The MMS Backstory

In the early days of churning, there was a popular blog named Million Mile Secrets. It’s long gone now, at least inasmuch as it’s been effectively inactive since 2021 (and it was effectively useless years before that). There was a time, however, that the blog was great for newbies and also for bringing new voices into the community every week. At some point though it morphed into a churning reality TV show turned credit card article, and then just abruptly stopped. (Curious about the reality TV aspect? I guess google MMS Darius Emily or wait for the Netflix mini-series.)

It’s an interesting case study because from the site’s early days until it’s implosion, it went from having a codified rule saying they’d always present the best offer available card whether or not it paid them (they called it the mother-in-law rule and later mostly scrubbed that from the internet until only vestiges remained), and ended up as the kind of site that had 27 links to an affiliate Chase Sapphire Preferred link, all of which were worse than the publicly available bonus. Basically the site’s progression evolved like:

  1. Always show the best offer
  2. Hold off on posting about a best offer until an affiliate link comes in
  3. Show an affiliate link, but note in small print that there’s a better offer elsewhere
  4. Only show affiliate links, but tag some of them as best offer
  5. Channel Olivia Rodrigo, and decide to push whatever earns the most commission

Why bring this up now?

The IHG Business 200,000 Point Offer

On Monday night, the Chase IHG Business card released a highest ever 200,000 point sign-up bonus. Cool I guess, right? Yes, but that’s not the point. The point is that basically every big blog out there didn’t write about it until yesterday, even some of the “good ones”. Why did they wait until yesterday? I’ll give you a hint, it starts with an “a” and ends with “ffiliate link”. In other words, they’re on step (2) of the MMS playbook.

Now do I think the “good ones” are headed for step (3)? Generally speaking, no I don’t. But I do think you should know the motivations of the content you’re consuming, and you should know exactly how much your favorite affiliate blog is willing to withhold about a deal until they can be paid for it. But don’t take my word for it, it’s easy to go look around and see when your favorite sources wrote about the offer. For bonus points, check and see if they told you that the offer’s available via referral from P2 or another churner, or whether that’s a causal omission.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Friday afternoon preview.

Alexander Graham Bell apparently invented the phrase “When one door closes another door opens…” which I assume is the only reason anyone’s heard of him.

Well, yesterday a big churning door closed which rendered some back buttons useless, and I’m not sure another door opened despite Mr. Bell’s admonitions to the contrary. You’re not out of luck though, the hallway has multiple doors, so maybe just take a few other probing steps and see what other doors lurk in the hallway.

General cryptic MEAB disclaimer: If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t stress, it likely doesn’t affect you.

Happy Thursday!

Next time: Reciting the floosie’s business plans.

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has an offer for an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 Virgin points and a $100 statement credit during a ticket booking flow. You don’t have to checkout to see the offer.

    Virgin Red points are ok, but the Synchrony card is more than just Virgin Red points. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. Meijer stores have 7,500 mPerks points with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per account. Obviously scale with multiple accounts.
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business’s travel portal has implemented price matching for hotel rooms including Edit properties. The terms require that you submit a claim within 24 hours of booking and the stay must be more than a day away, oh and that the price difference has to be at least $5.

    Chase Points Boost is a mixed bag at best, but the mix just got better. On the other hand, Edit hotels haven’t been so fortunate.
  4. The Kudos Shopping Portal quietly added a $2.99 fee to cash out your rewards via PayPal. Don’t worry, they’ll waive the fee if you pay them $12 per month though 🙄.
  5. PayPal Offers has 1% back at Giftcards.com on up to $2,000 spend when paying with PayPal through March 31. This stacks with other portal bonuses, however science has yet to discover exactly what Giftcards.com sells.

I guess it’s time for us to go do Wednesday now.

Next up: Learn how to price match garlic bread for savings of $0.01, and that’s per loaf.

  1. The Chase IHG Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 200,000 points after tiered spend:

    – 140,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 60,000 points after $9,000 spend in six months

    This should also be available via referrals in a couple of days. (Thanks to ArchEveNix)
  2. Wyndham is updating its hotel award tiers on April 15. Apparently 8% of hotels are moving to a lower tier and 4% to a higher tier. That means you’ve got until April 14 to book any Wyndham aspirational stays in anticipation of the price increasing.

    I’d like to see the same numbers out of Hyatt in May. I’d also like a new, free Gulfstream Jet which seems equally likely.
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for $250 off of $1,000+ at Marriott Homes & Villas through May 24.
  4. Lufthansa’s Allegris business class seats have now been certified after years of complications. Watch for quite a bit more Lufthansa business availability dropping in the next week, though probably only with the airline’s own miles.
  5. Singapore KrisFlyer has 30% off of both economy and business class redemptions to and from many destinations for travel booked by the end of March and flown in April. Destinations in the US aren’t currently advertising reduced business class rates though.

Happy Tuesday!

The Allegris seats certification issue: Footwell made emergency egress hard.

  1. It’s time to register for Q2 rotating category card bonuses:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Amazon, Chase Travel, and Feeding America
    – Discover IT: Restaurants and Home Improvement
    – Citi Dividend: Grocery and Citi Travel
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics

    Every one of these has a way to manufactured spend your way to your $1,500 quarterly. I’d suggest knocking these out on day one so you don’t have to think about them, but you do you.
  2. The Chase Freedom Unlimited no-annual fee card has an increased sign-up bonus of $250 after $500 spend in three months via referrals only.

