The WanderWise Monthly — December 2026

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Hi there,

December is for reflection.

For sitting by the fire (or the space heater) with a cup of something warm and thinking about the year that was. The trips you took. The ones you planned. The ones you're still dreaming about.

This month's newsletter is different. No new strategies. No urgent booking windows. Just a look back at the year — what we learned, what our community accomplished, and what's waiting for you in the year ahead.

Pour yourself something warm. Let's take a moment.

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📊 THE YEAR IN REVIEW: What Actually Changed

Here's what I watched shift in the award-travel landscape this year — the things worth knowing as you plan the next twelve months:

Dynamic pricing kept spreading. More airline programs moved away from fixed award charts toward pricing that changes with cash fares — sometimes hour to hour. The upside: off-peak and last-minute seats can be a bargain. The downside: the predictable "X miles, always" charts are disappearing, which makes checking actual availability more important than memorizing numbers.

A few notable devaluations. More than one major program quietly raised the points needed for peak-season and premium-cabin awards this year. None of it was catastrophic, but it's a reminder that points are worth their most today, not "eventually" — a theme I keep coming back to in this newsletter for a reason.

Transfer bonuses got more frequent, and more generous. Banks ran more 30–50% transfer bonuses to airline and hotel partners than in recent years, often with little notice. Watching for these — rather than transferring points reflexively — is one of the highest-leverage habits a points traveler can build.

Shoulder season kept proving itself. Every month this year I featured a September or October destination, the points math came out better than the July or August version of the same trip. That's not a coincidence — it's crowds and fixed capacity, and it isn't going away.

None of this requires a spreadsheet to act on. It requires checking your points before you assume they're not enough, and booking the trip you've been putting off.

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✈️ DESTINATION OF THE MONTH: Paris in Winter

If you're already thinking about your first trip of the new year, consider Paris in January or February.

This might be controversial. People think of Paris as a spring or summer destination. But winter Paris has something the other seasons don't: solitude.

The Louvre without lines. Versailles without crowds. A corner table at a café near Saint-Germain-des-Prés, chocolat chaud and a croque monsieur, steam on the window while rain taps the awning. The city belongs to you.

Here's the points math:

Round-trip in business class (East Coast): ~57,500 Aeroplan miles per person (transferred from Chase) 4 nights at Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme: ~120,000 Hyatt points Cash equivalent for two: $7,500+ Points cost: ~$310 in taxes and fees

January is also when transatlantic business-class award availability is at its best. If Paris has been on your list, winter is when the doors open widest.

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💳 CARD OF THE MONTH: Bank of America® Premium Rewards®

Annual fee: $95 Current sign-up bonus: 60,000 points (after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months)

For our final card spotlight of the year, I'm highlighting one that often flies under the radar — especially for Bank of America customers.

The Premium Rewards card earns 2x points on travel and dining, and 1.5x on everything else. Solid but not extraordinary on its own.

The magic happens if you're a Bank of America Preferred Rewards member (which requires $20,000+ in combined BofA and Merrill accounts). At the Platinum tier, your earning rate increases by 75%. That means 3.5x on travel and dining, and 2.62x on everything else — among the highest flat earning rates available.

If you bank with BofA, this card becomes quietly exceptional. The 60,000-point sign-up bonus is worth $600+ in travel, and the ongoing earning for everyday spending rivals cards with much higher fees.

Not everyone banks with BofA. But if you do, this card deserves a serious look.

👉 Read our full BofA Premium Rewards review → (Affiliate link — supports WanderWise at no cost to you.)

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💡 POINTS STRATEGY OF THE MONTH: Set Your Travel Goals for Next Year

This is the one time of year I'm going to ask you to plan — not book, not research, just plan.

Take ten minutes this week and answer three questions:

1. Where do you want to go in the next 12 months? Write down 2–3 destinations. They can be specific (Tuscany in September) or general (somewhere warm in February). Just get them on paper.

2. How many points do you have right now? If you did the mid-year audit in July, update your numbers. If you didn't, now is the time. Log into every account. Write it all down.

3. What's the gap? Compare your points to what your dream trips would cost. If you have enough — start planning. If you're short, think about which card could close the gap in the first quarter of the new year.

This isn't homework. It's the bridge between "I want to travel more" and "I'm going to Italy in September." The difference is a piece of paper with three answers on it.

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🗣️ A WORTHWHILE EXAMPLE

An illustration, not a customer story — the numbers are ours, worked from current award charts.

Line up this year's featured trips and a pattern shows up: Lisbon for roughly $250 in taxes and fees, Charleston for about $45, Bordeaux for around $290, Turks & Caicos for roughly $380. Different points, different programs, same shape — trips that would run $2,800 to $12,000 in cash, covered almost entirely by points that were already sitting in an account. The variable was never whether the points existed. It was whether they got used.

Reply and tell me what's on your list for next year — I read every one.

New to WanderWise? → Get the newsletter →

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📅 LOOKING AHEAD: 2027

Here's what's coming:

• January: Our annual "New Year, New Travel Goals" edition returns. Plus the semi-annual State of Your Points report.
• Q1 2027: We're launching a new free tool — the WanderWise Points Calculator — to help you estimate trip costs across all major programs.
• Spring 2027: Expanded destination guides for Japan, New Zealand, and the Mediterranean.
• All year: More worked examples, more strategies, and more trips booked on points.

The best is ahead.

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❓ ASK RUTH

A question I get constantly, especially this time of year:

"What's the single most important thing I should do with my points in the new year?"

My answer never changes:

Use them.

Not "optimize" them. Not "save" them for the perfect trip. Not research them for another six months. Use them.

Book a trip. Any trip. The weekend getaway you've been thinking about. The international trip you've been postponing. The flight to see your grandkids.

Points sitting in an account are a depreciating asset. Points turned into a trip are a memory. And memories don't devalue.

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there, thank you.

Thank you for reading these newsletters. Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for trusting us with something as personal as your travel dreams.

Every year, I hear some version of "I didn't know my points were worth anything" turn into "I just flew business class to Europe for $200." That shift — from skepticism to a booked trip — is why I do this work.

Next year, I want that transformation for you. If you haven't taken the trip yet, take it. If you have, take another one. The points are there. The destinations are waiting. You've earned this.

From everyone at WanderWise — happy holidays, safe travels, and a wonderful new year ahead.

Warmly, Ruth Calloway

Ruth Calloway is the pen name of WanderWise's editor.

P.S. — If you know someone who could benefit from WanderWise — a friend, a sibling, a neighbor who keeps saying "I should really look into those credit card points" — this is a wonderful time to share. Send them the quiz: /concierge. It takes 60 seconds. And it might be the start of something remarkable.