Month: January 2026

We talked way back in 2021 about loosey goosey language in Citi’s Terms and Conditions that let you double dip sign-up bonuses on some cards. A lot of things have changed since 2021 (duh), and Citi games have changed slightly too. Let’s pick a particular card, like the stupidly named Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard, and dive into its Terms and Conditions:

  • “bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus from a [Citi AA Globe card] in the past 48 months”
  • “bonus miles are not available … if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a bonus in the last 48 months into a [Citi AA Globe card]”

So, you can’t get a bonus if you had one in the past four years from the same card, effectively. With that in mind, let’s go over a couple of Citi’s application rules:

  • Must wait eight days between applications
  • No more than two cards every 65 days.
  • Bonus eligibility is attached at the time of application

With a card like the Globe, you’ve got four months to hit the spend bonus, which gives you time for apply for four cards within the first card’s bonus window. Specifically, you could apply on day 0, day 8, day 65, and day 74, and you’d still meet Citi’s application rules and have another 56 days before the bonus period on the first card is up. Once you’ve been approved for all the cards, which frankly is unlikely in-and-of-itself, you can hit the bonus spend on all four, and get the bonus four times. Wowza.

Now let’s talk about reality. Should you do this? Almost certainly not, because:

  • AA bans users with too many bonuses in a year, and this will probably trigger it
  • You’d have four new Citi accounts on your credit report in a couple of months
  • Citi fraud analysts won’t like what they see if they look
  • Other banks won’t like what they see if they look
  • A single Globe card is generally a bad option, four of them is four times as many bad options

Ok, so the concept is cool in theory and bad in practice, why talk about it? Citi isn’t the only bank out there, and you may find that your local LardLand Credit Union in Lubbock, TX has credit card bonuses that work the same way, but don’t necessarily report to the credit bureaus. Now you’re in business.

Happy Tuesday!

More bad ideas in scale.

  1. Do this now: Check for targeted spend bonuses on Chase co-brand cards. Offers are 6,000-10,000 bonus points for $6,000-$10,000 spend by March 31.
  2. Do this now: Register for your targeted United MileagePlay bonus. I got 32,000 bonus miles after taking two premium cabin flights of at least $650 each booked and flown by March 9, which is a solid “meh”.
  3. Reportedly the Chase Freedom Unlimited card has an in-branch only offer for $300 after $500 spend in three months and 5x on gas and groceries for the first year through Thursday.

    I’m sure you can think of a way or two to make 5x at gas and grocery profitable, and remember, not all the ways rhyme with shmift shard. (Thanks to DoC).
  4. United launched its 2026 status match opportunity, and for the first time in a decade, you can match to 1K. Status is valid for four months and includes reduced tiers to maintain status.

    Generally Star Alliance Gold is a valuable status to hold especially for lounge access, but less so on United. (Thanks to FM)
  5. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. If you can’t find cards at your store, someone probably hid them behind another gift card because people can be monsters.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday friends!

What a human Monster might look like.

  1. Hyatt’s 2026 corporate status match, which instantly awards Explorist status through February 2028 and offers a fast track to Globalist with 20 nights in 90 days, is now available.

    You’ve got to have a big company email address to make this work, or you’ve got to be creative. Or, ¿por qué no los dos?
  2. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $8,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year.

    This offer is also available via referrals, but only for new Chase Business customers.
  3. The Rakuten American Express card has a heightened sign-up bonus of $100 after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the card carries no annual fee. The ability to earn unlimited 2x Membership Rewards (or temporarily Bilt Rewards) at grocery makes this card an Unsung Hero candidate.
  4. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of five free-night certificates after $3,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived the first year. Each certificate is worth up to 50,000 points. Remember with Marriott you’ll still pay resort fees and for parking on award stays, and 50,000 points probably doesn’t get you the kind of hotel you think it should.

    This offer should be available for referrals on Monday.
  5. There’s a targeted offer for $50 back on $250+ in airfare for existing Marriott Bonvoy Boundless cardholders, and its usable once between now and the end of June, and then once more between July and December.
  6. PSA: There’s a link floating around major blogs for the Bank of America Atomos Ascent Visa with a sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 120 days. This link isn’t generic, it’s someone’s referral link.

