Author: matt

  1. Do this now: Check for targeted Hyatt Q2 promotions on your ‘My Offers’ tab. Offers reportedly include award redemption rebates, earned points multipliers, and double elite nights.
  2. Over the weekend, discount codes for Synchrony’s offer for $100 off of $100+ on bookings through the Synchrony travel portal were sent. As expected, there’s no minimum booking value to use the code and rental cars work. Eligible cardholders can still register.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have a promotion for $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. As usual:

    – Look for the lower fee Everywhere cards if you know how to liquidate them
    – Even multiples of $300 work even better
    – Yes, zero is an even number if you want to be technical, but you’re trying too hard

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Applying for a Chase Freedom Unlimited via Rakuten has $25 or $75 additional cash back depending on whether or not you’re an existing Chase customer.
  5. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the World through May 16, putting the transfer ratio at 1,000:250. Leading Hotels redemptions are typically worth between 7.0 and 8.5 cents each, making each ThankYou point redemption value between 1.75 and 2.12 cents per point.

Have a nice Monday friends!

The other Synchrony coupon.

  1. SAS Eurobonus has an award sale for 30% off of award redemptions booked by Sunday and flown by the end of May on SAS metal. This promotion includes business class too. Rove is currently the best way to get Eurobonus miles. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Wells Fargo added Wyndham as a 1:2 transfer partner for its Autograph and Autograph Journey cardholders, making it a close second best for hotel transfer partners behind Chase.

    Wyndham points redemptions are worth somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0 cents per point, so two of them for one Wells Fargo point is a great option. Or if you prefer TPG valuations, two Wyndham points should be worth about the same as a barrel of oil.
  3. Incomm:

    – VanillaGift.com: Fee-free Visas with promo code VGMOM26
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Fee-free Mastercards with promo code MOM26
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Regular price gift cards with promo code YOURMOM26

  4. AA has a sweepstakes for 100,000 AA miles with 100 winners, registration required. As long as someone’s going to win, it might as well be one of you guys. (Sorry Toby victims though.)

  5. American Express Offers has new travel related card-linked offers for:

    – Norwegian Cruise Lines: $200 off of $1,000+ through June 30
    – Preferred Hotels & Resorts $100 off of $500+ through July 8
    – Omni Hotels: $100 off of $500+ through July 13
    – Hilton Hotels: $40 off of $200+ through August 15

    Some of these are easier to cash out than others, but games exist everywhere.
  6. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard sent new targeted mid-month offers for:

    – $50 off of $750+ in online purchases
    – $75 off of $1,000+ in online purchases

    These will stack with online home improvement purchases.
  7. Spirit Airlines insider sources are saying liquidation is imminent. Now’s the time to book backup flights for any bookings you’ve got, and probably be glad you didn’t apply for the Spirit debit card launched earlier this week.

    I never found a direct Spirit Airlines liquidation bet on Kalshi or Polymarket, but I did find this gem which would indirectly let you bet on Spirit liquidation.

Have a nice weekend friends!

This was just foreshadowing service, it had nothing to do with fares 🙈.

Plays are always evolving and as plenty of us have learned, they can vanish in the blink of an eye. That’s especially true if you’re a believer in axe-everything-Saturday, but I digress. When a play inevitably dies for you, you’ll need to pivot to a new play. If you’re like many of us, that takes time with roadblocks like:

  • Analysis paralysis, like “what’s the best way to get money into that new account?”
  • Fear of another shutdown, or “but what if this new play gets me shutdown at my credit union?”
  • Setup friction, or “I need a new EIN and some micro-deposits, I’ll do that later”
  • Opportunity cost, or “I could just run over to Kroger instead”

I’m sure you’ve got a few more to add to the list too. The punchline here should be obvious, when you let roadblocks get in the way, you’re not earning money on a new play. Since plays can die in weeks or months, getting six to seven figures through them in a short time can be the difference between earning lunch money or earning a new SUV.

Good luck friends!

