Updated on August 4, 2015

Weekend Update with TheRewardBoss.com

Rewarding Highlights for the week in case you don't have time to skim through BoardingArea and Flyertalk:

• SPG Platinum Shortcut working: Easy Shortcut to SPG Platinum Status, the elite credits of 2 stays / 5 nights for the SPG Amex credit card stacks past 4 stays / 10 nights.  Flyertalk members and TheRewardBoss subscribers have confirmed this continues to work.  Thinking about the SPG card?  The increased 30k (usually 25k) sign up bonus is due to expire at the end of this month.

• New Award Routing to Africa via Middle East: Wandering Aramean points out an AA award glitch which allows US to Africa routing through the Middle East.  Lucky clarifies that AA appears to have loosened up restrictions on routing rules.

• Free Marriott night after 2 stays (in 120 days) for new members only: Not a Marriot Rewards member?  Click here to join.

• Pay for 2 nights get 1 free @ Ritz-Carlton.  Stay between July 1 – Oct 31, 2014.

• Honoring mistake airfares may soon be a thing of the past.

• Starwood's SPG Elite requalification gift for 2014?  We will stay tuned and keep readers posted.

• When is it too soon to apply for another credit card?  Readers have asked here.   The Points Guy has a great write-up explaining that the credit bureau used depends on the bank, billing address location, and type of credit card.  If you went through a recent App-o-rama (yes, Wikipedia explains it) and all the hard pulls hit Transunion, in theory, you should have great success in applying for additional credit cards that hit Equifax or Experian.