Author: matt

Introduction

Holding any loyalty currency in your account for anything beyond what you’ll use in the next 18 months or so is generally a recipe for disaster because:

There’s still a great case to be made for holding some points though, specifically for when “life doesn’t care about your booking window” happens, also known as that time you need to travel immediately regardless of how many seats Delta has available in their “Main Basic Extra Minus Enhanced Lite” fare class.

The Emergency Fund

When life hits, you may need to be on a plane or in a hotel room in the next couple of hours, for example:

  • You need to travel immediately to care for someone
  • A war started nearby
  • Your house flooded
  • You ran out of flour from a specific mill in France and don’t have time to ship more

At that point, “getting out” is more important than whether or not you have a lie flat bed or whether you’ll get a free sandwich in main cabin extra. It also means that you won’t have time to earn new points to cover your stay, so what you’ve got banked is exactly what you have to work with. In other words, holding a baseline level of points in a few programs can serve as the points equivalent of your cash emergency fund.

In Practice, MEAB Style

I keep a baseline of around 100,000 points in most US airline programs and hotel programs for emergencies. Why 100,000? Well, humans like round numbers, and because that’s generally enough to ensure I can get anywhere in coach and have a night or two in a hotel while I figure out next steps or earn more points as needed. It’s also a level that I’m comfortable losing without any real heartache if my account is shutdown because reasons.

Fin

Hoarding is bad, except when it’s good, naturally. Just keep those hoard levels in check and call them an emergency fund so you can sleep better at night.

Happy Wednesday!

Next time: Building your strategic reserve. (Also eww, Diet Coke)

  1. The Rove shopping and portal travel added SAS EuroBonus as a 1:1 transfer partner on Monday, and they’ve got a 20% transfer bonus through April 8. You can search for award space on their ‘Explore’ tool too.

    SAS EuroBonus is great for its 60,000 mile business class redemptions between the US and Europe, at least as long as you can find availability.
  2. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. The Emirates partner award chart changed, including some increases and some decreases. Generally it’s a positive change after dozens of bad ones from the program, or as it’s called in the industry, five canceled flights followed by one diverted flight that got you 25% of the way there.
  4. More Saks stores are dying. If one of those is near you, perhaps visit now to cash out American Express Platinum credits before you can’t.

Have a nice Tuesday friends!

I don’t think Mesa and Rove are anything alike, but, uh, they are both four letter names.

Pretend you’re on a deserted island filled with nothing but (1) cheese and (2) a zookeeper that will transport you off the island, but only transport you if you can name at least seven recurring credits on popular credit cards in sixty seconds or less. Why a zookeeper you ask? I’m unsure, he isn’t taking questions. Don’t get distracted.

Anyway, now that your fate is sealed, let’s zero in on the American Express Platinum and Business Platinum $200 airline incidental credit. Yes, you could use it as intended, but generally turning it directly into airfare or a travel wallet credit is more useful. So, you want to shoot for airfare credit, eh? You’ve got three ways to play it:

  • Be the first to try something outside of the intended use
  • Wait until the first couple of data points come in from the people who were first, then act quickly
  • Get around to credits eventually, after all they’ll prolly still work next month, right?

There’s an obvious best way to play this, at least for a mass-market credit on a mass-market credit card: Wait for someone else to try a cash-out and then go as quickly as you can to copy them. If you don’t wait, you might end up as a bag holder on a failed cash-out. If you wait too long, your favorite loophole may have closed and all you’ll have left is in island full of cheese (Ok, ok, that’s not the end of the world either).

Happy Monday friends!

A souvenir from cheese island.

