A walk in the woods is not only good for you physically, it’s also good for you psychologically. Studies show time spent in nature reduces mental fatigue and irritability, cortisol levels, and stress.
21.09.2023 - 21:33 / thepointsguy.com
While some truly excellent credit card bonuses are available right now, sometimes the most lucrative offers are reserved for targeted individuals. One of the best places to look for these elevated targeted offers is by using the CardMatch tool, where you might find introductory bonuses that are much higher than those posted elsewhere.
Here are two to look out for right now.
Check the CardMatch tool to see if you're targeted for up to a 150,000-point welcome offer on The Platinum Card® from American Express offer or a 75,000-point American Express® Gold Card offer. These offers are subject to change at any time.
If you haven't visited the CardMatch site recently, now's an excellent time to check your CardMatch offers. Great offers are available on two of Amex's top cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express and the American Express® Gold Card.
For the Platinum Card, you could be pre-qualified for an offer of 150,000 points after you spend $8,000 on purchases within your first six months of card membership. The card has an annual fee of $695 (see rates and fees).
Based on TPG point valuations, the 150,000 Amex Membership Rewards points bonus is worth a staggering $3,000.
This astronomical bonus number is worth grabbing if you're eligible, as the highest publicly available welcome offer for the card is 80,000 points after spending $8,000 on purchases in the first six months of account opening.
Related: Is the Amex Platinum worth the annual fee?
We also see possibilities for a 75,000-point targeted welcome offer on the American Express Gold Card available for some through the CardMatch tool. This offer is pre-qualified, and the card has a $250 annual fee (see rates and fees).
Targeted cardmembers can earn 75,000 points after spending $4,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of account opening.
What's more, if you're targeted for either offer, you'll have the option of the traditional Gold option or the swanky Rose Gold version.
TPG values 75,000 Membership Rewards points at an impressive $1,500. Others may see a pre-qualified 60,000-point offer, which matches the current publicly available offer on the Amex Gold card.
Related: Who should (and who shouldn't) get the Amex Gold?
All of these offers through CardMatch are significantly better than those publicly available for these cards. Here's a snapshot for comparison:
Note that all offers are subject to change at any time, and not everyone will be targeted for an elevated offer.
American Express welcome offers are also "not available to applicants who have or have had this product," and that limitation is also found on CardMatch offers. So, if you have had either of these cards in the past (including the Premier Rewards
A walk in the woods is not only good for you physically, it’s also good for you psychologically. Studies show time spent in nature reduces mental fatigue and irritability, cortisol levels, and stress.
JetBlue is putting flights on sale in time for fall and winter getaways with travel starting as low as $39.
For fans of nostalgia TV as well as avid animal and travel lovers, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom is back in a big way. Sixty years ago, this beloved show innovated the nature adventure genre, enthralled viewers with its global destinations, won multiple Emmy Awards and galvanized conservation goals and gains. It offered an eagerly anticipated, families-gathered, weekly gaze at creatures in far-flung locales to a television audience that averaged 34-million Americans for much of its initial, astonishingly lengthy 25-year run. Between then and now, weaving through subsequent decades, Wild Kingdom had been transformed again and again, showcased on Animal Planet and as a web series. Now there is a fresh fourth project, the all-new Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, which will premiere October 7 on NBC-TV (as part of its “The More You Know” programming block on Saturday mornings), as well as via NBC.com and NBC VOD. It is co-hosted by wildlife expert Peter Gros (who joined the original series in 1985) and wildlife ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D., a National Geographic Society research fellow and host of the PBS podcast Going Wild. Currently primed for 26 episodes set in North America, Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild kicks off with journeys to California’s super-parched Mojave Desert for desert-dwelling tortoises, the Maine Coast for Atlantic puffins (nicknamed “parrots of the sea” because of their colorful triangular beaks), the Florida Coast for aqua-agile manatees and Austin, Texas, for high-soaring-quick-swooping Mexican free-tailed bats. I reached out to Gros and Wynn-Grant to share their behind-the-scenes insights and inspirations, as they forge modern Wild Kingdom paths, while still applauding the footsteps of legendary zoologists Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler, who, as co-hosts of the documentary show’s dawn in 1963, put this legacy wildlife wonderland on the map.
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A burger and fries by the beach in San Diego, California. (Photo Credit: sophia_ross/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus)
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Marathons have long since been a draw for travelers. The host city not only attracts the actual marathon runners, but also friends and families showing their support as well as marathon enthusiasts who want a front-row seat of the action.
I remember the day back in 2014 when I’d just settled into my new apartment in Santiago and a powerful earthquake rattled the walls. I leaped up from my couch and ran for the door, while all the Chileans in the room just sat still and laughed at me, confident in Chile’s strong building codes and unfazed by the regular tremors.
This series of articles about credit cards, points and miles, and budgeting for travel is brought to you in partnership with The Points Guy.
On the PBS show America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston, the second season of which is airing now, each episode showcases a gorgeous spot in the United States, and the ways in which a half dozen or so local residents enjoy the place. In an upcoming Oregon episode, Emmy-nominated host, producer, comedian, and writer Baratunde Thurston checks out a roller derby in Portland, cowboys on a sustainable ranch, forest bathers, an underwater kelp forest, a community garden recultivating native foods, and more. As spectacular as the settings are, it’s the people he’s met and their dedication to the planet that he finds endlessly remarkable.
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