Author: matt

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 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

What happens with your points when a major bank shuts down your accounts? If you’re in New York, you’ve got 90 days by law to redeem your points, though the options for redemption may change on shutdown. If you’re not in New York, here’s what the landscape looks like:

  • Chase: You’ve got 30 days to redeem or transfer your miles
  • Capital One: Your miles are immediately redeemed at 0.5 cents per mile
  • American Express: Your points are forfeited at the end of the business day
  • Citi: Your points are forfeited at the end of the business day
  • Wells Fargo: Your points are forfeited immediately

With American Express and Citi, if you’re quick at noticing the shutdown, you can call their redemption departments immediately and likely get your points redeemed or transferred out. The phone numbers for each:

  • American Express Membership Rewards: 800-297-3726
  • Citi ThankYou Points: 800-842-6596

If your points are forfeited, you may be able to mediate or litigate to get your points back, but of course I’m not a lawyer and I’m definitely not your lawyer.

Good luck and stay safe!

Captured: The moment a Membership Rewards bucket drains.

The last week of November saw groups of shutdowns from three major banks: Discover, Wells Fargo, and Chase. If you were affected, sorry – that sucks. But even if you weren’t, we can learn from what happened. Let’s go bank by bank:

Discover

Summary: Repeated negative balances pushed the risk team over the edge.

Explanation: One of the tricks of the trade in high volume manufactured spend is to prepay your credit lines, creating a negative balance on your account in order to be able to spend more than your credit line. Some banks don’t care when you do this, but Discover isn’t one of those banks.

Lesson: Be cautious about overpaying credit lines. Discover isn’t the only bank that doesn’t like it.

Wells Fargo

Summary: Non-standard payment methods spooked the risk team.

Explanation: Sometimes paying a credit account directly via ACH isn’t the best way to pay; as a /r/OldSchoolCool inspired example, CheckFreePay at Walmart Money Centers used to be a great way to pay your Visa and Mastercard bills using Visa and Mastercard gift cards. In the case of recent shutdowns, a payment method that a regular customer wouldn’t normally use was advantageous, at least until Wells Fargo decided it wasn’t.

Lesson: Consider the source of payments to your credit accounts, often banks don’t like abnormal payment methods, and side note: that’s especially true with anonymous payment methods.

Chase

Summary: Prior chargebacks related to fitness club associations finally caught up to bag holders.

Explanation: There was a private manufactured spend group a few years ago that imploded, leaving hundreds of people with outstanding money that wouldn’t be paid back (no, this isn’t Synapse). Some people initiated chargebacks on that money, occasionally well into five figures or more, and Chase finally decided that those chargebacks made account holders personae non gratae.

Lesson: If you ever need to use chargebacks to bail yourself out, make sure the value of the chargebacks exceeds the value of your relationship with the bank.

Good luck out there, and happy Wednesday friends!

Another potential shutdown affecting all churners: Failed identity verification.
(Thanks to Vince for the unfortunately real screenshot)

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 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in something else.

  1. American Express Membership Rewards has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through December 31.

    Virgin Atlantic currently has good availability to and from Europe on their own metal, but surcharges are rather high for business class. If you’re booking that, I’d think of it like buying a cheap coach ticket with cash and using miles to upgrade to business. Either that or just cry.
  2. Southwest has an award sale for flights booked by Thursday with promo code CYBERSALE for travel between January 7 and March 5.

    You can’t apply this to existing bookings, but you can check the price, then cancel and rebook with the promo if the price is lower. Since “on Southwest every seat is first class”, I guess that means first class is included in this sale?
  3. United has an international award sale for co-brand card holders for economy travel booked by Friday for travel between January, 2025 and May, 2025:

    – Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda: 12,000 MileagePlus miles
    – Hawaii for 13,000 MileagePlus miles
    – Spain and Morocco: 25,000 MileagePlus miles
    – Asia and the South Pacific: 35,000 MileagePlus miles

    I didn’t find any business class discounts though, so will I be taking advantage of the sale? I don’t understand the question, and I won’t respond to it.

Happy Tuesday!

Southwest crew takes advantage of cyber-monday deal on first class fog machines.

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 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

  1. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card, including bulk brands like Apple and BestBuy, through December 14. There’s a limit of 50,000 points per account, but what’s the limit on accounts? The limit does not exist.
  2. Meijer stores also have $10 off of $100 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through December 21. This one requires that you clip a digital coupon, but seems to be the variety that you can reclip after each purchase, meaning again, the limit does not exist but different.
  3. Alaska Airlines has a paid and award fare sale through this evening. I’m seeing:

    – Transcons at 9,000 miles each way
    – Mainland to Hawaii 9,000 miles each way
    – Mexico at 15,000 miles each way

    These continue to be the best award sales for medium-haul flights that no-one talks about because something something, apathy is real, something something.
  4. Costco has $100 in Uber Gift Cards for $75 through tonight. There are multiple reports that Uber charges more when you have credits on your account, so apply them retroactively to a ride instead of adding them to your account ahead of time, or just use Uber Eats to order a private taxi for your burrito.
  5. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the card that would probably be driving the private taxi for your burrito if it was human, has new beginning of month offers that reset monthly for December, January, and February:

    – $50 statement credit for 5 purchases of $75 or more each, up to $150 for all three months
    – $60 statement credit for $450+ spend, up to $180 for all three months

    (Thanks to Dave M and birt)
  6. The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card has an increased sign-up bonus of 40,000 Rapid Rewards points and a $400 statement credit with $3,000 in purchases in four months for applications through December 16.

