Category: Airlines

  1. AA’s status match, err I guess “Instant Status Pass”™®©, is back. Matchers from other programs will have status for four months, and a fast track to qualification for the current elite year.

    The current program awards top-tier Executive Platinum status for Delta Diamonds and United 1Ks too. (Thanks to yoshi)
  2. AA and Hyatt’s reciprocal elite status match and fast track programs are back too:

    – Hyatt status for AA elites (register by October 31)
    – AA status for Hyatt elites, targeted (register by September 4)

    You can link your Hyatt and AA programs here if you haven’t already done so. (Thanks to MikeDCA)
  3. Stater Bros stores have $10 off of groceries in the same transaction as $50+ in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through August 12.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Alaska has a new MileagePlan membership promotion for a $25 or $50 discount code depending on your residence running through December 31:

    – $50 for Alaska, California, or Hawaii residents
    – $25 for everyone else

    Let me preface this by saying I don’t think $50 off of an Alaska is worth gaming and I wouldn’t risk my Alaska loyalty account over $50 either, but let’s pour one out for all the extra Alaska accounts created for us from Bank of America’s top notch IT integration.
  5. Air Canada’s Aeroplan is:

    – Introducing three new mileage acronyms: status qualifying credits (SQCs), status qualifying segments (SQSs), and status qualifying dollars (SQDs)
    – Awarding redeemable miles based on ticket cost
    – Giving 25k status for new Aeroplan cardmembers
    – Awarding 35k status with $75,000 spend on the Aeroplan Mastercard annually

    I had a really hard time not writing ‘stupid’ instead of ‘status’ for each of those new acronyms, but I held back. I do hope going forward your internal monologue will read the first ‘S’ in those acronyms as ‘stupid’ though.
  6. Like the Barclays JetBlue Business Mastercard mentioned yesterday, two Barclays Jetblue personal Mastercards also have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – JetBlue Premier: 80,000 TrueBlue miles and 5 tiles after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – JetBlue Plus: 60,000+20,000 TrueBlue miles after $1,000 spend in the first 90 days and $7,000 spend in the first year

    Both also require that you pay the annual fee because reasons.

Always be probing.

SQS indeed.

  1. AirCanada has a targeted offer for Chase Sapphire Reserve card holders for a 5,000 point Aeroplan Rewards Certificate, which reduces the cost of a flight award by 5,000 points. You’ve got until August 18 to register, and the certificate is good for a year.

    This works on both business and personal Sapphire Reserves, but not everyone is targeted. (Thanks to IronDukey)
  2. The Barclays JetBlue Business Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 TrueBlue points after $2,000 spend and paying the $99 annual fee within 90 days.

    Side note: How many people paid everything but the $99 fee and let the bill default, causing this rule?
  3. Citi Shop Day offers 20x rewards when shopping through the Citi Shop browser extension to several online retailers, including buyer’s club favorites like BestBuy and Kohls. Watch for exclusions though, they’re real and they’re not spectacular.
  4. US Bank is sending bonuses for spend in August and September, registration required. Check for email from [email protected]:

    – $50 statement credit after 10 transactions
    – $100 statement credit after 20 transactions
    – $150 statement credit after 30 transactions

    To qualify, each transaction must be $75+, making this a bonus 6.67% cash back in addition to regular rewards for maximizers. (Thanks to Jonathan)
  5. Alaska is adding flights ton London, England and Reykjavik, Iceland from Seattle in Spring 2026 on 787-900 and a 737-MAX8 aircraft respectively, and these will likely be easy awards for the first couple of weeks that they’re bookable.

    I wouldn’t want to fly the Iceland route for eight hours on a domestically configured narrow body aircraft, but you do you, dear traveler.
  6. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have a coupon 10x points on Zift Zillions through Saturday, as reported a couple of days ago. Starting today, there’s an additional $10 grocery certificate with $50+ purchased on various gift cards, including Zift Zillions cards, limit one per transaction.

    Obviously if you thought 10x was good on its own, 10x + $10 in a slightly annoying to use grocery certificate is slightly better. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  7. Southwest has a paid and award sale for 40% off of base fares booked by tomorrow night with promo code LUVFALL, a promo code obviously created to celebrate their fall from grace.

    The concept of “base fares” didn’t used to matter much with Southwest, but now that we’re in the “Southwest-is-basically-Ryanair” era of travel, I’d like to share a reminder that anything not included in the fare itself won’t be discounted, like seat selection fees and checked bag fees. Sometimes booking a bundle that’s 40% off that includes seats and checked bags in the fare is cheaper than booking basic and paying for add-ons, but only sometimes.

Happy Wednesday!

LUV’s fall from grace, illustrated.

  1. Yesterday (and if you’re lucky still now), SoFi Banking had a bonus of $400 or 40,000 Membership Rewards on Rakuten, in addition to a $325 sign-up bonus from SoFi with $5,000 in direct deposits.

