Welcome to the Miles and Points Daily Podcast — I'm your host Lucas, and today we've got a packed episode full of genuinely useful stuff. Transfer bonuses, credit card deals, a sneaky AI kicking people off flights, and yes — we'll talk about the president riding around in a catering truck. But first, a quick word about the tools that make award travel actually work.

If you're hunting for award seats, head over to AwardTravelFinder dot com — it's where you can search award flight and hotel availability across programs like Qatar Airways, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic and more. You can also find high-value hotel redemptions and status match opportunities all in one place. And if you don't want to check manually every day, set up alerts at alerts dot AwardTravelFinder dot com and get notified the moment points deals drop on flights and hotels. We've also got FlightSeatMap dot com if you want to see live seat availability on specific flights before you book, and SeatWifi dot com to check whether the Wi-Fi on your next flight is actually worth using. Links to all eight of our travel tools are in the show notes — go check them out.

Alright, let's get into the news.

First up — a genuinely useful transfer bonus. Chase has launched a twenty percent transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan. Now on its own, that's already great. But here's where it gets really interesting: if you're also an Aeroplan credit cardholder, you can stack that with your standard ten percent transfer bonus on larger transfers. When you combine the two and use those points with Aeroplan's Pay Yourself Back feature for travel, you can squeeze up to one point six two five cents of value per Chase point. That's a strong return without even booking a premium cabin award. If you've got a stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards points sitting around, now is an excellent time to move some of them over to Aeroplan. Just make sure to check the expiry on this bonus — transfer bonuses don't last forever.

Sticking with Aeroplan for a moment — there's also a big business story in the background. Bloomberg is reporting that Air Canada is nearing a deal to sell a minority stake in the Aeroplan loyalty program to Blackstone, the investment firm, for around two billion dollars. The money would go toward funding new aircraft and cabin interior upgrades. This wouldn't be the first time Aeroplan had outside investors — longtime points nerds will remember when it was a fully separate publicly traded company under Aimia before Air Canada bought it back. Should members be worried? Probably not too much. It's a minority stake, and Aeroplan has been through bigger upheaval before. But outside investors generally want returns, and that rarely means better redemption rates for members. Worth watching.

Next, let's talk credit cards. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from Chase has a new elevated welcome offer right now, and it's a good one. New cardholders can earn four free night awards after spending three thousand dollars within the first three months. Each of those awards is valid at properties costing up to fifty thousand Bonvoy points per night — that's potentially four hundred thousand points worth of value from the bonus alone. On top of that, there's a special offer through June thirtieth, two thousand and twenty-seven, giving you up to one hundred dollars in statement credits after spending five hundred dollars on eligible airline purchases — that's fifty dollars semi-annually. The annual fee is just ninety-five dollars, and the card comes with an anniversary free night award every year, Silver elite status, and fifteen elite nights annually. If you're a Marriott fan or just want a strong hotel card at a low annual fee, this is a great time to apply. You can find the link in the show notes.

Also worth flagging — the World of Hyatt Credit Card has a welcome offer ending soon. New cardholders can earn up to seventy-five thousand bonus Hyatt points — forty-five thousand after spending five thousand dollars in the first three months, plus up to thirty thousand more points based on spending in the first six months. The annual fee is ninety-five dollars, and Hyatt points are among the most valuable hotel points out there. The business version of the card is also offering seventy thousand points for seven thousand dollars in spend. Both are excellent offers if you're a Hyatt loyalist. Links for both are in the show notes.

Now here's a story for Avios fans. International Airlines Group — the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus — has launched a brand new calendar-based award search tool on the Avios website. Instead of searching day by day, you can now see a full month of nonstop award availability across those three airlines in a single view. It's free to use, you just need a free Avios account. There are some limitations — it only shows nonstop flights for now, it doesn't display surcharges, and you'll need to complete the booking on the individual airline's website. But for finding nonstop award availability to London, Madrid or Dublin, this is a genuine time-saver. Connecting itinerary support is reportedly coming soon.

Let's talk about something that's been frustrating a lot of travelers. American Airlines' automated rebooking system has been removing passengers from their flights — before those passengers have even missed them. The system predicts that someone might miss a connection, then preemptively gives their seat away. The problem? Some of those passengers actually make it to the gate in time, only to be turned away because their seat is gone. That's not just an inconvenience — American may actually owe involuntary denied boarding compensation in those cases. If this happens to you, know your rights. You could be entitled to compensation, and you should ask for it.

Another fun American Airlines story — remember all those Airbus A330-200s American retired at the start of the pandemic? They were only about six or seven years old at the time. Well, two of those jets are heading to Israir, which plans to use them for Tel Aviv to New York service. Separately, Vietnamese leisure startup Sun PhuQuoc Airways is acquiring eight of those same ex-American A330s — four joining the fleet before end of this year, and four more in early next year. It's a fascinating footnote to one of American's bigger strategic blunders. The airline retired perfectly good wide-body jets, then found itself short of long-haul capacity right as international demand came roaring back.

Quick note for frequent flyers who worry about miles expiring — there's a helpful updated guide on airline mileage expiration policies worth bookmarking. Programs vary wildly. Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards, JetBlue TrueBlue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles don't expire at all. Others like Aeroplan expire after eighteen months of inactivity — and any earning or redemption activity resets the clock. Some programs like Japan Airlines Mileage Bank and Singapore KrisFlyer have hard expirations regardless of activity, so those require more active management. If you've got miles sitting in a program you haven't touched in a while, the easiest way to reset the clock is usually buying a small number of miles, donating to charity through the program, or transferring in a small amount from a partner currency.

And finally — a story that's more spy thriller than travel news, but it touches on presidential aviation and a pretty wild operational maneuver. Back in early July, President Trump publicly boarded the old Air Force One in Ankara, Turkey, then secretly exited the plane on the other side via an airport catering truck. That truck drove him to a different Air Force jet, which is what he actually flew on — reportedly due to an Iranian assassination threat. White House reporters and staff flew on the Air Force One jet with the shades down, not knowing the president wasn't even on board. It's a reminder of just how complex presidential airlift logistics are — and why having redundant aircraft capability matters.

Alright, that's a wrap on today's episode of Miles and Points Daily. Thanks so much for listening — we genuinely appreciate you tuning in. If you found this useful, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and check us out at milesandpointsdaily dot com for more. We'll see you tomorrow.