  1. Chase has a 30% transfer bonus to Wyndham through March 31. It sucks for those of you that transferred points in after Chase added Wyndham as a partner just last week.
  2. Bank of America’s boring business credit card lineup which is also somehow the most exciting major program in churning has increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Business Customized Cash: $500 after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – Business Unlimited Cash: $500 after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – Business Advantage Travel: 50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 90 days

    Yes, you can get each of these, but once your total credit limit creeps up high, new applications will involve someone looking at your existing accounts which obviously might be bad for some of you.
  3. The fan-favorite Citi AA Business Platinum Mastercard has a sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    Citi business cards became chic last month because reasons. The offer makes them chicer, again because reasons.
  4. On January 4th, Kate Spade had rather ludicrous points bonuses on the British Airways and Wyndham shopping portals at 250x and 170x respectively. Today, those miles posted as (not) expected, congrats to those of you who are newly in the seven-figures-from-a-single-purchase club. There’s a lesson to learn for future deals here but I’m unsure of what it is.

    Let’s just say I’m glad Kalshi wasn’t running odds on this paying out, because I would have lost.

Have a nice weekend friends, especially those of you with stylish Kate Spade bags in business class.

At least he has a Kate Spade bag.

  1. Do this now: Register for a widely targeted promotion for bonus AA Loyalty Points on flights booked by April 30.
  2. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for 7,500 bonus points for each two night stay booked by May 9 for travel through the end of June, up to four stays. Barclays co-brand cardholders qualify for an extra 7,500 bonus points on one stay, as long as you use that card to pay. Paid Wyndham Insider members also qualify another 7,500 bonus points, but, don’t waste your time.
  3. The Chase Aeroplan Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 85,000 Aeroplan miles after $4,000 spend in three months. The card’s $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year. This offer is generally available but isn’t the public offer at the main Chase landing page. The link comes from both an email and postal mail campaign that started this week. (Thanks to wake-and-bake)
  4. The First Bank Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of $100 after $1,000 spend in three months. The card is generally notable for (1) being an uncapped 5% earner at gas stations, and (2) a generally worse version of the defunct Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card.
  5. RobinHood announced a new Platinum credit card complete with “big coupon book energy”™ and a $695 annual fee. A few notes:

    – If you like twice monthly $10 DoorDash credits, this card’s got your number!
    – How about a $20 monthly dining credit at participating restaurants? Check!
    – Are you the only churner without a Priority Pass card? Good news!
    – Chase Edit credits aren’t hard enough for you? RobinHood’s got your back!

    For the “think biggers” among us, it earns 5x on dining up to $50,000 annually, 1x on regular spend, and a relatively easily usable 2x$150 travel credits. The other credits are frankly just a ton of work and largely noise. My best hope for this card is that it pays affiliate commission so I can be entertained watching the blog-o-sphere try and sell this one.
  6. Meijer MPerks has 50,000 bonus points on $500 in third party gift cards other than Amazon, limit one per MPerks account. With the right gift cards and buyers group purchases, you can do really well on these, be creative.
  7. Kroger Stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on One4all gift cards through Tuesday. There’s a coupon for 4x fuel points on fixed value Visas and Mastercards too.
  8. Marriott Vacations has a promotion for 25,000 bonus points (worth about $120 and a bloody nose) on five night or longer stays booked by March 31 for travel through July 31. No registration required.
  9. Chase Offers has 10% back on Air India bookings on $100+ in spend, up to $50 back, through March 31.

    The best game for this one is to not fly Air India under any circumstances, ever. Fun fact: It’s actually a good deal to pay $50 to get out of flying Air India.

Happy Thursday!

No punchline today, just a real, undoctored photo of an Air India flight post landing to explain your $50.

  1. The Amazing Business card family has new sign-up bonuses in Arizona, California, and Texas:

    – Cash Credit Card: $1,000 after $5,000 spend in 120 days
    – Rewards Credit Card: 100,000 points after $5,000 spend in 120 days

    These cards earn 3x on business purchases, 2x on travel, and 1x otherwise. “What are the rewards worth”, you say? Well, 100,000 points is equal to $1,000 in statement credit or gift cards, there’s no uplift. So why go that way? Obviously because points are funner, duh.
  2. Wells Fargo has a tiered business checking bonus for accounts opened by May 5:

    – $400 for $2,500 in new funds
    – $825 for $25,000 in new funds

    You have to have the average balance at or above the tiers between day 30 and day 60 of opening. For churnability even with existing accounts, find your self a new-to-Wells Fargo Tax ID, and don’t tell them I said it’d work.
  3. New SoFi checking and savings accounts are eligible for $415 from Swagbucks on approval and $300 from SoFi after $400 in direct deposits after 45 days.

