This week, we'll cover how I built an AI assistant that works while I sleep, free Southwest Companion Pass with new card offers, Calala Island paying you $2,510 for a 4-night stay, free WHOOP + Annual Membership, 'Trump Accounts' signups now open, Valentines Day offers and freebies, a must-read on AI, and more!

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🤖 I Built an AI Assistant That Works While I Sleep

It's mind-blowing how modern AI tools have eliminated the barriers to building software, and I've been testing a few things out! So I share why planning matters more than coding skill, how anyone can turn a simple problem into a working app, and how I built a personal AI assistant that's already started to run my life behind the scenes.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📋 My Past Week

Here's a quick recap of what I was up to last week:

• I ended up going even deeper down the ​OpenClaw​ rabbit hole this week, and now have a total of 6 "employees" helping manage so many aspects of my work and life. The primary reason for having multiple agents is that I have them specialized in different areas, like research, project management, analytics and creative work (e.g. podcast titles and youtube thumbnails). It feels crazy to even be writing this sentence, but I feel like I'm living/working in a whole new world now and things are moving so fast, I'm just trying to keep up. The post at the end of this email was a fascinating read that I also shared with many non-technical family and friends to explain some of my thoughts and feelings right now.
• The walls and floorboards in our house have picked up 100s of scuffs and chips, but since the house has been 3-4 renovations (mostly before we moved in) we somehow ended up with 30+ cans of paint in our basement from the past 20 years. So with the help of Claude processing the images, we managed to build out an inventory of all the paint colors. With a few trips to the paint store, some color matching and a few evenings of painting after the kids were down, we've managed to get the house looking so much better.
• Our 10-year old Vizsla (dog) had some routine bloodwork done that indicated high calcium levels, which can be indicative of all kinds of possible health issues. So we spent the past week at the vet twice for some tests and ultrasounds and hoping to get good news from the results early next week!
• Finally, we have three trips planned this year to Japan, Mexico and Europe. With the flights and some hotels booked, we spent a lot of time planning out itineraries for the trips this week. I'm excited to have it all planned out and look forward to sharing all the takeaways from our trips after they happen!

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

✈️ Free Companion Pass with Southwest Card Offers

Southwest ​recently announced new welcome offers on all 3 personal cards, which include a ​free companion pass​.

• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card: Companion Pass + 40K points after a $5K spend in 3 months.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card: Companion Pass + 30K points after a $4K spend in 3 months.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card: Companion Pass + 20K points after a $3K spend in 3 months.

I also wrote ​this blog post​ with all the offer details and everything you need to know, including how to pick the right card and how the Companion Pass actually works. 

🏝️ Calala Island Will Pay You $2,510 for a 4-Night Stay

​​Calala Island​​, a luxury resort in Nicaragua, has a promo to pay guests $2,510 per cabana for any 4+ night stay booked before 5/10 for travel by 6/10/27. While that might not even cover one night when paying cash, the resort is part of Hilton's SLH collection, which means can book rooms with Hilton Honors points and Free Night Certificates (and ​this post​ says that award stays look to be eligible).

🤝 JetBlue & United Expand Blue Sky Partnership

JetBlue and United just ​​expanded their Blue Sky collaboration​​. You can now book flights on either airline directly from JetBlue.com or United.com using cash, points, or miles. By spring, elite members will get reciprocal perks like priority boarding and extra-legroom seating. Keep in mind that ​​award redemption rates​​ across airlines aren't always great, so compare before transferring points.

📣 New Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Business Class Award Flight Deals

• 🇦🇺 Australia: From ​85K Atmos points​
• 🇫🇮 Finland: From ​​55K Atmos points​ or AAdvantage miles​
• 🇶🇦 Qatar (Qsuite): From ​​70K Avios points​
• 🇲🇦 Morocco: From ​​55K Atmos points​​

Airline Promos

• Qatar Airways: ​​​​Up to 15% off award flights​ when booked by 2/18 and flown by 10/31
• United: ​​Earn up to 10.5K miles​​ after completing the required activities on Instacart.
• Qatar: 1.53¢ each with ​up to a ​50% bonus​​ until 2/16.
• Frontier Miles: 1.08¢ each with ​up to a ​150% bonus​​ until 3/6.
• Avianca LifeMiles: 1.29¢ each with ​up to a ​155% bonus​​ until 3/23.
• Air France (Targeted): ​​$250 back on $1,400+​​ when booked by 2/28 via Amex Travel.
• Virgin Atlantic: ​​Enhanced status match​​ for British Airways elites until 2/23.

