Month: March 2022

Let’s wander all over the place today:

  1. The new US airline Breeze airways is adding new routes on its Airbus A220 fleet, and currently the new routes have one-way economy fares of $49 and one-way first class fares of $99. Their press release is the easiest way to see the new routes that I’ve found. The A220 is a very comfortable aircraft, especially in first class, so it’s worth looking into if their routes align with your travel patterns.

    In case you’re not familiar with Breeze, it’s founded by JetBlue and Westjet founder Dave Neelman. The airline is headquartered in Utah, but doesn’t operate flights to or from Utah because reasons.

  2. CashApp has a boost for 10% off of all Sam’s Club online purchases with a maximum discount of $20. It’s valid once a day for the next four days and works with gift cards including Disney, Visa, and Mastercard.
  3. DoC notes that the Paceline credit card has changed its structure, and now offers:

    – 5% cash back at groceries and drugstores (uncapped)
    – 3% cash back everywhere else (uncapped)
    – A $60 annual fee
    – An Apple Watch series 7 as a sign-up bonus ($429 in statement credits spread over the first year)

    There’s a catch of course, and depending on your personality the catch is untenable or is a home run: If you don’t have 150 minutes per week of elevated heart-rate, your cash-back rewards are cut in half to 2.5% at groceries and drugstores and 1.5% cash-back everywhere else.

If you’re lucky enough to live in Southern California, 150 minutes per week with an elevated heart-rate is called your weekday commute.

Let’s ketchup catchup on a few deals from the weekend (err, and yesterday):

1. Office Depot/OfficeMax has $15 back on $300 or more in Visa gift cards until Saturday, which makes your net cost $398.90 for $400 in gift cards or $394.90 for $400 gift cards if you buy the “Everywhere” variety. To maximize:

  • Link each of your cards to Dosh for an extra $10 back, but watch out for shutdowns for repeated gift card transactions
  • Try and run multiple transactions back-to-back with the same cashier

Thanks to reader Jim for the tip.

2. US Bank has a $400 sign-up bonus for opening a personal checking account and adding $5,000 in “direct deposits” in the first 60 days through March 28. Taking the bonus could be even more useful because having a checking account with a balance of at least $1,500 is a good way to get approved for lots of US Bank credit cards at once.

3. Another offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards for adding an authorized user to an American Express Platinum card and spending $2,000 within six months has surfaced. To see if you’re targeted, login to American Express and then check this link.

4. In addition to the increased Delta American Express card offers last week, another has surfaced for the Gold card and it’s interesting because the sign-up bonus is:

  • A $400 statement credit
  • 50,000 SkyMiles
  • A waived first-year annual fee

To get the offer, you’ll need to make a dummy airfare booking at delta.com and you’ll see it on the checkout page. To make things annoying though, sometimes the offer shows as a $300 statement credit and other times a $400 statement credit, so you may need to try different browsers or routes to find the $400 offer. Also, don’t actually buy the ticket. As Sam says, “it never pays to play it straight”.

Are we kaughtchup caught-up now?

Crimes against humanity in pasta form.

The DOT item in Friday’s post turned into a hot item for some of you, especially with regard to positioning flights (and to a lesser extent, with a term that reader Jason invented, “Allegiant math”). So, let’s talk positioning flights and go a little deeper with the DOT airline statistics report.

Positioning Flights

The dictionary defines a positioning flight (sorry) as booking a separate flight from your origin to another city, and then flying a new itinerary from that other city. They’re very useful to the travel-hacker because certain big-ticket international redemptions often have availability only from a few cities.

My typical positioning flights take me to LAX, DEN, DFW, PHX, or ORD, though sometimes you end up in a small city like RNO because AA will only release global first class availability to Tokyo if your origin in some small city. sigh

Guidelines for Positioning Flights

Because positioning flights are ticketed separately from your main trip, you’ll almost never be protected if the positioning flight gets delayed or cancelled and you miss your second itinerary. (That said, you can usually sweet talk your way into having an airline fix it for you if both tickets are on the same carrier, or to a lesser extent if they’re in the same airline alliance.) As a result, the DOT report helps with a few guidelines:

  • Don’t book a regional jet unless it’s operated by Endeavor or Skywest (see page 7)
  • Book a morning flight (they’re less likely to cancel, see page 21)
  • Choose Delta or Hawaiian for ticketing if possible (best on-time marketing carriers, see page 30)
  • Build extra buffer in June, July, and August (most delayed months, page 8)
  • Book a backup on Southwest since you can cancel for free (don’t use them as your primary positioning flight, see page 9)
  • Leave time for an extra long-layover for delays into LAX, EWR, JFK, LAS, and SEA (lower percentages of on-time arrivals, see pages 15-18)

Of course I have a few of my own guidelines too:

  • Make sure there’s another scheduled flight on the same carrier and same route for getting to your intermediate airport
  • Book a cancelable backup on another carrier to the intermediate airport if possible
  • If you’re positioning to the midwest in the Summer, leave a minimum of 12 hour buffer
  • For positioning to SFO, have a minimum of a 6 hour buffer
  • If you absolutely don’t want to miss a flight starting in another city, plan on arriving to your intermediate city at least 24 hours before the second ticket’s departure
  • Try and stay on the same carrier or at least within the same alliance when possible

Wrap-up

By following a few data-driven guidelines you can avoid most mishaps with positioning flights. Things could still go pear-shaped (like that positioning flights dictionary definition) though, so there’s that I guess.

Pictured: when your positioning flight goes pear-shaped.

We’re all over the map today, but it’s good stuff so hang in there.

1. American Express has a 30% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic through the end of March. Sweet spots:

  • ANA round-trip business class (90,000 miles) or first class (110,000 miles) awards to Japan
  • Delta one-way business class non-stop awards to or from Europe (50,000 – 65,000 miles)
  • Domestic delta economy and first class awards (various)

This transfer bonus pairs well with item #4 too. (Thanks to DoC)

2. American Express has bumped up the offers on Delta co-branded credit cards, and based on the deluge of articles about it they’ve likely bumped the commission paid to affiliates too. These offers are great for just the sign-up bonus if you’re not looking for Delta status:

They’re less great if you want status though, because typically you get MQM as part of the sign-up bonus for the Platinum and Reserve cards and it’s absent in these offers. If you are going to apply, check for a referral offer from P2 or another friend as a way to boost the sign-up bonus even more.

3. There are multiple reports of Public giving everyone a hard time after loading $5,000 with PayPal Key and then trying to withdraw their money a week or so later. If you’re still going to do this deal, I’d prepare to let your funds sit for a month before you try and withdraw unless you want to fight Public.

4. The 2021 DOT statistics for airline commercial operations came out two days ago. There’s plenty of useful data inside, but I’m most interested in the on-time percentage by marketing carrier:

  • Hawaiian: 90.14%
  • Delta: 88.22%
  • Alaska: 83.17%
  • AA: 81.58%
  • United: 79.81%
  • Spirit: 76.74%
  • Frontier: 76.64%
  • Southwest: 75.78%
  • JetBlue: 72.31%
  • Allegiant: 68.26%

Unless you live near LAX or JFK it’s probably interesting for you too. I’d save this list away for when you need a positioning flight to another airport for a big award redemption.

5. Reader Pavel shared a link for a no-lifetime language American Express Business Platinum 150,000 Membership Rewards after spending $15,000 within three months, and another 10,000 additional points for adding an employee card and spending $1,000 within the same timeframe.

Have a nice weekend!

Another day on Allegiant, or at least a (100.00%-68.26%) 41.74% chance of another day on Allegiant.

Wha?

This site has a laser-focus on manufactured spend and travel hacking, and while today’s post may seem like neither, it enables both and is very much a key part of the game, especially when scaling a deal (in other words, still on-brand for MEAB). I’ve also had a few of you ask about getting a new burner phone recently, so there’s that motivation too.

In case you’re still unconvinced about today’s post, an extra phone number is useful because it:

  • Enables new accounts
  • Gives another referral vector
  • Can be a route out of a shutdown
  • Can be parlayed into another google voice account
  • Is another source of 2FA

And of course owning a new cell phone instead of a nearly dead iPhone 3G helps you in other ways too (e.x. for running FinTech apps are activating a Boost SIM).

Nowlet’s tie that into Visible, a low cost cell phone service provider and creepy advertiser owned by Verizon.

