1. AA raised checked bag fees yesterday to match JetBlue, United, Delta, and Southwest. Then, Alaska decided it was time too.

    For those keeping track at home, that leaves exactly zero major US airlines that didn’t raise bag fees effectively in tandem.
  2. AA is also devaluing elite benefits for Basic Economy fares, starting on May 18:

    – No more free seat assignments
    – No more complimentary domestic upgrades
    – No more systemwide upgrades
    – Higher checked bag fees where applicable

    There’s still some value in AA elite status, but their drive to make that de-minimus is succeeding.
  3. American Express has newly targeted links for 70,000 Membership Rewards for opening a new business checking account [LINK 1] or [LINK 2]. Both versions require $15,000 in deposits within the first 30 days, five transactions, and maintaining at least a $15,000 account balance for 60 days after deposit.

    For things like these, I prefer to transfer in $15,005 and then schedule five $1 ACHs out.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 8x points on Zift Zillions cards through Thursday. Some of these cards are convertible to high value brands like Amazon and Home Depot. In the most surprising twist of 2026 yet, even Giant Food has the same offer. I assume their corporate overlords are playing reverse April Fools for the entire month.
  5. The American Express Business Platinum’s generic travel landing page has newly targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) offers for 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months. This isn’t the best offer out there, but it is the best NLL offer we’ve seen recently.
  6. It’s not just you, American Express airline incidental credit tricks didn’t work for at least a week in March, but they seem to be working again for more recent purchases; take posts like this with a grain of salt for a few weeks.

Have a nice weekend!

AA and Alaska’s inspirational red wine for April, 2026.

  1. Synchrony is introducing their own travel portal because exactly zero of their customers asked for one. If you have a Synchrony card and sign up for communications about the travel portal, they’ll send you $100 off of future hotel bookings, rental cars, or activities booked by July 31 with apparently no minimum.
  2. Bank of America’s Rakuten links have increased bonus offers on both cards:

    – Travel Rewards: $150 cash back plus the card’s sign-up bonus
    – Customized Cash: $150 cash back plus the card’s sign-up bonus

    The business versions of these are still equal or higher bonuses and arguably better in every way, especially for churners and manufactured spenders. For those that like (n+1)/24 these are great though.
  3. Southwest is raising their checked bag fees *pretends to be shocked*. Someone please start a pool for guessing which day AA and Alaska follow, and someone else please convince me that the US signaling that it’ll allow more airline mergers is a good thing for anyone other than shareholders.
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has a status match program that now includes eligibility for US and Canadian citizens, but it excludes the Platinum status tier for those countries which can only match up to Gold (SkyTeam Elite Plus) because we’re all a bunch of gamers.

    SkyTeam Elite Plus status will get you lounge access on international SkyTeam flights and an increased checked bag allowance, but the real benefit for a match is pushing you closer to Platinum status with lower XP requirements.
  5. Two airline shopping portals have spend promotions:

    – Alaska MileagePlan Shopping: 500 bonus miles on $100+ through April 17
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 500 bonus miles on $100+ through April 15

    Giftcards.com is usually the easiest to knock these out, especially when you combine it with other shenanigans.
  6. Kroger brand stores have a digital coupon for 4x on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and flexible fuel gift cards through April 21. RIP the April bulk brand resale market.
  7. The American Express Business Gold card has a new, targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) link with 200,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months.
  8. American Express Offers has an offer for $150 off of $375+ at Marriott properties in North America through July 22.

    Gift cards at the front desk is one of several ways to play this.

Happy Thursday!

Airline behavior is about as obscured as the meaning of this car’s license plate.

Let’s dive in with the more important stuff:

  1. Do this now: Check for spend offers on existing Chase cards. Most are 5x-7x or 5%-7% back on up to $1,000 spend at grocery, restaurants, and gas stations, the higher bonuses are when paying with Apple Pay. Sorry Androidians.
  2. In a move that should surprise no one, Delta increased its checked bags fees after JetBlue and United did last week. That leaves American, Southwest, and Alaska to stagger their fee increases enough that it doesn’t look like anything to do with collusion or an oligopoly. (I’m not salty, you’re salty!)

