How RewardZ Travel works
Every number on this site is verified against a primary source, every AI answer is grounded in that same verified data, and every affiliate link is disclosed.
1. The verified-data approach
We do not scrape, we do not guess, and we do not display anything we have not personally checked against a primary source. As of today, the site carries:
Primary source first
Every fee, earning rate, sign-up bonus, and benefit is verified against the issuer's own marketing or terms page. Secondary sources are only used to corroborate, never to invent a number.
Sources tracked per card
Each card detail page carries a “How we verified this card” disclosure listing the exact URLs we used, plus a Verified pill showing the month it was last refreshed.
No paid placement
Cards are ranked by what we think is best for the reader, not what pays the highest commission. Where an affiliate link exists, it is disclosed on the card and in our advertiser disclosure. Many cards have no affiliate path at all.
Honest about limits
Initial research is AI-assisted, then reviewed by a human against the primary source before a card goes live. Issuers change benefits without notice, so if you spot a stale number please tell us and we re-verify.
Our cents-per-point (CPP) numbers are curated medians, not real-time API feeds. For each program we sample recent saver-level redemptions across the trips a typical reader actually books (mixed domestic economy, transatlantic business, intra-Asia business, etc.) and take the median. Outlier aspirational redemptions do not move the number. When a program devalues, the published CPP drops the same week.
See the per-program CPP and history at /valuations.
2. How the AI advisor works
The advisor is not ChatGPT bolted to a credit-card blog. It is a tool-using agent grounded in our own verified data files, with a separate hallucination verifier that runs after every answer.
Grounding: on every turn the advisor receives a compact digest of the cards, programs, sweet spots, and active transfer bonuses on this site, plus your wallet balances if you are signed in. It is instructed to answer only from that data and to refuse questions it cannot ground.
No freeform web search: the advisor does not browse Reddit, FlyerTalk, or The Points Guy at runtime. If you ask about something we have not researched, it tells you so rather than inventing a citation.
Claim verifier: after each response, a separate Haiku 4.5 pass scans the answer for the failure modes our system prompt forbids (fabricated transfer ratios, unsupported premium-availability claims, math errors). High-risk responses are flagged in an internal audit table for human review.
Always confirm award availability with the airline or hotel before transferring points. Transfers are non-reversible. Issuers change benefits without notice. See disclosure.
3. Free vs Plus
Everything you need to evaluate a card or a redemption is free. Plus is for people who want the AI to actively watch their wallet for them.
Free
Track your wallet by hand.
- Manual wallet, up to 5 programs
- 3 AI advisor chats per 30 days (Haiku 4.5)
- Sweet-spot library + transfer-bonus tracker
- Credits Tracker for unlimited cards
- 3 active price alerts
Plus
AI watches your points while you sleep.
- 200 AI advisor chats per day (Sonnet 4.6)
- Unlimited wallet programs + price alerts
- Daily email digest of wallet alerts
- Custom CPP overrides per program
- CSV import (AwardWallet) + CSV export
- Everything in Free
4. Data freshness
We publish the refresh cadence so you can decide how much to trust any given number.
| Data | How it refreshes |
|---|---|
| Transfer bonuses | Daily cron + manual verification when an issuer announces a new promo |
| Sweet-spot redemptions | Weekly cron re-verifies pricing and availability against the program |
| Card welcome offers | Snapshot-tracked when issuers change them; prior value preserved in history |
| Card benefits + fees | Per-card Verified pill shows the month last reviewed; rolling re-verification |
| Loyalty program CPP | Re-published when a program devalues, and reviewed quarterly otherwise |
| Articles | Daily article-freshness cron flags posts older than 90 days for re-review |
Cron schedule is checked into vercel.json in our public repo.
5. How we make money
Two revenue lines, both fully disclosed.
- Affiliate linkson some external “Apply” buttons. If you apply through one of our links and get approved, the issuer pays us a commission. No card ranking, recommendation, or editorial opinion is driven by commission. Many cards on the site have no affiliate path at all.
- Plus subscriptions ($12/mo or $99/yr). Plus revenue funds Anthropic API costs for the advisor + our hosting bill.
Full advertiser disclosure: /advertiser-disclosure.
6. Report an issue
See a stale number, a broken link, or a bad advisor answer? Email jbruckma@gmail.com with the URL and what looks off. We re-verify against the primary source and reply when it is fixed. Reader reports are the fastest way we catch issuer changes.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the card and program data come from?
- Every card on RewardZ Travel is checked against the issuer's own benefit page (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, Bilt, US Bank, Barclays, etc.). Each card carries a 'How we verified this card' disclosure with the source URLs and the month the card was last reviewed. Loyalty program details come from each program's own award chart, terms, and devaluation announcements.
- How are points valuations (CPP) calculated?
- Our cents-per-point valuations are curated medians, not real-time API feeds. For each program we look at recent saver-level redemptions across the kinds of trips a typical reader actually books (mixed domestic economy, transatlantic business, intra-Asia business, etc.), then take the median value. Aspirational outlier redemptions (a one-off Singapore Suites award) do not move the number. When a program devalues, the published CPP drops the same week.
- What does the AI advisor actually know, and which model does it use?
- The advisor is grounded in our own verified data files (cards, programs, sweet spots, transfer bonuses, your wallet if you are signed in). It is NOT a freeform web search. Plus subscribers run on Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6; Free users run on Claude Haiku 4.5. After every response a separate Haiku 4.5 verifier scans for hallucinations against the same grounding data and flags risky claims for review.
- What is the difference between Free and Plus?
- Free includes a manual wallet (up to 5 programs), 25 advisor chats per rolling 30 days on Haiku 4.5, the full sweet-spot library, the transfer-bonus tracker, and the Credits Tracker. Plus ($12/mo or $99/yr) adds 200 chats per day on Sonnet 4.6, unlimited wallet programs, unlimited price alerts, daily email digest of wallet alerts, custom CPP overrides, and CSV import/export. See /pricing.
- How often is the data updated?
- Transfer bonuses are checked daily by a Vercel cron job. Sweet-spot redemptions are re-verified weekly. Card welcome offers are snapshot-tracked when issuers change them, with the previous value preserved in history. Loyalty-program award charts are reviewed on a rolling schedule and whenever a program publishes a devaluation.
- What if the AI advisor is wrong?
- Two safety nets. First, a runtime claim verifier (Claude Haiku 4.5) re-reads every advisor response against our grounding data and logs anything risky to an internal audit table. Second, if you spot a stale number or a bad recommendation, email jbruckma@gmail.com and we re-verify against the primary source.
- How does RewardZ Travel make money?
- Affiliate commissions on some external 'Apply' buttons. We disclose every affiliate link, no recommendation is ranked by commission, and many cards on the site have no affiliate path at all. Full details: /advertiser-disclosure.
Try the advisor
Grounded in the data above. Free users get 3 chats per 30 days on Haiku 4.5.