Category: Airlines

  1. Meijer has 10,000 bonus points on $100+ in Mastercard gift cards, limit 10,000 points per account.

    Meijer sells both Pathward / BlackHawk Network and Sunrise gift cards.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards running through July 7. Yes, this is different than the last two-week 4x fuel points promotion that ended the day before this one started.

    The last promotion saw Kroger fighting back against gamers, but gamers just found a variation on the game because good/evil (choose one) always wins, except those times that they lose I guess.
  3. American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonuses to Hilton and Virgin Atlantic ended prematurely. Speculation suggests that they were accidentally released ahead of their intended July 1 date. (Thanks to FM)
  4. Expedia’s OneKey program is devaluing, with earning now based on status tier instead of a fixed 2% cash back on non-flights, no earning on flights, and the removal of its price guarantee.

    The Expedia OneKey credit cards remain an interesting niche play though. If you haven’t heard of this card in a long time, or possibly ever, it’s probably because they don’t pay much in the way of affiliate sales commission; do with that what you will.
  5. Asiana Airlines will complete its acquisition by Korean Air later this year. As of December 17, they’ll no longer honor Star Alliance award bookings, even those already ticketed.

    If you have one of those bookings, I’d start looking (a) at legal recourse, and (b) backup award flights on other carriers.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

The Expedia OneKey cards sit in the corner wondering why no one loves them.

  1. US Bank has double cash back on both its portal and its card linked offers through Friday. Unfortunately, this portal is convoluted enough to need a cheat sheet.
  2. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard is sending targeted bonuses for 1,500 bonus points after two $10+ purchases using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay. I believe this generic link will work for every Virgin cardholder, but the terms and conditions don’t show on the target page for anyone so ymmv. (Thanks to David)
  3. Stater Bros has $10 off of groceries purchased with a $50+ One4All gift card through July 7. These work on back-to-back transactions too so bring your favorite cashier a thank you $10 Dunkin Paze gift card or something for tying up their line for an hour. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has two transfer bonuses:

    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400
    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300

    Frankly American Express should be bringing you a $10 Dunkin Paze gift card for your trouble in dealing with their Hilton transfer bonus.
  5. Thanks to a comedy of errors at Chase, Ink Plus cards will earn 5x on shipping through Saturday. Too bad Fat Bobby is out of business?
  6. Delta SkyMiles has an award sale through tomorrow night for economy travel in September, October, and November. Selected pricing:

    – Europe: 40,000 – 60,000 SkyMiles round trip
    – Central America and Mexico: 16,000 – 21,000 SkyMiles round trip

    AA and Delta’s economy award sales this week for fall travel should tell you something about how the airlines are doing at filling the back of the bus this fall.

Happy Wednesday!

Meanwhile in the rest of the blog-o-sphere…

  1. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. American Express Offers has a new offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards or a $200 statement credit after $1,000 spend on Air France/KLM flights from the US through August 30.
  3. The Bank of America Travel Rewards card is on Rakuten with a $275 or 27,500 point portal bonus in addition to the regular 25,000 Bank of America point sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in 90 days.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, Giant Food, and Martins 6x points on third party gift cards through Thursday. Per-account limits are either $500, $1,500 $2,000, or $500 on Zift and $2,000 on everything else depending on the chain because why A/B test when you can A/B/C/D/Q/Y test?

Happy Monday friends!

A/B testing biking surfaces.

  1. The American Express Delta co-branded credit cards have new no-lifetime language (NLL) links found on the dashboard for Delta SkyMiles Business site. The offers:

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in three months, annual fee waived first year
    – Business Platinum: 110,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in three months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $10,000 spend in three months

    These are available via referral, but you’ll lose the NLL boon.
  2. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus after $5,000 spend in three months. This is also available via referrals, so use a friend’s and make their day.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card has an increased sign-up bonus of 125,000 Bonvoy points and a free-night certificate worth up to 50,000 points. This is also available via referrals.

    Last I checked, 125,000 Bonvoy points was still worth more than a couple of cases of Costco bananas, but that might be changing?
  4. Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles hasn’t been able to book low level Japan Airlines premium cabin awards since about two weeks ago and now the problem is becoming more public. Compounding, it’s not just AsiaMiles: AAdvantage availability shrunk in the same timeframe though it wasn’t completely eliminated. AA and other oneworld airlines have seen phantom JAL premium cabin awards for several months. In other words, things are spiraling.

