Author: matt

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s Bonus Journeys promotion for:

    – 3x points at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House, up to 10,000 bonus points
    – 2x points at other Hyatts, up to 20,000 bonus points

    Valid for stays between January 27 and March 28.
  2. American Express has several new travel and gift card related offers, and with some trickery you can often get the same offer on multiple cards too:

    – $200 back on $1,000+ at Norwegian Cruise Lines through April 23
    – $70 back on $250+ at Hertz through March 10
    – $75 back on $250+ at Avis through March 31
    – $30 back on $75+ at Pepper through March 31
    – 5,000 bonus points on $2,000+ on the Marriott Business card through April 30

    The Pepper one is a $30 hedge against any potential failure, should they fail in the next couple of weeks.

With some trickery you can often get different types of hundos too.

Yesterday’s Change

Yesterday, AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program devalued its low level awards (again). Long haul prices on KLM or AirFrance:

  • Economy: 25,000 miles each way, up from 20,000 miles
  • Premium economy: 40,000 miles each way, up from 35,000 miles
  • Business: 60,000 miles each way, up from 50,000 miles
  • La Premiere: 165,000 miles each way, up from 150,000 miles

Partner award prices went up somewhat too. The change was intentional, and in theory will also bring increased award availability on first party metal.

Devaluations Will Happen

Unfortunately, devaluations will continue over time in all programs because:

  • Inflation in consumer prices means more points earned for buying the same things with a credit card
  • Inflation in hotel and airfare prices means more points are awarded for revenue bookings
  • For airlines, CASM inflates over time, and providing an award seat costs more over time
  • For hotels, CPOR inflates over time, so providing free nights costs more over time
  • Decreasing the value of issued points lowers liabilities on a company’s balance sheet

The only way devaluations won’t happen is with regulation, but (a) that’s unlikely to come, and (b) would just cause a different type of devaluation, such as no award space released.

Protecting Yourself

To effectively shield yourself from devaluations to the extent that such a thing is possible:

  • Book awards as early as possible: Points on average are worth more now than they will be in the future, so lock in current pricing when you can
  • Book speculative awards with spare points: As long as a program offers free cancelations, you can lock in current pricing and cancel if the trip won’t work out (or if a lower price comes along)
  • Don’t save more points than you can reasonably burn in the next n months: Saving points that will decrease in value probably isn’t fiscally sound, just like eating a tub of lard probably isn’t nutritionally sound. Ok, but what value should you use for n? It’s hard to say, but I think the half-life of devaluations is around 24 months with some medium variance
  • (A corollary to the prior item) Cash out excess points, especially those you can’t burn in the next n months: Cashed out points turn into cash, which: earns interest, can be invested, and can be used to buy more miles if you cashed out too many. It turns out, money is fungible

Good luck out there!

Next time on Tuesday Wisdom: Elmo’s airplane explains RASM.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saturday’s emailed newsletter missed picking up Sam’s guest post, please take a look here if you missed it!

  1. Citi has a heightened offer on the AAdvantage Business Mastercard for 75,000 AA miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. The current enforced language requires that you won’t receive the bonus if you’ve had a Citi Business AA sign-up bonus in the last 48 months.

    You can double dip by separating two applications by eight days with one business AA card and one personal, just don’t hit the spend target on either card until you have both cards in hand. UPDATE: Corrected double dip language
  2. There’s are two generic, targeted no lifetime language (NLL) American Express no-annual fee card offers:

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

    These cards usually have offers for additional points or statement credits for adding employee cards and spending on those cards too. (Thanks to EarthlingMardiDraw)
  3. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on Southwest airfare, up to $40 cash back, through February 15.

    Buying discounted Southwest gift cards is always 10% off at Sam’s, but occasionally 20% off too so gamers will likely find this offer more interesting than non-gamers.
  4. The Dosh app, famous for awarding extra cash back at Korger, Office Depot, and OfficeMax (and sometimes paying it out too), is shutting down on February 28. They’re allowing redemptions through that date in theory, but there’s no bonus prize for waiting until the last minute and there’s no guarantee that they won’t prematurely fold so cash-out early, cash-often.

    Now it’s time to queue the song: Ding-dong the Dosh is dead! Which old Dosh?
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Monday!

The Dosh executive staff delivers the news.

EDITOR’S NOTE:Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author, Sam from both HelpMeBuildCredit.com and from the amazing CardRight credit card tracking app. Have a nice weekend!

I enjoyed many of the other guest posts, but based on the length, it seems like there’s a competition of who can write the lengthiest post. (It also looks like there’s a competition for the longest name – if your name is long enough, why add 233 at the end?:)!

