I’m going to go out on a limb and say if you’ve been in the travel hacking community since before 2020, you know exactly what United’s Expert Mode is, and if you’re newer, there’s about a 0.20 probability that you have any idea. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am. Anyhoodles, there are a few good reasons to know about Expert Mode:

  1. When your flight’s been cancelled, rebooking is a zero sum game with your fellow passengers; the number of free seats on later flights is finite and more aren’t going to magically appear, instead they’re going to vanish rapidly as customers rebook. Knowing which flights have which seats lets you make the best rebooking decision.
  2. When your flight might be oversold and you want to be flexible for a travel voucher, knowing what the seat count on your flight looks like is immediately actionable. I guess it also applies if you want to be hauled off of a plane and punched if it’s oversold. Too soon?
  3. If you want to know your chances of a Same Day Change to a better flight, knowing availability in the fare bucket you’re ticketed in will help you understand your odds and make backup plans.

With that out of the way, let’s briefly discuss fare buckets.

Fare Buckets

In the time before computers, airlines used repurposed slop buckets to hold each paper ticket they would sell. When you’d buy a ticket by telegraph, they’d send it from the bucket to your house via courier pigeon (*citation needed). The pigeons are gone, but buckets remain. So, what’s a modern fare bucket? Let’s talk to the ghost of MEAB past discussing bucket jumping:

WTF is a fare bucket? The boring definition is that each bucket is a letter (like S, or J) or pair of letters (like OW) that corresponds with a given fare on file in [airline] systems. There isn’t a standard for buckets on all airlines, but they do share a lot in common. First class fare buckets are often Z or F, and economy buckets are often S, L, Y, and B for example. Typically there are around 20 fare buckets per airline.

Fare buckets also have a hierarchy. F > Z, and Y > B > M. See the pattern? Nah, me neither. That’s ok though. You don’t need to memorize the hierarchy, just know that it exists and how to find it.

I promise this is going to become important shortly so stick with it. On United, you’ve got three types of revenue fare buckets:

  • First and Business: J, C, D, Z, P
  • Premium Economy: O, A, R
  • Economy: Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N

Yeah yeah, there are quasi-buckets too like RN and PN, but let’s chill for a second ok? They don’t matter for this conversation. Just have the above table handy when it’s game theory time.

Expert Mode

United’s Expert Mode shows you which fare buckets are available when you search for flights using united.com. After enabling expert mode and clicking “Details”, you’ll see something like this:

For this flight, there are (at least) 9 seats available in First, as seen by J9, the highest bucket in the First and Business group. The people of Lubbock don’t like to pay for first, I guess. The same flight has (at least) 9 seats available in Economy as seen by Y9, telling us that the Lubbock-ites don’t like to pay for economy either. (Side note: 9 is the maximum number that will display. So 9 really means “9 or more, idk I’m just a computer”)

So how do you turn Expert Mode on? Navigate to your Special accommodations settings under your profile and scroll to the bottom where you’ll find the setting “Enable expert mode”. Check that and click “Save”.

Using The Info

With the caveat that the number of seats for sale doesn’t always equal the number of seats available (ask Dr. Dao if you’re unsure why that is), looking at the number of seats available in the highest of each of the classes of fare buckets (first, economy, etc) to find the approximate number of seats available on the flight gives you actionable information. Once you get there, it’s time to “game theory and chill”.

Good luck friends!

Next up: Expert mode for banana hacking, how to see if your banana is simultaneously overripe and green.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan through September 30, and Aeroplan Visa card holders can stack their regular 10% bonus for a total of 30%.

