1. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has a new leader, and the most surprising part is that the leader is a relatively well-known travel hacker, Tiffany Funk. Tiffany co-founded point.me, ran a paid award booking service, and oversaw parts of the business operations at One Mile at a Time.

    My crystal ball is famously nothing more than a ball made of crystal; but it tells me that this is bad news for serious travel hackers and good news for the median regular family putting all their spend on Delta credit cards and booking economy awards with SkyMiles to Rome. I do think we’ll see more business class availability on the worst routes at the worst times, but less availability when and where you want to fly in premium cabins. I sure hope I’m wrong. Today’s action Well, remember that the site’s name ends in “and Burn”.
  2. SoFi has a 2% ACATS transfer bonus on both new and existing pre-tax or post-tax accounts, limit $5 Million in transferred funds.

    To keep the bonus, you’ve got to hold the funds for 5 years otherwise you may pay out more in penalties than the original bonus.
  3. American Express has more targeted offers for upgrading a Business Gold or Business Green card to a Business Platinum. You’ll earn 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months, and you’ll be effectively locked into the card for a year unless you like pop-up jail.
  4. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 bonus points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card other than Amazon and phone cards through today, limit 50,000 points per mPerks account.

    This is what economists call a great value, which is defined as when capitalism accidentally does something nice. (Thanks to GCA)
  5. OfficeDepot / Office Max has $15 off of $300+ in Mastercards through Saturday. As usual, buy in even multiples of $300 for the best oomph.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. If you’re a Frontier flyer, register for a bonus 5,000 miles per round-trip flight through August 31 with a maximum of 20,000 bonus miles earned.

    You’ll need to rebook existing travel to qualify for the promotion, otherwise known as when capitalism does what it’s supposed to.

Happy Tuesday friends!

The fine print matters.

Grizzled churners who’ve been around the hobby for a long time have a well defined Krebs cycle-esque cycle:

  • Newbie: “I can get $300 from this Disney card if I put all my bills on it for a few months”
  • Beginner: “Look, ma, I bought a money order”
  • Intermediate: “$20,000 minimum spend? I got that”
  • Advanced: “I could probably turn this in to a full time gig”
  • Chaos: “I ran nine figures through Big Bank #2 for 0.25% profit, and now my accounts and the plays are donezo, it’s time for a long break”

The best ones in the hobby get stuck somewhere between Advanced and Degenerate. The worst ones blow up a good thing for a lot of people and end up as beginners in a few years when the spoils are all consumed. At least they skip the newbie stage.

Whats the point of this discussion? Strive to be stuck between Advanced and Chaos – it’s ok to stop short of the birthplace of creation.

Have a nice day friends!

Degenerate manufactured spenders, but as road painters.

  1. The American Express Platinum brokerage cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Charles Schwab: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $12,000 spend in six months
    – Morgan Stanley: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $12,000 spend in six months

    Schwab lets you cash out Membership Rewards at 1.1 cents per point with a capacity of a million points annually, while Morgan Stanley lets you cash out at 1.0 cents per point with no cap. Morgan Stanley accounts now can be opened with just a basic E*Trade account too.
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 AAdvantage miles after $10,000 spend in three months.

    The bonus language on this one only precludes the sign-up bonus if you’ve gotten another Executive sign-up bonus in the last 48 months. Don’t forget about Citi clowning.
  3. The Chase Freedom Unlimited card has an in-branch only sign-up bonus for $200 + 5x on gas and grocery for the first year, but only up to $12,000 spend. For maximizers, that’s effectively a $900 sign-up bonus.
  4. The Rove travel and shopping portal added Air Canada Aeroplan as a transfer partner, and they’ve got a 25% transfer bonus through June 6.

    If you’re new to Rove, use a fellow churner’s referral and make their day.
  5. A minor update for Alaska Wallet fund gamers: Wallet funds can now be used for the Alaska partner booking fee too. (Thanks to Ryan)
  6. AA has a registration required promotion for an extra bonus mile for each base mile award on flights to Australia and New Zealand booked by May 31 and flown by March 31, 2027. You’re limited to 25,000 bonus miles.

