Year: 2024

  1. Check for targeted spend bonus offers on your Chase cards, but only if $15 off of $100-$150 in spend on utilities, insurance and other less useful categories is worth your time.

    Side note: I can’t decide if this deal is above the line or below the line for this site. $15 is below, but n*$15 may not be, so I’m choosing metaphorical violence today I guess. #sorrynotsorry
  2. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on Happy, Choice, One4All, and sportsbook gift cards through September 24.
  3. The best way to cash out Shop Your Way Rewards points, at least since Sears effectively disappeared from the planet, is Visa gift cards. Those cash-outs are 5% off through September.

    Side note: Again, violence I guess.
  4. Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals have spending offers for 10% back, up to $57 each, at various Marriott Brands:

    – Townplace Suites
    – Renaissance Hotels
    – Sheraton Hotels
    – Aloft Hotels

    As usual, the least sus way to game these is to buy gift cards at the front desk. What’s the most sus way? Look, I’m not choosing that much violent. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. US Bank has updated its regular business checking sign-up bonus for new accounts with promo code Q3AFL24 or Q3BUS24, depending on your state. The bonus:

    – $300 with a $5,000 deposit
    – $800 with a $30,000 deposit

    If you deposit the money on day 29 and withdraw on day 61, then you’ve only got the money tied up for 32 days and are still eligible for the bonus. You can’t have had an existing US Bank Business checking account in the last 12 months.

Apparently, today’s motto.

  1. US Bank has opened a waitlist for its annoyingly named Smartly Visa credit card. The card’s earning structure is 2%-4% cash back depending on your balance in an equally annoyingly named Smartly Savings account; you’ll need to keep $100,000 parked there for 4% earning.

    The annual fee is currently unspecified. (Thanks to LiftBroski)
  2. Southwest has a fast-track promotion to earn a two month Companion Pass. The requirements are:

    – Book two one-ways or one round-trip by tomorrow night
    – Fly both legs by November 20
    – Both legs must be paid flights, and existing bookings don’t count

    The promotional companion pass is valid between January 6 and March 6, 2025.
  3. Rakuten in-store offers has 1% back or 1 Membership Reward per dollar spent at Giant Food stores. As usual, once you use the promotion you’ve got to re-add it to your account after an hour, though any purchases in the first hour after use will continue to track.

    Apropos of nothing: Giant Food stores sell gift cards.
  4. AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its September promotional rewards. North American cities include Phoenix, Las Vegas, Washington DC, New York, Montreal, and Ottawa.
  5. Breeze Airways has 50% off of base fares with promo code BIGDEAL for travel between September 18 and May 13, 2025 booked by tomorrow night.

    What they’re not telling you is that the big deal isn’t as big as you’d think because they blocked out lots of days from the promotion, so don’t listen when they say “I’m kind of a big deal”. In fact, that’s just good general life advice. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Wednesday!

Sioux City takes a swing and a miss at Lubbock.

  1. Clear has an offer for a $75 Uber voucher with a new membership, using the same promo code as in August, BETTERTRAVEL75 through September 6.

    This remains one of the best ways to cash out AmEx Clear credits, especially because you don’t need to show up in airport to validate anything.
  2. Rakuten In-Store has:

    – 4% or 4x back on Lowes purchases
    – 1% or 1x back on Food Lion purchases

    Both offers are good for 75 days after adding, and have to be re-added to your account one hour after purchase, and both stores sell open loop gift cards too.
  3. Publix stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit one per transaction, and you must clip the digital coupon.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Hilton Honors points through September 30, making the transfer ratio 1:2.6. Note that you’ve got to login to see the transfer bonus.

    If we value Honors points at 0.5 cents each, then, since America Loves Math™, value = 2.6 * 0.5 = 1.3 cents per Membership Reward. It’s pretty big I guess.
  5. American Express Membership Rewards also has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Ibera, and Aer Lingus Avios through September 30.
  6. Thirteen Star Alliance airlines have a status match for SAS Eurobonus elite members, which may or may not work with matched status from last week.

    Star Gold is a sweet spot for elite status, since it gives access to United Clubs even when flying domestically, provided the status isn’t from United. (Thanks to Connor)

How is E.T. like today’s post, asked no-one?