I love that Matt’s posts are short and sweet (short enough that I can read them in the same amount of time it takes me to finish my morning coffee.) I decided to write this guest post short and sweet as well- Matt style. 

OK, let’s dive into the post, because I’m already a quarterway through my coffee.

Over the last few years, I’ve been maximizing an extra 5% or so back on my credit card spend by utilizing 0% APR offers on credit cards.

This topic is something that I feel is not being written enough about. Especially with today’s high interest rates, it’s definitely something that someone in the churning game should explore.

I swipe my daily personal and business expenses on 0% APR credit cards that offer interest-free periods of up to 21 months.

Then, instead of using the cash in my bank account to pay the balances, I put the cash into a high-yield savings account. I only pay up the card balance once the 0% APR period on the card is up.

So ultimately, the bank is giving me rewards for swiping, potentially a welcome bonus as well, plus an interest-free loan, and at the same time, they’re letting me earn the interest by me putting my money into a savings account.

I currently have close to $200k in high-yield savings accounts, earning me over 5% interest!

I find Raisin to be a good resource for finding the best high-yield savings accounts and HelpMeBuildCredit’s Ultimate Credit Card Finder is a good resource for finding the best 0% APR credit cards (they list all cards, both affiliated and not).

Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind

  • I try to focus mostly on business cards rather than on personal cards. A balance on a personal credit card will affect your credit, while a balance on a business card will not.
  • Don’t confuse offers for 0% APR on balance transfers with 0% APR on purchases. You should be looking for cards with 0% APR on purchases.
  • Be extremely careful not to make a single late payment, as even one can cause you to lose the 0% APR promo.
  • Be super organized and responsible, otherwise you will lose more than you will gain.
  • The Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are really great for this, as they offer both a great welcome bonus and 0% APR for 12 months (and they are business cards). 
  • As a bonus tip, (since I still have one sip left in my coffee), once the 0% APR period on a card expires, you can transfer the card balance to a new card with 0% APR on balance transfers and gain an additional 12 months or so of 0% APR on that same balance.

Most cards have a 3% fee to transfer balances, which is still worth paying with today’s rates. But I found one card (on the website mentioned above) that surprisingly has no balance transfer fee, plus is a business card, and has 12 months 0% apr. It’s the Edward Jones Business Plus Mastercard. I plan on getting it now to roll the dice and knock over my coffee, but ultimately, to get another 12 months of interest and laugh all the way to the bank.

– Sam

A barista makes Sam’s morning coffee.

EDITOR’S NOTE: No, it wasn’t anything to do with daylight savings time, it was the AM/PM thing with yesterday’s post. You can find it here if you never saw it once fixed. Actually, you can find it there whether or not you saw it once fixed.

  1. The Chase Hyatt cards have increased bonuses through March 6:

    – Personal: 35,000 points with $3,000 spend in three months plus 2x points on unbounded spend for six months, up to $15,000 spend
    – Business: 60,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and a Category 1-4 free night certificate after $15,000 spend in six months

    Both of these have some utility, but the business one is a clear winner if you can make use of a Category 1-4. I can always make use of them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not annoying.
  2. On Wednesday we discussed Choice Hotel devalued redemptions, and apparently that was an oopsie on Choice’s part, much like when Bilt accidentally sent shutdown letters to many of its cardholders that weren’t shut down.

    Prices were supposed to revert to normal yesterday, but some European and Asian properties have redemptions with half the regular points needed, so I guess we discovered the mythical loyalty program de-devaluation and ended up better than we were before. This is probably an accident to though, which (accidentally) seems to be Choice’s 2025 modus operandi.
  3. Giant Food, Stop & Shop, and Giant/Martins stores have 2x points on Vanilla Visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 – $2,000 per account depending on the chain. (Thanks to RabbMD)
  4. Wells Fargo has a $2,500 bonus for opening or upgrading to a Premier Checking account and bringing $250,000 in new assets within 45 days through February 25. Investment accounts and IRAs count, so you can ACATS transfer funds from another brokerage into a Wells Fargo investment account without a taxable event.

    Coincidentally, $250,000 in linked accounts is what you need to avoid monthly service fees too. (Thanks to DoC)

Have a nice weekend, and watch for tomorrow’s guest post!

Even Choice Hotel plumbers accidentally did their work.

