Monday’s Outsized Promotions

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.