Category: Airlines

  1. Do this now: Enroll your American Express Business Platinum cards in the new $50 quarterly Hilton credit. A quick Q&A:

    – Will this work with HiltonGiftCards.com? Probably
    – Will this work buying gift cards at a hotel? Yes
    – Will this work at Hilton restaurant? Probably, stick to resorts to be sure
    – Will this work for a regular hotel to pay your bill? Yes
    – Is AmEx going to raise the annual fee? Probably not in 2025, but yes
    – Is Dell going away in 2H2025? We can only pray
    – What’s America’s favorite fruit? Banana
    – Did anyone make it this far? Yes

    If you’ve got a bunch of business Platinums, just make sure that you get an email for each card. Sometimes the site enrolls the wrong card, or reenrolls a card that you didn’t select.
  2. Avianca LifeMiles can be purchased for as little as 1.27 cents each with a sale running through the end of December.

    Conventional wisdom in the hobby says “never buy miles except to top-off your account for a redemption.” The wisdom is showing its age when transferable points are cashed out easily into interest bearing accounts, and points costs have dipped below 1.3 cents. For example, yesterday I was looking at an ANA First Class redemption that was 114,000 LifeMiles. I could have paid about $$1,447 to buy those miles directly rather than transferring miles in. Obviously, there’s more to come on this topic in the future.
  3. Southwest has extended its schedule for fall travel including Labor Day weekend through October 1. Booking a cheap flight that’s far out and within two weeks of a more expensive flight that you actually want to take is a great way to hedge booking costs, assuming flight schedule change between then and now.
  4. AA is retooling its AAdvantage program for 2025. The quick summary:

    – New million-miler tiers at four (Platinum Pro) and five (Executive Platinum) million miles
    – Systemwide Upgrades will last through the end of the elite year after March 1, 2025
    – Redeem miles for inflight food, probably at a terrible rate
    – New Loyalty Point awards, all low value

    You still can’t earn million-miler tiers with Loyalty Points, only with flown miles.
  5. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 8x-10x points on Lululemon and Barnes & Noble gift cards, depending on chain through Thursday, December 19.

$50 breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn in Lubbock (prolly, I can’t be bothered to fact check).

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.

By popular demand, we’ll have at least a couple of guest posts during the break. If you’d like to write one, please reach out!

  1. H-E-B Stores have a $20 H-E-B gift card with the purchase of a $100 Home Depot, Lowe’s, and some other, stupider brands through Tuesday. Scale with multiple H-E-B accounts. Side note: H-E-B is one of the most annoying things that I have to type somewhat regularly.
  2. Chase Offers has 10% back on Frontier Airlines on up to $420 in spend through January 23. Watch for refund policies on Frontier. Side note: Frontier is one of the most annoying airlines that I never have to fly.
  3. The Bank of America Alaska card’s 75,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days bonus is still around. Side note: Yesterday, some bloggers started pushing a 70,000 mile Alaska sign-up bonus instead because it pays them affiliate revenue, and based on the coordinated timing, it’s likely a higher than usual payout too; caveat emptor.
  4. Breeze has a 50% off fare sale with promo code GOALS for flights booked by tonight. Evidently, they saw that the other second tier US airlines had a fare sale yesterday and didn’t want to be left out.

Happy Thursday!

Even this brand of soda is easier to type than H-E-B.

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. Do this now: Register for the upcoming Alaska Airlines premium card’s waitlist and earn 500 miles instantly. You’ll also earn a bonus 5,000 miles if you apply for the card when it comes out using your waitlisted link. Apparently the premium card will have an annual fee of $395 and:

    – Earn 3x on foreign currency transactions and foreign USD transactions
    – Earn 3x on dining
    – Have a “Global Companion” pass for award tickets
    – Have free WiFi vouchers and reduced award ticketing fees

    The card arrives this summer. (Thanks to Esteban)
  2. Many US Airlines are running a holiday fare sale:

    – Alaska award and paid through Monday
    – JetBlue paid through tonight, 25% off with promo HELLO25
    – Southwest award and paid through tomorrow night
    – Avelo $40 off round-trip paid travel through tomorrow night with promo FLY40

    My tea leaves suggest it’s going to be a rough Q1 for second tier airlines, especially Spirit which couldn’t even afford to run a sale.
  3. Two of the three main Incomm gift card sites have new promos (the third one’s promo is still in effect):

    – VanillaGift.com: No purchase fees on $150+ with promo code VGHOLIDAY24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: No purchase fees on $200+ with promo code HOLIDAY24

    Ok fine, the third one is MasterCardGiftCard.com with promo code NOFEES24. I don’t like repeating a deal, but I guess I can’t leave you hanging.
  4. American Express has a targeting offer for 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,00 spend in four months on Blue Business Plus no annual fee card, available via your dashboard if targeted.