Hotel Promos

• Delta Vacations: ​Up to $300 off eligible vacation packages​ booked before 3/31 and completed by 8/31.
• Vacations by Marriott: ​​25K bonus points​​ on packages for travel through 9/26.
• Homes & Villas by Marriott: ​​​​25K bonus points​ for new customers who book a 2+ night stay before 2/28 and stay by 9/1.
• Hyatt: ​​3x Hyatt points​​ on DoorDash restaurant orders and 2x on other orders through 4/22. Plus, get $10 off a DoorDash order to an eligible Hyatt hotel when ordering via an eligible credit card.
• Radisson Rewards: ​​Up to 7,000 bonus points​​ on stays booked and completed by 4/9.
• Marriott: ​​2,500 points per stay​ and bonus elite night at each brand you stay at between 2/25 and 5/10. ​Registration​ required.
• IHG (Targeted): 1 Bonus Elite Night Credit per stay through 3/31, up to 10 nights. Register ​here​ if you're eligible.
• Hyatt (Targeted): ​​5,000 points​​ when you add an authorized user to an eligible Hyatt co-branded credit card.

🤑 Latest Deals

⌚ Free WHOOP Fitness Band + Membership

Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a new promo for ​WHOOP​ through 5/12, where you get $359 off a purchase of $359+. The annual LIFE membership includes a Whoop Band and costs $359, which means that after the credit it's free (before taxes and shipping). That said this code 5DAF2073 took $30 off for me last night and brought the total cost after taxes/shipping to just over $359. Just make sure you don't drop the price below $359, because the promo requires a $359+ purchase. Most importantly you ​must activate​ the offer on your card in advance.

🌲 Free National Parks Admission on February 16th

All ​​National Park entrance fees are waived​​ on 2/16 for Presidents' Day weekend. If you've been meaning to visit a national park, this is a great excuse to go!

💝 Valentines Day Offers and Freebies

Tons of restaurants and retailers are offering promos, deals and freebies today. I thought this post from ​USA Today​ had the best round of deals. Most are from chain restaurants and not that existing, but there are some worth a look like ​GrubHub's promo​​ with no delivery or service fees on food orders over $50, plus a bunch of discounts for brands like Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Krispy Kreme. Don't forget that Amazon Prime members get ​free GrubHub+​ :)

💰 'Trump Accounts' Are Now Open For Signup

If you have kids, the new "​Trump Accounts​" (officially 530A accounts) are now open for signup. Children born between 1/1/25 and 12/31/28 with a valid Social Security number are eligible for a $1,000 federal contribution from the U.S. Treasury. Accounts will go live on 7/4/26 and parents can contribute up to $5K/year, and employers up to $2,500.

There's also an additional ​$250 contribution from the Dell family​ for children under 10 in zip codes with a median income of $150K or less.

🎁 Latest Gift Card Deals

Here are some gift card deals I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses.

• Stop&Shop/Giant: ​8x points​ on Zift gift cards (2/16-2/20)
• Kroger / Harris Teeter: ​4x fuel points​ on 3rd party & Visa/MC gift cards (2/24)
• inKind: ​$69.99 for $100​ gift cards at BJs​ (N/A, limit 10)
• Meijer MPerks: 50K points with $500 third-party gift card purchase (N/A)

P.S. Listen to ​​Ep #212​​ if you want to learn how to save from gift cards.

⛽ Shell Fuel: $0.22 Off/Gallon on NASCAR Race Days

Shell is offering ​​$0.22 off each gallon​ on all 37 NASCAR race days this season, which fall mainly on Sundays and some Saturdays.

🕵️ Top Finds

💻 A Must-Read on AI: Something Big Is Happening!

HyperWrite CEO Matt Shumer published ​​a viral essay on X​​ (it's been viewed over 40 million times), where he compares this moment in AI to February 2020 right before COVID changed everything, arguing we're in the "this seems overblown" phase of something much bigger. His advice is to sign up for the paid version of an AI tool, use the best available model, and push it into your real work instead of treating it like a search engine. Given how much I've been building with AI (see ​this week's episode​), I think this is a great read for anyone curious!