    If you already have a SoFi account, maybe this is a good indication that it’s time to close it to set yourself up for the future.
  2. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fixed value Visa and Mastercards gift cards running through Tuesday, August 12. The big brain play here is gift card reselling, but there’s a slightly less big brain play made popular on reddit a few days ago too.
  3. Alaska is running an award sale for fares booked tonight and flown between August 19 and December 17. This one has:

    – Transcons from 7,500 miles
    – Mexico from 7,500 miles
    – Alaska from 17,500 miles
    – Hawaii from 7,500 miles

    Based on my searches, Delta is quietly matching this fare sale to and from Delta hubs.
  4. You’ve now got another Card Pointers free alternative in addition to  faux-cardpointers amex-load-offer.js. The US Credit Cards 101 Chrome plugin adds a button to the American Express offers dashboard to add an offer to all cards on the same login simultaneously, rather than just to a single card.

    One day, credit card issuers will learn about database atomicity, but we’re not there yet.

Happy Thursday!

The American Express technology team’s unofficial poster.
(Sorry, sometimes database humor can’t be helped)

  1. The Delta American Express SkyMiles cards have new, targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) offers:

    – Personal Gold: 70,000 SkyMiles after $3,000 spend in six months, annual-fee waived
    – Personal Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months, annual-fee waived
    – Business Platinum: 110,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $10,000 spend in six months

    Obviously the business cards are better options for most. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. The AAdvantage eShopping portal has a back-to-school spend bonus for 2,000 extra miles after $1,200+ cumulative spend through August 11.

    If you’re buying, uh let’s say screwdrivers, from giftcards.com, you can think of this as +1.67 miles per dollar on exactly $1,200 worth of screwdrivers, but +0 bonus loyalty points because bonuses don’t count for those.
  3. The annual fees on the Southwest personal cards all jumped yesterday, and in case you missed it, they also dropped their annual $75 Southwest credit in exchange (I guess?). The bonuses are all heightened at 100,000 Rapid Rewards points, but we’ve seen that on personal Southwest cards in the past with lower fees and with the annual credit, so let’s just file this as lame. Notes:

    – You have five months to hit the sign-up bonus
    – The offer lasts through September 17
    – The offer is also available via referrals

    If you wait until mid-September to apply via referral and wait until January to finish the bonus spend, you’ll earn the points in 2026 setting you up for a huge Companion Pass head start. That of course assumes the Companion Pass will still exist then, I wouldn’t put it past them to #bonvoy you somehow, Lubbock style.
  4. HawaiianMiles, and their ability to be used to upgrade flights on Hawaiian metal, will be gone on October 1. After that date, your Hawaiian credit cards will earn Alaska MileagePlan miles. (Thanks to revenue_management)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Unboxing your giftcards.com purchase.

  1. The Imprint Rakuten Visa credit card launched with no annual fee and a market trailing $25 or 2,500 Membership Rewards bonus after $500 spend in 90 days. Earnings:

    – 4x through the portal up to 28,000 miles
    – 2x at grocery and restaurants
    – 1x elsewhere

    The commentary about this card is negative, but you can link it to your Membership Rewards account and it has plenty of utility as an uncapped RAT-free grocery 2x earner and as a third party American Express. (Thanks to David)
  2. The Chase United Business Visa cards each have an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 MileagePlus miles and 2,000 PQP after $5,000 spend in three months:

    – United Business: $150 annual fee
    – United Business Club: $695 annual fee*

    *Also gives unlimited cheese cubes when visiting a United Club, participation may vary.
  3. The Delta SkyMiles Shopping portal has a bonus of 2,000 SkyMiles after $600+ spend through August 11. Giftcards.com is there too at 1x, making exactly $600 in spend approximately a 4.3x earner.
  4. The more “modestly appointed” US airlines are running fare sales, ordered by fewest blackout dates to most:

    – JetBlue: 25% off base fares with promo SAVE25 booked by Thursday for travel August 12 through November 20
    – Breeze: 35% off base fares with promo LETSROLL booked by Friday for travel August 8 through January 31
    – Southwest: $39+ fares booked by Friday for travel between August 12 and January 26

    It ended yesterday, but even Avelo ran a base fare sale this week. Taken in sum I think this tells you a lot about the low-end airline industry’s economic outlook.
  5. Southwest’s seat assignments take affect on January 27, 2026, and you’ll be able to book those assignments starting on Tuesday. In a move surprising no-one, bookings for travel between January 27, 2026 and March 4, 2026 also become available on Tuesday.

    Post-change, the major Southwest seating challenge will be trying to convince a stranger in your seat that in fact “A” and “F”, not “C” or “D”, are the window seats. (Thanks to Brain M)
  6. Hy-Vee grocery stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa and Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. The Incomm gift card sites have fee-free Visa and Mastercard gift cards:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Use promo NOFEESMC25 through August 24
    – VanillaGift.com: Use promo VGBTS25 through August 24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Use promo BTS25 through August 31

    These sites won’t earn points on first party American Express cards, and they can be a pain to liquidate online. These are Sutton gift cards, but not the good kind.

Coming soon to Cleveland passengers: “No, C21 is the gate, not your seat.”

  1. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select personal Mastercard has a heightened offer of 80,000 AA miles after $3,500 spend in four months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards excluding Amazon, and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards tomorrow only.