    Unless you have a specific award redemption in mind, 1 Hyatt point is probably worth more than 1.2 or 1.3 Aeroplan miles so speculate at your own risk.
  2. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x on One4All and Choice gift cards through August 25.
  3. The half-life of US Bank transfer partners seems to be a day; now there are only two left:

    – Ethiopian Sheba Miles
    – Accor ALL

    I guess by Friday we’ll have a half of a transfer partner, otherwise known as Frontier?
  4. Capital One Shopping has targeted promotions on the home page for:

    – $100 off of $100+ in hotels booked through Capital One Travel
    – $100 off of $100+ in rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

    Of course $100 off really means $100 worth of gift cards that are worth an average(ish) of $90 on the resale market. If you don’t have a Capital One Shopping account, use a friend’s referral and you’ll be in, even if you’re banned from Capital One Bank.
  5. Kroger stores also have a new promotion for 4x on all gift cards excluding Amazon from tomorrow through Sunday. Notably, flexible fuel cards are no longer excluded from 4x.
  6. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 points on $100+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per mPerks account.
  7. American Express added about 350+ hotels to its Fine Hotels and Resorts collection and its The Hotel Collection. There’s good new coverage in most of Europe, Asia, and North America.
  8. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard is targeting more people for its 8% back on $1,250+ in travel and entertainment, up to $125, once a month for August, September, and October. You might find it on the ThankYou dashboard offers section, Chrome seems to work best for that. (Thanks to Hippo 387)
  9. American Express offers has a card linked offer for $80 off of $400 at Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines through October 23. Alaska refund to wallet is a safe and easy way to game this one.

Happy Thursday friends!

Does this count as a good prediction or a bad prediction? The Western Union app could confirm either.

The Thing

US Bank launched transfer partners on its Altitude Reserve and FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa cards (my hidden gem FlexPerks American Express card sunsetted and became an Altitude Connect Mastercard earlier this year or it’d probably be there too). Initial partners are:

– AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue at 1:1
– Qantas Frequent Flyer at 1:1
– Ethiopian Sheba Rewards at 1:1
– Accor ALL at 2:1

They’re using a landing page at points.com for transfers, which means they’ll likely have access to many more transfer partners in the future.

The Impact

Because this is U.S. Bank where mediocrity is a way of life, this launch turns out to be … mediocre. Here’s some two-day-late Monday morning quarterbacking:

  • Accor ALL points are worth a fixed two eurocents each so that partner is relatively lame at 2:1. With current exchange rates, that’s effectively a fixed 1.15 cents per point
  • Ethiopian Sheba Rewards isn’t common, so let’s chat about it:

    – Ethiopian is part of Star Alliance
    – The Sheba Star Alliance Award chart is decidedly mediocre (to match U.S. Bank)
    – Redemptions on Ethiopian metal are zone based:
    Same zone: 15,000 miles in economy and 45,000 in business
    Two zone: 30,000 miles in economy and 60,000 in business
    Three zone: 🤷‍♀️
    – Ethiopian has 22 fifth-freedom routes (routes between two countries that aren’t Ethiopia). Pricing on these routes can be good
  • Because transfers are handled by points.com, I expect we’ll see more added rapidly after U.S. Bank figures itself out, but I really mean rapidly in U.S. Bank terms which means slowly in regular terms
  • Seats.aero already tracks Ethiopian miles, so the best redemptions are probably going to be rare thanks to the Tragedy of the Commons
  • Oh yeah, they have Qantas and FlyingBlue transfers too. Welcome to every other bank and FinTech on the planet I guess

The tl;dr: Some partners are better than none, but in this case not that much.

Happy Wednesday!

U.S. Bank transfer partner launch celebration swag.

  1. The Barclay’s Lufthansa Miles & More credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend and paying the $89 annual fee within 90 days.

    The card is basically 1x everywhere on the earn side generally speaking, but it’s one of the best way to earn Lufthansa miles so I guess you win some and lose some? Did anyone notice that lose rhymes with floosies?
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $3,500 spend in four months. The card’s $99 annual fee is waived the first year.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax Stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Practically speaking you should be buying these in even multiples of $300. Remember even and odd numbers friends? #MathIsHard

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Wyndham has a weird partnership with Costco that’s I guess tailored to the intersection of manufactured spend and award travel: Get 4,000 Wyndham points and a $40 shop card with a new Executive Membership using promo code WYNDHAM26 through September 16; you’ll provide your Wyndham Rewards number during the sign-up process.

