Year: 2021

The American Express Master Value Injection (MVI) is back for 2021 for Personal Platinum cards at least. They now give up to $30 per month in PayPal statement credits, which I guess is a barely passable replacement for PayPal Key no longer working with AmEx. Call it the Master Value Injection 2.0. This is good from January 1 through June 30, giving you 6 months * $30/month or $180 in total credits per Personal Platinum.

I personally would buy discounted gift cards for resale from anywhere but PayPal Digital Gifts when a deal comes up, or use Fluz with PayPal checkout to liquidate these credits. I suppose you could also be basic and liquidate via real purchases. Fluz has a pyramid scheme built into it, so find a friend for a referral if you haven’t used it before, or contact me for one if you don’t know anyone else.

There’s some bad news too though. American Express is again charging the excise tax for transferring miles to US based travel partners (Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue). Call it the Master Value De-Injection. Ok, so this resumption was due to the CARES act suspending the taxes until 12/31/2020, not AmEx directly; but whatever, I still blame AmEx for charging it in the first place.

A nurse's hand injecting a syringe with clear liquid into a woman's arm.
American Express (left) injects “Master Value” into you as a Platinum card holder (right). Since businesses don’t have arms, this doesn’t work on the Business Platinum.

Do this now: Register your Chase partner cards for bonus miles at grocery, gas, drug stores, and/or at Amazon.

These offers are per month, Jan, Feb, and Mar 2021. As per usual, Visa, Mastercard, or BestBuy gift cards are your best options for liquidation at Grocery and BestBuy at Amazon, if you don’t have the organic spend already happening.

Hyatt card:

  • 5x at Amazon
  • 3x at Grocery
  • Max $1,500 per month combined (hit Amazon first)

United card:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined

IHG card:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined

All three Avios cards:

  • 15,000 bonus Avios after $5,000 spend
  • One time spread over all 3 months

Marriott cards:

  • 5x at Gas, Grocery, and Drug Stores
  • Max $1,500 per month combined
The Chase “bonus matrix”, presented with my apologies for being that kind of nerd.