I’m sure you can think of a way or two to make 5x at gas and grocery profitable, and remember, not all the ways rhyme with shmift shard. (Thanks to DoC).
Hyatt’s 2026 corporate status match, which instantly awards Explorist status through February 2028 and offers a fast track to Globalist with 20 nights in 90 days, is now available.
You’ve got to have a big company email address to make this work, or you’ve got to be creative. Or, ¿por qué no los dos?
PSA: There’s a link floating around major blogs for the Bank of America Atomos Ascent Visa with a sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 120 days. This link isn’t generic, it’s someone’s referral link.
If you’re interested in the card, use a friend or another player’s referral link instead for the same offer, and they’ll get 10,000 miles too. 👏 Always know the provenance of links you’re using.👏
Stop & Shop and Giant stores have 2x points on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday.
These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
Have a nice weekend friends!
Paid parking on award stays? Non-issue at the Courtyard Anaheim because at 74,000 points/night, your certificate won’t even work. #bonvoyed
There are lots of relatively obvious ways to scale your churning, like:
Multiple players
Multiple accounts
Multiple phone numbers
Let’s say that the fictitious FinTech, auspiciously named FinTechX, earns you $22 every time you move $1,000 through the platform. Let’s further assume that moving $1,000 takes you a couple of minutes each time, and that you’re limited to $1,000 per rolling 24 hours.
Great, you’ve found cheap money! But, watch out for things that will inevitably slow your earn, like:
Forgetting to load right when you can, pushing your next 24 hour window later and later
Fumbling through different profiles, possibly missing one in the process
Not spinning up even more accounts because it’s more hassle every day
Missing days altogether because you’re too busy
Automation fixes effectively all of those issues, and frees you up to do other things. Don’t ignore it! Quick, no-context options for (relatively) easy automation:
Expired free night certificates used to be worth 10,000 points for a category 1-4 certificate, or 20,000 points for a category 1-7 certificate if you called Hyatt right after expiration and asked, as long as those certificates were from the Hyatt program and not a partner like AA or Chase. That was nerfed, with the new values:
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 10x points on Lowes gift cards through Thursday. Of course their little brother Giant Food is only 4x. Why? Because reasons.
Did I hear you want discounted Mint or transatlantic, or worse, discounted Mint+transatlantic? JetBlue was quoted as saying “That’s a nah from me dawg. Just ask Giant Food.”
Have a nice Tuesday!
It’s not all sadness at Giant Food though, their seasonal section carries this beauty.
Chase had a few other categories that weren’t mentioning to, but clearly I do want to mention that I didn’t mention them.
Do this now (if you have a Chase United card): Check for targeted spend offers. Most are an extra 2x, 2.5x, or 3x up for between $2,000 and $10,000 in spend.
– A Kate Spade churner shopping spree (buying miles at 0.4 cents each is a steal; and oh yeah, you get a bag too) – A quick examination of Kate Spade return policies – Some happy P1 and P2 Kate Spade fans – Sadness, when the portals actually tracked at 2x-4x
If you’re stuck holding both the literal and metaphorical bag, I’d suggest first opening a case with the portal, but know that it probably won’t go anywhere. Next, I’d reach out to Kate Spade directly, which also probably won’t go anywhere. Finally, either consider whether the miles are worth your time to pursue even further, or just return your purchase. If you want to chat with others about the issue, I’ve created a Telegram group for discussion, it’s open to all churners but meant to be specific to this issue, not a long lived general room.
The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, which has been nominated as a MEAB Unsung Hero but is still stuck in committee, sent year long spend bonuses for the third year in a row. We saw:
– $160 back on $2,000 spend at gas, grocery, or dining (monthly) – $150 back on $1,500 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly) – $120 back on $1,200 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly) – 5% back on up to $1,600 spend at lots of places with lots of merchant codes (monthly)
A few notes: $160 * 12 months = $1,920, and you also earn ThankYou points. Also, unfortunately no you can’t apply for this card. (Thanks to Matt M, Michael, and K)
– Business: Orlando, Montreal, St. Martin – Premium Economy: Chicago, Seattle, and Mexico City – Economy: New York, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Las Vegas
There are business class opportunities in my spot checks on some of the economy and premium economy cities too, but they’re sparse.