    The fact that AA is awarding bonus miles for the longest haul flights, with the most expensive jet fuel per-seat costs in the network, in the face of soaring fuel costs, should tell you how poorly these routes are doing. Yes, AA makes boneheaded decisions but they’re not stupid. (Thanks to DDG)

Happy Friday!

AA as a hat.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s promotion for 2,000 or 8,000 bonus points for two or four night stays, respectively through August 31. There’s also an offer for 2x points for IHG Business Rewards members through December 31.
  2. Do this now: Register for I Prefer’s promotion for a $50 reward certificate for a 2+ night stay at each of their properties, as long “each” means five or fewer.
  3. Raley’s, Nob Hill, and Bel Air stars have 15x points on Lowes and One4All gift cards, some of which convert to Home Depot, through Tuesday.

    This is an outstanding deal.
  4. American Express offers has new offers for:

    – Expedia: 10% back on prepaid Hotels through August 4
    – Cambria Hotels: $100 off of $300+ through September 1
    – Choice Ascend Hotels: $50 off of $200+ through September 1

    Gamers gonna game.
  5. Capital One checking has a $400 new account bonus with promo code FLASH400, provided that you receive at least two direct deposits within 75 days of account opening. A few notes:

    – Don’t do this if you play games with Capital One, the banking side might cause you to lose your credit cards
    – If you have Discover checking or savings, consider closing those accounts quickly so you can either avoid those banking shutdowns, or get this sign-up bonus in the future
    – Business account ACH pushes often look like direct deposits
    – Please close these accounts after you get the bonus

    For more on holding checking accounts at Citi, Chase, and Capital One especially, see SideShowBob233’s opus.

Happy Thursday!

Since we shared SideShowBob233’s opus, we might as well share his award winning art.

  1. The Barclays JetBlue Premier Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 TrueBlue points after $5,000 spend in 90 days, and the $499 annual fee is not waived for the first year. They’ve also made negative changes:

    – 25 Tiles award for status is now at the end of your cardmember year
    – Basic economy tickets no longer get BlueHouse lounge access with this card
    – Companion fare statement credits post after travel is completed

    Strange flex by Barclays the week after they lost their AA card portfolio to Citi, but ok.
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard, which continues to be the stupidest Citi AA card, has an increased bonus of 90,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in four months.
  3. Two airline portals have Mother’s Day shopping bonuses, expect more before Sunday:

    – Alaska Atmos Shopping: 1,200 points for $400+ in spend through May 11
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 points for $400+ in spend through May 11

    Giftcards.com’s terms and conditions now vary across portals, but none preclude these bonuses.
  4. SoFi Crypto is $120 cash back or 12,000 points at Rakuten for new SoFi Crypto accounts, provided that you buy $30 of crypto. SoFi will also award between $5 and $1,000 of crypto “randomly” for new accounts through June 30.

    SoFi churns are a thing friends.
  5. The AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue program updated its 24-month mileage expiration policy: Now any mileage earned will reset the expiration clock, regardless of source.

Happy Tuesday!

Next SoFi innovation: “randomly” assigned haircuts.

  1. American Express has a $300 bonus for new personal checking accounts after receiving at least $7,500 in cumulative direct deposits in the first 90 days. These accounts are unfortunately not churnable, but do earn Membership Rewards with debit spend. (Thanks to David and Holly for the update)
  2. American Express has new targeted offers for:

    – 10,000 Membership Rewards for adding an authorized user to the personal Gold card and spending $2,000 in six months
    – 15,000 Membership Rewards for adding employee cards to the business Gold or business Platinum and spending $4,000 in three months

    Watch out and make sure you see the offer before applying on the employee card side, the same links also have non-bonused versions.
  3. The Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $200 after $2,000 spend in 90 days, provided you apply by today (or apply next month when the offer inevitably returns for two days). This card is useful for multiple reasons, including:

    – It’s a third party American Express (which also has AmEx Offers)
    – With the right Bilt status, it’s an uncapped 2x grocery Hyatt card
    – It can also be an uncapped 2x grocery Membership Rewards card

    The +4x on all Rakuten spend looks enticing too until you see its annual $7,000 cap.
  4. Best Western has two stackable promotions in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean, registration required for each:

    – 1,000 bonus points per night between May 11 and September 7
    – 5,000 bonus points per two nights between May 10 and September 7

    You (unfortunately?) also have to stack these with stays at Best Western.
  5. American Express has a 10% transfer bonus to JetBlue TrueBlue through May 11, making the transfer ratio 1,000:880 because #americalovesmath.

