Month: May 2025

  1. Hyatt has a promotion for 1,000 Etihad Guest miles for stays between May 15 and July 14 at properties in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, registration required.
  2. Best Western has a promotion for 10,000 bonus points after three nights for stays through September 1, registration required. You can earn the 10,000 bonus points two times, which works out to be approximately 21,034.4431 points according to ChatGPT.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. As usual:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for the lower-fee “Everywhere” cards if you have a good liquidation channel
    – Be approximately 1.2% sad that Dosh isn’t around anymore

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Two Incomm sites have gift card promotions running through the end of May:

    – VanillaGift: Fee-free $200+ Visas using VGGRAD100
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Bonus $10 Mastercard with $200+ using GRADBONUS35

    These are Incomm gift cards (duh).
  5. Emirates First awards are now only bookable for Emirates elites or through non-Emirates partners, most notably Qantas. Pricing for Qantas awards is more-or-less inline with prior Emirates pricing, so EK F divas can chill.

Happy Tuesday!

EK F divas eat tacos too.

Last Friday was best known because it was National Christina Day, but something a little less overt happened Friday, hidden in the noise of the National Christina Day parades: Chase shutdown some of its biggest manufactured spend abusers in a second round of purging about a month after the first round. This round of shutdowns appears to be for:

  • Floosies that accidentally or purposefully took advantage of bonus multipliers to the tune of at least a few thousand dollars
  • Churners who found their own ways to trigger bonus categories and did so with medium to heavy volume this year
  • People with large suspicious money flows in our out of their deposit accounts

The first two groups saw only credit cards close while deposit accounts were untouched. The last group saw everything closed. There are enough questions swirling around the churnosphere that probably the subject probably deserves answers beneficial to the whole commnity:

[Q]: What happens to your points when Chase shuts you down?
[A]: They stick around for 30 days unless you’re in New York, in which case it’s 90 days. In rare cases your points vanish immediately, but this is only when Chase suspects fraud or money laundering.

[Q]: Can I get back into Chase if I was shutdown?
[A]: It very much depends on the reason, and how you were shut down. Depending on the circumstance, it’ll be one of: you’ll never see another card again, you’ll be back in after five years, you’ll be approved for cards but they’ll be shut down in a month or two, or you’ll be back in 60-90 days

[Q]: Is there anything I can do to reverse the shutdown?
[A]: There are certain types of shutdowns like bust-out risk that can be overturned by the Chase Executive office. Unfortunately, this round doesn’t seem to be related to any of those types of shutdown, so for those affected in April and May the answer is probably no

[Q]: If Chase shuts me down, can I link new transfer partners in the Ultimate Rewards portal post-shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Will pending points post after I’m shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Do I need to worry about another round?
[A]: Probably if you know the details of what happened to trigger bonus categories and you had significant volume; otherwise probably not

[Q]: Should I self-shutdown preemptively?
[A]: I would if you were part of the bonus category shenanigans and you haven’t been axed yet

[Q]: Do I need to worry that I’ve maxed spend on my Chase Ink Cash cards at office supply stores?
[A]: No

Good luck, and happy Monday!

Next time: The story of how boomer-era Chase Manhattan Bank helped propel National Christina Day into the worldwide spotlight.

  1. American Express had several big waves of shutdowns yesterday in addition to the its ongoing, nearly daily smaller batch of shutdowns at least partially related to foreign buyer’s group behavior. Based on discussion with and datapoints from those affected, yesterday’s reasons appear to be:

    – Round two of floosies missed in the the first American Express Big Axe, even if they cut out their floosie lifestyle in February
    – Accounts with big spend at international merchants and or with charges in multiple states simultaneously
    – Holders with multiple large, missed payments

    It feels to me like American Express is trying to de-risk its accountholder portfolio and extraneous, abnormal behaviors aren’t as safe as they have been historically. I know nothing about anything, but assuming that’s true, lowering your balances with American Express every single day probably can’t hurt.
  2. The American Express Platinum brokerage cards have increased sign-up bonuses, and you can have both provided you have the right underlying brokerage accounts:

    – Schwab: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Morgan Stanley: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months

    The Schwab’s best use is cashing out Membership Rewards at 1.1 cents per point, and Morgan Stanley’s is cashing out at 1.0 cents per point and giving the cardholder a free Platinum authorized user card with lounge access.
  3. Starting on June 7, Hyatt will only allow 10 incoming awards (like Guest of Honor, Club Access, Suite Upgrade Awards, etc.) from another member per year.