Then there are the plays that earn “lunch” money instead of lunch money.

  1. Capital One rebranded its Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select business credit cards, and it brought new sign-up bonuses in the process:

    – VentureOne 1.5x everywhere, 50,000 miles after $4,500+ in three months
    – Venture: 2x everywhere and 75,000+75,000 miles after $7,500+ in three months and $30,000+ in six months

    I’m sure someone thought this was a good idea, but choosing to rebrand other cards as Venture when there’s already a Venture X (charge) card that everyone just calls “Venture” is a choice. Also, hello inconsistency with spacing. (Thanks to padbodh)
  2. Bilt introduced a way to earn points through referrals to your enemies which is frankly quite innovative. Richard Kerr was quoted in my imagination as saying:

    “We know that after failing to pay mortgages, numerous social media gaffs, and building the most obtuse rewards platform in history that you’d hesitate to refer our program to your friends and family, but we think you won’t have such qualms against your enemies. Now you can earn while you get revenge!”

    Well said.
  3. The AA eShopping portal has a promotion for 500 bonus miles with $200+ spend through Monday.

    Giftcards.com remains a viable option, especially when you’re stacking offers.
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for a 10% statement credit with Best Western spend May 24, with a maximum credit of $32.
  5. Southwest has a promotion for 2x companion pass qualifying points on cobranded card spend at home improvement stores on up to $10,000 through June 30, registration required.
  6. Breeze has a promotion for 20% off of base fares booked by tomorrow and flown through January 12, 2027 excluding winter holiday travel with promo code PLANIT.

    I realize it’s been a while since we’ve had another Breeze RouteMap Dartboard Bingoâ„¢ call so let’s make today’s a twofer: South Bend IN to Fort Meyers FL, and Cincinnati OH – Portland ME. If you got Bingo, come see the host for your prize.

Happy Wednesday!

Bilt Partner restaurant Tom’s Diner shows that it’s a team player.

Taxes and manufactured spend are often intertwined and given that taxes are sort of due tomorrow, let’s focus on some churning centric tips. Before that though, it’s time for my periodic reminder that I’m not a financial professional and I’m definitely not your financial professional, but I do know how to spell professional without autocorrect so that’s something.

So, let’s start with deadlines:

  • Your 2025 tax return or extension is probably due tomorrow
  • Your 2025 tax bill is probably due tomorrow
  • Your 2026 Q1 estimated taxes are probably due tomorrow

Next, information on payments:

  • You can pay taxes with a credit card or debit card
    • ACI: credit fees 1.85%-2.95%, debit fees $2.10 (2x per tax form)
    • Pay1040: credit fees 1.75%-2.89%, debit fees $2.15 (2x per tax form)
    • Plastiq: card fees 2.99% + $1.49
    • Melio: card fees: 2.9%
  • If you’re seeing higher fees when paying with a card, try wrapping it in PayPal

Ok cool, now how you can get something out of this:

And finally, some gotchas:

  • Churners have lots of 1099s because reasons, and when there are lots it’s easy to miss one. If that sounds like you, consider waiting until June for your IRS transcript to be fully populated and use it to cross reference your paperwork
  • Not all 1099s have taxable income, and not all taxable income has a 1099

Good luck, and I’m sorry for the time-suck you’re going to have to endure dealing with this.

Too soon.

  1. Accor has a registration required promotion for double points at North America and Brazil properties for stays booked by August 8 and completed by September 8.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Don’t forget that sometimes math maths and that three $200s might work out better than two $200s.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. SoFi paired with Swagbacks has a net sign-up bonus of $815:

    – $415 from Swagbucks for new accounts
    – $400 from SoFi after $5,000 in direct deposits within 30 days

    If you already have a SoFi account, it’s probably a good time to close it for next time, eh?
  4. Early this year, Citi went rogue and decided that it wouldn’t allow corporate debit payments on its personal cards. Last week, Bank of America copied Citi by showering siren, goat, and sobbing emojis on the churning community, at least vicariously.

