Wednesday Splash: Some Big Offers and some that Barely Graduated

Let’s dive in with the more important stuff:

1. Do this now: Check for spend offers on existing Chase cards. Most are 5x-7x or 5%-7% back on up to $1,000 spend at grocery, restaurants, and gas stations, the higher bonuses are when paying with Apple Pay. Sorry Androidians.
   
2. In a move that should surprise no one, Delta increased its checked bags fees after JetBlue and United did last week. That leaves American, Southwest, and Alaska to stagger their fee increases enough that it doesn’t look like anything to do with collusion or an oligopoly. (I’m not salty, you’re salty!)
   
   Now for my degens, where’s the Kalshi line for the other airlines increasing checked bag fees by next week? Prediction markets aren’t always just arbitragey fun and games.
   
3. The Melio bill payment service has two new user bonuses through the end of April, though I think you can only get one or the other. Some existing accounts are also targeted for the international version on the Melio dashboard after clicking the first link and then logging in from that page:
   
   – $500 gift card with a $1,000 international payment
   – $200 cash back with a $500 domestic payment
   
   The second one is available via affiliate links too, so find your favorite affiliate blogger and use their link if you want to support them. I’ll give the MEAB Gold Seal of Approval™ to any affiliates that list the $500 gift card version of the sign-up bonus even though it doesn’t pay them.
   
4. American Express offers has an April version of $200 off of $1,000 spent with Delta Vacations through June 30.
   
5. The Rove travel booking platform and shopping portal added Virgin Red as a 1:1 transfer partner, which is (I guess) something. Accor, Lufthansa, and SAS are typically much better options, the latter of which has a 20% transfer bonus that expires today.
   
6. The Barclays JetBlue’s Premier Mastercard added new bengifts:
   
   – A companion pass worth either $500 with $15,000 spend or $1,500 with $75,000 spend
   – A 25 Tile annual status credit
   – 15% off of TrueBlue award flights
   
   The three taken in sum make this a compelling card for New England or SoCal residents that have a penchant for Mint.
   
7. I’ve avoided covering last week’s United’s media blitz until the dust settled, and I guess here we are. Some of the most interesting announcements included bad news buried by updates:
   
   – Polaris business class tickets will soon have a Basic option with no-seat assignments, lounge access, and no free ticket changes, talk about elevated
   – CRJ-200s are being converted to premium heavy “CRJ-450s“
   – 787-9s will have an upgraded interior called “Elevated“
   – The front row of some international flights will have bigger suites called “Polaris Studio“
   
   Currently award tickets are exempt from Polaris Basic, just like how AA, Southwest, and Alaska is currently exempt from increased checked bag fees.

And a couple of items that are barely worth mentioning, but like they say “Cs get degrees”:

1. There are two hotel promotions of limited utility:
   
   – IHG: 3x points in some non-Americas countries, book by Saturday, stay by May 22, registration required
   – Wyndham: 5,000 points on two night stays at Caesars Rewards properties booked by the end of the month for stays through September 1
   
   Neither works for award stays.
   
2. JetBlue has 20% off of Tuesday and Wednesday domestic economy fares booked by today for travel through May 20 using promo code SPRING20.
   

Happy Wednesday!

The creation that won its maker the previous MEAB Gold Seal of Approval™.