    There’s also an offer for the Gold Star Membership, but you’d be making TeddyH cry if you chose that option. Of course Groupon may still be better because reasons. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Tuesday!

Leaving half eaten bars of chocolate ice cream in the fridge also makes TeddyH sad, reportedly.

Based on my personal observations from watching hordes of travelers stare at flight board delays and cancelations in abject horror yesterday, approximately 104.4% of travelers flying in the US had their flights either delayed or cancelled over the weekend. In no particular order, let’s talk about what a good travel hacker does when their flight is, err, impacted:

  • When your plane is delayed more than an hour, or when your captain tells you that they’re returning to the gate to “….” (it doesn’t matter what the “….” is, trust me), book a backup non-basic economy award flight on another carrier immediately. Why an award flight? So you can cancel it fee-free. If you don’t do it right away, inventory might be instantly gone when the cancellation is official. Why another carrier? You don’t want it cancelled as a double booking. Once you’ve done that, do it again on a third carrier if there’s an option.
  • Do three things simultaneously and immediately when a cancelation is official, and when one of them works you can cancel the other two:

    – Reach out to the airline on twitter X and ask to be rebooked
    – Call the customer service line and ask to be rebooked
    – Go to the airline lounge and ask to be rebooked

    Note that none of these are waiting in line at the gate or the customer service counter. Don’t do it, it’s not going to go well for a dozen reasons, not the least of which is the garlic burger from Carl’s Jr shoved in the person’s now-translucent-from-grease backpack in front of you.
  • If you have a forced overnight, don’t take the airline’s hotel voucher; in the best case it’s going to be at an airport Marriott Courtyard overlooking a dumpster and the room’s smoke detector will beep once every 42.5 minutes, but only when the lights are off. We’re not going to talk about the worst case.

    This is why you booked with a premium card for travel insurance, right? Let them pick up the hotel and your extra elite night credit too. Oh, and on that note, this will probably be a rare paid stay for you, so use up those FHR credits, Bilt stupid hotel credits, Citi hotel credits, etc. Don’t use points or a free night certificate though because you’ll have to fight with insurance about the value.
  • Meal vouchers often work on Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A wallet loads, and if you want to cosplay a Paze churner, Dunkin too. You can do these from your FHR room too, no need to do it at the airport.
  • Sure, travel insurance will cover a replacement $3.94 tee-shirt from Walmart, but it’ll also cover a $39.40 shirt from American Eagle.

Good luck, and at least be thankful you didn’t have travel between TN and CO via TX and CA, that is, unless you wanted to because reasons. Have a nice Monday!

PS: Special thanks to everyone in Denver over the weekend (and the ones still stuck there today!)

Ok, maybe the beeping isn’t the most concerning part of that Courtyard smoke detector.

  1. Two American Express Marriott cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Bonvoy Bevy: 125,000 points and $150 statement credit, $250 annual fee
    – Bonvoy Brilliant: 150,000 points and $250 statement credit after $6,000 spend in six months, $650 annual fee

    As of this writing, both links appear to be popup-free. Marriott is going to devalue soon though (see their earnings transcript and search for Bonvoy), so … that’s great.
  2. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of four 50,000 point free-night certificates after $3,000 spend in three months, and is also available via referral links so use one of those from a friend or from P2.

    This one also has a must-activate-before-spend offer for two semi-annual $50 airline credits after $250 in airline spend, which is unfortunately is a big enough flexible rebate that you should pay attention to it.
  3.  The Chase IHG Premier card has an increased sign-up bonus of 160,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend in three months, 5x$20 in IHG food and beverage vouchers which is just as annoying as it sounds. If you get an error on the application page, check the Chase mobile app instead because #tech. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived.