    Now for my degens, where’s the Kalshi line for the other airlines increasing checked bag fees by next week? Prediction markets aren’t always just arbitragey fun and games.
  3. The Melio bill payment service has two new user bonuses through the end of April, though I think you can only get one or the other. Some existing accounts are also targeted for the international version on the Melio dashboard after clicking the first link and then logging in from that page:

    – $500 gift card with a $1,000 international payment but, see the note below
    – $200 cash back with a $500 domestic payment

    The second one is available via affiliate links too, so find your favorite affiliate blogger and use their link if you want to support them. I’ll give the MEAB Gold Seal of Approval™ to any affiliates that list the $500 gift card version of the sign-up bonus even though it doesn’t pay them. EDIT: Greg at Frequent Miler pointed out that there’s a stated limit of 100 participants in the international payments version of the promo, and there’s no counter to show the number that have participated.
  4. American Express offers has an April version of $200 off of $1,000 spent with Delta Vacations through June 30.
  5. The Rove travel booking platform and shopping portal added Virgin Red as a 1:1 transfer partner, which is (I guess) something. Accor, Lufthansa, and SAS are typically much better options, the latter of which has a 20% transfer bonus that expires today.
  6. The Barclays JetBlue’s Premier Mastercard added new bengifts:

    – A companion pass worth either $500 with $15,000 spend or $1,500 with $75,000 spend
    – A 25 Tile annual status credit
    – 15% off of TrueBlue award flights

    The three taken in sum make this a compelling card for New England or SoCal residents that have a penchant for Mint.
  7. I’ve avoided covering last week’s United’s media blitz until the dust settled, and I guess here we are. Some of the most interesting announcements included bad news buried by updates:

    – Polaris business class tickets will soon have a Basic option with no-seat assignments, lounge access, and no free ticket changes, talk about elevated
    – CRJ-200s are being converted to premium heavy “CRJ-450s“
    – 787-9s will have an upgraded interior called “Elevated“
    – The front row of some international flights will have bigger suites called “Polaris Studio“

    Currently award tickets are exempt from Polaris Basic, just like how AA, Southwest, and Alaska is currently exempt from increased checked bag fees.

And a couple of items that are barely worth mentioning, but like they say “Cs get degrees”:

  1. There are two hotel promotions of limited utility:

    – IHG: 3x points in some non-Americas countries, book by Saturday, stay by May 22, registration required
    – Wyndham: 5,000 points on two night stays at Caesars Rewards properties booked by the end of the month for stays through September 1

    Neither works for award stays.
  2. JetBlue has 20% off of Tuesday and Wednesday domestic economy fares booked by today for travel through May 20 using promo code SPRING20.

Happy Wednesday!

The creation that won its maker the previous MEAB Gold Seal of Approval™.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the specifics don’t matter. But the general advice, inertia kills, always applies.

Did you get a letter from Bank of America in the mail over the weekend, yesterday, or maybe in Informed Delivery today about that automatic thing? You’re definitely not the only one, they’re showing up in batches and in theory the jig is up on May 2.

What do you do if you’re affected?

  • Hit it as hard as you can until you can’t, the downside of doing so is minimal now
  • Find other regional versions of the thing, ideally more than one
  • Send (more) sirens in every chat room, but only if your name starts with a J and ends with an immy

But thinking bigger picture, remember that inertia kills and you were just its latest victim if you don’t have other plays waiting in the wings. Fortunately you can fix that going forward if you’re scrappy. Always be probing.

The normal BofA letters, on the other hand.

  1. Most of the Chase United cards have increased sign-up bonuses, (some include 10,000 miles extra as long as you add an authorized user card within three months):

    – Explorer: 70,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $3,000 spend in three months
    – Quest: 90,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – Club: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Business: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Club Business: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months

    These are generally available via referrals, so please use a referral link.
  2. US Bank reportedly has a $1,500 business bank account bonus with promo code Q2BUS26, though I couldn’t independently verify it. To qualify:

    – Deposit $25,000 within 30 days
    – Maintain at least $25,000 balance between days 30 and 60
    – Make at least six transactions by day 60 (Six $1 ACHs do nicely)

    If you manage your money perfectly, this is effectively a 72% annualized APR, which is almost 72% more than what Chase business checking will give you. Even if you’re not in US Bank’s footprint you can still do this, just open a different relationship with US Bank first. T&C here.
  3. Alaska companion certificate sharing has tightened for the second time since the Hawaiian merger; now they can only be used when fares are paid for specifically with an Atmos Ascent card.

    I for one am impressed that Alaska’s IT is able to discern. (Thanks to best-qualify-catfood)
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

Alaska IT’s typeface for the new lounge drink lineup.

