Day: May 2, 2024

  1. Rakuten’s In-Store card linked program has new offers for may:

    – Lowes: 3% cash back or 3x Membership Rewards
    – Food Lion: 1% cash back or 1x Membership Rewards

    Neither offer lists a maximum transaction size, and both offers have to be re-added to your card an hour after use. Both expire in 75 days, and both stack well with the current typhoon of Citi Shop Your Way Rewards spend bonuses. (Thanks to Doug)
  2. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has released its May promo rewards. US cities include:

    – Los Angeles
    – Austin
    – Minneapolis

    There’s good availability in economy for 15,000 miles each way out of all of these cities, and there’s some spotty business class availability from Minneapolis for 50,000 miles this summer. Unfortunately for everyone involved, summer is about the only time that Minneapolis has better weather than much of Europe.
  3. Chase’s increased Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonuses became available in branch on Sunday, and they’re available online now too:

    – Sapphire Preferred: 75,000 bonus points after $4,000 spend in 3 months
    – Sapphire Reserve: 75,000 bonus points after $4,000 spend in 3 months

    Neither is available via referral yet, but I’d wait a week or two if timing isn’t critical because they’ll likely soon be available for a referral bonus too. You could get both with a Modified Double Dip, but I’d strongly prefer pairing a Sapphire Reserve with an Ink Preferred for more net points and better cash-out options.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The other Chase MDD: MEAB Double Dip.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the no-annual fee relic from the Sears era, has sent new, beginning of the month targeted spend offers. We’ve seen:

    – $250 back on $1,200 or more in home improvement purchases once a month through July
    – 5% back on up to $2,000 spend per month on travel and entertainment through the December

    I used to consider this card an Unsung Hero, but it’s time to call it just a Sung Hero, I guess? (Thanks to Grayo and birt)
  2. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Sapphire card): Register for targeted bonus Ultimate Rewards points for booking through the Chase travel portal.
  3. There several new transfer bonuses:

    – Chase Ultimate Rewards 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic through June 15
    – Chase Ultimate Rewards 40% bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through June 15 (still a poor deal most of the time)
    – AmEx Membership Rewards 20% bonus to Aeromexico through May 31 (can be a good deal, mostly for economy)
    – Qatar Avios 30% bonus when transferring from Citi ThankYou Points through May 31

  4. United has devalued partner business class awards in Europe and Asia, with award redemption costs increasing between 33% and 200% depending on carrier and route.

    As I said last week, at this point it basically never makes sense to earn a United mile directly because AmEx’s 35% points rebate and Chase’s 1.5 cents per point travel will often beat the award redemption cost on United, and you’ll earn miles for those flights too because they’re technically not award tickets. Most of the time you should probably focus your spend elsewhere and transfer in flexible currencies only if it makes immediate sense.
  5. There are two new shopping portal bonuses:

    – Delta SkyMiles: 500 bonus miles for $100 or more in spend through May 3
    – Alaska MileagePlan: 1,000 bonus miles for $400 or more in spend through May 8

    Giftcards.com is present on both, though as of April 12 tracking for that store has been the shopping portal equivalent of mail order furniture: Sometimes more intervention than you’d hope for is required.
  6. The personal version of the Barclays Hawaiian Airlines credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $2,000 spend in 90 days. The bonus amount matches the now defunct business card offer, but that one only needed a single purchase. You can have both, but Hawaiian miles are of dubious value unless you’ve got a specific use case in mind. (Thanks to HMBC)

There’s a workaround for mail order furniture that you don’t want to assemble. Who wants to share the shopping portal equivalent?