Happy Monday!
Pictured: The MEAB Unsung Hero committee in deep deliberation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have a bonus guest post today from Jim – it’d have been better if it came out before December 31 for the sake of some states estimated tax payment due dates, but an oversight on Matt’s part prevented that. Jim is a consummate networker turned churner and attacks problems in unique ways. Special thanks for the guest post!
The bill increases the amount of state taxes you can deduct from $10,000 to $40,000.
This makes the easiest best manufactured spend play (overpaying your estimated taxes by credit card and getting a refund, manufacturing spend at a cost of 1.8%) even better if you can overpay your state income taxes, because you can reduce your Federal income tax by tens of thousands of deductible State income tax overpayments. (Granted it is a temporary reduction for your 2025 taxes as you will now have taxable income from your refund for your 2026 taxes.)
If you are in a non-income tax State, or if you already have $40,000 in State tax deductions, you can still get manufactured spend benefits by paying your estimated tax payments on your Federal Income tax, you just won’t get the tax benefits.
The timing: Overpay State estimated taxes for 2025 by their due date (the due date depends on your state), so they are deductible. If you missed this year, you can do it next year. Then, overpay your Federal estimated tax payments: before January 15, 2026 (last date you can make estimated tax payments). Finally, overpay 2025 Federal Income tax payments before April 15, 2026. In either event you should file as soon as you can to get your refund, preferably electronically, which is quicker.
The risk: I have been doing this for years to the tune of tens of thousands (last year ~$20,000 state refund, $55,000 federal refund), and I’ve talked to others into doing this. I have been reading ~20 points/miles blogs and in that time I’ve heard of 2 problems, which were both huge ($70,000 or so) overpayments and both of which resulted in delayed refunds. It’s unclear if this was due to overpaying or to other issues. However, as Matt says: “I am not a tax advisor and I am certainly not your tax advisor.”
And, although this is about as low of a risk of an American Express RAT attacks as it gets, nothing in manufactured spend has 0 risk. (Speaking of low RAT risk plays, you can buy a no-lifetime language (NLL) mailer that lets you open a Business Platinum and a Business Gold every 90 days and avoids American Express’s once in lifetime language. (It doesn’t t evade American Express’s limits of one card of the same type every 90 days and two cards of any type every 90 days though.)
If you’re looking for channels for mailers and don’t have access, you can reach out to me for help. Emailing me is also my incredibly high tech way to subscribe to my occasional People’s Points emails which are kind of like MEAB guest posts, but safer for those with coulrophobia.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If this message put your mail reader on the struggle bus, check the web version.
Introduction
It’s time for MEAB’s annual New Year tradition! Before we jump in to the regular short-form blog posts that litter the ground like losing tickets at the horse races, we’re starting with an annual MEAB tradition: Telling the story of 2025 through the historical lens of the rigorous academia of (checks notes, sighs): Animated GIFs.
Not everything in 2025, was bad. For example, dining had its moments.
The American Express Business Platinum sign-up bonuses increased to 300,000 miles toward the moon Membership Rewards.
The Pepper (Moocho? Mucho? Moo-choo?) Saga
Pepper Rewards was a big part of churning last year.
We spent January and February conjuring points with increasingly ludicrous Pepper sales. Earning 80,000 Membership Rewards daily was child’s play.
The end of March hits and SideShowBob233 gets ready to redeem his stockpile of Pepper rewards. There’s a hiccup, but it’s probably temporary, right?
Waiting for Pepper points to be able to be redeemed in April.
Actively trying to get Pepper points redeemed in June.
July hits, still working on Pepper.
Finally autumn lands and the Pepper CEO shows us what the company’s real plans have been all along.
The Community
Everyone in travel hacking and churning is a little bit weird, and that’s ok. This year we’ve got a dedicated section to celebrate our churning personalties.
The elusive Danny describes his churning profits for 2025.
Chad at Automated Miles drops his Halloween episode.
Mojo interacts with the community in The Pepperdome™.
Carl trains his next batch of players for 2026.
Connor from Churning Life gets his Sunday morning AirPods delivery.
