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

Today, September 14, 2018, is the last day to register your Chase Freedom to earn 5x Ultimate Rewards for the past quarter with Lyft, and at Walgreens and gas stations that you can transfer (circuitously) to Aer Lingus, British Airways, Flying Blue, Iberia, JetBlue, Singapore, Southwest, United, and Virgin Atlantic.

Note that the Freedom is different than the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, which Scott reviewed here.

If you register by today, your Freedom purchases will earn 5 Ultimate Rewards per dollar spent (up to the bonus cap of $1,500 per per quarter) on purchases at gas stations, Walgreens, and

Ultimate Rewards, the rewards currency of various Chase credit cards, transfer to nine airline loyalty programs...

Aer Lingus

British Airways

Iberia

Korean Air

Singapore Airlines

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

Virgin Atlantic

Flying Blue (Air France, KLM)

...and three hotel programs.

Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG
Marriott Rewards

As of August 25, you can cross Korean Air off of that list.
How bad is this?
First Class flyers to Asia are probably pretty pissed off.

Chase is really pumping the gas these days.

In March we saw the introduction of the 50k Ultimate Reward sign up bonus offer for the Ink Business Cash Card. Now we've got another lucrative new sign up bonus offer from the bank, this time via a brand new card called the Ink Business Unlimited. The sign up bonus, unlocked by spending $3,000 on the card within three months, is worth $500 in cash back unless you have a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred.

Chase has got a new offer for their Sapphire Preferred card with an extra tier of bonus points to entice more spending on the card.

You'll earn 50,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 on the card within three months of opening it (this is the standard offer, only difference is there is no extra 5k bonus for adding an authorized user)
You'll earn an additional 30,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $20,000 on the card within the first year of opening it

The annual fee of $95 is also waived for the first year in this offer

Chase is out with a new, record high bonus offer for the Ink Business Cash credit card. If you haven't reached your Chase 5/24 limit and are eligible to apply for business credit cards, do not miss out on this offer. For spending $3,000 within three months of opening the Ink Business Cash card, you'll earn either $500 in cash back or 50,000 Ultimate Rewards transferrable to airline and hotel partners for outsized value. I've never seen the bonus on this card so high.

The Ink Business Cash card is marketed as a cash back card.

The standard bonus for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is 55,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 on the card within three months of account opening (+adding an authorized user). With that offer, the $95 annual fee is waive for the first year of cardmembership

There is a new offer out for Sapphire Preferred: 65,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending the same $4,000 within three months of account opening (+adding an authorized user).

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.

In a comment on a previous post about a calculator to determine how many ThankYou Points you'll earn from using the Citi ThankYou Premier Card, DaveS asked:
I’ve previously used the Chase Sapphire Preferred card as my “keeper” fee card for travel and dining. [The ThankYou Premier] looks like it duplicates much of what the CSP does and adds some more category bonus possibilities.

In February, my parents flew down to South America to join me for a trip in Rio de Janiero, followed by a week spent in Buenos Aires, the location I call home for at least half the year.

I booked them in United Business between Charleston, SC and Rio de Janiero using United miles, and LATAM Business between Buenos Aires and Miami using American Airlines miles.