Author: matt

EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt is on vacation until at or around January 1, 2026. Until then we have guest posts, today’s post is brought to you by the infamous SideShowBob233. Special thanks for the post!

An old adage from the stock market is “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” (or a variation on this, such as “pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered,” or something that only AI would give you “pigs are pink, hogs taste like chicken”) which also applies to churning.  

Since many behaviors in this hobby involve practices that stores, banks, store managers, random cashiers empowered by the FBI and the AML police deem inappropriate or undesirable, it’s important to stay under the radar to avoid shutdowns, store bans, or a stern scolding from your local Karen that “buying more than $266.29 in gift cards is structuring and will get you the death penalty”.  Most churners implicitly understand this, but there are some caveats which is why I’m here to fill you in (and also annoy you). 

Rake Caveat 1: No matter how carefully you step through a walkway filled with rakes, someone else will run through it screaming “look at me!”

Translation (from AI – better than I expected): 

  • Even if you act with care and humility, others may behave recklessly or dramatically just to draw attention.
  • It’s a commentary on how some people thrive on spectacle, even at the cost of consequences. 
  • It can also reflect frustration: your quiet diligence might be overshadowed by someone else’s loud antics.

Clown 🤡 Translation: For every churner who is carefully staying within limits, going slowly to avoid detection, there is another whale hammering away at the same play calling attention to it, and eventually getting it shutdown. 

Rake Corollary 1.69: When a screaming rake victim is noticed, they will attract rakes to every person tiptoeing through the rake field.  

Translation (from AI – again better than expected): 

  • Disruption is contagious: One person’s loud mistake or drama can ripple out and affect others who were trying to avoid trouble.
  • Attention amplifies risk: When someone’s chaos gets noticed, it can shift the environment—making it harder for others to stay safe or unnoticed.
  • Caution doesn’t guarantee immunity: Even if you’re careful, someone else’s recklessness can drag you into the mess.

Clown 🤡 translation: Once eyes are on the play, anyone who has done the play is subject to adverse action.  It could mean clawbacks, it could mean shutdowns and bans.   Or even worse a scolding from Karen where she whips out her AML procedures, shakes them in your face while warning you of FBI repercussions for buying  a gift card. 

Clown 🤡 Conclusion: You can’t control other people and while some are knowingly hammering a play before it dies, others are foolish and greedy and do things like calling to bank to complain when their play doesn’t code the right way (“My fake direct deposit from myself didn’t trigger the bank bonus, can you please investigate”).    If you have a situation where there’s a good play, but the adverse action from the play is known to be severe (a ban at your favorite bank where your spouse will divorce you if they get banned) it may be safer to skip the play.  As a foolish man once said, “you miss every shot you take you looooser.”

– SideShowBob233 (website, seems NSFW but mostly isn’t)

SideShowBob233 avoiding adverse action.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

One of the common refrains in manufactured spending and churning circles over the last six months goes something like:

“2025 was the worst year of churning since Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914.”

In my opinion the reference is rather oddly specific and a tad on the nose, but churners are a special breed so I’ll let it slide. Anyway, in 2025 we saw:

  • The birth of Chase pop-ups
  • The floosie adjacent deaths of Community, Synchrony, and some American Express
  • Citi 6x dining comas
  • Numerous airline and hotel devaluations
  • A gutting of the value of some bank points
  • Capacity controls on bonus categories at many major issuers
  • Other unmentionable control tightening
  • A preview of January 2026 Citi badness

Look, that all sucks for sure, but it brings me to my general feelings about churning in the last decade. Specifically:

  • Plays that aren’t “where the masses are” bring better results on average
  • Volume eventually kills everything, but this is especially true in aggregate
  • When the unwashed masses punch-out, new opportunities arise
  • Pivoting to new angles makes changes profitable again
  • Always be probing

2025 brought plenty of bad changes, but it also opened new opportunities to be sure. If you feel like you haven’t seen those new opportunities, get out there and pound the pavement! Also because I want you to learn something in this post, platypuses do indeed have stomachs, take that 1989!

Have a nice holiday season friends, and send guest posts over, please!

