This giveway is over. Congratulations to the lucky winner, Lanita J. Williams!

I have two exciting bits of news:

#1: Today is my 30th birthday :)

29 years ago

#2: We are running a $100 Southwest Giveaway!

This week one lucky reader will win a $100 Southwest gift card. Southwest gift cards are fully transferable and don’t expire.

There are three ways to enter:

Comment on this post.
Follow us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter and retweet this tweet:

 
GIVING AWAY A $100 GIFT CARD ON SOUTHWEST AIRLINES. FOLLOW AND RETWEET TO WIN.

The Platinum Card® from American Express comes with an annual fee of $695 (Rates & Fees). But it also come with a litany of valuable benefits that make up for the annual fee, at least for the first year.

Unfortunately many of those benefits are not automatic.

We've got a special treat for you today, MileValue readers! Meet Mike Hammari, who will be writing a series of guest posts about a cross-country trip he is currently in the middle of. Who needs miles when you've got feet? Those weary feet still need a decent place to rest. Mike is covering some of his hotel stays with points and is excited to have an audience listening that cares more about rewards than what brand of shoe he's wearing. Really though, Mike, tell us what shoes you chose...

Anything below in italics is a comment from me.

I'll keep this brief as to be timely, as these fares won't last.

Southwest just dropped their price on some of their brand new inter-island flight, between Honolulu and Maui, to $29, and Hawaii Airlines is playing ball. Right now you can find flights on both airlines between Honolulu and Maui, as well as Honolulu and Kona (on Hawaiian) for the super low price of $29.

I'm seeing the Southwest flights pricing at just 1,379 Rapid Rewards (and $5.60 in tax).

Attention AAdvantage cardholders!

Singapore Krisflyer, loyalty program of Singapore Airlines, increased the price of various partner award prices on April 16, 2019. These changes weren't without notice, as they announced in March the impending devaluation. Devaluations always suck but are inevitable.

Singapore devaluations sting in a special way as they are by far the easiest mile to earn. Every major transferrable point currency--Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Capital One miles and Marriott Rewards--transfer to Singapore Krisflyer, so they are the sweetheart of foreign loyalty programs.

Thankfully the changes weren't drastic.

A couple days ago I wrote a post clarifying the Chase 5/24 rule and it's relationship to small business credit cards. A reader asked the following question in the comments:

"How do I figure out if I can apply for the United Explore Card under the 5/24 rule. I didn’t keep track of when I applied for the various cards I have.

Opening five credit cards within 24 months will render you ineligible for any further Chase credit cards, until that five number has dropped to, at the most, four credit cards within the last 24 months. While not published by the bank, the Chase 5/24 rule is widely accepted as truth by the miles and points community after years of shared and collected experiences.

Business credit cards do not, anecdotally, count in your Chase 5/24 total.

United published some heavy-hitting changes to their loyalty program over the weekend. In a nutshell, United is following Delta down the path towards a totally revenue-based loyalty program.

United has announced dynamic award pricing effective immediately for flights with travel dates of November 15 and on. This means that instead of having set, published prices for award flights, the mileage price will fluctuate based on the cash price. No more award charts.

Until mid March, Brazil required that all US Citizens visiting Brazil--even those visiting less than 90 days--obtain a visa that required both money and time to get. In 2018 Brazil made it easier to obtain by giving us the option to process the visa online and dropped the price from $160 to $40.

As of June 17, 2019, all US citizens can visit Brazil for up to 90 days for free without any official documents aside from a passport. Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro made the move to drop visa requirements before visiting the US earlier in March.