1. Barclay AA cards will become Citi AA cards on April 26. What to know:

    – Your balance will transfer to Citi
    – Barclay cards will work after the transition until you activate your Citi card
    – Citi card will have a new account number
    – The Barlcay variants will be converted to the Citi lineup, sorry Silver card holders*
    – Authorized user cards will be reissued too

    If you’re Citi shut, will this transition get you back in? We’ll see, but #citigonnaciti.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to JAL MileageBank through February 28, bringing the transfer ratio to 1,000:975.
  3. Chase has a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through February 28 which makes the transfer ratio 1,000:1,500.

    Let’s ask a rhetorical or philosophical question, whichever you prefer: What do you get when you turn an awful transfer ratio into a really bad transfer ratio?
  4. The Fairwinds Business Visa 1.5x everywhere cards have a heightened, tiered sign-up bonus:

    – $500 after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – $1,500 after $50,000 spend in 180 days

    The cards carry no annual fee. If you haven’t figured out how to join banks or credit unions in another state, it’s probably time to experiment. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

*I guess sorry Silver holders of all types (too soon?)

  1. The American Express Delta cards have heightened sign-up bonuses, all of which are available via referrals too so go that route instead of using a blog link, P2 will thank you:

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Personal Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months

    There’s also a Personal Gold link for 60,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after $3,000 spend in six months with a waived first year annual fee during the ticket booking workflow, you don’t have to actually buy the ticket to get it.
  2. Four of the Chase United family of cards also has increased sign-up bonuses, and these are available for referrals too, so it’s either your best churning buddy or P2’s time to shine!

    – Personal Explorer: 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in three months, annual fee waived
    – Personal Quest: 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – Business MileagePlus: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Business Club: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months

    What’s the difference between the last two? A few things, but also an extra $495 for unlimited cheese cubes at any United Club location. I hope you like cheese!
  3. Kroger stores have a digital coupon for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards excluding fuel points cards and Amazon, and on fixed value Visas and Mastercards between Friday and Sunday.
  4. The Rove Miles Shopping Portal that also has a travel booking engine has several promotions including: 4x on Visas and Mastercards at GiftCards.com, 10x at Viator, and 2x when purchasing Alaska Atmos or AirCanada Aeroplan miles. Increased bonuses run through Sunday.

    Obviously you should sign up for Rove with either P2 or a churner buddy’s referral.
  5. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 10x points on Home Depot cards through Thursday, and Giant Food earns 6x during the same period. You’re limited to $2,000 or $1,500 per loyalty account depending on the brand.
  6. If you want to go all in on Accor ALL, there’s an interesting Accor ALL Signature+ subscription now available world-wide. The important parts:

    – Pay 1,149 Euros for a one year subscription
    – Earn 1,500 Euros worth of Accor ALL points (75,000 annually / 6,250 monthly)
    – Earn 12,000 status points (1,000 monthly)

    Gold status requires 7,000 points and Platinum requires 14,000, so earning Platinum becomes almost trivial. Effectively, if you were going to spend 2,000 Euros on Accor hotels in 2026 you’ll come out ahead by about 350 Euros and have Platinum status when you’re done. (Thanks to LL)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Gearing up for Player 2 referral shenanigans.
(Thanks to smirley)

There are more articles about how to optimize your daily organic spend with the right credit card portfolios then there are people on the planet (citation needed). I think you should ignore all of them. Why? Since you’re here, I’m going to assume you fall into one of two buckets, each with its own reason.

Bucket 1: The Players

As a churning player, you’ve got at least an intermediate understanding of manufactured spend and its execution. You probably know how to spend many thousands of dollars a week, a day, an hour, or maybe even more frequently, and those thousands of dollars mean at least many thousands of points earned in the same time frame.

On the other hand, your regular spend just doesn’t matter much in comparison. Even if you had a magical 10x card, your $15 lunch would earn you 150 points, which isn’t worth thinking about unless it’s purely for entertainment value. Those 150 points probably represent much less than a tenth of a percent of your earning, so don’t stress it. Any card will do.

