which is that. Really, for the most part, the days of spending $3,000 or less in order to earn a welcome bonus are over that. Threshold just keeps going up and up, especially with these really pricey credit cards where banks know that they need to make it a habit for you to try to swipe this card to make them be profitable, not just to earn the bonus and then be done, but to get you in the habit of swiping it day in and day out.
And by, you know, ratcheting this up to now $12,000 over six months, they're gonna have a lot more people who are just conditioned to use this all the time. That's the name of the game. Yeah, I mean, they're assuming people who are paying for a $900 credit card don't have trouble spending $2,000 a month either.
So I mean, it's probably. Doesn't, there aren't a lot of people, I bet, who are taking the full six months to hit that minimum spend requirement anyway on the Amex Platinum. It's just like that, that level of, of spender, uh, or otherwise thrifty traveler. But for the thrifty, for the thrifty traveler, it is tough, tough news.
Um, let's pivot to some good news. Yep. We've been really excited about Capital One and their newest transfer partner, Japan Airlines, uh, which offers some really, really incredible redemptions. We just keep finding more good ones all over the One World Alliance, all over the world. Uh, but the transfer ratio of 1000 capital one points that would yield you 750.
Ja Miles was annoying. Um, but this transfer bonus of 30% brings that to nearly one to one with a 1000 Capital One points getting you 975 Japan Airlines miles. That is still quite annoying. Uh, this new bonus ends February 28th, but it opens the doors to a lot of good stuff. What do you think about this?
It's math and I, I don't like it, but I appreciate this. I think really importantly, so Capital One added Japan Airlines last fall. And when they did, so they also offered this identical transfer bonus. So I'm honestly pretty surprised to see it come back so soon, you know, just a really, a couple of months later, um, if you're trying to do the math, let's say you need 75,000 Japan Airlines miles, in order to book, uh, gel business class seats over to Tokyo or back.
Multiply that 75,000 times 1.0256, and that gets you roughly the amount of Capital One miles that you're going to need to transfer to get the gel miles that you need. Gel does a a pretty good job of actually breaking this down once you go into your Capital One account and start to start the transfer process.
I would say if you're on the fence about this, if you're considering it and you haven't already signed up for a Japan Airlines account, go do that right now. Because it, there's like a seven day clock and there's some annoying wrinkles with actually being able to transfer capital one miles and then use them.
But the best way to get that clock started is to sign up for a Japan Airlines account. ASAP so that you're in good shape before the end of the month to transfer and take advantage of this bonus. Yeah, just have the account. It's free. Just go sign up as soon as you get some time later today. Last weekend I botched a one-to-one uh, transfer, just literally an Amex to sky miles transfer and I just miscalculated sent too few and then had to do the second.
Very small transfer right after, which is always a terrible idea 'cause it's like, uh, their fraud detection sometimes will just nix that second transfer. So I was, I was, uh, that was not a good moment for me. I was having a hard time, uh, just doing basic math. Yeah, basic addition, uh, can be hard for a guy like me.
Okay. One last one here quickly, Kyle. I wanted to point to our colleague Katie Rollins, review of the Park Hyatt, London River Thames. Uh, it opened last year and Katie got a chance to sample it and it looks so cool. Um, I wanted to highlight it because. Uh, one her review that is on our website. I'll point you there, has all the photos and everything really, really good.
Uh, I was shocked by how big the rooms were, um, which is, it's really rare to have a room that big in London. She did have a guest of honor benefit, uh, the globalist benefit that you can transfer to other people so that she did get a small room upgrade, but her. Her mom's room who was also on the trip was a standard room.
It was also huge. She said. Um, the lobby restaurant, the bar all looked stunning. The pool and spa, those kind of park Hyatt staples also looked phenomenal. Um, really massive fancy locker rooms in there. Uh. Bookable for 25,000 to 35,000. World of Hyatt points a night. Most dates are right around 30,000 that I saw in 2026, and it's right across the river from Big Ben and Buckingham Palace about 15 minutes away by train.
Does this property interest you at all? Yes, with an important caveat that. My wife and I were on the fence about going about staying here for our trip to London last summer, and we decided against it because of the location, because it was my actual first time in London and we wanted to be able to just kind of walk everywhere.
