Year: 2024

Introduction

When snow starts falling, rental car discussion boards light up with questions like: “how do I guarantee I’ll get a four wheel drive car?”; “how do I make sure I’ll get an SUV?”; or “Help, Hertz filed a lawsuit for wrongful charges of car theft“. Yes, that last one isn’t a question, but unfortunately is real. Anyway, before we dive in to the travel-hacking side of those questions, let’s remember a few rental car basics:

  • Most car reservations are refundable
  • Most car reservations don’t have a no-show fee
  • Many car reservations don’t require a credit-card to hold
  • You can hold multiple car reservations, even at the same company

We can take throw each of the above into a blender and come up with a couple of strategies for getting a the car class you want, hopefully without paying extra.

The Strategy

The mechanics:

  1. Book cancelable reservations across several major companies
  2. Book the car class that you really want directly for 30 minutes after your original reservation
  3. Cancel the other reservations when you’ve got the car you want

When you show up at your destination, look in the company’s app or on the car lot for the type of car you want, and grab the one that has the best option. If you have multiple reservations with multiple companies, you’ll generally find something good. Assuming the best option doesn’t exist though, you can always fall back on the reservation booked in step 2. In practice, you probably won’t have to fall back often though.

Good luck friends!

Sneak preview of a future “Will it Blend?” episode: Hertz Lawsuit Papers.

  1. Do this now: Register for the American Express Shop Small promotion for 10% back on up to $150 in spend at Shop Small restaurants through December 31.

    Don’t miss that you can link many offers including this one to any third party issued American Express cards at AmEx Connect.
  2. The Charles Schwab American Express Platinum card has an increased sign-up bonus of 125,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months, which is an all-time high.

    The main feature of this card is the ability to cash-out up to 1,000,000 Membership Rewards annually at 1.1 cents per point.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Alaska is sending targeted applications for either 80,000 or 100,000 MileagePlan miles for the Bank of America Alaska personal card with $4,000 and $8,000 spend required, respectively. Look for the email subject: “Earn up to [80,000 or 100,000] bonus miles + Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare™”

    If you’ve got one, consider combining it with a business card application or two.
  5. MasterCardGiftCard.com has fee-free purchases through the end of November with promo code NOFEES24. You won’t earn points and spend won’t count toward sign-up bonuses with first party AmEx cards at any Incomm site.

    These are Incomm gift cards.
  6. I have an aversion to the blogosphere’s growing need to post random churning related rumors, especially when the rumor’s source is single comment on reddit from someone with little to no post history. At best these are wrong half of the time, which I guess means half of the time they’re right? (For the second time this week: No I’m not bitter, you’re bitter!)

    Sometimes though there’s a rumor that: (1) has enough noise behind it that seems to be more than just echo-chamber repeats, (2) has big enough consequences that most churners ought to know, and (3) makes complete fiscal sense for the company involved; a rumor that meets all three criteria is that US Bank may sunset new Altitude Reserve applications early next week. I’d suggest giving the rumor and your churning needs a few minutes of consideration.

Have a nice weekend!

Bread that’s more fully cooked than the majority of churning rumors.

  1. Bank of America’s +2x or +2% More Rewards Day on all spend up to $2,500 per card promotion, colloquially known by no-one but me as BankAmeriDay, is today and no registration is required. May the fraud alert gods tilt in your favor.
  2. Giftcards.com has 5% off of $100 Visa Virtual gift cards with promo code EARLYJOY. This pairs nicely with the major airline portal’s spend bonuses, the best of which (United) earns +4.16x on $1,200 spend in addition to +2x base earning and credit card spend earning.
  3. American Express offers has a $100 statement credit with $500+ at Best Western hotels in the US and Canada through January 1, 2025. Please don’t use this one for realsies if you’re in a medium or large-sized city; I guarantee that the Best Western isn’t the best option for a stay. (Thanks to Ok-Anywhere6998)
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion running through Tuesday on One4All and Choice gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards.

    The fuel points market remains unseasonably strong because: (1) Pepper has flooded the market so there are fewer buyers at Kroger, and (2) lots of Kroger stores have put all high-value third party gift cards behind the customer service counter. One of those things will probably change soon.

BankAmeriGuy makes his fifth blog appearance for BankAmeriDay.

When you’re traveling internationally, carrying a debit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees or currency conversion fees, and that offers reimbursements on ATM operator fees is the second chapter of travel hacking 101. I conducted a non-scientific poll to see which card travel hackers prefer, and tallied the results from 10 probably made up respondents:

  • 8/10: Charles Schwab debit
  • 1/10: Random credit union debit card
  • 1/10: MEAB always spills too much or never enough

If you run a survey of popular travel blogs, you’ll find the same general distribution. The Schwab debit card is generally considered the gold standard, but regularly you’ll find stories about the card being fraud locked while you’re trying to use it. Those fraud locks require a call to Schwab to iron out, and while they’re quick, the friction is real.