  1. Do this now: Try and register for Hyatt’s targeted promotion for 5,000 bonus points for each 5 nights stayed in the next 90 days, up to 45,000 total bonus points.
  2. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s fall promotions:

    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay (+2,000 if it’s an MGM property)
    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay for Marriott credit card holders

    These stack, but honestly 4,000 bonus Marriott points is probably worth $20 at best so don’t go nuts.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Remember that the variable loads work too

    Just don’t be like me last week and try and load $500 on a $200 card. The register will take it, but I promise nothing good happens.
  4. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the most sung of Unsung Heroes, has released new beginning of month offers, each is slightly complex because #extra. Each is good monthly for September, October, and November, and each will stack with other offers as applicable. We’ve seen:

    – $60 statement credit for a purchase $450+, good twice per month
    – $60 statement credit after six $75+ purchases
    – $50 statement credit for a purchase $375+, good twice per month

    I’ll be knocking this out with two $1,000 purchases at a grocery store to combine with outher outstanding credits. (Thanks to Brooke and birt)
  5. Rakuten has 15% back or 15x Membership Rewards on purchases at Dell, likely ending today. Use a friends referral if you don’t already have a Rakuten account, or use George at TBB’s otherwise.
  6. Avelo has $50 off of round-trip fares booked by Tuesday, for travel between September 17 and February 11, 2025 using promo code LABORDAY.

Pictured: The source of my instructions to load $500 onto a $15-200 variable load card.
(Thanks to IAD_Flyer for the picture)

  1. American Express widened its targeting for adding employee cards to business charge cards, with a 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus after $4,000 spend in 90 days for up to five employees online. These links appear in your AmEx Offers tab, and reader Jim notes that they’re not necessarily on top but may be buried much lower.

    Any cards that already earned five bonuses of 15,000 Membership Rewards using online links from Spring will not get the online bonus again; calling in for offers still works for those and gives a higher capacity of 99 total bonuses per card though.
  2. Canada’s ultra-low cost carrier Flair Airlines has a promotion for $1 base fare (+ tax) tickets between many major Canadian cities and Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Nashville, New York JFK, and several Mexico airports.

    Surprisingly, I’m seeing limited availability around US winter holidays. I was able to price out a complete bare-bones ticket at ~$15 each way including taxes. That said, “you get what you pay for” very much applies here, and Flair makes Southwest look like luxury.
  3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through September 29. Availability out of Canada is often better than out of the US, which I guess pairs nicely with the prior item. (Thanks to virginiarph)
  4. If it was a Cruel Summer and now you’re Down Bad waiting to be Bejeweled to reset your Karma with a Blank Space and Shake it Off, Hilton is giving you a chance to bid Honors points to meet Travis Kelce. You probably won’t meet his girlfriend, but statistically speaking it’s likely your best opportunity on Earth to do so. (This news item was just for Shay at TCB)
  5. The Barclays Hawaiian card has an increased bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after a single purchase using a link from an in-flight mailer. The $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year. For a promotional code, you can try a random number or email me for the promo code that reader Dean shared. (Thanks to Dean)
  6. Gary at VFTW notes that SkyTeam member SAS’s elite status match program doesn’t actually seem to be validating anything and is just awarding status when the form is filled out. So that’s a thing I guess.

Have a nice holiday weekend!

The SAS elite status match validation desk.

  1. Kroger has 4x fuel points promotion running tomorrow through Sunday on fixed value Visa and Mastercards and third party gift cards other than Amazon.
  2. Bilt’s rent day falls on a Sunday in September. This is also the last rent day for double points on up to $10,000 spend; in October the maximum double point spend will be $1,000. There are two main transfer bonuses on Sunday:

    – 50% bonus to Avianca LifeMiles
    – 25-100% bonus to Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub, based on Bilt status

    What’s the maximum transfer for bonus miles, especially Virgin Atlantic with its tiered bonus? They haven’t announced it so double check the terms and conditions on Sunday. (Cynical MEAB thinks that they haven’t announced the maximums because they’re really low, but go ahead and prove me wrong Kerr, please.) UPDATE: Gary at VFTW let me know that these bonuses are unlimited.
  3. Do this now: Register for Southwest’s promotion for increased elite status earning through November 30. (The promotion mainly gives 2x-3x tier qualifying points on flights, and 2,000 tier qualifying points for every $5,000 in co-branded credit card spend). (Thanks to Brian M)
  4. Do this now (if you live in Washington, or move into a closet there during the NFL season): Register for Delta’s 12Status program and you’ll get:

    – One SkyMile for each passing yard earned by the Seahawks
    – Priority boarding on Delta flights at SEA airport during the NFL season

    According to a random ESPN page, last year there were 4,167 passing miles.
  5. Vietnam Airlines has a paid, year long status match for non-SkyTeam elites. The price is $99 for low tier, $159 for mid tier, or $299 for high tier status. Vietnam Airlines has five status lines, these are the middle three. The lowest matched status SkyTeam elite, which gets lounge access on international SkyTeam flights including Delta. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Thursday!

