Category: Airlines

  1. I’m sure you’ve seen Sapphire news everywhere. Here’s a bit of tl;dr so you don’t have to read a bunch of thousand word promotional essays:

    – 1.5 cents per point and 1.25 cents per point travel booking uplift is going away
    – Targeted up to 2.25 cents per point bookings on some hotels and premium cabin flights
    – You can get both the business and personal card
    – You can get both a Preferred and a Reserve card
    – Approvals will be driven by an algorithm, no more 48 month language for bonus eligibility
    – The coupon overload is legit and real
    – Personal AUs will carry a $175 annual fee and will include lounge access

    For a great breakdown without blogger fluff, see this excellent reddit post for the personal side, and this adequate post for the business side.
  2. Southwest has a targeted offer for 6,000 bonus points for flying on a new business booking or 5,000 bonus points for flying on a new leisure booking, and the offer is valid for 90 days once you activate it. You’ve got until December 31 to start.

    The offer was also emailed with the subject “We’ve got a 🎁 just for you!” (Thanks to Larry)
  3. The Mesa Mastercard added Aeroplan and SAS EuroBonus as transfer partners, the latter of which is a unique in the US Market and is a great frequent flyer program for redemptions. (Thanks to FM)
  4. Second tier airlines are running second tier fare sales:

    – Breeze 35% off with promo code SUNSHINE book by Friday
    – Southwest fares “starting from $39”, book by tomorrow
    – JetBlue Award sale, book today

    No word from Allegiant or Spirit. Either that or I just didn’t care, who can tell?

Have a nice Wednesday!

Striving for adequacy and succeeding.

  1. The US Mint is releasing a silver coin tomorrow at 9AM Pacific / 12PM Eastern, limit one. Premiums are currently $70+ above cost, scale with multiple US Mint accounts. Now’s a good time to get a credit card saved and current shipping information in each of your Mint accounts for faster checkout.

    There’s a rumor that American Express won’t earn points on these purchases, but that rumor is flaming trash.
  2. Southwest has a targeted promotion for bonus miles with trips booked after registering and flown by August 31:

    – Two one-ways or one round-trip: 5,000 points
    – Four one-ways or two round-trips: 10,000 points
    – Six one-ways or three round-trips: 20,000 points

    Those don’t stack, you’re only getting one of them (or I guess none of them).
  3. The Alaska MileagePlan shopping portal has a promotion with $200+ through June 20. *cough* giftcards.com *cough* also works with AmEx *cough*

Happy Thursday!

Pictured: The rumor mill’s performance American Express points earning.

  1. Rakuten In-Store has 1% or 1x Membership Rewards on its card linked site for purchases at Food Lion on purchases of up to $1,000 per transaction. You’ve got 75 days after adding the offer to use it, and once you use it the offer remains valid for another hour. After that hour, you can add it again and start over. Complex much?

    You may be surprised to learn that Food Lion sells more than just food and lions too.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for the lower fee “Everywhere” variety if you can liquidate
    – Cry that Dosh is gone

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  3. The Future Debit card currently has a fixed $30 rate for Hertz rentals, any EV car and any US location with no end date specified using CDP code 2234544 and paying with your Future card (though I doubt the second part is necessary). They also have a targeted promotion for up to 100% back up to $35 in Future points with Hertz.

    Obviously gamers gonna game, but this time with a Cadillac EV for a week? (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Southwest has a promotion for double points earning for flights booked by today and flown by November 19. The terms and conditions are sneaky though, and it looks like this only applies to basic fares, which by the way are non-refundable and also travel credits from cancelled basic fares expire six months after booking.

    Apropos of nothing, Southwest hates puppies and kittens too.

Happy Monday!

Southwest Airlines glare, post puppy.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through July 17.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have increased offers:

    Personal cards:
    – Personal Gold: 70,000 SkyMiles after $3,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Personal Platinum: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months

    Business cards:
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve : 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months

    Cobrand cards like this remain easier to play popup games than non-cobrand cards.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy cards have new sign-up bonuses, also available via referrals so use those instead:

    – Bonvoy Boundless: Five free night certificates, 50,000 points each after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Bonvoy Bold: 60,000 points and one free night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months

    The Bonvoy Bountiful card, one of the three most ridiculously named Chase Bonvoy cards, has no increased bonus.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The head of Chase’s Bonvoy credit card naming team.

  1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Southwest card): Register for Southwest’s promotion for 10x points on up to $500 spend at Southwest through Sunday.

    In the post-Elliot Southwest universe, award ticket fees are your best gamer bet. (Thanks to Dave)
  2. Bank of America’s Spirit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 65,000 points and a $100 companion flight voucher after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. Redemptions on Spirit are often in the 2,500 – 7,500 point range.