  1. Do this now: Check for your targeted United MileagePlay offer. Mine was book and fly a $100+ trip through June 9 and earn 3,000 bonus miles.
  2. Bank of America has credit cards available via the Rakuten shopping portal:

    – Travel Rewards: $150 from Rakuten plus 25,000 points after $1,000 spend in 90 days
    – Customized Cash: $75 from Rakuten plus $200 after $1,000 spend in 90 days

    The business versions of the cards have higher offers than the portal and sign-up bonus put together, so keep your enthusiasm appropriately calibrated. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. JetBlue raised bag fees a couple of days ago. I didn’t mention it because I was sure the list would grow within the week, and indeed it’s happened. So now we’re at:

    – JetBlue increasing checked bag fees
    – United increased checked bag fees

    AA, Alaska, and Delta are sure to come in the next week, but they’ll stagger it for optics. Who says there’s collusion in the industry? This is just about fuel, duh.
  4. The AmaZing Business Visa card has an increased $1,000 sign-up bonus or 100,000 point sign-up bonus depending on the version, but is only available in some states:

    – Arizona
    – California
    – Colorado and New Mexico
    – Nevada
    – Texas
    – Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho

    Underwriting is a manual process, and there isn’t actually a difference between the points card or cash back card other than the extra step to redeem your points for cash back.
  5. Chase Offers has a targeted offer for $100 off of $600+ in travel booked through the end of June, and this offer stacks with Sapphire Reserve $250 Edit hotel credits too.
  6. PayPal offers has a targeted offer for 5% back at GiftCards.com, up to $20 back.
  7. Raley’s, Nob Hill, and Bel Air stars have 15x points on Apple gift cards, some of which convert to Home Depot, through Tuesday.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Recommended enthusiasm base-line calibration setting.

  1. Chase has a new transfer bonuses for the end of April:

    – 20% to Air Canada Aeroplan, making the ratio 1:1.2
    – 70% to IHG, making the ratio 1:1.7

    One of these is a good deal, which one is left as an exercise to the reader.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines MileageBank through the end of April, which makes the transfer ratio 1:0.975
  3. The Bank of America Alaska Atmos cards have new offers different than the new offers from a few days ago:

    – Summit: 100,000 miles and a 50% flight discount after $6,500 spend in 90 days
    – Ascent: 80,000 miles and a 50% flight discount after $4,000 spend in 120 days
    – Business: 85,000 miles after $5,500 spend in 90 days

    The 50% discount has to be flown between September 8 and November 18 with lots of other asterisks, so cool I guess. (Thanks to Jerry)
  4. Mixed data-points are coming in about Lululemon physical stores implementing new gift card rules to presumably combat American Express Platinum exact value cashouts. The rules:

    – Gift card face values must be in multiples of $50
    – One credit card per gift card purchase
    – One gift card per customer per day

    These aren’t implemented at the register level though, so your success level may be tied to your rizz level. Data points specifying rizz are needed to confirm.
  5. March’s Chase Air India offer for 10% back on $100-$500 in spend has a new, April version. The March warning still applies: The best game for this one is to not fly Air India under any circumstances, ever, which should make your game clear.
  6. Chase Pay Yourself Back has several changes for Q2:

    – Personal: grocery stores, pet stores, veterinaries, annual fee, and select charities
    – Business: select charities

    Businesses don’t need cash-back I guess?
  7. If you like glamping and have a Chase Hyatt card, register for Hyatt’s promotion for 20 points per dollar at Under Canvas and ULUM locations for stays between June 1 and September 8.
  8. American Express is ending two relationships:

    – The Amazon Business card portfolio is moving to US Bank in August
    – They’re ending transfer to Etihad Guest at the end of June

    Reportedly American Express dumped both with the cliche, “It’s not you, it’s me”, because creativity is hard.
  9. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has released its April promo rewards for discounted award travel. US cities include: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Detroit, Boston, Atlanta, San Diego, Austin, Orlando, and San Francisco.

    I didn’t see any promo award business class availability in the two cities I checked which is worse than normal.

Happy Thursday!

Fun fact: Thanks to the Lego+Lulu partnership, your $75 can be cashed out for two bricks instead.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, we can be silly around here. However, April 1 is somehow the sanctioned silly day for the rest of the world so of course it’s the one day that strait-laced seriousness takes over at MEAB. You can get your weird Bonvoy and Delta hidden value fake posts elsewhere I’m sure. #sorrynotsorry

The General Rule

Points and miles held in loyalty programs are a real asset, even if they’re worth less over time (even worse than holding cash). If a loyalty program member passes away, most programs’ terms and conditions forfeit the value of their loyalty account completely and the account is (in theory) effectively worthless. So as a general rule, when you or another player dies, remember:

Don’t tell the loyalty program when a member passes, rather just cash-out or redeem points as quickly as reasonably practical.

The Nuance

The general rule doesn’t apply everywhere, not every program has blanket forfeiture. The US exceptions:

Its “own discretion” shows up a lot there, I’d consider whether you really want to trust Toby’s discretion before moving forward.

The Practical Side

None of the loyalty programs that transfer points will transfer elite status, upgrade certificates, club access awards, tier awards, elite qualifying points, or similar, and each of these things has value, potentially thousands of tens of thousands of dollars worth. So, probably just keep following the general rule when you can even if the program lets you transfer.

Have a nice Wednesday friends!

Ouch.