Happy Tuesday!

Best Western already held its traditional hotel fire in 2026, so statistically speaking your stays should be fire-free.

You’ve no doubt heard it in 1,000 other places so I won’t belabor the point, but Spirit shutdown over the weekend. I’m sure any of you that had Spirit plans had a backup, and I’m sure you already know to do a chargeback for outstanding fares if you don’t already have an automatic refund. For those keeping score at home, my prediction was wrong: I’d guessed in January that we’d lose them by April, but they held out until May 2.

  1. The Citi AA Platinum Select personal Mastercard has an offer for 80,000 AA miles after $1,000 spend in three months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. Any random six digit number will work on the application, but I’m partial to 311437 for reasons.
  2. The Chase IHG personal cards have a targeted bonus of 3,000 bonus points on $1,000 spend through June 25.
  3. Staples has two Visa gift card promotions:

    – $200 Visas for $199.05 online
    – $200 Visas fee-free in-store through Saturday

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Chase Ultimate Rewards has two transfer bonuses:

    – 65% to Marriott Bonvoy through May 15
    – 20% to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through May 27

    The 65% transfer bonus to Bonvoy brings it into the realm of an ok deal, but still not in the range of a speculative transfer.
  5. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas Frequent Flyer through May 31. This one has great utility for Emirates First redemptions specifically.
  6. Major US airlines have airfare deals for stranded Spirit passengers for travel in the next week or two. Most of these work whether or not you’re actually a stranded Spirit passenger, and some of them are actually sort-of a good deal.

Happy Monday!

The MEAB prediction machine.

  1. Do this now: Check for targeted offers from Hilton. I got 2,000 bonus points per stay, but various offers exist including stacking stays for up to 15,000 points.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and flexible fuel gift cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards running through Tuesday, May 12.
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve personal card has an increased sign-up bonus of 150,000 Ultimate Rewards after $6,000 spend in three months. This bonus is available via referrals, so use someone’s referral and make their day. If you don’t use a referral, you’re probably using someone else’s affiliate link so be intentional.

    Also, yes this is a good card offer, and no, it’s not the bee’s knees, the cat’s meow, or the chicken’s foot. Yes, I made that last saying up.
  4. The personal Chase IHG cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – IHG Premier: 150,000+35,000 points after $3000 spend in three months and $6,000 spend in six months, respectively
    – IHG Traveler: 90,000 points after $2,000 in three months and $4,000 spend in six months, respectively

    These aren’t currently available via referrals but my tea leaves suggest they might be on Monday. Of course, I’m really bad at tea leaves.
  5. H-E-B stores have a $20 H-E-B gift card free with the purchase of a $100 airbnb gift card. Airbnb lets you pool gift cards in a single account.

    Say what you will about H-E-B vs Meijer, but 2026 seems biased toward the former.

And some small news items:

  1. Citi is ending ThankYou Points sharing between different cardholders on May 17. This was previously limited to 100,000 a year times n, where n = (1 + shenanigans).
  2. AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue has released its May promo awards for travel through October. US cities include almost all of the airline’s international routes, which should tell you something about demand, especially on the lower leg on the K-shaped economy.
  3. American Express has a 20% transfer bonus to Hilton Honors through May, bringing the ratio to 1,000:2,400. It’s not the worst redemption in the world, but that’s like saying that American cheese isn’t the worst cheese in the world: Objectively correct but missing the point.
  4. American Express’s Gold card benefits changed slightly, but it probably doesn’t matter for most of you.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The worst cheese, you ask? American cheese with ketchup.