    You’ll also get 10,000 extra points for adding an authorized user and putting a charge on that card; but don’t get too excited, 10,000 points is worth about $50. This should be available for referrals in the next couple of days.
  4. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 60,000+20,000 points. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year. Breaking down the spend:

    – 60,000 points with $4,000 spend in three months
    – 20,000 points with $6,000 total spend in six months

    You can also add up to four authorized user accounts for 2,500 bonus points each, though it’ll hit their credit report so use caution. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Frontier Airlines has a discounted GoWild unlimited travel pass for $199, valid for travel through the end of February 27. This pairs well with matched Frontier elite status, but there are blackout periods around holidays.
  6. AA’s elite upgrade policy is changing to allow for only one class of service upgrade on three class aircraft starting on August 25.

Happy Friday!

More from the Marriott earnings call.

  1. The Chase Air Canada Aeroplan Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus, and the card’s $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year:

    – 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 25,000 miles after $20,000 spend in one year

    This isn’t available via referrals, but should be soon. This is a relative high but not an absolute high offer;that was 120,000 miles with some extra gyrations.
  2. The Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card has a targeted sign-up bonus of 3% everywhere for the first year, or up to 4.12% everywhere with Preferred Rewards Premier status. You can check to see if you’re targeted by logging in to Bank of America and then visiting your personalized offers dashboard.
  3. There are a few travel related offers card offers:

    – American Express: $100 credit with $500+ at Accor Luxury Hotels
    – Citi: $75 credit with $325 spend at Hertz
  4. Rent paid through Bilt using a Cardless Qatar card now earns 3x up to $50,000 annually, but it costs 3% so I hope you like buying Avios at 1 cent per point (I know I don’t). How about buying lounge access via QPoint earning on the Qatar Infinite card to earn 270 Points for Gold status which gives oneworld Sapphire, for access to AA and Alaska lounges even on domestic flights though? Breaking it down:

    – 2 QPoints for every 1,500 Avios earned
    – 3x earning means $500 in rent spend gives 2 QPoints and costs $15
    – $50,000 annual cap means a maximum earn of 200 QPoints for $1,500

    So if you can earn another 70 QPoints elsewhere, you can buy oneworld lounge access for $1,500 plus whatever your incremental cost is beyond that. Good deal? That’s a nah from me dog, but maybe you love infinite cheese cubes more than I do. (Thanks to David)
  5. Hyatt has a very specific promotion for a Category 1-4 free night certificate for every three nights at resorts in the Caribbean and Latin America in Q1, 2027, limit five free night certificates. Registration required.

Happy Thursday friends!

Ok ok, some AAdmiral’s Clubs have over two types of cheese cubes.

I’m certain you don’t need another article about how AI is changing everything, I mean, I think it’s obvious that it is and you already knew that. But, we’ve entered a new era of disinformation in churning, and as a shrewd churner, there’s a newly popular kind of redirection to watch out for.

Background: The Forum Problem

Search results in AI are wildly overfit on forums. When there’s only a single answer or two in those forums, your AI overview will quite confidently give you a summarized version of those posts. This can be, and is being, actively weaponized in churning.

Do you want to spread FUD to protect your own play? Good news, it’s simple as long as there’s not a lot of discussion out there. Just respond to a question on reddit or on FlyerTalk with FUD, and Google, Perplexity, and even Bing (remember Bing? How about Alta Vista?) will spread your FUD to everyone who asks. Need an example? There’s nuance to be clear, but sure.

Result: The “Gemini said ….” Problem

Obviously, this feeds into a lot of the current state of the world and the kinds of discussion happening in private. Let’s take a really basic example: “Gemini said I could use a Mastercard at Costco, so I got the new stupid Citi AA Executive Mastercard and I’ll hit the bonus spend at my local store”. Gemini might be sort of right (Mastercard debit cards with PIN will work at Costco stores), but I hope you have a fallback when you find that your Mastercard credit card won’t actually work.

Dealing with It

Cool story bro, but what do I do with that? Well, in churning and manufactured spend, those who dig just a bit deeper, think just a bit harder, and trust but verify often do orders of magnitude more volume than average. So, I guess do whatever you want with that.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Sometimes AI generation is very meta.