Month: November 2024

  1. The major airline shopping portals have a big holiday bonus promotion before black Friday, all of which are more lucrative than typical:

    – AA: 4,000 extra AAdvantage miles with $1,600+ through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 extra MileagePlan miles with $650+ through November 18
    – Delta: 2,000 extra SkyMiles with $1000+ through November 18
    – Southwest: 4,000 extra Rapid Rewards with $1,000+ through November 24
    – United: 5,000 extra MileagePlus miles with $1,200+ through November 22

    Giftcards.com is present on all of these portals.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the Detlef Schrempf of credit cards, sent out beginning of the month offers:

    – 150,000 Shop Your Way points with $1,500 spend through December 31
    – 10% statement credit with $350-$400 spend in utilities each month through January (total $120)
    – $125 statement credit $600 spend in utilities, each month through January (total $375)

    My offer was stolen out of my glove by rabid baseball fans this month, or at least I assume that’s what happened. (Thanks to GoBolts, SPX, BrandonV, IAD_Flyer, and birt)
  3. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has renewed its paid status match for non-SkyTeam airlines through October 2025. Notable in this iteration is that it’s possible for to match to a full 12 months of Platinum status in Canada for $499 CAD.

    I suppose an American with status in Air Canada could match too with a sleight of hand, and for the right use case Platinum is absolutely worth $499 CAD. I mean, what could that possibly be in US dollars? $20? $25? Yes I could look it up, but [insert excuse here].
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has released its November promo awards. North American cities include Boston, New York, Vancouver, Denver, Seattle, and Ottawa, with tickets at 15,000 miles to and from Europe each way in economy for travel through April 2025.

    I’m also seeing limited availability promotional business class awards from Seattle and Denver, the only two cities I bothered to check, for 50,000 FlyingBlue miles each direction.
  5. American Express Offers has new offers valid through December 31 for:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards with $2,000 at ANA
    – $100 statement credit after $500+ with Delta
    – $250 statement credit after $1,000+ with Delta
    – $75 statement credit after $300+ at US and Europe Destination by Hyatt properties

    The easiest hotel play is to buy a gift card at the front desk. For airlines, it’s figuring out how to refund to a travel bank or travel wallet for future use. Gamers may find more lucrative options too.

Happy Monday!

More outsized value: Multi-country soda arbitrage.

  1. Bask Bank has long offered savings accounts that earn AA miles. In the past era of ZIRP, the earning potential relative to regular savings account interest was huge, but ZIRP is a distant memory and Bask has devalued several times since.

    Don’t worry though! Bask is devaluing again today because of “a range of economic factors and current market conditions”, where now they’ll only pay out 2 miles for every dollar saved annually, down from 2.5 miles per dollar. I guess because still high interest rates mean they can collect a bigger spread? That’s #BaskMath. As of this writing they haven’t updated their website to reflect the devaluation, so that’s double awesome. I’m out.
  2. Choice Hotels will have a lower cost saver level award tier of 6,000 points, allow for award bookings at 50 weeks in advance, and allow for redeeming points for room types other than base rooms. But, and here’s the kicker, not until early 2025.
  3. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction. For those playing sportsball at home: Yes, they’re really tweaking the per-transaction size, from five, to eight, to seven, and most recently to nine. What’s next, 7.5?

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express Offers has $20-$50 off of $300-$750 in gift cards at amexgiftcard.com, and you can combine this with promo code SHOPEARLY24 for free shipping. As usual, the main use for these is shifting spend, but of course gamers gonna game. (Thanks to Stephen at FM)
  5. Rakuten in-store has card linked offers for:

    – 1% back at Lowes stores (no maximum specified)
    – 1% back at Stop & Shop stores (max $10 back per transaction)
    – 1% back at Food Lion stores (max $10 back per transaction)

    The terms on this are regular for Rakuten, but weird: After activating, you’ve got 75 days to use the offer. After the first purchase, the offer will only work for another hour. After that hour, you can usually re-add the offer again until Rakuten pulls it in several weeks. Link your cards to your Rakuten profile here.
  6. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 4x, 5x, or 6x points (chain dependent) on third party gift cards November 21, limit $2,000 per account. Apple and BestBuy are the cards are likely your best choice if your’e not buying for personal use. (Thanks to GCG)

More #BaskMath courtesy of John K.