Welcome to Travelling Lens Insider, where every weekend I send you a carefully curated letter of all things travel, photography and points optimisation.

Now, onto this week’s Travel + Photo letter…

✈️ Travel, Points and Miles

💰 Rakuten was thecashback portal other expats recommended to us when we first moved to the US.Watch this 11 minute breakdown from Frequent Miler to learn exactly how you can earn AMEX Membership Reward points with Rakuten and how you can optimise your Rakuten cashbacks or points earnings.

✈️ Most Australians will have a stash of Qantas points, and we Qantas Frequent Flyer members narrowed avoid some bad Emirates news this week. Emirates announced recently that First Class Emirates redemptions are now limited to Emirates’ Skyward Silver, Gold, and Platinum tier members from May 12, 2025 onward. Thankfully (for now), Qantas members regardless of status level still have access to redeeming First Class Emirates flights via Qantas!

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Welcome to Travelling Lens Insider, where every weekend I send you a carefully curated letter of all things travel, photography and points optimisation.

Now, onto this week’s letter…

✈️ Travel, Points and Miles

• 🧳 Why are we being forced to gate check bags when flying in US—even when there is plenty of overhead bin space! And it’s getting worse. I personally had this experience when flying domestically on United Airlines from San Francisco to Houston. 😠
• 🗺️ There is a lot of lingo that gets thrown around in the travel points and miles world in the US. If you’re confused by any of it, this Encyclopedia of Points and Miles is your reference point to clear anything up.
• ​🌸 My March 2025 roundup and recap. It was a busy month of Cherry Blossoms, 1-Michelin star dining experience and another round of Houston Rodeo.

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