    Note that you’ll need a promo code, and reportedly 110662 works, though generally with these any six digit number starting with a ‘1’ also works. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through Tuesday, June 17. Amazon gift cards continue to be excluded.
  4. The Incomm sites are playing their Incomm tricks:

    – MasterCardGiftCard: Fee-free cards with promo DAD2025
    – VanillaGift: Fee-free cards with promo VGDAD25
    – TheGiftCardShop: *crickets*

    Science is still trying to determine what the reason for this promotion is. We may never know. We do however know that these cards work better than others for certain big box retailers, in certain circumstances with certain velocity limits.
  5. Citi ThankYou has Apple gift card redemptions at 10% off, and with $100 Apple gift cards reselling at 90%+ you’ve got a slight edge over a one cent per point cash-out.
  6. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on $250+ at Southwest up to $400 through July 2. Obviously this pairs nicely with today’s lead.

Have a nice Thursday!

If gaming Southwest was a fridge, it’d be like a bachelor fridge.

  1. Southwest has 50% off of both paid and award bookings on “select flights” with promo code WOWZERS, a promo code that proves Southwest’s humor has officially entered the 1990s.

    Note that if you change any flights booked before May 28, you’ll lose the pre-Elliott benefits of those flights like free checked bags, same day changes, and non-expiring paid flight credits.
  2. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue released its June promo rewards for travel through November 30. US cities include:

    – San Diego
    – Las Vegas
    – Denver
    – Orlando
    – New York

    Economy flights are 18,750 miles and business flights are 60,000 miles between the US and Europe. Don’t forget train stations for faux-direct flights to Paris or Amsterdam.

Happy Wednesday!

Southwest’s fashion inspiration board circa 2025.

Giftcards.com

Giftcards.com has had a storied past with shopping portals, with rules that spanned the entire distance between “rewards on nothing” and “rewards on everything”, and plenty of stops in-between. Most recently, they’ve only awarded spend on a rolling $20,000 in purchases in a rolling 365 day period. Terms didn’t make it clear about whether that was per loyalty account, per shopping portal, per giftcards.com account, or something else. While science made progress in answering the question, the point is now moot because that weird language is gone. All the major airline shopping portals have reverted to the following terms:

Orders over $2,000.00 are not eligible. To qualify for rewards, you must complete your purchase within the same session you start the purchase without exiting your browser. Opening a new tab or returning later will result in rewards not tracking.

Changing it again is a bold strategy Cotton, we’ll have to see if it pays off for them.

Barclays+[Frontier,JetBlue,Arrival+]

Today, Barclays has both card linked and shopping portal offers for card holders under a program named “Barclays Simple Earn”. Maybe giftcards.com will show up here too? I’ve been able to find press releases about Frontier, JetBlue, and Arrival+ cards, but I’d be surprised if they don’t show up on AA and Hawaiian co-brand cards even though both will soon be leaving the Barclays portfolio.

Barlcays has had “Barclays Card Rewards Boost” for a long time, and from the outside it appears to be run by the exact same technology and backend provider as the US Bank shopping portal. My educated guess is that they’ll use the exact same thing for co-brand cards, so tricks that work at US Bank’s portal will probably work here too. (Thanks to David)

Southwest T-0

Today is the last day for the old Southwest way of doing things. Basically, you’ve got until midnight in who-knows-which timezone to do the following:

  • Book travel that includes free bags on all fares
  • Consolidate Ticketless Travel Funds (TTF) now, because they’ll have expirations if issued after today
  • Book Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away+ fares before they pumpkin
  • Convert LUV vouchers to flight credits which are transferrable and have no expiration
  • Add any companions to existing reservations to ensure they’ve got old-school benefits too

Thanks to Southwest guru Brian M for the comprehensive list!

Happy Tuesday!

Giftcards.com’s analysis team uses cutting edge technology to calculate its optimum rewards strategy.

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice Hotels’ Summer promotion for 5,000 points – 8,000 points after two stays through September 2, with the variance being based on the hotel you stay in.
  2. Barclays launched its version of the GM Mastercard with a 30,000 point after $1,000 spend in 90 days sign-up bonus and 3x everywhere earning.

    The Marcus version of this card had a better bonus and earns 4x everywhere. The Marcus cards will convert to Barclays cards soon, but the earning structure for conversions is unclear.
  3. American Express offers has an offer for $100 back on $500+ at participating Wyndham properties through October 31. Gamers gonna (spooky) game.
  4. Virgin Atlantic has 20% off of award tickets on its own metal for travel between the US and the UK through September 30 booked by May 27.
  5. Alaska has a paid fare sale for flights to and from Mexico, Central America, Hawaii, and Florida for travel between August 12 and November 19 using promo code GETAWAY25 and booked by tomorrow night.

    Although the terms and conditions don’t mention a cabin restriction, I was only able to make the promo work on economy tickets.

Happy Wednesday!

GM points cover up to $750 on used GM vehicles, which means this beauty might be within reach.