Month: September 2025

  1. There are two new transfer bonuses:

    – American Express: 25% to Hilton Honors, making the ratio 10:25 through September 23
    – Capital One: 30% to Virgin Red, making the ratio 10:13 though October 1

    Both have some value for the right redemptions, neither is outstanding for a ZOMGWTFBBQ transfer.
  2. American Express has more links for adding employee cards (see yesterday for the Delta Business cards and the Business Gold and Platinum cards):

    – Business Green: 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months
    – Blue Business Plus: 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months

    Remember, there are phone-in offers with higher limits that don’t necessarily match the online offers. Both the online and phone-in offers are targeted per primary account.
  3. American Express also has a targeted offer for adding an authorized user to the personal Gold card:

    – Gold: 10,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 spend in six months

    These will show up on the authorized user’s credit report if American Express can figure out who they are, and it’s also limited to one per primary account.
  4. Breeze has a promotion for 35% off of round-trip base fares with promo code GOLDEN for flights booked by Friday night and travel between September 10 and January 31, 2026 with some obvious black-out dates around the holidays.

Have a nice Wednesday friends!

The Wednesday Quad comes in hot.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card sent out beginning of month offers via snail mail and email over the last week. Each offer is valid once a month for September, October, and November, and some have bonuses for getting all three months’ bonuses:

    – $25 monthly credit on $750 monthly, and a bonus $50 for hitting all three
    – $40 monthly credit with five $75+ transactions monthly
    – $50 monthly credit on $1,500 monthly, and a bonus $50 for hitting all three

    Yes, these stack with both of last month’s offers. No, this card isn’t available for new applications any more, sorry. (Thanks to birt, Jared, and K)
  2. American Express has new online for adding new employee cards, limit five per primary card:

    – Delta Business Gold: 5,000 SkyMiles with $1,000 spend in six months
    – Delta Business Platinum: 10,000 SkyMiles with $2,500 spend in six months
    – Delta Business Reserve: 20,000 SkyMiles with $4,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 15,000 Membership Rewards with $4,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 15,000 Membership Rewards with $4,000 spend in six months

    Before you ask: No, you don’t have to choose the employee cards with annual fees with these offers.
  3. Alaska MileagePlan Atmos is changing its relationship with both Singapore Airlines and LATAM on October 1:

    – Reduced earning on tickets booked in September (LATAM) or September – December (Singapore) for travel through December 31 through any channel
    – No new Singapore award bookings starting on October 1, ditto with LATAM
    – No points earning unless tickets are booked directly via Alaska starting in 2026 for Singapore
    – No points earning regardless of booking channel on LATAM starting October 1

    This was bound to happen when Alaska joined oneworld, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting.
  4. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 back on $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. What sorcerers could have predicted this after they had the same deal on Mastercards last week? All of them, I think. Anyway:

    – Even multipliers of $300 give bigger discounts
    – Go for the lower-fee “Everywhere” cards if you can liquidate them

    These are Pathward / BlackHawkNetwork gift cards.

Gift card sale prediction sorcerers in action.

Long holiday weekends provide plenty of opportunity for churners and manufactured spenders, like:

  • Discount gift cards
  • Portal bonuses
  • Sales on airfare and stays
  • Discount goods for resale

They also provide another great unlikely benefit: In-store crowds.

Say what now? Crowds are a benefit? Yup. In crowds, cashiers and customer service desk personnel just want to keep lines moving. That gives you two ways to play holidays for in-person games:

  • Just keep running back to back transactions at self check out. As long as you’re quiet and not actively causing problems, you’ll be ignored. Holidays can be huge volume days
  • Try new things, if something hits wrong, customer service is too busy to make up rules and cause problems, they’ll usually just clear the error and move on

Good luck, and have a nice holiday friends!

Labor Day self checkout secondary effects, Kroger style.