Alec finally delivers the next line after “Always be probing“, but in onomatopoeia form.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

The deeper you go into the churning hobby, statistically speaking, the more often you need to move big chunks of money from one bank to another. You’ll often run into blocks, like:

  • Daily ACH limits
  • Monthly ACH limits
  • Banks worried about being a hub
  • Too many wires causing an account closure

There’s a nice way around all that, just write yourself a check to transfer money, then mobile deposit it or take it to a branch. Old school cool applies.

Have a nice Thursday!

For bonus points order real checks that look fake. Banks love it!

  1. The generic Blue Business Plus and Blue Business Cash links currently have no-lifetime language (NLL) targeted offers:

    – Blue Business Plus: 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in four months
    – Blue Business Cash. $750 after $6,000 spend in four months

    Both cards have no annual fee, and as far as I know, these offers are not available via referrals.
  2. Hey-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa gift cards through Sunday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. The Incomm sites have fee free gift cards for the holidays. The first two sites promotions run through December 17, and the last runs through December 31:

    – VanillaGift.com: Fee free $100+ Visas with promo VGHOLIDAY25
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Fee free $300+ Visas and Mastercards with promo HOLIDAY25
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Fee free Mastercards with promo NOFEES25

    Sometimes these codes stick around longer than they should, and sometimes they come back from the dead too. These are Incomm
  4. The Kudos shopping portal now offers payouts via PayPal directly with a $10 minimum. Prior to yesterday, Amazon cash-out at 1 cent per point was the best option available. Obviously (electronic) cash is mo betta though.

    If you’re not a member of Kudos, ask a fellow churner for a referral and make their day. If you don’t know any fellow churners with Kudos, reach out to me and I’ll send one at random.
  5. Breeze Airways has 40% off of base fares for travel booked today with promo code TWIST.

    You know what that means, right? It’s time for more Breeze Route Bingo™. Today’s route is Gulfport, MS (GFP) to Las Vegas, NV (LAS). If you have a bingo, reach out to me for today’s grand prize, up to $10,000 daily in fee-free gift cards through December 17!

Happy Wednesday!

Second place in Breeze Route Bingo™ gets half a sandwich.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

  1. The Delta personal and Business American Express cards have new public no-lifetime language (NLL)[EDIT – link corrected] links, also available from your Delta Business portal’s dashboard:

    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $10,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 110,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Gold: 85,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived

    The Business Gold card with its waived annual fee is a current sweet spot in the American Express portfolio. If you can get these via referral and games, that’s likely still a better option though. (Thanks to achzeet44)
  2. The Cardless issued Qatar Privilege Club Visa cards have heightened sign-up bonuses through February 4, 2026:

    – Signature: 20,000 Avios after one purchase and 45,000 additional after $3,500 in 90 days
    – Infinite: 25,000 Avios after one purchase and 75,000 Avios + 150 QPoints after $6,000 spend in 90 days

    Both have 6x earning at dining through February 4, but beware of behaving like a floosie on Cardless cards if you value your relationship with the bank.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 3x point earning on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or limit $1,500 for Giant Food because it’s still a running joke at the parent company).

    Stores carry either or both Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards and Sutton / Incomm gift cards.

Happy Tuesday!

Giant Food stores get joke sushi too.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

I have an upcoming FlyingBlue award flight that I need to cancel. Sometimes you can do that online, but: (1) often the option isn’t available or errors out if it is, and (2) doesn’t work if you need to pay the cancellation fee with a different card than you used to book.

I fell squarely into the second category. I had booked a reservation in May with a card I don’t have any more because churning, which means I needed to call in to cancel. I looked at a trusted list of airline customer service phone numbers. I found the FlyingBlue number, typed it into my cell phone and called.

I’ve been through FlyingBlue’s customer service center plenty of times, and immediately a few things were off about the call:

  • The FlyingBlue jingle didn’t play (maybe they changed it?)
  • There was no hold time after dialing the number for reservations (weird, but it was very early in the morning in the European Union and late in the United States so maybe that’s why?)
  • The representative’s accent was really mild, and didn’t sound french at all (maybe a non-french employee?)
  • The cancelation fee quoted was incorrect (this happens with regular FlyingBlue all the time though, it works itself out with the automated system, so on brand)
  • The representative asked which website I used to book “for security” (I’ve never been asked that)
  • The representative asked for my credit card directly (FlyingBlue transfers you to an automated system for credit card entry)

The last one really made the alarm bells ring. I asked the representative about the automated system, and he told me that he can do it directly, there’s no longer a need for the automated system. Because we all have momentary lapses of judgement and I’m certainly not immune, I read the representative my credit card information. After that, he said there would be a 10-15 minute hold while he processed the cancellation. I was now convinced that this was a scam, but I confirmed I’d wait on hold.