If we were to go back, I think this would immediately be at or near the top of the list because we're already familiar with it. We've done some of the things kind of in central London, around Trafalgar Square, so now we're like ready to stay somewhere else. And even much more familiar with the, with the metro system in London, I think if you're trying to stay away from the tube.
This is not the place to stay. Yeah. If it's your first time, I would maybe encourage you to think of a different property that's a little bit more central. But if you're already there all the time, you've been several times, you're ready to try something new and you have a bunch of Hyatt points or transferable chase points that you can send to Hyatt to book this hotel.
This is a really good option. Yeah, Katie said they, they were at the Great Scotland Yard, uh, in the night before they moved into the Park Hyatt, and she said it was an incredible amount of breathing room going from those small rooms into a big, big, massive park Hyatt room. This is definitely on my radar park.
Hyatts are one of the only other things that impress my wife, so this will certainly be in the rotation for us if we go to London anytime soon. You ready to help a listener? Let's do it. Okay. Before we get started with that, a reminder to send us your welcome back video to thrifty traveler.com/voicemail, or find that link in the show notes.
Leave us a message under a minute, even shorter if possible. Uh, thrifty traveler.com/voicemail to show us your video. I can't wait to hear from you there. All right, Amaya Culpa, another one. Another one, man. Every week I'm gonna come to you with something that I messed up from last week. Your first quarter review is gonna be brutal.
It's just. Lining it up. Uh, last week Matt messaged us, correcting me on something I said in the, these Bros Ain't Loyal episode. I said that I keep a co-branded credit card so I can check my car seat. Matt pointed out to me, of course, that car seats are free on almost every airline. Not every, but most, almost every airline.
Yeah. Yeah. And the airlines, the two in particular that I talked about, American and Delta car seats are free. Uh, you're right Matt. I screwed that one up. Uh, I'm new to this being a dad. You know what I meant was I can check a car seat and then the bag on top of it, which we inevitably need 'cause we need our hands free, more free at the airport than ever having a little one.
Emory has so much stuff for a very small human. Okay, let's help a listener. Celeste had an observation about Built 2.0 that I thought was really good. She asks, I didn't hesitate to apply for the Built Palladium card after reading about it when the details were announced. In fact, it felt as exciting as Christmas morning.
That's real sicko stuff. Celeste, Christmas morning for a credit card offer. Awesome. Um. She said, I've since been reading and hearing a lot of negative things people have to say, but it still hasn't rattled my decision because at the end of the day, not only am I earning two x valuable built points, uh, but I'm also then getting points on my mortgage.
I feel like I would've opened the card just to get into the built ecosystem for the signup bonus and the two x alone and the mortgage points and gold status felt like gravy on top. So Kyle, our colleague Jackson, wrote an awesome piece recently about why. He did what he called a u-turn on the built Palladium card.
Um, he said he now considers it a no-brainer for the same reasons that Celeste outlined. Uh, after initially being like pretty confused like a lot of us about the offering. Um, I recommend everybody check out Jackson's story. We'll link that in our show notes as well. But what do you think about Celeste and Jackson's new kind of takeaways on this card?
You know, I think if, if anything, maybe we just painted with a little bit too broad of a brush when we, um. When we crapped all over Bill 2.0 a couple of weeks ago, I stand by everything we said. I think the the biggest thing is that, as we say all the time, this is really personal and just because that's our take doesn't mean that that's gonna be right for you.
So it's clearly working out for Celeste. There are definitely going to be. Some, maybe even many people who can look at Bill 2.0 and especially the top tier $495 a year bill Palladium card and say, this makes a ton of sense for me after I do the math. But you have to do that math. And I think really importantly, there are primarily two groups of people where you could really make a lot of sense out of this.
Again, primarily with the top tier Bill Palladium card. People who want one card only, they want to be able to use that for mortgage and they're happy to spend it, spend on it day in and day out on everything else. If you want a one card solution and you want to be able to earn points on rent or mortgage, this could make a ton of sense.