    You can churn these too despite the T&Cs and the naysayers. Again, just don’t tell them I said it’d work.
  4. Virgin Atlantic sent targeted offers via email for its Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard with a sign-up bonus of 85,000 miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days.

    Yes, Virgin Atlantic points are easy to come by in other ways, but the card isn’t only useful for Virgin points.
  5. Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping has a 1,000 point bonus for $250+ in spend through the portal by March 16.

There’s a theme with all of these offers friends, even if it’s not explicit. Always be probing, and happy Wednesday!

The Texas version of the Amazing credit card proves everything’s bigger in Texas, or something.

  1. After watching Bilt make noise over the weekend with a 25%-125% transfer bonus, the Rove portal held up its index finger and said “hold my sake”, then announced an integration with JAL MileageBank as a transfer partner at a 1:1 ratio. A few notes:

    – There’s a 50% transfer bonus through March 31
    – The best new-member bonus for Rove is an affiliate link, don’t use a referral 😭
    – Transferred points post instantly
    – New accounts have to wait until the next time it’s 6:00 PM JST to book
    – JAL MileageBank miles generally expire 36 months after posting, and new mileage activity doesn’t reset that clock
    – We can’t have nice things, most of JAL’s low level award space vanished yesterday

    Side note, in case you’re like me, you don’t readily know what time 6:00 PM JST is, I converted it to Nepal Time for you to make it easy: New accounts can book at the first 2:45 PM NPT that follows your transfer.
  2. The not-available-to-new-applicants-sad-panda Citi ThankYou Mastercard sent new offers for the beginning of March, including:

    – +5x points in some categories up to 8,000 ThankYou points each month through 2026
    – $80 statement credit every month through May with 8 purchases of $75+
    – 1,000 ThankYou points for purchases over $500 in March, up to two times

    Somehow the card got better after ditching its Sears roots, which in retrospect I guess shouldn’t be shocking, but still is. (Thanks to bird and IAD_Flyer)
  3. Southwest has a generally available status match and challenge, up to A-List Preferred status:

    – Status match is valid for 120 days
    – Meeting the challenge to keep status is, relative to other airlines, easy
    – Extra legroom benefits for status-holders works on already booked flights

    Honorary Southwest COO Brian M notes that the terms of Southwest status matches don’t usually match the implementation of status matches, in your favor.

Happy Tuesday!

Sample Southwest business logic explains why implementation may be different.

We’re going to keep it short and sweet today:

  1. Chase has a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways, Ibera, and Aer Lingus Avios through March, making the transfer ratio 1:1.2. Because you can transfer Avios between airlines too, this is effectively a transfer bonus for Qatar, FinnAir, and Vueling.

    There’s a small issue on the redemption side: Qatar flights aren’t flying at the moment. For that matter, neither are non Avios airline Emirates flights as of this writing.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to Preferred Hotels I Prefer through April 1, making the transfer ratio 1:2.6.
  3. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has March promo rewards for travel booked in March and flown by August 31. The list of promo reward US cities is huge, which should tell you something about US European summer travel demand. Those cities are: Orlando, Seattle, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Atlanta.

    I searched each of these cities for business class availability and found only a single business class seat at low level during the promo period, which should also tell you something about European summer travel demand. This makes the transfer ratio nearly 1:0.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, “limit nine per customer” which practically speaking means limit nine per transaction as long as you’re a schmoozer. Fan favorite golden liquidation Costco is a popular outlet for these.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Head of FlyingBlue promo rewards explains why there’s a single promo business class seat.