I logged onto my bank’s website right away and locked the card. Right after that, I hung up the phone and within 30 seconds got a call from an “Unknown Caller”. I didn’t answer, then a minute later I got another, and another minute later another came in. Then again an hour or two later and once more an hour or two after that. At least scammers have good customer service when a call disconnects?

Now that I had a moment to think and investigate, I went through my call log to double check the phone number I’d dialed. At this point it should be no surprise – I had indeed made a mistake. I’d taken the “1-800-237” from the FlyingBlue phone number and then took “2262” from the Aeroplan phone number accidentally. CI had dialed the wrong number. It’s wild, but someone had anticipated this sort of mistake and set up a phone number to field calls from people like me.

My next steps:

  • Report my credit card lost/stolen
  • Double check for pending charges on the card (there weren’t any)
  • Change my FlyingBlue password, just in case
  • Turn on “Always Require 2FA” on my FlyingBlue account which really should have already been turned on

After all that I was in a position to cancel the ticket, this time for realzies. I dialed the correct FlyingBlue number 1-800-237-2747 (hyperlinked here so you can click it instead of typoing it) and was met with the FlyingBlue jingle and a hold. I waited on hold 15 minutes before I decided to deal with it tomorrow and hung up. At least the hold confirmed that I’d dialed the correct number the second time, hooray for holds or something.

The lessons:

  • Triple check reservations phone numbers, ideally click a hyperlink from a loyalty program’s app instead of typing it in manually
  • Know how to lock your cards quickly in case you didn’t do the above
  • Be ready and willing to bail on a call, ideally much earlier than I did

Good luck out there and happy Monday!

This one could be real though.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs (also, jifs is wrong way to pronounce that word – also known as the Bonvoy way).

  1. Klarna released a new rewards earning Visa debit card, apparently with WebBank’s charter. The application link is live on their site too. The earnings structure seems to be:

    – Plus:, $9.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.0% (1.0x?)
    – Premium, $19.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.5% (1.5x?)
    – Max, $44.99 monthly fee: Earns 2.0% (2.0x?) and provides lounge access

    They mention transfer partners like SAS Eurobonus, British Airways, FlyingBlue, Accor and Radisson, but transfer ratios and mechanics are currently unknown. Also the “Max” tier’s card comes in either rose gold or bro’s gold (aka rose gold), your choice. The T&Cs exclude lots of things from earning, but… (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard has a heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 AAdvantage miles after $10,000 spend in three months. The card’s main utility after its sign-up bonus is in AA lounge membership for the card holder and its modest loyalty point boosts. You can also add up to three authorized user cards with their own AA lounge access for $175 total. I suggest you don’t add up how many cheese cubes you need to eat to offset the annual fee though.

    There was a glorious time in the mid-2010s where you could apply for 12 of these cards back-to-back, get approved for all of them, hit all the spend, get the bonuses, and then close the card before the annual fee hit. Those games are long gone though, at least with Citi.
  3. There are a few short lied airline shopping portal bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 500 miles with $150+ spend by tomorrow night
    – Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping: 1,000 miles with $200+ spend by tomorrow night
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $150+ spend by Saturday night

    As usual, giftcards.com is an easy way to hit these.

Have a nice weekend friends!

AA lounge cheese cube alternative: Adult hot dog Mac ‘n Cheese, now non-toxic*.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday were all good to manufactured spenders, but companies collectively decided that the next day should be called “Woeful Wednesday”. The punches kept coming with devaluations:

Surely there was some good news out there yesterday too, right? Well, Meijer tried to cheer us up with 50,000 MPerks points with a $500 third party gift card through December 16, but they limited it to one to MPerks account so here we are.

United tried to devalue business class meals with this, but it didn’t work because literally anything other than the old meal is an improvement.