Introduction
In what has become an annual MEAB tradition for three years in a row (and trust me, if I do something three years in a row it’s a Ron Burgundy style “kind of a big deal”), it’s time for another installment of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs, but without Ron Burgundy.
Previous versions:
As a certain prolific human wrecking ball and worlds fastest beta tester likes to tell me, LFG!
The GIFs
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/giphy-3-5.gif)
Getting ready for the MEAB 2022 Travel Hacking as told by GIFs post.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/img_4383.gif)
We started the year with most American Express business cards offering bonuses of up to $200 per card or 20,000 Membership Rewards per card, up to 99 times. Yes, it was a huge bonus, but we had to prepare for a bunch of small talk and impatiently waiting while a phone rep adds 99 variations of your name to your account.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/inception-nickleback.gif)
Pictured: 99 AU cards with your name on them (go ahead and count, I’ll wait).
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/giphy-4-9.gif)
Mastercardgiftcard.com turned out to be a great way to hit minimum spend American Express cards for a chunk of the year, at least until they started charging cash advances, illustrated here.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/nerd.webp)
The silent response when MEAB geeked out with the Monty Hall problem applied to flights.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/giphy-10.gif)
Chase drops the bonus for pay yourself back categories from 50% to 25% on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (probably) due to massive abuse and gaming.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/hello-old-people.gif)
After Southwest’s epic meltdown, we get to see their operations staff working on their computer crew optimizer in real time.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-downsized-medium.gif)
Plastiq announces that they’re going public via the Colonnade SPAC, and then produces a commercial outlining their 2023 business plans.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mackenzro-gaming-mack.gif)
When a manufactured spender successfully executes an AmEx triple dip.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-2.gif)
American Express tries to convince us that this year’s Q4 referral bonus with +4x on travel and transit spend isn’t lame. We still remember the better 2021 4-for-us and best 2020 3-for-all variants of the offer.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-3.gif)
Delta and Starbucks partner up, and mainstream bloggers see yet another 10 page puff piece in their future.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/you-wanna-be-me-you-cantbe-me.gif)
Capital One sees American Express with all the giant 250,000 point sign-up bonuses and decides it’s time to play ball. Then, American Express responds.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-2-1.gif)
Nearside’s 2.2% cashback everywhere debit card announces by email that it’s shutting down.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/revive-un-dies.gif)
A few hours later, Nearside emails everyone and says “J/K, J/K, we’re fine”
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/hey-buffy.gif)
Then the next day, Nearside announces that no, it’s actually dying.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/harley-quinn-the-voices.gif)
Kroger’s inner crazy-monologue sends itself a message about wiping out fuel points accounts, and then does it.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/death-dying.gif)
We watch as the Unsung Hero Synchrony Rakuten card slowly dies.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/j-lo-jennifer-lopez.gif)
Brex decides that it’s going to focus on only large businesses and leaves everyone else high and dry.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/anime-girl.gif)
Marriotts in Japan welcome their most loyal guests when tourism reopened in October.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/plane-glide.gif)
Delta announces that they’re getting rid of the CRJ-200s from their fleet, and provides video of the final torture-tube flight.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-2-3.gif)
Travel hackers look for Lubbock on the world map for some reason.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/schitts-creek-ew.gif)
Kroger starts replacing US Bank gift cards with Metabank gift cards.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/atarip-phone.gif)
Southwest’s reservation system stops taking calls due to random equipment failures.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/xqc-sad.gif)
Trying to place orders at Dell looks great, until your order is cancelled after it’s confirmed.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/beauty-and-the-baller-dumped.gif)
We react to PayPal key going away.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-downsized-medium-1.gif)
J and F flyers realize what’s going to happen to award space now that Emirates awards can be booked with Air Canada Aeroplan miles.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/taylor-swift-fall.gif)
MEAB prepares for the 2022 Travel Hacking as told by GIFs early in the year to make it easy later, and then face-plants via procrastination as the year moves on.
![](https://milesearnandburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/giphy-3-1.gif)
Thanks for reading friends! Just like Tanya in the White Lotus Season 2, I’m sure only good things are to come at MEAB!