In this post, we’ll cover:
Hyatt Globalist status and why it’s great for nomads/frequent travelers
Best credit card points transfer partners ranked
Airline miles programs ranked to maximize oneworld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam alliances
Amex Platinum’s new airfare discount program
Canadian banking warning for travelers
and celebrating people doing random acts of kindness…because we need more of that
We’ve been enjoying a couple of weeks of vacation - me (Ashley) in Charleston, South Carolina loving time with my sister, nieces, and cousins and Levon in Cape Canaveral, Florida enjoying some dune soaring instruction and practice. We meet up next week in Miami for a few days with friends and then we are off on our next repositioning cruise - this time to Barcelona where we have more wonderful friends we are looking forward to seeing.
We will use Barcelona as our jumping off point for the summer - first France and then Scotland. In the spirit of slowing our travel down in 2026, we plan to spend about 2 months in France - primarily in Bordeaux, and then we’re hopping over to Edinburgh when we’ve maxed out our Schengen time. Let us know if you will be in the neighborhood!
But first, we will need to brave the new EU Entry/Exit System (EES), a digital, biometric border check for non-EU citizens (including US and UK citizens) visiting the Schengen Area that went into full effect on April 10th. Wait times have been reported to be over 3 hours at some airports. We will arrive by cruise ship, so we have no idea if that may be better. We will be sure to report back.
We’ve got a lot of posts half written for the blog that I hope to finish on our repositioning cruise. Fingers crossed I have enough time to do that - there will be 150 other nomads on this cruise and the WhatsApp chatter already makes it sound like a busy time on board.
In the meantime, here’s some recent news I’ve found particularly interesting or useful for planning our own travels that I hope helps you with your own travel planning:
Our friends Kristine and Gean, from Strategic Early Retirement, shared a great new post breaking down the ins and outs of the Hyatt Globalist program. It’s not a program that can be achieved using credit card sign ups alone, so it’s generally harder to achieve. And the program has taken some hits lately with Hyatt increasing the number of points for booking many higher end properties. But Hyatt still offers one of the best hotel programs in the market, and getting Globalist status can really open up a lot of extra perks that make living in hotels or hotel branded apartments extra comfortable and really affordable.
Whether you are staying at a Hyatt for a few days or a month, the benefits can start to feel more practical than aspirational. Late checkout, breakfast, room upgrades, and a more consistent hotel experience can matter a lot more when you are settling in somewhere for a while and want to eliminate some of the wear and tear of travel-life decision fatigue.
Geobreeze Travel shared a really helpful video ranking the major transferable points programs by overall usefulness for award-based travel: Ranking the Best Credit Card Points Transfer Partners (2026). Here’s the gist:
Bilt stands out because of instant transfers, strong partners like Hyatt and Alaska, and frequent transfer bonuses. We haven’t been taking full advantage of Bilt membership and don’t have any Bilt credit cards yet, and this video convinced me to push it much higher up our research list.
Rove Miles is tied for the top spot because it’s easy to earn through hotel bookings, transfers are instant, it has unusual but valuable partners… and doesn’t require a special credit card. We’re loving Rove Miles — it’s an easy way to earn even more valuable points when we stack it with booking our favorite hotel brands, plus we still earn hotel points and benefits.
Citi and Chase land in the A tier thanks to their transfer partners and general flexibility. We’ve benefited a lot from Chase over the last three years.
Capital One is a strong catch-all, especially for easy earning and useful partners like EVA and Japan Airlines.
Marriott ranks at the bottom for airline transfers because the value is usually poor and the process is often slow. That said, the points program for Marriott-branded hotels is still strong.
I’m not entirely sure why they included Marriott but left out American Express. But in our experience, Amex is comparable to Chase.
Frequent Miler recently compared the best award programs for each airline alliance: Star Alliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam. The focus was on practical award-booking value, including pricing, fees, transfer options, stopovers, and how easy each program is to use in the real world.
Their broad recommendations were:
In Star Alliance, they favored United MileagePlus and Avianca LifeMiles.
In oneworld, they favored American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Atmos.
In SkyTeam, they favored Air France/KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
These airline programs offer some of the best opportunities to transfer points to partner airlines within their alliances, and they often have strong redemption options. We haven’t been aligned with any single airline in our travels — we typically choose the best flight that fits our needs and either offers a good cash fare or strong miles value, especially for business class. But I’m starting to think more seriously about airline alliances that match the places that are in our regular travel rotation (Mexico, Western Europe, the US East Coast), and whether it might make sense to pursue a specific airline award program to support that. Stay tuned.
Loyalty Lobby does a good job of explaining this new/rebranded perk from American Express. Amex has brought the International Airline Program (IAP) and Recommended Flights under one umbrella - Platinum Member Airfares. Amex Platinum members can book discounted premium fares on around 40 different airlines, and typically save around 10%. These tickets qualify for miles and points under airline frequent flier programs which Amex calls “Fly once, earn twice” as you also earn 5 Amex points per USD on these tickets. Platinum Member Airfares are only available for Amex Platinum cardholders and up to seven additional travelers on the same reservation. The Amex Platinum US card has a hefty $895 annual fee (fees vary for Amex Platinum cards in Canada). This benefit, with a handful of the other benefits we regularly enjoy (Global Entry, airport lounge access, digital entertainment credit, and more), make that fee feel a little more justified.
For our Canadian readers, our friend and subscriber Kate flagged this article for us: Canadian banking warning for travelers. (Thanks Kate!)
It’s a good reminder that bank accounts can be frozen due to travel-related behavior that may look suspicious to fraud systems even when it’s completely normal. Examples include:
Rapid location changes.
Multiple large bookings in a short amount of time.
Using a new device or SIM card abroad.
Switching VPN locations frequently.
ATM withdrawals in unusual patterns.
Repeated booking cancellations or changes.
Logging into multiple financial apps back to back.
Basically, an average day in the life of a nomad.
While this piece was aimed at Canadians, financial institutions around the world (particularly the US) are likely to be wary of the same or similar behavior.
Let’s end on a high note: Drop Dead Generous is an experiment giving 1,000 people $500 each to spend on acts of kindness, to see how far trust and small gifts can ripple outward.
Some people have given out flowers. One person built a house in Uganda. The whole idea frames kindness as a practical way to strengthen communities, which I love. Wouldn’t it be fun to do something like this too? You can — apply here
Go forth and do great things.
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