1. Chase is changing the Sapphire Preferred card:

    – Transfers to Hyatt will be 4:3 on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – The annual 10% rewards bonus ends on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – 3x earning on gas, EV charging, Airbnb, and VRBO
    – A new Global Entry / PreCheck credit since the other 14 you have aren’t enough
    – Changed travel insurance
    – A one-time Apple TV coupon

    Generally speaking this is a negative change, but don’t worry if you want a positive spin from lala land, TPG has your back: “And at a time when many travel cards are becoming increasingly expensive and complicated, there’s a strong argument that the Sapphire Preferred just became an even better fit for casual travelers.” Erm, ok.
  2. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card will also devalue transfers to Hyatt starting on June 15 for new cards, and October 1 for existing cards. Side note: Reportedly the sign-up bonus for several Ink cards and the Sapphire Reserve Business card will be increased on June 15, I guess to counter bad-press?
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through July 7.
  4. For those of you that like it when portal-like companies that you’ve never heard of team up with business banks that you’ve never heard of, there’s a $300 promotion between Finder and Grasshopper. To earn a $300 Finders gift card which can apparently be turned into a Visa e-gift card:

    – Open a new Grasshopper business checking account via Finders
    – Depot $100+

    In theory the Finders gift card arrives quickly, and it might be clawed back if you don’t keep the account open 150+ days. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Kroger, Fry’s, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, and other family stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and Flexible fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards, running through Tuesday, June 23.

    Fuel points demand is currently through the roof for probably obvious reasons.
  6. Two airline portals have a summer bonus promotion:

    – Alaska Shopping: 500 miles with $200+ spend by June 19
    – United Shopping: 750 miles with $250+ spend by Sunday

    Giftcards.com is a quick way to knock these out.
  7. Southwest has 40% off both award and revenue flights using promo code FLYWOW for travel between August 4 and December 16 and booked by today.

    Blackout dates? You betcha. Only select flights on non-blackout dates? Of course, this is Southwest after all.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

Preview of upcoming Chase automation, built to address their most common customer request.

There’s a simple principle that we can either (1) get all economisty about it and brandish words like “specialization”, or (2) we can just state the somewhat obvious:

When a small group works together toward a common goal, they minimize individual weaknesses and amplify individual strengths.

This is absolutely true in churning and manufactured spend too. When you’re forming your close-knit circles, non-toxic personalities that are different than your own are probably going to lead to much better results.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Next up: How the “Apex Diners Club Churners” in the 1970s gave birth to rational ignorance.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s Summer promotion for 1,000 bonus Qatar Avios and set Qatar Avios as your preferred travel partner. This works with each Hilton stay through August 31. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Accor has a Summer promotion for 4x points at new and updated properties, registration required through November 29.
  3. The US Bank Altitude Power Business Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 points after $10,000 spend in four months. The card’s $195 annual fee is not waived the first year.

    Manufactured spend newbie spoiler alert: Visas and Mastercards aren’t the same, and there’s different value in both. There also aren’t that many 2.5x / 2x everywhere business Mastercards around.
  4. The Acorns investment platform has a great $1,100 promotion for churners with at least five players. To qualify:

    – Refer four new accounts by June 14
    – Have each new account invest $5

    If you don’t have your own Acorns link yet, ask a friend for theirs. If that doesn’t work, reach out to me and I’ll happily share a random churner’s referral. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Wells Fargo is ending points transfers between accountholders on September 25.

    Another hint for the newbies out there: There’s a good reason that Wells Fargo is doing this. Big companies don’t often make changes for no reason.

Have a nice Tuesday friends!

Bonus newbie tip: There’s a reason people don’t put powdered cheese on pizza too.

  1. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa egift cards. Practically speaking the limit is four despite terms and conditions that say otherwise, which frankly is a recurring theme in our space.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. Philippine Airlines was invited to join the oneworld alliance. Practically speaking, this will likely mean more award space to Southeast Asia when the integration is complete, which is currently slated for 2027. Of course, you’ll need to watch out for bots snapping up space before you can, which is also a recurring theme in our space.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results, buy in even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

In case you’re wondering how bad the botting has gotten: The weight of the robots flying up front collapsed the landing gear on this Lufthansa 787.

Let’s start with a PSA and a disclaimer, but in reverse order: I don’t work in marketing and I have no formal training in marketing, so smart money would ignore anything I have to say about the subject. With that out of the way, dear marketers: If you want to make a splash, maybe don’t wait until the second half of the first week in colloquial summer to launch a campaign.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some new marketing campaigns.

  1. IHG has a targeted summer promotion for double elite night credits, maximum five, through July 31. Registration is required.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have new sign-up bonuses:

    – Gold (via dummy booking): 60,000 miles + $500 credit after $3,000 spend in six months and a single Delta purchase
    – Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months

    These are all available via referral, except for the dummy booking version. If you’re going for one where a referral is available, use a friend’s link and make their day.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 125,000 points and a free-night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $3,000 spend in three months.
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $90 or 9,000 point offer for new Chase Freedom Unlimited applications, which have their own $200 or 20,000 point bonus after $500 spend in three months.