    If you’re not going for a Companion Pass, which you probably shouldn’t chase if you don’t fly Southwest more than 3-4x annually, then this might be a better option than a pure points bonus.
  7. Preferred Hotels has a promotion for 35,000 bonus points for paid three night stays booked by Wednesday night for travel through March 31, 2025.
  8. Giftcards.com is currently 3x at most airline shopping portals and 4x at Chase portals. AA and Southwest points earned through portals count toward status too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  9. The Incomm gift card sites have new deals:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fees through December 31, code NOFEES24
    – VanillaGift.com: No fees through tonight, code VGCYBER24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: $10 Zillions with $100+ in Visa cards through tonight, code BF24

    These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
  10. Typically Citi offers 20% off of many ThankYou point gift card redemptions on Cyber Monday and today is (maybe? I dunno, I’m not getting up that early in the morning to verify #sorrynotsorry) traditional. With Apple cards reselling at about 91% of face value, you can use this promotion to cash out ThankYou points indirectly at ~1.1 cents each, or even better if you have the Rewards+ card.

Have a nice Monday!

Seatbelts are required in private taxis too.

One of the best pieces of business advice I ever got was at my first startup: “It takes just as long to do a small deal as it does to do a big deal.” That’s often a slight exaggeration because in business, bigger deals usually mean more people are involved, but the sentiment is still roughly correct. Focusing on the big deals is a better use of time when you’ve got a good pipeline.

We can apply that wisdom to all of this weekend’s opportunities in gift card reselling, buyers groups, online arbitrage, point alchemy, and to an extent with travel bookings too. My companion advice to the above for this weekend, specifically, is:

Set a minimum deal size and minimum effective hourly wage for all of your shenanigans. If something flashes by and it’s below that threshold, wait for the next thing. It’ll come.

Have a nice weekend!

Pictured: My first startup, or something.

We’ll try and keep it quick today, but there’s still a lot:

  1. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s promotion for 5,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed between December 2 and February 2, 2025 at most North American properties. You can earn the bonus up to four times which sounds like way too much Best Western for my taste, but you do you.
  2. US Bank has double cash back on all card linked offers and shopping portal bonuses through tomorrow night, and all the tips from last time still apply too.
  3. The American Express Delta Gold personal card has a heightened bonus of 50,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after $3,000 in purchases and making a single purchase at Delta.com within six months. You can find the offer by going through a flight booking on the checkout page, whether or not you actually buy a ticket.

    The annual fee is waived the first year, making this probably worth burning a 5/24 slot. (Thanks to DDG)
  4. Bilt Rewards has some promotions this week:

    – 3x earning on non-bonuses spend up to $500 spend through the end of November
    – Earning 0.5x on new mortgages (although they’re not truthful about being first, see Mesa)
    – Points are worth 1.4 cents each on December 1 at Amazon for Platinum members

    In churning, there’s always a pariah in a group (cf. gift card buying group A, buyers club B, and bank C), and Bilt is probably that for credit cards.
  5. American Express Offers has new travel related card offers:

    – $300 statement credit with $2,000 or more at Virgin Atlantic by December 30
    – $30 statement credit with $150 or more at Turo by April 3, 2025

    (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift card purchases through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have new gift card deals starting tomorrow for:

    – 12x points on Zillions gift cards
    – 10x points on Home Depot and Uber gift cards

    There’s likely a limit of $2,000 per account, but the fine print in preview ads is too low resolution to read. UPDATE: There is a $2,000 limit, and Giant Foods doesn’t currently show the promo. It will probably still work but may earn less than other affiliates based on historical patterns.
  8. Breeze has $29 fares for travel booked tomorrow through Sunday with travel through May 22, 2025. There are a few blackouts around days that you’d expect.
  9. Giftcards.com is currently earning 2.5 miles per dollar through the AA shopping portal, which is great for manufacturing Loyalty Points.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Never forget the AA First turkey sandwich, which unfortunately is real. Happy Thanksgiving!