The other group is people who are beyond sickos, like you and I, who spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on credit cards every year, for whom this wouldn't be a massive opportunity. Cost That in order to earn all the points that they want on their rent or their mortgage and on multiple rents or mortgages, if they have multiple, you know, houses or an apartment in the city and a house that's sicko beyond what I can fathom.
Then there is a ton of opportunity here, but for. More normal sickos like you and I, the prospect of spending, you know, tens of thousands of dollars on a built card instead of opening and earning welcome bonuses on a couple of cards a year. That's just too much for me, and I think that's probably too much for most people, but certainly not all.
Yeah, no, I think that's really, really smart analysis. I think. This card makes a ton of sense for almost everybody in year one. Um, especially 'cause with that signup bonus, then you're, you know, you have the built cash to earn on a mortgage for most people. Uh, but you know, I think you're right. It's, you are.
Kind of committing to a card, then if you really wanna get the most value out of this and, and make that $495 annual fee worth it, you really have to continue to spend on this card. Um, but I mean, who doesn't want bill points? Bill points are great. So, um, it, I think it's interesting. We all, you know, the industry at large kind of had this big reaction and then, um, I think Celeste and and Jackson were kind of ahead of the curve on.
Maybe taking a step back and thinking, okay, who, who does this make a lot of sense for? And so I'm glad that both of them did. Celeste, I hope that helps you out. And, uh, thank you for your observations that you sent us. Anything more Unbuilt? No, there's just, there's no such thing as a one size fits all answer, I think broadly again.
I stand by what we said a couple of weeks ago that it's overly complicated, that Bill pulled the rug out from a lot of people, and it may no longer make sense for people, but I think everybody has to do the math for themselves. You shouldn't just listen to the two of us blathering into a podcast to figure out whether it makes sense for you.
You gotta do that for yourself. Great. Okay. If you'd like us to answer your questions on the podcast or if you have any feedback for us, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We might feature your question on next week's show. Okay. It's time for on the spot, and it's my turn to put Kyle on the spot, and I'm doing it with the help of another listener, Tony Clifton, who in our email inbox says.
Just for fun, take your initials and see what airport code they match to. Have you ever been there and would you ever go? No, no. Don't look it up, Kyle. Don't look yours up. Okay. Do you know, do you know what my middle name is? I do not. It's Scott. So my, my initials are GSO, the famed Greensboro, Greensboro airport.
Um, Kyle, I, I had to do some digging to figure out your middle name. Did you get my social security number? No, I didn't. Uh, for some reason I, I thought. Your middle initial was J for some reason. So I looked up KJP, which is the Carama Airport, which is this incredible airstrip on an island just southwest of Okinawa in Japan.
Like one of the coolest looking airports I've ever seen. And then I DMed your wife, Kyle, to find out your real middle name. And she got back to me and she told me your real middle name is Granville. Kyle Granville Potter. KGP. And do you know what KG P Airport is? I do not. It's the opposite of. Of, uh, the southwest Okinawa island.
It is Kalala International Airport in Siberia, Russia. Kyle, any interest in going up to Kalala with me? Let's do it. Jared, if you're listening to this, gunner and I have a company retreat idea just for the two of us, just a couple of American journalists going into Siberia. What could go wrong? Everything.
I thought that would be a fun game. I think whenever we have guests on from now on, we, we will have to ask them their initials and, uh. Tell them or ask them if they've ever been to their initials airport. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should do that. You like it? Yeah. This wasn't as much a, I'm putting you on the spot and you have to come up with something.
I was just putting you on the spot 'cause I did some research about you. This was just an excuse to read our full legal names into the record. That's all right. Do you like this? Should we continue this bit? Yeah, we should. All right, good. Alright, that's gonna be it for the show. Thank you so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler podcast, five stars on your podcast platform of choice.
Please like and subscribe to the show on YouTube as well. It's been really fun. Over there. Send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation as well. If you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thrifttraveller.com. We'd love to hear from you. Kyle, tell us about the team. This episode was produced by your favorite host who is praying that he's wrong and that airfare to Europe is gonna drop this year.
Gunnar Olson. It was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Tissot. See you next week. See ya.