    On the subject of marketing, exactly who at Chase / Rakuten thought a guy either inhaling or exhaling a big line of smoke was exactly what the public needed to entice them to sign up for a Freedom Unlimited?
  5. The American Express Delta cards have added new benefits:

    – Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards, both personal and business, get a second free checked bag
    – Personal Gold cards get a (lame) $10 monthly statement credit on rideshare

    One of these is objectively nice, and one seems nice but is really just more work for you.
  6. Frontier has a contest for a free Go-Wild pass and a $100 TaskRabbit promo code. Someone’s going to win these, and it might as well be one of you.

    With the previous marketing disclaimer still in full force, Frontier did a good job of making you look twice at their promo, good show. (Thanks to David)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Actually, maybe some promotions are better launched in the second half of the first week of summer. (Thanks to Lea)

  1. Meijer stores have 10,000 bonus MPerks points with a $100 One4All gift card, limit one per MPerks account through Tuesday.
  2. Alaska Atmos has a new monthly marketing push for discounted award redemptions in economy. This month’s redemption options are Mexico City (7,500 miles), Paris (20,000 miles), Helsinki (15,000 miles), Tahiti (20,000 miles), Bangkok (25,000 miles), Taipei (30,000 miles). You’ve got to book by Friday for travel between September 1 and November 15

    Most of these flights will necessarily be partner redemptions, and I doubt it goes uphill from here so if you’re not excited for this, well I guess prepare to be more not excited next month. (Thanks to LiftBroski)
  3. Alaska Atmos decided to devalue mileage accrual and elite status credit on revenue saver tickets: “Saver fares (X class) earn 30% of miles flown for travel through July 31, 2026, or for trips booked before June 11, 2026. Saver fares booked on or after June 11, 2026 and flown on/after August 1, 2026 do not earn Atmos Rewards points. For eligible travel on/after August 1, please allow 4–6 weeks for points to post.”
  4. AA seems to have devalued its transatlantic business class redemptions by at least 5,000 miles, with the minimum redemption cost on AA metal moving from 65,000 to 70,000 miles.

    Awards that include non AA metal flights haven’t changed in price, so think on that for a moment when constructing your routing.
  5. Singapore Airlines is adding advance seat selection fees for most award business class flights on Singapore metal. At T-96 hours, seat selection is free.

Talk about oof-day, eh?

Another upcoming devaluation: American removes milk and butter from its flagship first mac & cheese plate.

  1. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for bonus points on 2+ night stays booked by September 3 for stays through September 30. You’ll earn between 7,500 – 15,000 bonus points per stay and you’re limited to 15,000 total bonus points with the promotion.
  2. American Express Membership Rewards has a 25% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue through June 30.
  3. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue released its June promo awards. US Cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle, San Jose, and Washington DC. Economy flights are 18,750 miles each way, and business class flights …. exist at absurdly priced levels.

    Summer to Europe via SkyTeam in business looks bleak.
  4. Alaska Atmos will raise its partner redemption fee to $20 on July 1.
  5. Giant Eagle Grocery stores have a promotion for 550 perks points with a $100 One4All Ultimate or Favorites gift card, both in-store and online, seemingly unlimited.

    The resale market for Giant Eagle points is tiny, but with the right finesse this is effectively a 10% rebate plus grocery store credit card spend.
  6. Best Western has promotion for 2,500 bonus points per night between July 1 and 7 at US and Canadian properties, registration required, limit 10,000 points. If you need a sales pitch to entice you to book: I’ve only heard of one opaque Best Western swimming pool this year.

Happy Wednesday!

“Opaque blue” beats almost any other opaque color in a pool at least.

  1. United has a 25% incoming transfer bonus for hotel points, registration required. The most valuable program for this promotion is Marriott Bonvoy (the first time in recorded history that someone wrote this seriously) which will transfer at a ratio of 1,200:700 when points are moved in 20,000 mile increments.
  2. Qatar Avios has a 30% incoming transfer bonus for Citi ThankYou Points through June 30, which makes the Citi → Qatar transfer ratio 1,000:1,300

    Qatar usually posts bonus Avios within a couple of minutes of transfer, though the terms and conditions say it could take 6-8 weeks. There’s a joke in there.
  3. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, which is unfortunately no longer available for new applicants, sent new beginning of month offers:

    – Make eight purchases of $75+ for a $80 statement credit, once a month through August (total $240)
    – Make five purchases of $75+ for a $65 statement credit, once a month through August (total $195)
    – Earn 1,000 extra ThankYou Points for $500+ purchases, up to two times through June 30

    (Thanks to Shmuel, birt, and Tommy)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through June 30, making the transfer ratio 1,000:1,200.

    For those keeping score at home, this is an absolutely terrible value, but there is utility in (1) top-offs and (2) resetting mileage expiration, especially for those without a stash of Ultimate Rewards which still has 55% transfer bonus.
  5. The Incomm gift card sites have fee-free $50+ gift card promo codes:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Mastercards with code DAD26
    – VanillaGift.com: Visas with code VGDAD26
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Visas, Mastercards, AmExs with code DADSDAY26

    I feel like they’re trying to tell us that something is imminent with their promo code names, but what do I know? Limits on these sites are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours and they won’t earn points or count for a sign-up bonus with American Express cards.
  6. The US Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Senate Committee (USBHUASC I guess?) is exploring the Bilt 2.0 launch uhhh process, and they’re requesting a response by June 9.

    There’s a joke in here too, but I’m definitely not going to be the one to make it. (Thanks to David)

Happy Tuesday friends.

This sentence was said twice (!) before the Bonvoy value sentence was uttered a single time.