Lazy Points of the Week
Story of the week: Best Western status match
Best Western is offering a status match for those who have elite status with another hotel chain, and it’s a good one. First, you can get status with BW through the end of 2026. Second, there is no spending or stay requirement to get the status for that long. And third, any status appears to qualify—even status earned through a credit card like the IHG Premier. I applied for the status match and received it within 10 minutes.
Best Western elite status is nothing special: all elite tiers get a (progressively higher) bonus on base points earned, as well as a welcome gift of 500 points and bottled water with each stay. Platinum members and above get early check in and late checkout, subject to availability. Still, it’s better than nothing, and for two years at no cost, it’s a no-brainer way to improve your stays if you ever happen to stay at a Best Western.
Other card and points new
Venture X cardholders losing some lounge access. We love the Venture X, one major reason being the lounge access it unlocks. Unfortunately, the card is both losing access to Plaza Premium lounges and capping the number of free guests at Priority Pass lounges at two.
These are quite minor changes in reality. Many Plaza Premium lounges can be accessed with the Priority Pass that comes with the Venture X. And Venture X holders can add up to five authorized users, each of whom can get their own Priority Pass. So while a Venture X cardholder would no longer be able to bring a family of four into a Priority Pass lounge on their own, they could add a family member as an authorized user and bring up to four guests into the lounge.
Capital One merger with Discover progresses. Capital One’s proposed merger with Discover got approval from the Delaware Bank Commissioner, a big step toward a bank merger. It is hard to predict at this point what the federal government will do with the proposed merger or what the impact on the two banks’ credit cards will be, but it might mean new products or an expansion of the Discover payment network to compete with Visa, Mastercard, and Amex.
Thrifty Traveler complains about its best feature. I love using Delta miles to snag cheap international trips, and have found Thrifty Traveler to be a great tool to find those bargains. But after I wrote a post extolling the virtues of the TT/Delta pairing, Thrifty Traveler has lambasted these Delta sales as “clearance bin deals.”
It’s an interesting take, and one that knocks TT’s main value proposition. But I disagree. My trip to Tuscany was lovely, and would not have been cheap if I had paid cash. And I got outstanding value on a flight to Tokyo. So I’m going to stick with TT and it’s fantastic Skymiles deals, whether they view them as scraps or not.
Lazy tip of the week: points pooling
If you or your friends or family have accumulated some spare miles in a loyalty program, but not enough for a proper redemption, check to see if the program offers points pooling. Some major programs like those from United Airlines, JetBlue, Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt allow to combine points from multiple users for redemptions (albeit sometimes with restrictions; pooled United points can’t be redeemed on partner airlines, for instance).
Personally, I like this options to help my parents come visit. They pick up some random United miles here and there when they visit, but not enough for a flight. With points pooling, I can book them award flights while saving my own miles and making sure theirs don’t go to waste.
AwardWallet has a great guide to the programs that offer points pooling HERE.