Last week the Hilton no annual fee credit card increased its sign up bonus to 75,000 points and the Starwood Preferred Guest personal and business cards increased their sign up bonuses to 35,000 points.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

So which offer is better?

I use Hilton points for free hotel nights at not-fancy hotels--categories 1, 2, and 3 (out of 10.) I use SPG points for free hotel nights, to transfer to airline

Transferable points are points you earn from a credit card that you can transfer to many different types of airline miles or other points. They are valuable because they give you so much flexibility. Each airline program has strengths and weaknesses in terms of the number of miles you need and the availability from point A to point B.

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account.

Through Friday (February 17, 2017), you can buy 5,000+ IHG Rewards Club points with a 100% bonus.

While writing yesterday's post about United now allowing free Hawaii flights on awards, I had a separate idea about United miles and Hawaii flights that I didn't want anyone to miss:
You can see four Hawaiian islands on a single award that costs 6,000 United miles and $5.60.
United charges 6,000 for intra-Hawaii flights on Hawaiian Airlines or Island Air.

This is Hawaiian's route map.

Fly a flat bed to Madrid for 25,500 Avios and low fuel surcharges this spring. Economy awards start at 12,750 Avios + $71 or 3,200 Avios and $181 one way.

Iberia is offering a 25% discount on economy and Business Class awards booked by today (2/14/17) between Madrid and:

Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Zurich, London, Vienna, Moscow, Bogota, Medellin, Johannesburg, Panama, Shanghai, Mexico City, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, and Havana

The discounts to/from the USA must be flown by June 14, 2017 with blackouts dates including all of April;

United partners with both Hawaiian Airlines and Island Air to offer codeshares within Hawaii.

You can redeem United miles for interisland flights on either airline. The cost is 6,000 miles + $5.60 one way.

You can also include Hawaiian or Island Air flights as part of a larger award, like Newark to Honolulu on United, connecting to Molokai on Hawaiian. Until very recently, though, United would price this as two separate awards.

This post is part eight of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account. I tweet from @MileValueAlerts only a few times a month because it is designed to be used only for the best and most limited-time deals–like mistake fares–so that you aren’t bombarded by text messages.

AirAsia X is offering $129 one way and $291 roundtrip flights from Honolulu to Osaka, Japan.

I recently went to Patagonia with my friend from Hawaii.

I helped her book her trip with American Airlines and Singapore miles, and I learned some things along the way. Takeaways:

Days of the year with good award space
The only airline within the Americas with fuel surcharges
When to book and when to wait

The Plan
My friend and I wanted to see Chilean and Argentine Patagonia plus Buenos Aires.