    The fact that this happened about 8 months ago and eventually fixed itself leads me to believe it’s a bug, though it’s possible it could have been a test back then.
  5. United Airlines has a partner drive for donated miles to Give A Mile, worthy 501(c)(3) charity that helps reconnect families facing an imminent death. This drive runs through June 21, and even a few thousand miles helps (Thanks to Gary at VFTW)
  6. The Paze frenzy in the churning space has been unmatched since the Great Premium Hyatt credit card rumor frenzy of February 2026. The major updates:

    – Each Paze eligible card now has ten $10 off of $10+ statement credits through the end of the month
    – 10x earning on up to $1,500 spend monthly on Chase cards is still there
    – Newegg was removed from eligible Paze merchants for most purchases thanks to blatant abuse
    – Newegg will be removed entirely from Paze on July 1
    – Other banks have Paze eligible cards with Paze games waiting

    Can I Paze someone to have everyone stop talking about it now?

Happy Wednesday, friends!

(Cases of) banana for scale.

  1. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa egift cards. Practically speaking the limit is four despite terms and conditions that say otherwise, which frankly is a recurring theme in our space.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. Philippine Airlines was invited to join the oneworld alliance. Practically speaking, this will likely mean more award space to Southeast Asia when the integration is complete, which is currently slated for 2027. Of course, you’ll need to watch out for bots snapping up space before you can, which is also a recurring theme in our space.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results, buy in even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

In case you’re wondering how bad the botting has gotten: The weight of the robots flying up front collapsed the landing gear on this Lufthansa 787.

  1. Meijer stores have 10,000 bonus MPerks points with a $100 One4All gift card, limit one per MPerks account through Tuesday.
  2. Alaska Atmos has a new monthly marketing push for discounted award redemptions in economy. This month’s redemption options are Mexico City (7,500 miles), Paris (20,000 miles), Helsinki (15,000 miles), Tahiti (20,000 miles), Bangkok (25,000 miles), Taipei (30,000 miles). You’ve got to book by Friday for travel between September 1 and November 15

    Most of these flights will necessarily be partner redemptions, and I doubt it goes uphill from here so if you’re not excited for this, well I guess prepare to be more not excited next month. (Thanks to LiftBroski)
  3. Alaska Atmos decided to devalue mileage accrual and elite status credit on revenue saver tickets: “Saver fares (X class) earn 30% of miles flown for travel through July 31, 2026, or for trips booked before June 11, 2026. Saver fares booked on or after June 11, 2026 and flown on/after August 1, 2026 do not earn Atmos Rewards points. For eligible travel on/after August 1, please allow 4–6 weeks for points to post.”
  4. AA seems to have devalued its transatlantic business class redemptions by at least 5,000 miles, with the minimum redemption cost on AA metal moving from 65,000 to 70,000 miles.

    Awards that include non AA metal flights haven’t changed in price, so think on that for a moment when constructing your routing.
  5. Singapore Airlines is adding advance seat selection fees for most award business class flights on Singapore metal. At T-96 hours, seat selection is free.

Talk about oof-day, eh?

Another upcoming devaluation: American removes milk and butter from its flagship first mac & cheese plate.

  1. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for bonus points on 2+ night stays booked by September 3 for stays through September 30. You’ll earn between 7,500 – 15,000 bonus points per stay and you’re limited to 15,000 total bonus points with the promotion.
  2. American Express Membership Rewards has a 25% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue through June 30.
  3. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue released its June promo awards. US Cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle, San Jose, and Washington DC. Economy flights are 18,750 miles each way, and business class flights …. exist at absurdly priced levels.

    Summer to Europe via SkyTeam in business looks bleak.
  4. Alaska Atmos will raise its partner redemption fee to $20 on July 1.
  5. Giant Eagle Grocery stores have a promotion for 550 perks points with a $100 One4All Ultimate or Favorites gift card, both in-store and online, seemingly unlimited.

    The resale market for Giant Eagle points is tiny, but with the right finesse this is effectively a 10% rebate plus grocery store credit card spend.
  6. Best Western has promotion for 2,500 bonus points per night between July 1 and 7 at US and Canadian properties, registration required, limit 10,000 points. If you need a sales pitch to entice you to book: I’ve only heard of one opaque Best Western swimming pool this year.

Happy Wednesday!

“Opaque blue” beats almost any other opaque color in a pool at least.

You know how there are filler articles around the churning-blog-o-sphere on slow news days? All I can say about yesterday, is: wow next level guys. Anyway, there are a couple of notes:

  1. New American Express Hilton no-lifetime language links surfaced for the personal cards:

    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 130,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months, $0 first year fee
    – Honors: 100,000 points + $100 statement credit after $2,000 spend in six months

    There’s no business no-lifetime language version unfortunately. If you don’t care about lifetime language though, the business also has a heightened offer of 130,000 points and a waived annual fee for the first year here. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. Emirates devalued award redemptions, the summary:

    – First: 14.7%-15.2% increase in my searches
    – Business: 14.9% increase in my searches
    – Economy: No change in my searches
    – Upgrades: 10%-15% increase in my searches

    There’s a small positive change too: one-way saver business fares are now bookable, a round-trip is no longer required.

Happy Thursday, and if you want a bonus for today, check here or here.

A solid metaphor for yesterday’s content in the churnosphere.