JT Genter Latest Posts

Editor-In-Chief
Distance Traveled in 2025
Visited in 2025

JT is AwardWallet’s Editor-In-Chief. JT originally joined the AwardWallet team in early 2020 as a freelance editor and writer, but he has been part of the points and miles ecosystem since 2014. Looking for a way to reduce the cost of a trip to China, he found he could sign up for just one credit card to get enough miles to fly round-trip for almost nothing out-of-pocket.

That experience prompted him to dive headfirst into the world of airline, hotel, and credit card points and miles. After working for a decade as a tax accountant, JT focused his analytical skills on writing about points, miles, and credit cards. He started contributing at The Points Guy in 2015 and published over 2,000 articles on the site before moving to AwardWallet in early 2020.

In June 2017, JT and his wife Katie sold or donated nearly all of their possessions to become digital nomads, proving firsthand how points, miles, and credit card rewards can drastically reduce the cost of travel. JT has logged over 1.8 million miles on 102 airlines, visited 72 countries, and maintains elite status with 4 airlines (including British Airways Gold, Asiana Diamond, and United Silver) and 6 hotel loyalty programs (including IHG Diamond Elite, Hilton Diamond, and Marriott Titanium Elite)

El Al Adds Online Bookings for Virgin Atlantic Awards, Launches Dynamic Award Pricing

Early this morning, El Al added the ability to book Virgin Atlantic awards through its website. That's a welcome addition for a partnership that previously required calling El Al to book. However, with this new addition, we are seeing dynamic award pricing for Virgin Atlantic awards -- instead of the published award chart rates. Here's the full breakdown of the El Al - Virgin Atlantic partnership.

New 50% Marriott Bonvoy Transfer Bonus From Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase just launched a new transfer bonus for Ultimate Rewards cardholders. Now through March 31, can get a 50% transfer bonus when transferring Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy. That's a better-than-typical transfer bonus between Chase and Marriott. However, Marriott Bonvoy is one of the less valuable Chase transfer partners. So, does it make sense to take advantage of this promotion? Here's our full breakdown.

Amex to LifeMiles Transfer Bonus — Book United From 6k Points, Business Class to Europe for 40k Points

Now through February 28, 2025, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles with a 15% bonus. This transfer bonus opens the door to several incredibly lucrative award redemptions, including 5k domestic United flights, 40k-point business class flights to Europe, ANA first class to Asia for 105k points, or even Lufthansa First Class to Europe for 84k points. Here's a full breakdown of how to maximize this transfer bonus.

Best Ways to Redeem Amex Membership Rewards Points for U.S. Domestic Flights (From 3k Points!)

American Express Membership Rewards are a notoriously powerful, transferable, loyalty currency. With generous category bonuses and periodic transfer bonuses, it isn’t hard to rack up Amex points. However, it can be difficult determining how to maximize Membership Rewards for simple U.S. domestic award flights. Thankfully by leveraging various airline alliances and partners, there are sweet spots for domestic travel.

Citi Launches New 25% Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue (Or Permanently Increased the Transfer Rate?)

Citi seemingly just launched a new 25% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou® points to Flying Blue miles. Either that or the transfer rate has been permanently increased? Either way, this opens the door to several lucrative redemption opportunities, including business class flights from the U.S. to Europe for just 48k ThankYou® points each way or economy flights to Europe from 12k points one-way. If you know how to utilize Flying Blue miles, this transfer bonus is an awesome opportunity.

I Applied for the U.K. ETA as a U.S. Citizen — Here’s How Long It Took and Which Card to Use

Starting this week, U.S. citizens must apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or visa before traveling to the United Kingdom. Ahead of my travel to the Scottish isles later this month, my wife and I went through the process ourselves -- one on the website and one through the app. Here's our experience, including which method was faster and how the payments coded on our credit cards.

New Year, New Credits: Start Using Your Card Statement Credits in 2025

Many of our favorite credit cards offer lucrative statement credits every year. With 2025 underway, now's the perfect time to go through your card portfolio and start making use of them all. To help you with this, we've compiled a list of valuable statement credits that cardholders should start using, such as travel credits and shopping credits with Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, Uber, airlines, dining, and more.

Offer Extended! Earn 10,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® Bonus Miles with Bask Bank®

Bask has extended its offer to earn 10,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles when you open a new Bask Mileage Savings Account. On top of this excellent bonus for new customers, savers can earn 2 miles per dollar saved annually—which may be a far better value than earning interest through a traditional savings account. In this post, we'll show you how to use your miles and help you decide if you're better off earning cash interest or miles from your savings.

From Nightly Upgrade Awards to Annual Choice Benefits: 6 Changes to Marriott Bonvoy Terms

More than any other loyalty program we track, Marriott constantly changes its Bonvoy loyalty program terms and conditions. Some of these changes are minor tweaks. Other times, Marriott makes more substantial changes to its over 34,000-word terms and conditions. Today is one of those days. From changes to Nightly Upgrade Award upgrade windows to more time to select Annual Choice Benefits, here's what you need to know about these changes.

Points of Interest: Emirates Slashes Mileage Earnings, IHG Doubles Point Earnings, Marriott Inks New Partnership, And More

Airlines and hotels routinely make minor changes to their loyalty programs. Many of these modifications fly under the radar, as they're rarely shared with public and aren't objectively flashy. In our second installment of "Points of Interest," we'll introduce you to several changes that have occurred in the loyalty landscape within the past couple of months, including changes to Accor, Choice, Emirates, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham.