This is the November 8, 2026 edition of the LazyPoints Weekly newsletter. It goes out by email every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific–unless I oversleep–and is archived here on the blog. Want it straight to your inbox each week? Sign up here.
It’s raining transfer bonuses. 🌧️ Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Citi are all offering extra rewards when sending points to partners (Bilt, for once, decided to take the month off from the transfer bonus game 🤷♂️). Maybe they saw my recent post about speculative transfer bonuses and wanted to see if I’d bite.
Bite I did. I had excess Amex and Capital One points lying around, so I moved a few thousand to Virgin Atlantic with the 30% bonuses from both issuers, adding to my existing balance enough for a couple of trips to London—or potentially another partner redemption through Virgin like our recent Air France flight to Portugal. I also sent a few to Flying Blue with Capital One’s current 20% bonus. I have enough plausible uses for Flying Blue points that I’m comfortable parking a small surplus there, and the moves still left me with plenty of points for my bread-and-butter redemptions.
Most of the other offers? I’m going to pass.
Chase’s 30% Avios bonus is solid, especially if you can use Iberia’s cheaper business-class awards to Spain. But those redemptions are less compelling from my home airport. And although various Avios sweet spots exist theoretically—and plenty of points enthusiasts love collecting Avios—finding and booking something useful has generally involved more aggravation than I can personally tolerate
Chase’s 30% bonus on Wyndham transfers is mildly intriguing, but not enough to make me transfer without a booking in mind. IHG and Marriott points generally aren’t worth enough to make those transfers attractive, even with a bonus (80% from Chase to IHG and 35% from Amex to Marriott). And while the remaining airline offers—Turkish Airlines, Cathay Pacific—might work beautifully for someone, I’m not inclined to invest a lot of time trying to find out if I could, against the odds, be that person.
Lazy Take 🦥
If you’re sitting on a stash of points that you’ve struggled to use, this is a good time to consider your options. But while there are an unusually large number of transfer bonuses right now, they have a way of coming back around, so if you’re not booking travel now or ready to take the speculative transfer plunge, another opportunity is probably not all that far away.
This week on the blog 📝
Personally, I love the original Bilt 2.0 setup on my Bilt Palladium card, and I don’t think I’ll be giving it up voluntarily. But the story is a little different for the Bilt Obsidian. I wrote about why I think the latest Bilt changes are a big upgrade for the Obsidian, and why it could help Bilt seize the mid-tier travel card crown back from the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
We also had new Global Getaways. This month’s offers were very good but not spectacular, and I did see some major airports (like Charlotte and Atlanta) where I could find relatively limited availability of these awards, if any.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
More value 📈
Redeem Bilt Cash with Thumbtack. You can now redeem up to $50 in Bilt Cash, twice per calendar year, with the online marketplace for home services like cleaning or handyman work. The addition of new redemption options bodes well for a future where Bilt will give its premium cardholders $600+ of it to burn annually. (Bilt)
Capital One adds Copa transfer partnership. Citi just added Copa as a partner as well, but unlike Citi’s 1:1 transfer ratio, Capital One will only offer a 4:3 ratio. Capital One does this with several airline partners, and will often run 30% transfer bonuses that bring the ratio up to juuuust short of 1:1—and they’re doing just that with Copa at launch. Copa isn’t particularly beginner or lazy-friendly, but more options are always welcome. (View From the Wing)
Clear expands e-gates. These can really speed up the airport security process. While I personally wouldn’t pay for Clear+, it’s a nice perk of cards like the Amex Platinum and Hilton Aspire. (The Points Guy)
New partnerships 🤝
Amazon ditches Grubhub for Uber Eats. Previously, an Amazon membership could get you Grubhub+, which meant $0 delivery fees or 5% credit back on pickup orders—perks that could make a Grubhub credit from an Amex Gold card or a Bilt Cash redemption even more valuable. The new partnership with Uber Eats doesn’t seem to offer the same ability to stack benefits with credit cards, but they’re softening the blow by offering big discounts in the first two weeks of the partnership. (TechCrunch)
Deals 🏷️
Redeem Atmos points for an Ikon Pass. For November’s “Members Day,” Alaska is offering the chance to redeem points for Ikon ski passes. Although I prefer to redeem my points for flights, these pass redemptions provide over 1.5¢ per point in value compared to the cost of buying the passes in cash. Members of the “Active Escapes” community can even get a 20% discount. (Alaska Airlines)
Sign-up bonus of the week 🎯
Links marked with an * are affiliate or referral links, meaning we may earn if you apply via our link.
Marriott is offering a huge bonus on the Chase co-branded Boundless card: 200,000 points + $100 in airline credits after spending $3,000 in the first three months. This one won’t be on the list below next week—the offer ends on 11/11.
The Boundless is a perfectly serviceable card, but I find nothing exciting about it. It comes with Silver status, which is not technically nothing but doesn’t offer much in the way of benefits. Marriott points aren’t too valuable, so earning 2-3 points per dollar on non-Marriott spending isn’t very appealing. But the annual fee is only $95, and the free night (up to 35,000 points) each year is probably valuable enough to justify that investment year after year.
The 200,000-point bonus, though, matches the best I’ve ever seen on a personal Marriott card and by far the most I’ve seen on this card. In a lower-cost corner of the world, you could stretch it out to well over a week of hotel stays (with a one-minute search of the Marriott app I found multiple hotels in Japan that offered 13-night stays under 200k points in February). The best previous offers have included five free nights (up to 50k points per night) or 100,000 points plus a $150 statement credit—this offer is much better than either, in my opinion. This is a truly special offer on a legitimate keeper card. 🔥🔥🔥
Other great sign-up bonuses this week
100k points + 25k companion discount on the Atmos Summit (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
50,000 points + $300 Bilt Cash + Bilt Gold status on the Bilt Palladium (and a last chance to lock in Flexible Bilt Cash 🔥🔥🔥)
70k points + a free night certificate on the Hilton Honors (our take: 🔥🔥)
200k points on the Hilton Aspire (our take: 🔥🔥)
75k points + $300 stays credit on the Capital One Venture (our take: 🔥🔥)
180k points on the IHG Premier (our take: 🔥)
70-90k miles on United credit cards (our take: 🔥)
80k points + $99 companion fare on the Atmos Ascent (our take: 🔥)
200k points on the IHG Premier Select (our take: 🔥)
70k miles + elite status on the Air France KLM Visa (our take: 🔥)
75k (+ 40k after $20k spend) on the Chase Aeroplan Card (our take: 🔥)
Up to 100/175k on the Amex Gold/Platinum (our take)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
I’m out testing whether I can get “dining” bonus points at apple cider stands. 🍎