    Apropos of nothing, last I heard it was still possible to have more than one email address.
  4. AA has a limited time heightened status match for JetBlue elites through June 30:

    – JetBlue Mosaic 1 matches to AA Platinum
    – JetBlue Mosaic 2 matches to AA Platinum Pro
    – JetBlue Mosaic 3 and 4 match to AA Executive Platinum

    These are instant matches that last four months, and you can retain the matches with flight activity. How much activity? In the most AA way possible, you won’t know until they email details on the successful match 🙄.

Have a nice weekend!

Lowering your American Express risk profile comes in many forms.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s Q3 promotion for your choice of either:

    – 2,000 bonus points for every two nights
    – 8,000 bonus points for every four nights

    This is valid for stays through the end of August. If you’re going to stay at least four nights, the second option will always earn more than the first.
  2. Bel-Air, Nob Hill, and Raley’s food stores have 15x points on One4All and Lowes gift cards (ok, ok, and some other stupid ones too) through Tuesday.

    Home Depot cards converted from One4All and Lowes resale rates are currently 90%+ in the post-modern Pepper-is-still-broken world.
  3. Speaking of Pepper, they’ve launched a landing page with a waitlist for their AI based shopping platform, but you’re still unable to redeem pending coins.

    tl;dr: There’s even more reason than ever to answer “nah man!” to the “how do I get into Pepper?” question.
  4. Smart & Final and El Super stores have a $20 grocery coupon with a $100 purchase of some gift cards, notably BestBuy, airbnb, Disney, Lowes, and One4All cards through Tuesday, limit one per transaction. The $20 grocery coupon expires on May 20.

    You should be in the 90-92%+ resale range for these cards.
  5. Several people wrote about a no-lifetime language (NLL) offer link at the generic American Express Business Platinum landing page. The bonus is 150,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 in spend and $500 off of $2,500 in flights booked through American Express Travel within three months. I didn’t post it before because:

    – It’s very specifically targeted
    – There are better offers around
    – Gamers may worry less about NLLs than others

    Since I heard from several of you, I think my assessment to leave it out was wrong, mea culpa.

For those of you new to the game.

  1. Three airline shopping portals have spend bonuses through May 12:

    – AA eShopping: 2,000 bonus miles with $800+
    – Alaska MileagePlan Shopping: 2,000 bonus miles with $400+
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 bonus miles with $400+

    Each of these is probably worth burning through your $20,000 annual giftcards.com capacity. Now is that per portal or per giftcards.com account? If you’re not sure like me, vary both simultaneously.
  2. Southwest has a promotion for 30% off of base fares for both award and paid tickets with promo code SUNNY30, which is valid for travel booked by tomorrow night and flights between May 27 and November 19.

    The validity period for this promo is really long, suggesting all is not well at the airline presently being haunted by the ghost of Herb Kelleher past.
  3. Chase’s tool for viewing pre-qualified credit cards is back online. If you’re preapproved though, don’t apply through the tool. Instead use a referral link from another player or a friend, or use Rakuten.
  4. Citi Offers has a card linked offer for $50 off of $200+ in JetBlue flights through June 30. Also, Citi sucks at correlation, and you can often find the same offer on multiple cards.
  5. Chase Offers has a card linked offer for 10% off of Southwest fares with up to $40 cash back, and a card linked offer for $30 off of $150+ at Turo. Chase’s offer system is exactly like Citi’s offer system.

When you feel a knot in your stomach on a Southwest flight, don’t stress; it’s just the ghost of Herb haunting management.