    Well, just like it’s possible for a photocopier to copy a photo of a photocopier, Citi is copying Bank of America who was copying Citi by disabling those same payments on its business cards too as of June 1.
  5. Meijer MPerks has a promotion 10,000 points on $100+ in One4all gift cards, limit one per MPerks account.

Happy Monday!

Citi IT producing a copy of a Bank of America photocopier.

  1. AA raised checked bag fees yesterday to match JetBlue, United, Delta, and Southwest. Then, Alaska decided it was time too.

    For those keeping track at home, that leaves exactly zero major US airlines that didn’t raise bag fees effectively in tandem.
  2. AA is also devaluing elite benefits for Basic Economy fares, starting on May 18:

    – No more free seat assignments
    – No more complimentary domestic upgrades
    – No more systemwide upgrades
    – Higher checked bag fees where applicable

    There’s still some value in AA elite status, but their drive to make that de-minimus is succeeding.
  3. American Express has newly targeted links for 70,000 Membership Rewards for opening a new business checking account [LINK 1] or [LINK 2]. Both versions require $15,000 in deposits within the first 30 days, five transactions, and maintaining at least a $15,000 account balance for 60 days after deposit.

    For things like these, I prefer to transfer in $15,005 and then schedule five $1 ACHs out.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 8x points on Zift Zillions cards through Thursday. Some of these cards are convertible to high value brands like Amazon and Home Depot. In the most surprising twist of 2026 yet, even Giant Food has the same offer. I assume their corporate overlords are playing reverse April Fools for the entire month.
  5. The American Express Business Platinum’s generic travel landing page has newly targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) offers for 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months. This isn’t the best offer out there, but it is the best NLL offer we’ve seen recently.
  6. It’s not just you, American Express airline incidental credit tricks didn’t work for at least a week in March, but they seem to be working again for more recent purchases; take posts like this with a grain of salt for a few weeks.

Have a nice weekend!

AA and Alaska’s inspirational red wine for April, 2026.

  1. Synchrony is introducing their own travel portal because exactly zero of their customers asked for one. If you have a Synchrony card and sign up for communications about the travel portal, they’ll send you $100 off of future hotel bookings, rental cars, or activities booked by July 31 with apparently no minimum.
  2. Bank of America’s Rakuten links have increased bonus offers on both cards:

    – Travel Rewards: $150 cash back plus the card’s sign-up bonus
    – Customized Cash: $150 cash back plus the card’s sign-up bonus

    The business versions of these are still equal or higher bonuses and arguably better in every way, especially for churners and manufactured spenders. For those that like (n+1)/24 these are great though.
  3. Southwest is raising their checked bag fees *pretends to be shocked*. Someone please start a pool for guessing which day AA and Alaska follow, and someone else please convince me that the US signaling that it’ll allow more airline mergers is a good thing for anyone other than shareholders.
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has a status match program that now includes eligibility for US and Canadian citizens, but it excludes the Platinum status tier for those countries which can only match up to Gold (SkyTeam Elite Plus) because we’re all a bunch of gamers.

    SkyTeam Elite Plus status will get you lounge access on international SkyTeam flights and an increased checked bag allowance, but the real benefit for a match is pushing you closer to Platinum status with lower XP requirements.
  5. Two airline shopping portals have spend promotions:

    – Alaska MileagePlan Shopping: 500 bonus miles on $100+ through April 17
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 500 bonus miles on $100+ through April 15

    Giftcards.com is usually the easiest to knock these out, especially when you combine it with other shenanigans.
  6. Kroger brand stores have a digital coupon for 4x on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and flexible fuel gift cards through April 21. RIP the April bulk brand resale market.
  7. The American Express Business Gold card has a new, targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) link with 200,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months.
  8. American Express Offers has an offer for $150 off of $375+ at Marriott properties in North America through July 22.

    Gift cards at the front desk is one of several ways to play this.

Happy Thursday!

Airline behavior is about as obscured as the meaning of this car’s license plate.