There’s a better way though: Enable Schwab SMS account alerts, and rather than getting a fraud lock, you’ll get an SMS alert when an ATM transaction happens and you’ll be able to respond and clear the alert when Schwab suspects fraud. To enable:

Enable SMS and/or Push-notifications at Profile → Alert Settings. Just don’t confuse this with Profile → Alerts which is different somehow, duh.

Happy Wednesday!

Kermit demonstrates a different hangover recovery technique.

  1. There’s a new public link on the front page of Delta.com for increased sign-up bonuses on American Express cobranded cards. There’s a second link buried at creditcard.delta.com too, so try both if one doesn’t work. Unlike most times when the blog-o-sphere is saying “more people targeted” because someone said so on reddit, this time it actually appears to be true; No, I’m not bitter, you’re bitter! Anyway:

    – Reserve: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 90,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Gold: 70,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve Business: 110,000 miles after $10,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum Business: 100,000 miles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Gold Business: 80,000 miles after 4 $4,00 spend in six months, waived annual fee

    If you get the popup, try the other link which often has different popup criteria.
  2. If you have money locked up with Yotta or Juno thanks to the Synapse FinTech collapse, check your email for a payout link from one of the underlying banks that was servicing accounts, Evolve. There are multiple reports of payments being correct and several where people are short, at least one by over $94,000, though it’s not clear whether that money was put at Evolve by Synapse or put somewhere else. To find the email, look for one of:

    – Email: [email protected]
    – Subject: Return of Synapse Brokerage’s End User Funds

    Don’t forget to add “in:anywhere” to your search to look through spam and other folders in your inbox. If you don’t have your email yet, there’s a completely unverified rumor that it may take until the 16th to send all emails.

    In related news, apparently Evolve’s CTO and CEO/President have been terminated. I’m not saying that’s unjustified especially after Evolve leaked customer information in a data-breach, but it’s strange to see everyone going after Evolve leadership instead of Synapse leadership.
  3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios, and by extension all airlines that use Avios through December 1. (Thanks to jtevy)
  4. The American Express Centurion Business card will have a cap on its 50% airfare booking rebate at 3 Million rebated points annually starting on February 1.

You can’t hold someone accountable if they can’t account I guess?

  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.

  1. Do this now: Register for a targeted promotion from AA for flying in premium cabins, found on your promotions page. I got 10,000 bonus miles with two paid flights booked by November 11 in first, business, or premium economy and flown by December 19.

    Without trying very hard, I found round trip fares in premium economy from my airport for about $160, or in first for about $250. I think you could do better if you live in ORD or MCO especially, but probably in lots of other places too. I really could also just try harder and do better.
  2. Virgin Atlantic’s dynamic award chart changes are live for Virgin Atlantic metal awards. The gist:

    – Cancellation fees are increased to $100 per ticket
    – Transatlantic business class redemption cost range: 28,500 – 77,500 miles
    – Transatlantic economy redemption cost range: 6,000 – 25,000 miles
    – Award surcharges are also variable, often lower than before
    – There is last seat availability for award redemptions

    For now this is a positive net change and availability at low levels isn’t too hard to find, but I expect neither will be the case in three years.
  3. United’s elite status requirements are increasing for elite year 2025, in both the number of Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) required to reach different Premier Stupid Levels (PSL). On the plus side though, you can earn more PQPs from credit card spend (CCS) on premium co-brand cards, but the United Club cards are the only ones worth using with 1 PQP per $15 spend (P15S), up to 15,000 PQPs annually each for both the personal and business:

    – Silver: 6,000 PQP, or 5,000 PQP + 15 PQF, or $90,000 card spend
    – Gold: 12,000 PQP, or 10,000 PQP + 30 PQF, or $180,000 card spend
    – Platinum: 18,000 PQP, or 15,000 PQP + 45 PQF, or $270,000 card spend
    – 1K: 28,000 PQP or 22,000 PQP + 60 PQF, or $420,000 card spend

    I don’t want to yuck your yum (YYY), but getting both a personal and business United Club card to earn 1.5x on $420,000 spend with no additional kickers doesn’t feel terribly appealing in light of a litany of other better options (OBOs).
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for 5% back up to $45 on $100 or more in spend at British Airways.
  5. Southwest extended its schedule through August 4, 2025, so now’s the best time to lock in potential schedule changes for Summer travel.

    These flights will still be of the open seating persuasion because apparently seat assignments aren’t coming until early 2026.

MEAB: Airline themed halloween costume idea central.