    The sign-up bonus isn’t great, but there are a number of use-cases for 1.5x Ultimate Rewards everywhere. Its 3x categories have niche use-cases too.
  3. Citi ThankYou Points sharing between different accountholders is ending on May 17. If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, it’s not really because the limits were 100,000 points annually. You’ll just have to join team QR now.
  4. The American Express Bevy and Brilliant Marriott Bonvoy cards have new language restricting eligibility for cardmembers that:

    – Have or had a Chase Marriott card in the last 30 days
    – Opened an American Express Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful card in the last 90 days
    – Got a sign-up bonus for a new Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful in the last 24 months

    Can gamers still game? Undoubtedly. Or should I say, Bundoutably?
  5. There was a time when PayPal Bill Pay games could amount to huge profits in a short period of time. Then there was another period with different games, and yet another period with even more games. PayPal has thrown in the towel now, BillPay is completely gone from the app and website.

    Other FinTechs that use the same backend have been going through interesting changes recently too. Coincidence? I doubt it.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Even playing the whah-whah trombones for PayPal BillPay died.

  1. Do this now (if you like camping I guess): Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 2,000 bonus points per night at Under Canvas locations through July 1.
  2. The Chase Hyatt Business Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 Hyatt points after $10,000 spend in three months.

    This bonus is available for referrals too, and remember that good things happen to 5/24 dreamers when new Chase business card bonuses come out.
  3. The American Express issued Marriott cards have increased sign-up bonuses available direct and via referrals:

    – Brilliant: 200,000 Bonvoy points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Bevy: 175,000 Bonvoy Points after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Business: Five free night awards after $9,000 spend in six months

    Of course use a referral instead of a random link on ye-olde internet.
  4. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards today through Sunday.

    The current state of gas prices seems to be good news for resellers.
  5. American Express has targeted spend offers worth between +0.25x and +1.5x on between $20,000 and $30,000 spend.
  6. Marriott Bonvoy raised the free night award top-off limit to 25,000 points, 10,000 higher than before. According to my future-news-o-tron, next week Bonvoy will raise average award redemption costs by 10,000 points.
  7. Giant, Giant Food Stores, Martin’s, and Stop & Shop stores have 2x rewards on Mastercard Gift Cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account at Giant and $2,000 per account otherwise.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The all new, always sophisticated, future-news-o-tron 2,000.

  1. Ford launched a new Comenity issued Visa. It looks great until you see that Ford Rewards points are worth only 0.5 cents each toward the purchase of a new car, after which it looks just ok. The vitals:

    – No annual-fee
    – 15,000 point ($75) sign-up bonus
    – 6x (3%) back on grocery, gas, restaurants, EV charging, insurance, tolls, and parking
    – 2x (1%) for other purchases

    It’s not unheard of for a churner to use an auto-manufacturer card to churn a car, but this one would be a lot of time at your favorite Kroger, Speedway, or similar to end up with a Ford. The fact that it’s a Comenity card could change the calculus.
  2. GiftCards.com has a promotion for a $10 GiftCards.com gift card with a $100 Visa or Mastercard gift card through tomorrow night using promo code SPDBOGO. This is limited to three per account, but players don’t let that stop them.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. MGM Rewards has a free 90 day status match and challenge to keep status through January 2028. Match status by the end of June, and retain status after 90 days with either 50,000 Tier Credits for Gold or 150,000 Tier Credits for Platinum.

    For those mathing at home, 50,000 Tier Points is a breeze to earn with only *checks notes, furrows brow* $12,500 in spend. *sigh*

Happy Thursday!

Good news: It’s not against the rules to buy a kids Ford and say you churned a car, I checked.

Introduction

Holding any loyalty currency in your account for anything beyond what you’ll use in the next 18 months or so is generally a recipe for disaster because:

There’s still a great case to be made for holding some points though, specifically for when “life doesn’t care about your booking window” happens, also known as that time you need to travel immediately regardless of how many seats Delta has available in their “Main Basic Extra Minus Enhanced Lite” fare class.

The Emergency Fund

When life hits, you may need to be on a plane or in a hotel room in the next couple of hours, for example:

  • You need to travel immediately to care for someone
  • A war started nearby
  • Your house flooded
  • You ran out of flour from a specific mill in France and don’t have time to ship more

At that point, “getting out” is more important than whether or not you have a lie flat bed or whether you’ll get a free sandwich in main cabin extra. It also means that you won’t have time to earn new points to cover your stay, so what you’ve got banked is exactly what you have to work with. In other words, holding a baseline level of points in a few programs can serve as the points equivalent of your cash emergency fund.

In Practice, MEAB Style

I keep a baseline of around 100,000 points in most US airline programs and hotel programs for emergencies. Why 100,000? Well, humans like round numbers, and because that’s generally enough to ensure I can get anywhere in coach and have a night or two in a hotel while I figure out next steps or earn more points as needed. It’s also a level that I’m comfortable losing without any real heartache if my account is shutdown because reasons.

Fin

Hoarding is bad, except when it’s good, naturally. Just keep those hoard levels in check and call them an emergency fund so you can sleep better at night.

Happy Wednesday!

Next time: Building your strategic reserve. (Also eww, Diet Coke)