Hey, What’s Up?! I’m Miles the Monkey!!

Hey, What’s Up?! I’m Miles the Monkey!!

First off, if you’ve been reading, Miles the Monkey and I thank you so much! Truly, it’s our pleasure to create content for you. BUTTTT WE HAVE NEWS! The whole team at BoardingArea has been unreal and bumped us from Prior2Boarding to BoardingArea. This honor isn’t lost on us, and we couldn’t be more excited.  We’ve had so much fun interacting with people and look forward to welcoming any and everyone to be a part of our journey.

This new move seemed like a great time to say HELLOOOOOOO to all the new readers, thanks those who “get us,” and explain a little about who we are and how we’re a bit “different.” Miles the Monkey is the heart and soul of this blog. He represents that childlike spirit in all of us that yearns to explore, experience, and see all that the world has to offer. He’s always smiling, a bit quirky, finds humor in most things, and is overly expressive about travel, points, and miles. You’ll get used to him, I promise. For starters, let’s break down a bit of what you can expect from us here at MonkeyMiles.com

Who is this handsome devil of a monkey?

• That’s Miles the Monkey and he loves to stay in 5* suites and fly in lie-flat seats. Except he has no money. He helps write this blog to show people how he does what he does. After all, our motto is “More lux, less bucks.” Miles’ voice is authored by Zachary Abel. You can follow Zach and Miles on Twitter: @zacharyburrabel and @milesthemonkey

Our objective is to provide you with fun, light-hearted, informational, aspirational, inspirational, and overall entertaining content.

We know we are different.  We aim to give you a means of which to escape the hum drum of life, and hopefully something catches your eye and convinces you to plan your escape…not forever, but you know, for a vacay. Whether that be a review, deal, challenge, tutorial, etc – we want to nudge you closer to taking a trip.

Miles couldn’t believe that he naps exactly like a Lion.

Tony Robbins said, ” In life you need either Inspiration or Desperation” We hope to provide the Inspiration.

I mean, who wants to read a depressing travel blog, right? Blah!

So many things are tough in life. We aren’t looking to pile on the negative. This doesn’t mean we won’t have negative reviews, express disappointment, or say when things are crappy…BUT our aim is to create content that motivates you to search, plan, and book a trip. If time is our most valuable commodity, we believe travel is one the best ways to spend it. Travel heightens your senses, pushes your limits, and created a huge platform for some of my strongest personal bonds. Who doesn’t want that? We agree.

We love to show you how we use Points, Miles, Status, etc to achieve our travel goals and dreams. 4 things we like to emphasize.

1. Inspiring people to travel – this above all else. Everything serves this desire. Have we said that enough yet?

   • You will regret 100% of the trips you don’t take. There’s no reason you shouldn’t have high tea at the world’s tallest building. 

2. We talk to you like you’re our friend. We’ll give you the facts and figures with little sauce and spice too.

   • We love stories and love to use them to review, report, and explain our content. When Miles flew Lufthansa First Class he had to tell you all about and how it made him feel.  

3. Using points and miles to achieve travel dreams

   •  Duh. Even this guy gets it

     

4. Entertaining people with humor.

   • We love to entertain ourselves with funny anecdotes. You can pretty much count on us laughing as we write…hopefully you do too. It took a lot to find the positive in AA’s devaluation, but we did 

This is going to be one helluva ride. Thanks to you and BoardingArea for giving me an incredible platform. Looking forward to taking you along with me to Southeast Asia as Miles traces his roots!

Get out the fine crystal…we’re gonna drink some Johnnie Blue on China Airlines Business Class!!!

• Best Starter Card

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market.  It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner

Welcome Offer

Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening 

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

Card Benefits

Earn

• 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
• NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
• NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
  • Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
• 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
• 3x on select streaming services
• 3x on online grocery purchases
  • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
• 2x on all other travel
• 1x on everyday purchases
• 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
• 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.

Benefits and Credits

• $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
• NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
• NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
• Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
• No foreign transaction fees
• Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
  • Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
• Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders

Monkey Miles Related Articles

• Full Review
• Best uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Chase Application Rules
• Complete Guide to Chase Credit Cards
• Credit Card Spreadsheet with historical data on best offer

Is this the best ever offer?

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

Quick Breakdown

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is great starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex®  and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Chase Ink Business Cash® ,  Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year.  It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.

One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.