Bucket 2: The Dreamers

If you’re not yet a churning player, you’re probably dreaming of becoming one (again, otherwise I don’t think you’d be reading this). If so, I’m sure it’s tempting to analyze which of the major bank cards are best for your lunch dining spend. Maybe it’s the American Express Personal Gold that earns 4x on dining, the Citi Strata Premier that earns 3x, the Chase Sapphire Preferred that earns 3x, or the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey that earns 3x? Well, maybe it’s one of those, but:

  • they have different annual fees
  • they have different transfer partners
  • they have different cash-out values
  • they have different ancillary benefits

So, which is best given that they’re all different? Maybe you need to build a spreadsheet, list your common expenses, the current point valuations from BigBankBlogger™, the coupon credits each card offers, the sign-up bonuses, when you can cancel the cards and still get an annual-fee refund, whether the card makes sense next to your quarterly 5x earning card capped at $1,500, and a dozen other factors. That’ll be a cool spreadsheet! But, you’ll sink hours into that sheet, it’ll go stale in months, and you’ll find that you’re still a dreamer.

So instead of optimizing your small organic spend, consider spending your would-be spreadsheet time figuring out how to move from dreamer to player. I guarantee you’ll make more points by doing so than the incremental bump you’ll get from an extra 2x when you go out to lunch.

The Big Picture

Optimizing your organic spend is almost certainly a poor investment on your time, unless it’s done purely for entertainment purposes, or because it makes people like MEAB annoyed, or maybe both.

Happy Thursday!

From the page where I got the statistic about the number of point optimization articles on the internet.

  1. Best Western has a promotion for 2,600 bonus points for stays through May 10 booked by Sunday, registration required.

    Best Western havsa separate promotion for a $50 gift card with 3+ night stays through May 10, registration is also required. The promotions will stack.
  2. Bilt’s rent day promotion on Sunday has a tiered transfer bonus of 25%-100% to Accor ALL depending on your Bilt status. Platinum Kerr Kash Bilt Cash holders can redeem $75 for an extra 25% bonus too. A few reminders about Accor:

    – Accor ALL points are worth a fixed 2 eurocents, or approximately 2.4 cents
    – You can transfer Accor ALL to Qantas at a 1:1.25 ratio
    – For more on the program, see the MEAB FAQette.

    Honestly, if you’ve decided to get out of the Bilt ecosystem this is probably the best case cash-out you could hope for, at least assuming you travel outside of the US.
  3. I wouldn’t normally write about content monster fodder like this, but I’m too happy to see it gone to help myself. So:

    Southwest boarding groups are gone, they only have assigned seating now. Ding dong, the witch is dead.

Happy Wednesday

You’ve gotta figure it out on your own today.

Bilt is back in the Churn-o-Tron 5000 news cycle, this time because they sent a bunch of “oops, my bad, I guess we do actually need customers” emails to existing card holders that had been soft or hard denied for conversion to the new Cardless versions of the card.

That’s positive when taken at face value, but it also illustrates a critical point in churning:

Simplicity beats complexity, unless the complexity is really, really valuable
– MEAB tome of apocryphal wisdom

I’m going to wager that you can’t find a churner who can argue that the new version of Bilt has any heir of simplicity with a straight face. Assuming that’s true, you’d better find a metric ton of value in the new Bilt ecosystem before you decide to join.

If a metric ton of value isn’t obvious though, maybe consider that your time will be better spent by using a Citi Double Cash card, Venture X card, American Express Blue Business Plus card, or Chase Ink Unlimited card and looking for other plays instead of taking hours learning the ins-and-outs of the most complex credit card program ever invented for the possibility of good returns before Cardless axes you. With all of those non-Bilt cards:

  • You’ll earn 2x on all spend (1.5x for the Ink Unlimited)
  • The annual fees are simple
  • The programs all have valuable transfer partners
  • You don’t have to spend hours learning how to use the card
  • Richard Kerr won’t be watching your plays in real time

So naturally the follow-on question is: Well, is there a metric ton of value in the Bilt program?

I think generally the answer is absolutely not for a whale, maybe for a dolphin, and possibly for a shrimp. But, you do you friends, and obviously what you know is different than what I know. Let me leave you with a new word, courtesy of Chris from All the Hacks: Bilted, which (I’m definitely paraphrasing and editorializing his words) means “So much complexity that you want to give up and laugh, but maybe there’s a good deal behind it all.”

Have a nice Tuesday friends!

With the right you complexity you can drive in a river like churning legend Danny too. But should you?

  1. Capital One Shopping has a widely targeted offer for $250 off of $250+, log in to your dashboard to see it. Note that some properties only earn $200 off of $250; I couldn’t discern a pattern on which was which.

