Welcome to the Miles and Points Daily Podcast — I'm Lucas, your guide through the wonderful, occasionally confusing, and always rewarding world of travel hacking. Today we've got points deals, card bonuses, airline news, and a few things that'll make you go hmm. Let's dive in.

Before we get into the news, a quick word about some tools we think you should know about. If you're out there hunting for award space, you need to check out AwardTravelFinder dot com — it searches 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 right there on the site. And if you don't want to check manually every day, head over to alerts dot AwardTravelFinder dot com to get notified the moment points deals drop on flights and hotels. Those two tools alone can save you hours of searching. We've got links to all six of our travel tools in the show notes — including FlightSeatMap dot com, SeatWifi dot com, FlightQueue dot com, and FridayFlightDeals dot com — so make sure to check those out.

Alright, let's get into the news.

First up — a sneaky but legitimate points play from Rakuten. Right now, Rakuten is offering a one hundred percent rebate on a one hundred and thirteen dollar and thirteen cent purchase of Surfshark, the VPN service. If you take the rebate as points rather than cash back, you can pull in eleven thousand three hundred and thirteen Bilt points — but only if you have Bilt status — or Amex Membership Rewards points. That works out to effectively one cent per point, which is a solid buy-in for either currency. And here's the kicker — if you're a brand new Rakuten member, you can stack another five thousand bonus points on top, bringing your total haul to over sixteen thousand points. If you value Amex points at around one point seven cents each like many of us do, that's a pretty tasty deal for signing up for a VPN you might actually use anyway. Worth checking out if you need to top up your Amex or Bilt balance.

Next, big news from the American Express Platinum card. Starting the first of August twenty twenty-six, Amex is tightening up which Peacock subscriptions qualify for the card's monthly digital entertainment credit — that's up to twenty-five dollars a month, or three hundred dollars annually. Going forward, only stand-alone Peacock subscriptions purchased directly through Peacock will qualify. Bundled subscriptions, add-ons, and anything purchased through a third party will no longer be eligible. So if you've been using a Peacock bundle to maximize this credit, now is the time to review your subscription and potentially switch to a direct, stand-alone plan before August first to keep the credit flowing. The rest of the digital entertainment partners remain unaffected.

Now for a great card offer. The American Express Business Gold Card currently has a massive welcome offer — as high as two hundred thousand Membership Rewards points after spending fifteen thousand dollars on eligible purchases within the first three months. Not everyone will be eligible for the top offer, so it's worth checking what you qualify for. The card carries a three hundred and seventy-five dollar annual fee, but it earns four times points in your top two spending categories each billing cycle — think restaurants, gas stations, transit, wireless telephone service, and more. There are also monthly credits toward things like Grubhub and Walmart Plus that help offset the fee. If you value Amex points at one point seven cents each, two hundred thousand points could be worth around three thousand four hundred dollars in travel. You can find the link to apply in the show notes.

Moving on to airline news — American Airlines is teasing five new international routes with photo clues, and the travel community has cracked the code. The five destinations appear to be Naples, Munich, Copenhagen, Quito, and Santiago. We don't yet know which US gateways will serve these routes or what aircraft will be used, but this is exciting news for points travelers. More international routes mean more opportunities to burn those miles, especially to destinations in Europe and South America that have historically had fewer options. Keep an eye on American's announcements — and when those routes drop, fire up AwardTravelFinder dot com to check award availability.

Also on the Delta front — the airline is planning a premium-heavy configuration for its new Boeing seven-eight-seven dash ten Dreamliners, which are set to join the fleet in twenty thirty-one. At least half of the seats on these jets will be premium, a huge jump from the roughly thirty percent premium seating on the aging seven-six-sevens they'll replace. Delta says these planes will likely be used heavily on transatlantic routes. Whether they'll feature the brand-new Delta One business class product is still to be determined, but this is great news for anyone looking to redeem SkyMiles in premium cabins to Europe in the future.

A quick heads-up on something that may affect your miles strategy — Citi has cut JetBlue transfer partnerships, which reduces one of the ways you could move ThankYou points into a useful airline program. If you've been sitting on Citi ThankYou points with JetBlue transfers in mind, now is a good time to reassess your redemption strategy and explore other transfer partners.

And finally, a quick travel tip for the road warriors among us — if you're ever paying by credit card abroad, always, always choose to be charged in the local currency. Dynamic currency conversion — where a merchant offers to charge you in your home currency — sounds convenient, but it almost always comes with a significant markup, sometimes as high as ten to thirteen percent. Pay in local currency, use a card with no foreign transaction fees, and you'll consistently get a fair exchange rate.

That's a wrap for today's episode of Miles and Points Daily. Thanks so much for tuning in — we genuinely appreciate every one of you. If you found today's episode useful, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and visit us at milesandpointsdaily dot com for more tips, deals, and deep dives. Until next time, keep earning, keep redeeming, and travel smart.