Trading Up

If you have android or iPhone in a drawer that still turns on, it’s probably eligible for Visible’s swap program. In fact, the older and weirder it is, the better. (If you don’t have one, you can find an old phone on ebay that fits the bill for under $20. Just make sure it turns on and isn’t severely damaged.) With the trade up program, you’ll get a new Moto G Pure for effectively free by:

  • Shopping through a portal like Rakuten for $30 back
  • Using anyone’s Visible referral code for the first month at $5
  • Joining literally any party in Party Pay for the second month at $25

After 60 days, Visible unlocks all phones which leaves you at a net cost of $0 to trade an old phone for a Moto G Pure, and you’ll get a new cell phone number for games in the mean time. Of course when the phone is unlocked it can be used for games with just about any service out there.

For more on burners, see Cell Phone Burners and Travel Hacking or Cell Phone Burner Followup.

Showing off a Visible cell phone magic swap trick to a baboon for some reason.

There’s inexplicably a lot of noise out there in the travel-hacking community this week. Can I offer a suggestion? Before you decide to spend five or so minutes reading an article, read the headline and ask yourself about the author’s motivation. For me it’s become a very effective filter for what’s worth my attention and what isn’t.

With that out of the way:

1. American Express has partnered with Delta to offer targeted status matches to regular American Express Platinum cardholders. You can sign up at this link, and see your matched status tiers at this link. A few notes:

  • You need to have United, American, Alaska, JetBlue, or Southwest status to match
  • You’ll be matched to a higher tier at Delta than your existing tier
  • The terms and conditions say the offer is targeted, but my guess is that it’ll work for anyone
  • You’ll have Delta status through August 31 (or through January 2023 by meeting these requirements)

Don’t forget, you can get AA status through spend on a co-branded card.

2. The Point debit card has 10x back at Target up to $500 in spend. If you have a Target Redcard credit card, perhaps the best play is to make a payment in-store. If not, Visa gift cards are your best bet, and make sure you go through a shopping portal in case the purchase tracks.

As usual, if you want the Point card use a referral link for a better sign-up offer than is publicly available. As of yesterday, the sign-up offer is $100 back after spending $1,000.

3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Aeromexico and Avianca. The latter has a few nice sweet-spots, like:

  • First Class (Lufthansa) US-Europe or vice-versa for 66,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Economy US-Africa or vice-versa for 31,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Business Class US-Europe or vice-versa for 49,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Economy continental US-Caribbean for 10,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges

Hint: There are others too, and they often involve a misunderstanding of basic world geography.

4. Check for email from Citi for a targeted offer of 5x at electronics stores and game stores (and a few categories that aren’t interesting) on both Premier and Prestige cards. Reportedly the subject is: “[Firstname], Use Your Citi Card to Earn Bonus ThankYou® Points on Eligible Purchases. It’s So Simple to Activate!” (Thanks to TheSultan1 and FearTheZ)

UPDATE: Oliver let me know of a similar offer on the Citi AA Business card. His offer was for 5x at electronics stores up to $500 in spend by May 31.

Sometimes you need to go with your gut.

Note: I’m now back from a disconnected vacation but still catching up. I hope to respond to everyone by the end of the day today though.

Let’s talk about a few interesting deals that have surfaced:

1. The Target Redcard debit card $80 sign-up bonus is back-again, (you get $40 off of $40 in-store and another $40 off of $40 online) with no hard-pull through March 15. As usual, you can churn this one during the promotional period and use a P2 to get the deal at least a couple of times for each person, see Target Redcard Hacks for more information.

Recent reports suggest that you should wait five business days between closing an old Redcard and opening a new one to avoid any hiccups.

2. Costco online is selling $500 Southwest and Alaska gift cards for 10% off. These may be ever-so-slightly interesting for gift card resale, but they’re definitely interesting if you’re looking at paid travel on one of those airlines anyway.

3. Kroger.com has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo code MAR2022. Even if you don’t live in an area with Krogers you can still purchase these. The bad news? They’re not US Bank gift cards like in-store, but rather they’re Metabank gift cards processed by Blackhawk.

The other bad news? Your order will probably be cancelled if your account is less than 30 days old.

Any good news? Well, Metabank does issue different BINs.

4. There is potentially a $1,000 sign-up bonus for Chase Merchant Services according to Doctor of Credit. It’ll probably work, but there are caveats:

  • It may be targeted (but just ask if the offer is attached when applying)
  • If you play shenanigans with your Chase card portfolio, maybe skip this one to avoid any eyes on your accounts
  • Don’t run prepaid gift cards or your own credit cards through this account, find a trusted third party and use their credit card

Am I going to do this one? I honestly can’t decide. Also, who is asking me all of these questions?

Yup