About two weeks ago, several popular travel bloggers dropped hints about visiting a corporate sponsored affiliate meeting from a company named Mesa. Since then I’ve been expecting a deluge of articles about their newly launched card, but for the most part nothing has appeared. Why? I assume news is embargoed until Mesa says it’s ok to write about it, preferring to soft-launch in relative quiet with a waitlist and then go big at just the right time™. On the other hand though, you know what they say about assuming.

Anyhoodles, since I’m under no embargo and I guess I don’t care about soft versus full launch, let’s discuss the rewards system and the waitlist credit card in a no-quid-pro-quo kind of way. It’s a lot like Bilt in that there’s a way to earn points whether or not you have the card, but you can earn more with the card. It’s unlike Bilt in that its VP isn’t telling people how to game their own company, or seemingly lying about being an industry-first program to launch earning on mortgages.

Earning

Whether or not you get the card, you’ll earn a point for each dollar when you originate a new primary loan or a refinance an existing primary loan, as long as you use a “The Mesa Mortgage Marketplace Lender”, which I guess we’ll abbreviate as TMMML because reasons. You can do that up to five times per account too.

But, how good are those TMMMLs? Well, when I put in my address, I got a single option: Swift Home Loans Inc which is apparently a mortgage broker based out of Birmingham; but not that Birmingham, it’s the Michigan one. So I guess there’s exactly one TMMML (at least for my state) and they’re rated 2.8 out of 5 on Facebook. I dialed their main contact number to ask about which banks they work with and what sorts of mortgages they can handle, but it just rang for a good minute so I hung up. Looking pretty great guys!

How about the credit card? It’s a Visa issued by Celtic bank and carries no-annual fee. The earning structure:

  • 3x on HOA fees, contractors, homeowners insurance, property taxes, home decor, and other “home-related” charges
  • 2x on gas, groceries, EV charging, and utilities
  • 1x on a linked mortgage, but only on up to $100,000 in mortgage payments annually
  • 0x on other spend, as far as I can tell
  • Free Sam’s Club membership

Like with Bilt and rent, you don’t need to put your mortgage payment on a card to earn points on mortgage payments.

Burning

There are two options for redeeming Mesa points: booking travel through their portal, and gift cards. The cash value of each, based on my sampled searching:

  • Travel: 1.0 cents per point, but also a fixed 400 point extra surcharge per flight
  • Gift cards: 0.7 cents per point

Everything Else

Here’s how I’d look at this card, considering that if you’re booking travel through a portal you’re not going to use Mesa because Chase and AmEx have much better value propositions:

Gift card options include popular bulk brands like BestBuy and Apple, and assuming a resale rate of 93%, that means you can cash-out your points through gift cards at 0.65 cents per point 🤏. So:

  • You earn 0.65-0.70% back on mortgage payments just by holding the card
  • You get a 0.65-0.70% rebate on new mortgages, but those are probably baked into the fees of the one member of the TMMML
  • You’ll do better for other spend, manufactured or real, with other credit cards.

Finally, I extracted the full terms and conditions of the rewards program from the mobile app in case you’re curious, and it’s just this webpage.

tl;dr: It’s ok I guess, but you can probably skip the dozens hundreds thousands of affiliate articles when they come out in (probably) the next couple of weeks.

Happy Wednesday!

Kick-off party for current members of TMMML.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, and plenty of your favorite credit unions offer premium (or sometimes even fee-free) cards that offer annual credits tied to the calendar year. Most issuers also let you refund an annual fee up to 30 days after it posts too. Combined, that means December is often the best time of the year to get a card because:

  1. Your first statement is usually issued 30 days after getting a card
  2. Your annual fee posts on the 12th statement around 360+30 days after opening
  3. Most issuers give you an annual fee refund if requested within 30 days of posting pushing that to 360+30+30 days
  4. 12 statements will straddle three calendar years: 2024, 2025, and 2026

Let’s take the American Express Business Platinum. Annually, you’ll earn (amongst other things, like I dunno, prolly a $1.50 monthly credit to Dollar Tree):

  • $200 airline incidental credit
  • $400 Dell credit ($200 in the first half and again in the second)
  • $199 Clear credit

So if you apply for a card in late November or December, your 12th statement won’t generate until between mid-December 2025 and mid-January 2026. Once that happens, you’ve still got another 30 days for games and an annual fee refund. You’ll get:

  • $600 in airline incidental credits (2024, 2025, and 2026)
  • $800 in Dell credits (2H2024, 1H2025, 2H2025, 1H2026)
  • $450 in Adobe credits (2024, 2025, and 2026)
  • $597 in Clear credits (2024, 2025, and 2026)
    (though you should discount those Adobe and Clear credits significantly)

There are a few gotchas to watch for: Bank of America’s annual fee refund after it posts isn’t guaranteed; Capital One’s is guaranteed, but the guarantee is that they definitely don’t offer fee refunds; or how the stupid Dell credits may be going away from the American Express Business Platinum in July, 2025.

Happy Tuesday!

Next time: The Halloween triple dip?