    Because no-one asked: P2 saw an offer for $50 off of $100+ at Birkenstock right below the hotel deal and was more excited by that.
  2. Bank of America has an increased offer of 100,000 Atmos miles and a Global 25,000 point companion award on its premium Atmos Summit card after $6,000 spend in 90 days.
  3. The American Express Business Gold has a targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) link for 125,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months. If you’ve got a mailer you can probably do even better. (Thanks to Matthewtheswift)
  4. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Remember:

    – Even multiples get bigger discounts because math
    – There are “everywhere” cards with lower fees but different liquidation methods

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U rewards stores have 10x points earning on Instacart gift cards through Saturday. Also on Saturday, you’ll probably earn 12x because 10x+4x = 12x.

    The airline games stopped working for almost everyone else too by the way, not just you.
  6. Raley’s, Nob Hill, and Bel Air stars have 15x points on Choice gift cards, some of which convert to Home Depot, through January 27.
  7. Qantas announced:

    – No Emirates First redemptions without status starting February 18
    – Emirates Business and First prices are increasing by 10%-30%

    If there’s a good way to earn Qantas Status without flying on the airline or one of its partners, I don’t know it.
  8. AAdvantage award redemptions on Aer Lingus metal is now working. Redemption rates using AA miles beat most of their other partners.

Happy Monday!

There’s also a gift card sale for $800 off of a $200 gift card, but it’s less exciting than you might think.
(Thanks to noahg)

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice’s promotion for triple points on stays through March 31.
  2. Capital One acquired Brex. The action items:

    – Get a Brex account if you qualify and you’re banned by Capital One
    – Finish off those Brex plays, they’re likely short for the world

    Brex likes venture funded technology companies apropos of nothing.
  3. The Chase IHG Premier card has an increased bonus of 175,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and an extra 10,000 points and $100 statement credit after $20,000 spend in the first year.

    This card will likely be available via referrals on Monday, so probably wait until then to make a friend’s day or get an even bigger bonus in two-player mode. If you don’t have a churning friend yet, George at TBB makes a good one.
  4. The American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business card has a sign-up bonus of three 50,000 point night certificates after $6,000 spend in six months. The sign-up bonus isn’t great, but American Express cobranded business cards have a special place in a churners wallet because reasons.

    This one is available via referrals, so use one.
  5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards excluding gas cards and Amazon for today only. Sometimes Friday only coupons stack in unexpected ways, always be probing.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Hot tip: Today is a great day to spot a Marcus / Kroger churner in the wild.
(Thanks to Fish for the photo)

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s new promotion for 5,000 bonus points per 5+ night stays at Hyatt House and Hyatt Studios through 2026, up 50,000 total bonus points.

    If you’re like me you’re not planning on staying at those properties, but if your house floods and you need to be somewhere for a couple of weeks while it’s getting fixed, well, Hyatt House might be where you end up.
  2. The Bank of America AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles and 100XP after $3,000 spend in 90 days. The card will soon be a Visa.

    The 100XP earns FlyingBlue Silver and SkyTeam Silver status, but doesn’t fully stack if you’ve got more than one card.
  3. H-E-B stores have a promotion for a $20 H-E-B gift card with the purchase of a $100+ Visa, Mastercard, or American Express gift card through Tuesday. You’re limited to one of each per loyalty account.

    Last I checked in 1989, technology hadn’t progressed far enough for us to easily have multiple email addresses with multiple loyalty accounts. Presumably nothing’s changed. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. Kroger stores have a coupon for fee-free $150+ Visa and Mastercard variable load gift cards through Tuesday, and this one is also limited to one per loyalty account.
  5. The Capital One Venture Rewards Visa has a sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles and $250 in Capital One Travel credit after $4,000 spend in three months.
  6. The Bilt 2.0 2.0v2 2.0v3 debacle gets funnier (worse) every single day, though it does fit the company’s slogan:

    “Simplify everything by adding complexity and owning the basement dwelling Redditors!”

    Yesterday, they announced that Bilt Cash would have alternative cash-outs that include options like $10 monthly GrubHub or Lyft credit and $5 monthly off of parking at “Bilt Neighborhood Parking” lots. There are also Blacklane and Blade credits, but it’s unclear yet how much Bilt Cash things will cost, I think it’s not safe to assume that it’ll be 1:1. Don’t worry though, at least you can count on it being neither easy, nor obvious, nor straight-forward.

Happy Thursday!

Real world simulation of the disappointment in a Bilt press release.