1. American Express added Leading Hotels of the World as a transfer partner. The ratio is 4,000:1,000 which sounds terrible, but points in the program are worth about eight cents each so there’s much better value than most Hilton or Bonvoy redemptions, at least provided they have a property where you’re looking to stay.
  2. Two airlines added basic premium products, following Delta’s lead. Don’t worry though, there’s plenty of competition in North America and the others won’t follow suit. Right? Right? Anyway:

    – JetBlue’s BlueFirst Base
    – Air Canada’s Business Class Basic

    Don’t worry, according to JetBlue this is “Fares Simplified”, because having three versions of first class is obviously simpler than one version.
  3. Alaska Atmos can now book Philippine Airlines award tickets, with US-Manila fares pricing at:

    – 37,500 miles in economy
    – 75,000 miles in business

    A quick Philippine Airlines primer: Taxes and fees are less than $30, availability is good for every destination you could want from the US as long as you only want Manila, and the product is lackluster but serviceable.

Happy Wednesday!

The feel of the service and product on Philippine Airlines, but as a food.

  1. Bilt has a status match with to Accor ALL on Saturday, with the match level is based on your Bilt status. The regular transfer ratio is 1,000:666, and you have to transfer miles to earn status which lasts through the end of 2027. Accor status is good for their hotels, but also Accor Gold and above have a fast track to Qatar status too, which includes oneworld Sapphire at Qatar Gold and above. Confused yet? The tiers:

    – Bilt Silver (or no status): Accor Silver with 5,000 points transferred
    – Bilt Gold: Accor Gold with 5,000 points transferred
    – Bilt Platinum: Accor Platinum with 15,000 points transferred

    Accor is an outstanding program in Europe and a good program elsewhere, but probably doesn’t pay affiliate revenue so it doesn’t get much coverage. In fact it gets so little coverage that this site apparently has the definitive guide on the program, which is a sad statement for both the site and the state of the churn-o-sphere. No I’m not bitter, you’re bitter.
  2. Three Incomm gift card sites are running a sale, for, *checks notes* a K-Pop boy heartthrob band:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fee $50+ Mastercards with code BTS26
    – VanillaGift.com: No fee $50+ Visas with code VGBTS26
    – InCommIncentives.com: No fees on $20,000+ in gift cards and a $200 bonus gift card for new accounts with code MORALE26

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (thanks to GCA)
  3. American Express Offers has a targeted offer for $50 off of $250+ at Delta through September 26. Stack with a targeted offer for a $50 Starbucks gift card with a Delta flight.

    There are changes to star earning and Delta activity requirements being introduced, but frankly unless you’re spending thousands of dollars a month at Starbucks I think it’s safe to ignore it all. If you are though, cool?
  4. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles has a 10% incoming transfer bonus for “finance or hotel points” through August 28, registration required. I heard (or made up) something about this being for BTS fans to see the band live in South Korea.

Happy Tuesday friends!

For the naysayers that say BTS means back to school.

  1. SoFi, a name derived by combining the words “sock” and “fiasco”, has a new account bonus of $335 through Swagbucks and $400 directly, provided you have direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 within 25 days of the first direct deposit and the first direct deposit is at least $400 (thanks to dylan for the note about the first deposit).

    These accounts are mostly churnable, contrary to the propaganda orchestrated by the big sock lobby.
  2. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five total and four per transaction, special thanks to Sean for the distinction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Kroger stores have a coupon for a fee-free $150+ Visa or Mastercard through tomorrow.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Offers has an offer for $80 off of $400+ spend with Hawaiian or Alaska through September 30. The level 0 churning game on this one is to book a non-basic economy flight for $400 and then cancel it to your travel wallet.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards. Oh wait, it just seemed like something I was supposed to type at this point.
  6. Emirates has a partner award sale for 25% off of economy redemptions through August 9. These are particularly attractive for short haul flights, which coincidentally is also exactly the type of flight that I’m willing to sit in economy on.
  7. Chase Offers has two new travel related offers:

    – 7% back on between $100 and $500 at Hyatt Place in the US through September 30
    – 10% back on between $100 and $500 at Marriott in the US through August 31

    The level 0 churning game on here is gift cards at the front desk.
  8. Giant, Martins, and Stop & Shop have 2x rewards on Mastercards. Giant Food has 8x points on Zift Zillions gift cards.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday, friends!

Ever wonder why you don’t see these out in the wild much? Again, big sock.

The churn-o-tron has a figurative, literal, figurative fire bomb of news today:

  1. The Bank of America AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus:

    – 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in the first 90 days
    – 30,000 miles after $7,500 total spend in the first six months
    – 100 XP

    You can hold multiple FlyingBlue cards. For bonus fun points, get one in Dutch and one in French. Or I guess two in French if that’s how you roll.
  2. The PenFed Defender Visa was announced yesterday, and the waitlist is open. The card’s vitals:

    – No annual fee
    – 5x at gas and EV charging
    – 3x at grocery, restaurants, sporting goods, military commissaries, and base exchanges

    Before you get too excited, PenFed is really good with gas pump versus gas store coding, and their points are worth about 0.8-0.9 cents each. (Thanks to MattyB)
  3. Bank of America has targeted $750 sign-up bonuses using this link on:

    – Customized Cash Rewards
    – Unlimited Cash Rewards
    – Travel Rewards

    All three require $5,000 spend in 90 days. For bonus fun points part deux, get multiple with multiple tax IDs or products.
  4. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third-party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards today and tomorrow.

