Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 16 seconds

Good morning and holy crap, folks. A LOT of stuff happened yesterday in the travel, points, miles, and credit card world.

We simply don’t have any time for pleasantries, so let’s get into it:

• 🏨 IHG just revamped its credit card lineup

• 💳 Want premium perks? Try this card instead

• ✈️ Quick-hit travel updates

• 🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (October 2026)

🏨 IHG just revamped its credit card lineup

Well, folks, there is some BIG news in the credit card world. Actually, there are lots of big news(es) in the credit card world.

One of them is more exciting than the rest, though.

And that’s the complete revamp of the IHG co-branded credit card portfolio, including:

• A new top-tier premium IHG card

• New credits (and a higher annual fee) on this co-branded card

• A rebranding of the no-fee card

• New perks like food and beverage credits and automatic elite night credits

It’s quite a big shakeup. And while the overall outlook is mixed, I’m pretty excited about some of the changes, especially as an IHG fan.

Oh, and of course… there are some new big-boy welcome offers to top it all off. 😉

It’s too much to fit into this newsletter, so April and I wrote a full article breaking down the changes, the value, and what we think about it all.

Check it out:

💳 Want premium perks? Try this card instead

For the last month or so, we’ve been telling you about how awesome the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is.

It has an all-time high welcome offer which, in my opinion, is a no-brainer.

But some people have reached out asking questions like:

And for that, my friends, you’re in luck.

You see, the Venture card has a big brother called the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

It has a higher annual fee, but offers an annual $300 travel credit and 10,000 anniversary bonus miles every year.

And, unlike the credit that comes with the Venture Card, the Venture X credit can be used for more than just lodging (car rentals, flights, etc).

Plus, it comes with the same 75,000 Capital One miles after signing up and meeting the minimum spending requirement.

The math is the same; the perks are not

The annual travel credit and anniversary bonus miles help to basically offset that annual fee.

But then, unlike the Venture card, the Venture X gives you unlimited access to Capital One Lounges in cities like Dallas, Las Vegas, Denver, New York, Washington, D.C., and more scheduled to open soon.

Plus, you get a Priority Pass membership that offers unlimited lounge access at over 1,000 lounges worldwide.

Not bad for an annual fee that already basically pays for itself. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The business version is even more insane

If you own a business (especially one with high spend), you could also opt for the Capital One Venture X Business card.

It’s basically the same as the normal Venture X, but with a few small differences… and one very big difference:

The welcome offer of 150,000 Capital One miles after spending $30,000 in the first 3 months of opening the card.

It’s huge spend, so it’s pretty niche…

But after that spend, you’ll end up with at least 210,000 miles (since the card earns a minimum of 2x miles on every purchase).

Anyway, if you want a premium card that doesn’t feel as annoying as other premium cards, check out the two Venture X cards.

✈️ Quick-hit travel updates

There is SO much stuff going on right now that I want to give you a few extra bullet points of news from the travel and points world.

I’ll expand on some of these in future newsletters, but I want to at least make sure you know about them now:

1️⃣ Atmos Rewards finally added their new “choose how you earn” feature, allowing you to pick your points earnings based on distance, spend, or segments flown.

2️⃣ Atmos ALSO added their new Communities feature. When you join one of these communities, you’ll get special perks that are tailored to you and your travels.

3️⃣ Capital One added a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways… Look, I love a good transfer bonus. But there are WAY too many new transfer bonuses. Make sure you bookmark this page to always see which ones are active.

4️⃣ Accor+ Explorer is offering a bonus of 3,000 points to new members. It’s a little niche, so check out this newsletter from last year if you want to read about how this works.

🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (October 2026)

Yesterday was the first day of the month, which means another phat set of Flying Blue Promo Rewards just dropped.

And, for multiple reasons, this month is particularly exciting.

As a refresher, Flying Blue offers discounted flights between the U.S. and Europe (and beyond) every month.

You need to book by the end of October, but travel can take place all the way through March 31, 2027.

This time around, we’ve got economy, premium economy, and even business class on the menu.

Economy flights will run 18,750 miles and cover these U.S. cities:

• Raleigh/Durham (RDU)

• Houston (IAH)

• Boston (BOS)

A bunch of Canadian cities also made the economy-class list this month, which is great.

Premium economy is a small step up at just 30,000 miles each way, and applies to the following cities:

• Miami (MIA)

• Chicago (ORD)

• Las Vegas (LAS)

• Austin (AUS)

Finally, business class will cost 45,000 miles each way, but only applies to flights between Seattle (SEA) and Europe.

That is a freaking awesome deal from the Pacific Northwest all the way to Europe. 👇

Combine this with two transfer bonuses

As I told you yesterday, Rove Miles is currently offering a 40% transfer bonus to Flying Blue through the end of the month.

That means the Promo Rewards would cost:

• Economy: 13,400 Rove Miles

• Premium: 21,500 Rove Miles

• Business: 32,300 Rove Miles

As fate would have it, MR points also just launched a new 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue, also valid through the end of this month, because why not?

That bonus puts these flights at the following prices:

• Economy: 15,000 MR points

• Premium: 24,000 MR points

• Business: 36,000 MR points

And let’s be clear:

ALL of these are good deals. Economy, premium, business, transfer bonus, or no transfer bonus.

I will say that the MR points transfer bonus is a little more relevant, since you can easily earn MR points from these credit cards, unlike Rove Miles.

Just make sure you mark your calendar now; both for the Promo Rewards and these two transfer bonuses.

Well, it’s been a chaotic week, and that chaos will only continue into next week. Thankfully, chaos in the points world usually means lots of good deals for you. 😉

Have a great weekend and see you Monday,

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

With contributions by Katie Begnoche and April Wilson.