Author: matt

Based on my personal observations from watching hordes of travelers stare at flight board delays and cancelations in abject horror yesterday, approximately 104.4% of travelers flying in the US had their flights either delayed or cancelled over the weekend. In no particular order, let’s talk about what a good travel hacker does when their flight is, err, impacted:

  • When your plane is delayed more than an hour, or when your captain tells you that they’re returning to the gate to “….” (it doesn’t matter what the “….” is, trust me), book a backup non-basic economy award flight on another carrier immediately. Why an award flight? So you can cancel it fee-free. If you don’t do it right away, inventory might be instantly gone when the cancellation is official. Why another carrier? You don’t want it cancelled as a double booking. Once you’ve done that, do it again on a third carrier if there’s an option.
  • Do three things simultaneously and immediately when a cancelation is official, and when one of them works you can cancel the other two:

    – Reach out to the airline on twitter X and ask to be rebooked
    – Call the customer service line and ask to be rebooked
    – Go to the airline lounge and ask to be rebooked

    Note that none of these are waiting in line at the gate or the customer service counter. Don’t do it, it’s not going to go well for a dozen reasons, not the least of which is the garlic burger from Carl’s Jr shoved in the person’s now-translucent-from-grease backpack in front of you.
  • If you have a forced overnight, don’t take the airline’s hotel voucher; in the best case it’s going to be at an airport Marriott Courtyard overlooking a dumpster and the room’s smoke detector will beep once every 42.5 minutes, but only when the lights are off. We’re not going to talk about the worst case.

    This is why you booked with a premium card for travel insurance, right? Let them pick up the hotel and your extra elite night credit too. Oh, and on that note, this will probably be a rare paid stay for you, so use up those FHR credits, Bilt stupid hotel credits, Citi hotel credits, etc. Don’t use points or a free night certificate though because you’ll have to fight with insurance about the value.
  • Meal vouchers often work on Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A wallet loads, and if you want to cosplay a Paze churner, Dunkin too. You can do these from your FHR room too, no need to do it at the airport.
  • Sure, travel insurance will cover a replacement $3.94 tee-shirt from Walmart, but it’ll also cover a $39.40 shirt from American Eagle.

Good luck, and at least be thankful you didn’t have travel between TN and CO via TX and CA, that is, unless you wanted to because reasons. Have a nice Monday!

PS: Special thanks to everyone in Denver over the weekend (and the ones still stuck there today!)

Ok, maybe the beeping isn’t the most concerning part of that Courtyard smoke detector.

  1. Two American Express Marriott cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Bonvoy Bevy: 125,000 points and $150 statement credit, $250 annual fee
    – Bonvoy Brilliant: 150,000 points and $250 statement credit after $6,000 spend in six months, $650 annual fee

    As of this writing, both links appear to be popup-free. Marriott is going to devalue soon though (see their earnings transcript and search for Bonvoy), so … that’s great.
  2. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of four 50,000 point free-night certificates after $3,000 spend in three months, and is also available via referral links so use one of those from a friend or from P2.

    This one also has a must-activate-before-spend offer for two semi-annual $50 airline credits after $250 in airline spend, which is unfortunately is a big enough flexible rebate that you should pay attention to it.
  3.  The Chase IHG Premier card has an increased sign-up bonus of 160,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend in three months, 5x$20 in IHG food and beverage vouchers which is just as annoying as it sounds. If you get an error on the application page, check the Chase mobile app instead because #tech. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived.

    You’ll also get 10,000 extra points for adding an authorized user and putting a charge on that card; but don’t get too excited, 10,000 points is worth about $50. This should be available for referrals in the next couple of days.
  4. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 60,000+20,000 points. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year. Breaking down the spend:

    – 60,000 points with $4,000 spend in three months
    – 20,000 points with $6,000 total spend in six months

    You can also add up to four authorized user accounts for 2,500 bonus points each, though it’ll hit their credit report so use caution. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Frontier Airlines has a discounted GoWild unlimited travel pass for $199, valid for travel through the end of February 27. This pairs well with matched Frontier elite status, but there are blackout periods around holidays.
  6. AA’s elite upgrade policy is changing to allow for only one class of service upgrade on three class aircraft starting on August 25.

Happy Friday!

More from the Marriott earnings call.

  1. The Chase Air Canada Aeroplan Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus, and the card’s $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year:

    – 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 25,000 miles after $20,000 spend in one year

    This isn’t available via referrals, but should be soon. This is a relative high but not an absolute high offer;that was 120,000 miles with some extra gyrations.
  2. The Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card has a targeted sign-up bonus of 3% everywhere for the first year, or up to 4.12% everywhere with Preferred Rewards Premier status. You can check to see if you’re targeted by logging in to Bank of America and then visiting your personalized offers dashboard.
  3. There are a few travel related offers card offers:

    – American Express: $100 credit with $500+ at Accor Luxury Hotels
    – Citi: $75 credit with $325 spend at Hertz
  4. Rent paid through Bilt using a Cardless Qatar card now earns 3x up to $50,000 annually, but it costs 3% so I hope you like buying Avios at 1 cent per point (I know I don’t). How about buying lounge access via QPoint earning on the Qatar Infinite card to earn 270 Points for Gold status which gives oneworld Sapphire, for access to AA and Alaska lounges even on domestic flights though? Breaking it down:

    – 2 QPoints for every 1,500 Avios earned
    – 3x earning means $500 in rent spend gives 2 QPoints and costs $15
    – $50,000 annual cap means a maximum earn of 200 QPoints for $1,500

    So if you can earn another 70 QPoints elsewhere, you can buy oneworld lounge access for $1,500 plus whatever your incremental cost is beyond that. Good deal? That’s a nah from me dog, but maybe you love infinite cheese cubes more than I do. (Thanks to David)
  5. Hyatt has a very specific promotion for a Category 1-4 free night certificate for every three nights at resorts in the Caribbean and Latin America in Q1, 2027, limit five free night certificates. Registration required.

Happy Thursday friends!

Ok ok, some AAdmiral’s Clubs have over two types of cheese cubes.

I’m certain you don’t need another article about how AI is changing everything, I mean, I think it’s obvious that it is and you already knew that. But, we’ve entered a new era of disinformation in churning, and as a shrewd churner, there’s a newly popular kind of redirection to watch out for.

Background: The Forum Problem

Search results in AI are wildly overfit on forums. When there’s only a single answer or two in those forums, your AI overview will quite confidently give you a summarized version of those posts. This can be, and is being, actively weaponized in churning.

Do you want to spread FUD to protect your own play? Good news, it’s simple as long as there’s not a lot of discussion out there. Just respond to a question on reddit or on FlyerTalk with FUD, and Google, Perplexity, and even Bing (remember Bing? How about Alta Vista?) will spread your FUD to everyone who asks. Need an example? There’s nuance to be clear, but sure.

Result: The “Gemini said ….” Problem

Obviously, this feeds into a lot of the current state of the world and the kinds of discussion happening in private. Let’s take a really basic example: “Gemini said I could use a Mastercard at Costco, so I got the new stupid Citi AA Executive Mastercard and I’ll hit the bonus spend at my local store”. Gemini might be sort of right (Mastercard debit cards with PIN will work at Costco stores), but I hope you have a fallback when you find that your Mastercard credit card won’t actually work.

Dealing with It

Cool story bro, but what do I do with that? Well, in churning and manufactured spend, those who dig just a bit deeper, think just a bit harder, and trust but verify often do orders of magnitude more volume than average. So, I guess do whatever you want with that.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Sometimes AI generation is very meta.

  1. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Qatar Avios through September 27.
  2. Southwest has a promotion for a Companion Pass valid between January 5 and March 3, 2027. To qualify, register, book two one-ways or a round-trip by Thursday, and fly by November 18. (Thanks to JacobS)
  3. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard has new offers for monthly statement credits in August, September, and October for most transactions. In the past these were usually emailed to cardholders, but this round has offers appearing on the ThankYou Offers dashboard, activation required. The offers:

    – 8% back on $900+ in spend, maximum $90 back per month
    – 12% back on $1,500+ in spend, maximum $195 back per month
    – 1,500 bonus ThankYou points with $750+ in spend per month

    Yes, these offers stack with your other Citi offers. Long live the most prominent (Un)sung Hero. (Thanks to birt, Michael, and Kzn)
  4. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard Gift Cards through Saturday.

    These are Pathward / Blackhawk Network gift cards.
  5. The Citi AA Executive Mastercard was retooled. Major changes:

    – Annual fee increases from $595 to $695
    – $250 AA vacations coupons, once every six months
    – Yearly $100 credits for inflight and Admirals club purchases
    – 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points when reaching 165,000 and 240,000

    There are also effectively worthless Lyft credits and a buy two Omni stays, get one free night credit. Other coupons like Grubhub credits are going away.
  6. The Boeing 737-MAX7 aircraft was certified by the FAA yesterday, expect to find those littering the Southwest route network soon.

    Want to know what else the FAA has been up to? I’m sure it’s fine.

Happy Tuesday!

Another Citi AA Executive coupon being workshopped.

  1. American Express’s Resy monthly and quarterly credits now have certain excluded Resy restaurants, and because complexity is the mother of annoyance and American Express maximizes annoyance as a core KPI, excluded restaurants will change periodically.

    Most restaurants are currently still eligible, but to check you’ve got to (1) login to Resy, (2) add an AmEx card with a Resy credit to your wallet, (3) search for the restaurant in Resy, and (4) see if the restaurants says “Qualifies for Resy Credit”. KPI indeed.
  2. Turkish Miles & Smiles has a 40% incoming transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou Points through August 31, limit 50,000 bonus miles from 125,000 miles transferred in.

    Bonus miles will be awarded by Turkish in early September.
  3. Capital One has a transfer 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles through September 15. This is generally a good opportunity if you have bookings, but absolutely watch out for phantom space which plagues LifeMiles.
  4. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Some stores had this last week too, it’s not just you.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five total and four per transaction, again just like last week.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, and these were also on sale last week.

Have a nice Monday!

Leaked AmEx KPI Master dashboard.

  1. Do this now: Register for targeted United MilePlay Q3 bonuses.

    My offer was (1) book and take a $175+ trip twice for 7,700 bonus miles by October 5, and (2) a friendly reminder that no other US Airline has CRJ-200 flights at block times of over three hours, and I’m not talking about the CRJ-450. At least I know what I’m supposed to do with that information.
  2. AA updated its policies for refunds within the first 24 hours of booking on paid tickets. Now, the 24 hour refund applies only for tickets booked at least seven days out, which is the least customer friendly they can be and still align with current DoT regulations.

    Mileage tickets don’t have this restriction.
  3. Delta increased the cancellation and change fees on its new premium cabin basic products, like Basic Delta One (which frankly is a great description for Delta One, but I digress). Expect to pay $300-$500 for cancelations or changes.

    As a reminder, there are now 15 types of tickets you can buy on Delta across 3-4 cabin (err, “cabin”) types because Delta is making everything simpler through complexity and obfuscation. (Thanks to AW)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Fun fact: You can fit a CRJ-200 in one of these wide body overhead bins.

  1. The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of $700 after $5,000 spend in 90 days through September 14, but only in branch. The cards is relatively noteworthy for its quarterly 4% cash back on $7,000 spend in categories like grocery stores and gas. (Thanks to Mushu_Pork)
  2. AT&T and AA have a promotion for 20,000 AA miles with a phone number port-in, limit four. To maximize the promotion, you’ll need to keep AT&T service for three months. At $140 per month and a total of 80,000 miles, you’re effectively buying AAdvantage miles at 0.7 cents each.

    Mileage valuations for AA will probably range between 1.5 cents each to 8.0 cents each (for sites that share an acronym with Two Putting Greens), either way 0.7 cents is less.
  3. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 points with $500 in third party gift cards through August 11.
  4. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards through August 11.

Happy Thursday friends!

The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card, or MEAB mile valuations? Evidently both.