    For those playing only casually: Watch out, Kroger stole bonus points and is now requiring ID and a social security number for BestBuy gift card purchases over $200.
  5. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 bonus points with $100+ in MasterCard gift cards through Tuesday, one per account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. Capital One Shopping is “featuring” giftcards.com today. As of this writing, I don’t know what the featured bonus is though so watch for egg on my face.
  7. Alaska Atmos, also known as the last to the finish line, added a back to school shopping bonus like earlier finishers American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Alaska’s is 2,000 miles after $750 spend by August 10.

    Giftcards.com will work for these.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Meanwhile, at the FlyingBlue shopping portal.

Sometimes there’s a deal that’s worth traveling across the country, like say when Meijer used to offer 15% off of Choice gift cards, something about Nobby Hills, or seeing UFOs in Lubbock, TX I guess?

Similar deals come and go, and often they slide by because analyzing whether it’s worth traveling takes a mental load that’s never lifted. To that end, Having that number ready to go might mean you make it. Sample:

Earn side:

  • Return on spend from your credit card: 4%
  • Return on spend from the deal: 5%

Cost side:

  • Round-trip ticket: $360 (30,000 miles at 1.2 cents each)
  • Rental car: $100
  • Hotel room: $300
  • Meals: $100

Let’s call that about $1,000 to keep it easy (just like physicists use π=3 to keep it easy), which means you’d have to spend around $11,100 to cover your costs, excluding opportunity cost at home of course. There are lots of places that will let you spend that amount in a single transaction, so it can be a quick return.

Of course there’s opportunity cost, you might hate traveling, you may have a family or job to consider, or maybe you don’t believe in UFOs. This isn’t a complete analysis, just a go number. So, what’s your go number?

Have a nice one friends!

#neverforget

  1. The Samsung Galaxy Barclays Mastercard soft-launched yesterday and launches officially today, and includes a $200 statement credit after $2,000+ spend in 90 days via the public application page. The card’s important vitals:

    – No annual fee
    – 3% back on Samsung Wallet purchases, unlimited
    – 1% back on general purchases

    Early adopter data points suggest this card is being approved even at lol/24, but credit lines are small. The fact that Samsung is behind this rather than a bank with $3.73 million in total assets means it might last for a while. Samsung Wallet works anywhere Google Pay is accepted.
  2. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer accounts started getting error messages last week when searching for awards, and now they’ve updated their terms and conditions to make it official: You have to have recent activity to search for award flights, reportedly a 1,000 mile transfer in is sufficient, but miles that have been there for a long time aren’t.

    This is ostensibly to combat botting.
  3. Delta SkyMiles has multiple promotions for bonus miles, registration required. The most interesting is probably double redeemable miles on Main Classic or Main Extra tickets booked by tomorrow.

    In case you’re wondering, that’s only 2/9 or 2/11 (depending on the flight) of the types of tickets available. Classic.
  4. Hotels.com has an offer for $20 extra OneKey cash for bookings made by Sunday. The terms say it’s only valid for their intended recipients, but it will likely work for everyone. (Thanks to Mike)

Happy Wednesday friends!

Samsung Galaxy Card auditing office, September 2027.

  1. Citi ThankYou has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through August 22.
  2. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, known for it’s boundless ability to trap business travelers that don’t know any better, has a heightened sign-up bonus of:

    – 125,000 Bonvoy points
    – 50,000 point free night certificate
    – Free rental of a two plastic keycards with every stay

    The bonus requires $3,000 spend in three months, and is available via referrals too. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.
  3. Chase Offers has an offer for a $100 statement credit with $1,000+ at Air Canada in a single purchase through September 18.
  4. Greendot’s Gobank, not to be confused with Greendot’s Go2bank, eliminated bill payments this month. Its real utility is long gone, and now its little remaining utility is gone too, kind of like cigar umbrellas which were also apparently a thing.

    So long, debit card version of the cigar umbrella.
  5. A few more airline shopping portals added back-to-school bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 2,500 bonus miles with $1,200+ spend through August 8
    – Delta SkyMiles: 2,000 bonus miles with $600+ spend through August 10

    Giftcards.com is still the too-cool-for-school way to hit these.

Happy Tuesday!

Rejected marketing campaign for the cigar umbrella.

  1. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards on sale through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. Bank of America cards have retention offers, and they’re occasionally available in-app via chat with Erica, the virtual agent, too. Just open the app and click “Close” when you’re presented with a list of options (the act of clicking Close won’t actually close your card), and you may see an offer. In bad news for my P2, the app does need to be up-to-date. Current best offers are $175 after $1,500 spend in three months.

    I’m not saying it’s a good idea, but closing a Bank of America card a month or two after meeting a retention offer doesn’t seem to cause any lasting repercussions on your account.

Happy Monday!

I’m not saying this is a bad idea either, but […]