    For those keeping track at home: Kroger had more days with 4x fuel points earning in the last two months than days without. In a turn everyone could have predicted, that’s flooded the fuel points market pushing points rates way down.
  3. Canadian carrier Porter Airlines tickets can now be booked with Alaska MileagePlan. Carry-on bags are included. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Thursday!

The inspiration for this summer’s Kroger “(Almost) Everyday Sale Price” 4x promotions.

  1. Bank of America has a targeted promotion for +2x or +2% on top of regular earning between August 1 and September 30 via USPS and (probably) email. Like last year’s version, it appears that the rewards are uncapped. (EDIT: Some cards are reported to have a $5,000 spend capacity for the promotion, others don’t)

    If you’re targeted, it’s probably worth spending some time with charges on your cards to get the fraud alerts under control before August 1, and it’s also worth figuring out how to pay Bank of America in a post alternative payments world. (Thanks to Rocky)
  2. Citi ThankYou Points has a 50% transfer bonus to Accor ALL through July 19. With the bonus, the fixed euro value of an Accor point, and the current US dollar exchange rate, this is a cash-out value of 1.74 cents per ThankYou Point.
  3. Citi ThankYou Points also has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through July 19.

    Citi’s prior transfer bonus to FlyingBlue was 30%, which is *checks notes* 10% more than this one.
  4. Southwest has a Companion Pass offer:

    – Book two one-ways or a round-trip by June 27, non-basic economy
    – Fly by August 31
    – Get a Companion Pass for September 11 – November 15

    Rebooking any travel booked before May 29 will cause you to lose free checked bags, better cancelation terms, your dignity, etc.
  5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon, and on fixed value Visas and Mastercards running through July 8.

    What about Pepper you say? Look, I know an update is overdue, but give it another week or two, everything keeps changing in a static kind of way.
  6. Giftcards.com has two promotions for select gift cards, which include virtual Visas, Virtual Mastercards, One4All, and Home Depot gift cards:

    – $5 free giftcards.com gift card with $50 purchase using promo code BOGO50
    – $10 free giftcards.com gift card with $100 purchase using promo code BOGO100

    These codes come and go, so if there’s no inventory now check later and you may find it. Portals specifically exclude these codes from earning, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t work.
  7. The Bank of America Air France / KLM FlyingBlue Mastercard has a heightened bonus of 70,000 bonus miles and 100 XP after $3,000 spend in 90 days.

    Annual bonus XP stacks with these cards, but sign-up bonus XP don’t, and yes, you can get multiple.
  8. The Chase United Quest card has an increased sign-up bonus of 115,000 MileagePlus miles and 3,000 PQP after $4,000 spend in three months. You’ll need a promotional code from a United Agent for this offer. You can find one in the comments of a DoC post, make one up in the form UA3[XXX] where [XXX] is three random letters and numbers, or you can just use 999999.
  9. Chase Sapphire news:

    – Reserve referral links are now available
    – Preferred has a heightened bonus of 75,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Pre-October 26 earned points have boosted travel redemptions, post-October 26 earned points don’t (referring to 1.5/1.25 cents per point on the Chase Travel Portal)
    – Points are redeemed in FIFO order (first in, first out)
    – Pay Yourself Back remains

    I’m going to do my best to not talk about the Sapphire for the rest of the week, there’s absolutely no need feed the marketing machine.

Happy Wednesday!

Yes it’s about birds, but it might as well be about Sapphire marketing.

  1. The FNBO Amtrak Mastercard’s sign-up bonus is now 40,000 points after $2,000 spend in three billing cycles, matching its all-time high bonus. These points are worth about 2.6 cents each for rail redemptions.
  2. The Ramp business credit card has a $1,000 sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 and making a payment within 90 days. You’ve also got to have $25,000 in an “operating account”, which I believe only needs to be linked to Ramp but not held at Ramp.

    The bonus is available only via affiliate links. I found a couple of random ones online for companies that I’ve never heard of and don’t know anything about, like this one for Fundrise (EDIT: Adds $1,000 to your Fundrise Innovation Account, thanks to Daniel G) or this one for some bank named “stifl” (EDIT: Adds $1,000 statement credit). Three things: (1) no, I didn’t make the name stifl up, but I wish I did, (2) I have no relationships with these companies, and (3) it’s entirely possible that these companies kill puppies, idk.
  3. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion running today through Sunday for third party gift cards other than Amazon, and for fixed value Visas and Mastercards.

    The post-Pepper gift card resale market is strong, looking much like the pre-Pepper gift card market.
  4. Rakuten has $300 bonus for new SoFi accounts, and you’ll get another $325 from SoFi with two $500 deposits in the first 45 days. For those who can’t math, $325+$300 = a bigger number. Actually whether or not you can math, it’s a bigger number.
  5. Hyatt has a code for between $50 and $100 in property credit for stays at Grand Hyatt properties in the Americas through September 30 using promo code GRANDSTAY.
  6. Emirates points transfers are back online with all major US banks. If your goal is Emirates first, Qantas is still a better option unless you have elite status.
  7. Stater Bros markets have $10 off of groceries purchased with $50+ in One4All gift cards through July 8.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The restrooms at stifl’s corporate offices, I assume.