A notorious churner’s Seattle NFL season rented “condo”, which houses a family of 4.

Introduction

Alaska and Hawaiian may merge. If that happens, Hawaiian miles will transform into Alaska MileagePlan miles in a way that “preserve[s] the value of HawaiianMiles at a one-to-one ratio“. This has a bunch of people excited because:

  • Alaska MileagePlan miles are hard to earn
  • HawaiianMiles are easy to earn via American Express Membership Rewards

Alaska MileagePlan miles are valuable partially because Alaska is smaller than the big four major US airlines, and partially because again, they’re hard to earn. HawaiianMiles aren’t worth much relative to most major airline currencies, but if the merger completes then HawaiianMiles will balloon in value overnight.

The Play

Of course, gamers gonna game, and the opportunity to turn low value, easy to earn miles into more valuable miles is an obvious and attractive play. In fact, I’ll be running this play; I too like turning low value things into high value things just as much as the next churner.

The Scale

How big should you go? There are risks to going too big, namely:

On the first point, what’s the expectation value for a time to devaluation? I’d guess it falls between 18 months and 24 months based on past history. How bad is a devaluation? Usually, an average 30% increase in redemption cost is a reasonable upper limit.

The Answer

That brings a simple math formula to calculate how many miles to transfer: the number of miles I expect to redeem in the next 18 months, plus the number of miles to redeem in the following 18 months devalued by 30%, minus the number of miles I expect to earn in other ways.

The numbers for me, which are based completely on how many MileagePlan miles I earned and burned used over the last 18 months:

  • 0-18 month range:
    • 900,000 miles to burn
    • 800,000 miles to earn
  • 19-36 month range:
    • 900,000 miles to burn * 130% for a devaluation
    • 800,000 miles to earn

Running the math:

miles = (900,000 – 800,000 + 900,000 * 130% – 800,000 = 470,000 miles

And if I do it before the 20% Membership Rewards transfer bonus to Hawaiian ends on Sunday night:

miles = 470,000 / 1.20 = ~392,000 miles

So, 392,000 Membership Rewards transferred will cover me (probably) for the next 36 months. Very mindful, very demure, very cutesy. But, what about travel past 36 months from now, you ask? I guarantee my situation, the US airline situation, airline transfer partners, airline alliances, and my travel needs will be different in 36 months, and speculation beyond that timeframe is at best a guessing game, especially since an unredeemed point is worth zero.

Happy transfers friends!

Alaska’s new 2026 alliance announcement.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 1,000 bonus points per night at Unbound Collection hotels between September 1 and November 30. The promo caps at 20 nights.
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s fall promotion for double points on all stays between September 3 and November 18. The bad news with this promotion is that you’ll be staying in a Best Western.
  3. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards in-store through Saturday with a clipped digital coupon. This type of promotion typically lets you reclip the coupon after each transaction too.

    Meijer carries both Sunrise and Pathward gift cards.
  4. Hy-Vee stores have have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards through Sunday. You don’t need to clip any digital coupons and you can repeat the discount ad-infinitum with new transactions, at least until the store manager runs you off of the property.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
  5. Bilt Rewards now earns on purchases at Walgreens made with any linked card, Bilt issued or otherwise. The earn rate on general spend is 1x for most items, or 2x on Walgreens house branded items.

    Gift cards are excluded via the terms and conditions, but may or may not actually be excluded.
  6. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Link your credit cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after $2,000 spend plus a purchase. The $99 annual fee is not waived. The bonus is split into:

    – Main card: 60,000 miles after $2,000 spend
    – Employee card: 10,000 miles after a purchase

    The best play for gamblers is to bet that these will turn into Alaska MileagePlan miles next year at a ratio of 1:1. If they don’t, the best use will probably be either inter-island flying or using miles to upgrade a paid coach ticket to business on Hawaiian metal. (Thanks to BleedBlue__)
  8. Southwest has 30% off of flights to or from Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Central America using promo code BEACHES for bookings made by tomorrow, and travel from September 29 through February 10, 2025.

    Blackout dates that you’d expect are present. And just like last time, John Wayne airport is excluded because Southwest hates any actors that promote the southwest as a region instead of as an airline.
  9. Chase Offers has 5%-10% back on Southwest Airlines airfare of $50 or more through September 6, on up to $400-$800 spend for a max cash back of $40. I suppose you could fly somewhere with a Best Western if you’re not into the whole “basic comfort” thing.

Happy Tuesday!

Southwest’s new marketing campaign is coming to a city near you.