  1. Do this now: Check for spending bonuses on your Chase Ultimate Rewards earning cards. I’d check each card in a new private browser tab to avoid error messages after one or two cards. We’ve seen:

    – 10,000 points on $400+ or $500+ in flights, rental cards, cruises, or activities
    – 20,000 points on $500+ in hotels

    These require booking through the Chase portal.
  2. Alaska has a fare sale on flights booked today for travel between January 28 and March 19:

    – Short haul: 4,000 miles
    – West coast to and from Hawaii: 7,500 miles
    – Long haul: 10,000 miles

    I usually call these the best sales that no-one talks about, but for some reason people are talking about it this time. Success! 🎉 (Thanks to FM)
  3. Breeze also has sale for 40% off of base fares on flights booked by tomorrow night for travel between January 14 and September 2 with promo code LOCKIN.

    It’s been awhile since we’ve played Breeze route bingo, but we can fix that today. Today’s Breeze bingo route is: Scranton-Fort Meyers! Congrats to today’s bingo winners.
  4. American Express offers has an offer for $100 off of $500+ or $200 off of $1,000+ in Delta Airlines airfare through March 31. Gamers gonna game, and the easiest of all of the games is to book a non-basic economy flight, wait 24 hours, then refund to a travel credit for future use. More complex games may yield better results.
  5. Korean Air first class award space is now available and has been since at least January 3 for the first time since 2020, and I missed it when talking about airline mergers on Monday. First class awards are 80,000 SkyPass miles each way from the US to Asia, so this could be the reason you need to transfer miles from Marriott Bonvoy to Asiana in anticipation of Asiana Club miles converting to Korean SkyPass miles this Summer.

January 2025 Breeze Airways Bingo prize: This paper airplane

  1. Two airline portals have bonuses for online spend:

    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $300+ through January 15
    – AA eShopping: 1,000 miles with $500+ through January 12

    Giftcards.com is on both of these portals, so you can take a Kudos college break.
  2. The Alaska Airlines business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year. Pair a few of these with the personal 75,000 miles offer for more cowbell. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Do this now: Register for double Hyatt elite night credits at Under Canvas Resorts for stays between March 7 and June 15. I hesitated to put a “do this now” on this one because y’all don’t seem like the glamping under a canvas tent type, but I mean you never know when you might accidentally end up in a tent I guess.
  4. Choice Hotels have devalued redemptions and added some dynamic room pricing. There’s still value to be had, but this change moves it from a secondary program to a tertiary program in my mind.
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 28 and May 7 booked by tomorrow night, with some variability on those dates for Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Based on my extremely limited searches, early and late flights carry most of the discounts with mid-day travel at regular pricing.
  6. JetBlue has a fare sale for travel between January 11 and April 9 booked by January 14, and this one has teeth in a way that most JetBlue sales don’t, for example $89 LAX-BOS fares, $99 BOS-SAN fares, and $49 short and medium haul fares. Mint fares look higher than normal though, so there’s that.

How do we know this JetBlue plane isn’t Mint-equipped? Bees.

  1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercards starting tomorrow and running for two weeks. (Thanks to Will)
  2. American Express offers has several new travel offers:

    – $250 off of $1,800+ with Virgin Atlantic through March 30
    – $100 off of $500+ with Marriott through March 31
    – $250 off of $1,000+ with Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13

    Gamers gonna game, but family Virgin Atlantic Business redemptions gonna tax.
  3. American Express has a new Hilton Aspire 175,000 Honors sign-up bonus after $6,000 spend in six months. This is a no-lifetime language (NLL) link, and so far it’s been relatively pop-up immune. It’s especially useful if you can’t, or don’t want to, break out of pop-up jail in another way. (Thanks to cdeffenb)
  4. United has a daily fare sale to several European cities from the US for credit card holders this week for economy travel flown between January 12 and April 3:

    – Today: Amsterdam
    – Tomorrow: Frankfurt
    – Thursday: Munich
    – Friday: London

    Pricing is 25,000 miles one way, or 50,000 miles round trip. (Thanks to DansDeals)
  5. AA SimplyMiles card linked offers two interesting offers for earning AA miles and Loyalty points:

    – 1x at Food Lion through February 28 for a single purchase, the cap is variable
    – 1x at Staples through January 31 for two purchases, the cap is variable

    SimplyMiles works with any Mastercard, not just AA cards.
  6. FlyingBlue’s promo awards have several US Cities included with tickets booked January for travel through June 30:

    – Phoenix
    – Atlanta
    – Miami
    – Chicago
    – New York

    Each has economy tickets at 15,000 miles each way between the US and Europe, and I was able to find a few 50,000 mile Business class redemptions between those cities and secondary European cities, but the availability is about as rare as recovering stolen meat in Cupertino, CA.

Pictured without further comment: Police recover stolen meat.