Happy Wednesday!

A typical MEAB reader left hanging, probably.

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. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s Q1 promotion for double points for stays between January 1, 2025 and April 30, 2025.
  2. The Barclays Frontier Mastercard has a sign-up bonus of 100,000 miles after $3,000 spend, Gold elite status, and a $100 flight voucher. You have to have another airline’s co-branded card to be eligible, and you have to spend in either 90 or 180 days, depending on how you interpret the terms and conditions, or more accurately how Barclays interprets the terms and conditions. You can verify your reading comprehension and that your other airline co-branded card is eligible here.

    Make sure to put a reminder in your phone to go verify the other airline co-branded card in Barclays’ systems after you receive the Frontier card. (Thanks to FM)
  3. American Express’s referral bonuses are currently at a relative maximum, and in the last week or so more people have been able to generate the heightened offers. The referrer will get between 15,000 and 30,000 Membership Rewards, and the referred offers are:

    – Business Gold: 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months
    – Business Platinum: 250,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months

    It’s ok for P1 to use P2’s referral and vice-versa, and if you don’t have one of those, ask around for a heightened referral offer and make a new churning friend; it’s a great way to network too.
  4. The Daily Churn podcast’s most recent episode discusses two interesting plays combined together that are below surface level but sort-of out in the open, starting at 28:00 minutes in:

    – Gift of College Cards at giftcards.com
    – The Kudos quasi-portal card-linked bonus program (use a friend’s referral code)

    The quick summary is that they’re working well together.
  5. American Express has a new Membership Rewards to JetBlue 25% transfer bonus through December 31, which makes the transfer ratio 1:1. You’ll often do better booking with a Business Platinum though.
  6. A PSA and warning: American Express links that were put together artificially by combining multiple offer components in an unintended way keep finding their way onto public blogs, which is ok, but they’re not labeled or explained as manufactured artificial links. My suggestion: Always know the provenance of no-lifetime language links that you’re using. DDG has appropriately labeled this recently, but not all bloggers are doing so. What’s the link? This time it’s a 100,000 Membership Rewards personal Gold link with a $6,000 spend in six months requirement, but others have surfaced over the last couple of months for Business Golds and Business Platinums too.

    How risky are these links? It’s been over 6 years since there were reports of adverse action for using unintended links, so the risk is probably low, but I don’t like when you’re not told that you’re taking a risk with a manufactured link, even if it’s low. One day of course American Express may decide that it doesn’t like people making links themselves in ways never intended to work. Since no one asked my opinion: The risk isn’t worth it at 100,000 points, but if it were 80*270,000 points we’d be having a serious conversation.
  7. Spirit Airlines has a status match to either Silver or Gold that lasts 90 days, and a there’s a fast-track challenge to hold it for longer (I imagine the challenge won’t make sense for any of you unless your name starts with an “S” and ends with a “hay”). Status doesn’t let you pick a big front seat for free, but it does waive plenty of other fees.

Breakage from failed reading comprehension illustrated.

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.

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!

The Stunt

Sometimes travel hackers get stuck with a ticket that’s got a cancellation fee (I’m looking at you and your stupid $75 award ticket redeposit fee FlyingBlue) or a ticket that simply isn’t cancellable for any fee even if you’re Steve Buscemi (actually, especially if you’re Steve Buscemi). You’ve got two choices if your plans change and you’re not going to take one of those flights:

  • Pay the fee to cancel if you can, or just eat the ticket cost if you can’t
  • Play the odds and hope that you don’t need to do either of the above

Playing the odds means waiting for the airline to offer free changes or refunds due to one of:

When one of those things happens you won’t be taking off for Lubbock, but instead you’re headed to refund-town (but you’ve probably got to request the refund from the airline, and in some cases before departure). The odds aren’t great though; at best the chances of this working are somewhere between 1/6 and 1/10, unless you own a pregnant turtle.

The Gotchas

There are a few ways this can malfunction:

  • You forget to cancel before the cancellation window expires after the game didn’t work, which matters especially with programs like Virgin Atlantic that require you to cancel before the check-in window opens
  • You don’t request a refund in a timely manner from the airline
  • The airline disagrees about what a significant delay is (but 2+ hours is usually sufficient)

Personally I put a reminder in my phone for an hour before the flight or cancellation window, whichever comes first, to figure out whether the stunt is going to work and to pay the cancellation fee if I can and it didn’t.

Good luck!

AA’s new Flagship First catering meal concept: “playing chicken with an airline”. They’ll end up cutting the ketchup at launch for cost savings though.