    If you’re interested in the card, use a friend or another player’s referral link instead for the same offer, and they’ll get 10,000 miles too. 👏 Always know the provenance of links you’re using.👏
  7. Stop & Shop and Giant stores have 2x points on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Paid parking on award stays? Non-issue at the Courtyard Anaheim because at 74,000 points/night, your certificate won’t even work. #bonvoyed

  1. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Marcus Apple Card portfolio will be moving to Chase with a deal inked yesterday. There’s a chance that current Apple Card holders banned by Chase may find their way back as part of the acquisition based on prior deals, but it’s definitely not a guarantee. (Thanks to mforch)
  2. The Nilson report for credit card purchase volume in 2024 by issuer was leaked on reddit yesterday. I believe the data to be dubiously accurate.

    Two questions: (1) Do you have a card from every issuer on the list? And (2), why not? If banned from Chase, see the previous item.
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards through Tuesday, January 20. As usual, Amazon and third party fuel gift cards are excluded from the promotion.

    In a Pepper-free, lame-Newegg world, market rates are surprisingly good for a January.
  4. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 26 and May 13 booked by tonight using promo code DREAMBIG. Yes, someone at Southwest dreamt of blackout dates, and yes they made that dream real.

Happy Thursday!

The Marcus-Chase card deal contract, with banana for scale.

There are lots of relatively obvious ways to scale your churning, like:

  • Multiple players
  • Multiple accounts
  • Multiple phone numbers

Let’s say that the fictitious FinTech, auspiciously named FinTechX, earns you $22 every time you move $1,000 through the platform. Let’s further assume that moving $1,000 takes you a couple of minutes each time, and that you’re limited to $1,000 per rolling 24 hours.

Great, you’ve found cheap money! But, watch out for things that will inevitably slow your earn, like:

  • Forgetting to load right when you can, pushing your next 24 hour window later and later
  • Fumbling through different profiles, possibly missing one in the process
  • Not spinning up even more accounts because it’s more hassle every day
  • Missing days altogether because you’re too busy

Automation fixes effectively all of those issues, and frees you up to do other things. Don’t ignore it! Quick, no-context options for (relatively) easy automation:

Happy Wednesday, and if you got booted from the ‘Kate Spade Portal Sadness’ Telegram group, please rejoin – it was a Telegram bug.

Another automation option, but it’s not cheap or easy.

  1. Expired free night certificates used to be worth 10,000 points for a category 1-4 certificate, or 20,000 points for a category 1-7 certificate if you called Hyatt right after expiration and asked, as long as those certificates were from the Hyatt program and not a partner like AA or Chase. That was nerfed, with the new values:

    – Category 1-4 expired certificate: 2,500 points
    – Category 1-7 expired certificate, 5,000 points

    It beats the devaluation points for Club Upgrade Award certificates for Globalists I guess.
  2. Chase Pay Yourself Back on the Sapphire Reserve Business card removed all bonus categories except for “Select Charities”, and the boost on that category dropped from 50% to 25%. #bonvoyed

    The personal Sapphire Reserve is unaffected. (Thanks to Chris)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 10x points on Lowes gift cards through Thursday. Of course their little brother Giant Food is only 4x. Why? Because reasons.
  5. JetBlue has 26% off of base fares booked by tomorrow for travel between January 13 and February 28 using code GO26. Of course there are blackouts, and also all Fridays and Saturdays are #NOGO26. You can stack this with a Citi Merchant offer for $50 off of $200+ too.

    Did I hear you want discounted Mint or transatlantic, or worse, discounted Mint+transatlantic? JetBlue was quoted as saying “That’s a nah from me dawg. Just ask Giant Food.”

Have a nice Tuesday!

It’s not all sadness at Giant Food though, their seasonal section carries this beauty.

  1. Do this now: Register for Q1 5x rotating categories:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Dining, up to $1,500
    – Discover IT: Grocery, wholesale clubs, select streaming up to $1,500
    – Citi Dividend: Amazon, select streaming up to $1,500
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics because reasons

    Chase had a few other categories that weren’t mentioning to, but clearly I do want to mention that I didn’t mention them.
  2. Do this now (if you have a Chase United card): Check for targeted spend offers. Most are an extra 2x, 2.5x, or 3x up for between $2,000 and $10,000 in spend.
  3. On Saturday, the British Airways shopping portal listed Kate Spade at 250 miles per dollar, and several other portals were in the 100+ miles per dollar range too. This triggered, in order:

    – A Kate Spade churner shopping spree (buying miles at 0.4 cents each is a steal; and oh yeah, you get a bag too)
    – A quick examination of Kate Spade return policies
    – Some happy P1 and P2 Kate Spade fans
    – Sadness, when the portals actually tracked at 2x-4x

    If you’re stuck holding both the literal and metaphorical bag, I’d suggest first opening a case with the portal, but know that it probably won’t go anywhere. Next, I’d reach out to Kate Spade directly, which also probably won’t go anywhere. Finally, either consider whether the miles are worth your time to pursue even further, or just return your purchase. If you want to chat with others about the issue, I’ve created a Telegram group for discussion, it’s open to all churners but meant to be specific to this issue, not a long lived general room.
  4. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, which has been nominated as a MEAB Unsung Hero but is still stuck in committee, sent year long spend bonuses for the third year in a row. We saw:

    – $160 back on $2,000 spend at gas, grocery, or dining (monthly)
    – $150 back on $1,500 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly)
    – $120 back on $1,200 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly)
    – 5% back on up to $1,600 spend at lots of places with lots of merchant codes (monthly)

    A few notes: $160 * 12 months = $1,920, and you also earn ThankYou points. Also, unfortunately no you can’t apply for this card. (Thanks to Matt M, Michael, and K)
  5. The Citi AA Platinum Select Mastercard has a heightened bonus of 80,000 AAdvantage miles after $1,000 spend in three months. This offer is from inflight AA applications and requires a flight attendant code. Any six digit code starting with ’00’ should work.
  6. AirFrance / KLM’s promo awards for January includes:

    – Business: Orlando, Montreal, St. Martin
    – Premium Economy: Chicago, Seattle, and Mexico City
    – Economy: New York, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Las Vegas

    There are business class opportunities in my spot checks on some of the economy and premium economy cities too, but they’re sparse.

Happy Monday!

Pictured: The MEAB Unsung Hero committee in deep deliberation.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We have a bonus guest post today from Jim – it’d have been better if it came out before December 31 for the sake of some states estimated tax payment due dates, but an oversight on Matt’s part prevented that. Jim is a consummate networker turned churner and attacks problems in unique ways. Special thanks for the guest post!

For those of you searching for something to like about the Big Beautiful (for the Rich) Tax Bill, I may have something:

The bill increases the amount of state taxes you can deduct from $10,000 to $40,000.

This makes the easiest best manufactured spend play (overpaying your estimated taxes by credit card and getting a refund, manufacturing spend at a cost of 1.8%) even better if you can overpay your state income taxes, because you can reduce your Federal income tax by tens of thousands of deductible State income tax overpayments. (Granted it is a temporary reduction for your 2025 taxes as you will now have taxable income from your refund for your 2026 taxes.)

If you are in a non-income tax State, or if you already have $40,000 in State tax deductions, you can still get manufactured spend benefits by paying your estimated tax payments on your Federal Income tax, you just won’t get the tax benefits.

The timing: Overpay State estimated taxes for 2025 by their due date (the due date depends on your state), so they are deductible. If you missed this year, you can do it next year. Then, overpay your Federal estimated tax payments: before January 15, 2026 (last date you can make estimated tax payments). Finally, overpay 2025 Federal Income tax payments before April 15, 2026. In either event you should file as soon as you can to get your refund, preferably electronically, which is quicker.

The risk: I have been doing this for years to the tune of tens of thousands (last year ~$20,000 state refund, $55,000 federal refund), and I’ve talked to others into doing this. I have been reading ~20 points/miles blogs and in that time I’ve heard of 2 problems, which were both huge ($70,000 or so) overpayments and both of which resulted in delayed refunds. It’s unclear if this was due to overpaying or to other issues. However, as Matt says: “I am not a tax advisor and I am certainly not your tax advisor.”

And, although this is about as low of a risk of an American Express RAT attacks as it gets, nothing in manufactured spend has 0 risk. (Speaking of low RAT risk plays, you can buy a no-lifetime language (NLL) mailer that lets you open a Business Platinum and a Business Gold every 90 days and avoids American Express’s once in lifetime language. (It doesn’t t evade American Express’s limits of one card of the same type every 90 days and two cards of any type every 90 days though.)

If you’re looking for channels for mailers and don’t have access, you can reach out to me for help. Emailing me is also my incredibly high tech way to subscribe to my occasional People’s Points emails which are kind of like MEAB guest posts, but safer for those with coulrophobia.

– Jim

There’s no coulrophobia here.