  1. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift card purchases through Saturday, limit 10 per transaction. For best results:

    – Always buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back to back

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  2. Rakuten has 15% cash back or 15x Membership Rewards at both Dell and Saks this week which is interesting, you know, for reasons.
  3. Rakuten In Store’s card linked program has 1% cash back or 1x Membership Rewards at Food Lion stores, maximum of $10 per transaction. Food Lion often removes a step from manufactured spend which makes this double lucrative in the right stores.

    The promotion has to be re-aded to your account an hour after its first use, though it’s still valid for all transactions within that hour because why not be complex when you can?
  4. SoFi has an increased combined sign-up bonus of $300 + $375 or 37,500 Membership Rewards (targeted) via Rakuten for opening a new account and having at least $5,000 in direct deposits (or “direct deposits”) within 25 days.

    Whether or not you do this deal, consider closing any SoFi Checking and Savings accounts when you’re able because this deal will probably be back in some form again and a literal reading of the terms and conditions doesn’t preclude you from churning.

On the other hand, a literal reading didn’t go so well for another churner over the weekend.

  1. The Rakuten shopping portal is offering $150-$300 or 15,000-30,000 Membership Rewards for credit card approvals with some Chase cards, and you’ll get it automatically with the Rakuten shopping extension installed in your browser:

    – Sapphire Preferred ($300)
    – Freedom Unlimited ($150)
    – Ink Unlimited ($300)

    This absolutely beats any two player mode referral bonus as is and also makes the Sapphire Preferred slightly more attractive than an Ink. If they drop back to their apparently regular bonuses of $50, then you can do better with a referral from P1 to P2 or buy selling a referral click on a marketplace.
  2. Register for Hilton’s Q2 promotion for 1,000 bonus points per stay between June 1 and August 15. Normally I’d take the time to click and register for a promotion at any hotel that I may end up at, but this one is almost not worth the clicks unless you’re staying at multiple Hilton properties over that timeframe.
  3. Qatar Avios has an incoming transfer bonus of 30% from Citi ThankYou points through May 31. In theory they have until the end of June to post the bonus points, but in practice they’re arriving instantly.

    You can transfer Qatar Avios to other Avios programs, so this is effectively a transfer bonus to all of those too.

Chase’s real-world testing for self-affiliate links.

  1. The new month brings new transfer bonuses:

    – Capital One 20% to Qantas Frequent Flyer through May 31
    – Chase Ultimate Rewards 25% to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club through June 15
    – Chase Ultimate Rewards 25% to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through May 31

    I expect that American Express will have a bonus or two next week too.
  2. The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for the Sapphire Reserve has a promotion for 1.5 cents per point when shopping for Apple products through May 31, or “while supplies last”. What kind of supplies you ask? Probably food and water for the hamsters running on wheels powering the bonus. The Sapphire Preferred’s bonus is 1.25 cents per point, but who says you can’t upgrade, redeem, and downgrade? No one after the first year.

    Items purchased this way can only be returned for certain reasons and only with 14 days of calendar delivery, so if you’re a serial returner it’s best to pass this opportunity.
  3. Cardless has a new offer for 100,000 Avios + 150 QPoints after $6,000 spend in 90 days on its Infinite Visa credit card. The card also gets you Qatar Gold status which earns oneworld Sapphire for the first year. The Signature card has a 70,000 bonus at the same link for minimizers.

    Cardless dropped its one card per lifetime rule this week too, which makes the offer more appealing.
  4. I don’t typically report on the end of credit card offers because I assume that if you wanted the card, you’d have it on your radar or already have applied for it. But, can we collectively agree that the news of the upcoming demise of the Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 Ultimate Rewards sign-up bonus can’t come fast enough? The last thing we need is another 12 manufactured articles in an eight hour span about a card that’s mid at best.
  5. The now defunct old Priceline card, which once upon a time was worth 8% back on travel if you knew what you were doing before several devaulations, is breathing its last elevated breath by: decreasing earnings, dropping points redemptions from 1.5 cents per point to 1 cent per point, and removing its 10% redemption rebate this summer.

Have a nice weekend!

Powering the Chase 50% Ultimate Rewards Apple bonus.