Category: Airlines

  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.

Let’s start with a PSA and a disclaimer, but in reverse order: I don’t work in marketing and I have no formal training in marketing, so smart money would ignore anything I have to say about the subject. With that out of the way, dear marketers: If you want to make a splash, maybe don’t wait until the second half of the first week in colloquial summer to launch a campaign.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some new marketing campaigns.

  1. IHG has a targeted summer promotion for double elite night credits, maximum five, through July 31. Registration is required.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have new sign-up bonuses:

    – Gold (via dummy booking): 60,000 miles + $500 credit after $3,000 spend in six months and a single Delta purchase
    – Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months

    These are all available via referral, except for the dummy booking version. If you’re going for one where a referral is available, use a friend’s link and make their day.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 125,000 points and a free-night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $3,000 spend in three months.
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $90 or 9,000 point offer for new Chase Freedom Unlimited applications, which have their own $200 or 20,000 point bonus after $500 spend in three months.

    On the subject of marketing, exactly who at Chase / Rakuten thought a guy either inhaling or exhaling a big line of smoke was exactly what the public needed to entice them to sign up for a Freedom Unlimited?
  5. The American Express Delta cards have added new benefits:

    – Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards, both personal and business, get a second free checked bag
    – Personal Gold cards get a (lame) $10 monthly statement credit on rideshare

    One of these is objectively nice, and one seems nice but is really just more work for you.
  6. Frontier has a contest for a free Go-Wild pass and a $100 TaskRabbit promo code. Someone’s going to win these, and it might as well be one of you.

    With the previous marketing disclaimer still in full force, Frontier did a good job of making you look twice at their promo, good show. (Thanks to David)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Actually, maybe some promotions are better launched in the second half of the first week of summer. (Thanks to Lea)

  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.

  1. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has a new leader, and the most surprising part is that the leader is a relatively well-known travel hacker, Tiffany Funk. Tiffany co-founded point.me, ran a paid award booking service, and oversaw parts of the business operations at One Mile at a Time.

    My crystal ball is famously nothing more than a ball made of crystal; but it tells me that this is bad news for serious travel hackers and good news for the median regular family putting all their spend on Delta credit cards and booking economy awards with SkyMiles to Rome. I do think we’ll see more business class availability on the worst routes at the worst times, but less availability when and where you want to fly in premium cabins. I sure hope I’m wrong. Today’s action Well, remember that the site’s name ends in “and Burn”.
  2. SoFi has a 2% ACATS transfer bonus on both new and existing pre-tax or post-tax accounts, limit $5 Million in transferred funds.

    To keep the bonus, you’ve got to hold the funds for 5 years otherwise you may pay out more in penalties than the original bonus.
  3. American Express has more targeted offers for upgrading a Business Gold or Business Green card to a Business Platinum. You’ll earn 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months, and you’ll be effectively locked into the card for a year unless you like pop-up jail.
  4. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 bonus points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card other than Amazon and phone cards through today, limit 50,000 points per mPerks account.

    This is what economists call a great value, which is defined as when capitalism accidentally does something nice. (Thanks to GCA)
  5. OfficeDepot / Office Max has $15 off of $300+ in Mastercards through Saturday. As usual, buy in even multiples of $300 for the best oomph.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. If you’re a Frontier flyer, register for a bonus 5,000 miles per round-trip flight through August 31 with a maximum of 20,000 bonus miles earned.

    You’ll need to rebook existing travel to qualify for the promotion, otherwise known as when capitalism does what it’s supposed to.

Happy Tuesday friends!

The fine print matters.

  1. The American Express Platinum brokerage cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Charles Schwab: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $12,000 spend in six months
    – Morgan Stanley: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $12,000 spend in six months

    Schwab lets you cash out Membership Rewards at 1.1 cents per point with a capacity of a million points annually, while Morgan Stanley lets you cash out at 1.0 cents per point with no cap. Morgan Stanley accounts now can be opened with just a basic E*Trade account too.
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 AAdvantage miles after $10,000 spend in three months.

    The bonus language on this one only precludes the sign-up bonus if you’ve gotten another Executive sign-up bonus in the last 48 months. Don’t forget about Citi clowning.
  3. The Chase Freedom Unlimited card has an in-branch only sign-up bonus for $200 + 5x on gas and grocery for the first year, but only up to $12,000 spend. For maximizers, that’s effectively a $900 sign-up bonus.
  4. The Rove travel and shopping portal added Air Canada Aeroplan as a transfer partner, and they’ve got a 25% transfer bonus through June 6.

    If you’re new to Rove, use a fellow churner’s referral and make their day.
  5. A minor update for Alaska Wallet fund gamers: Wallet funds can now be used for the Alaska partner booking fee too. (Thanks to Ryan)
  6. AA has a registration required promotion for an extra bonus mile for each base mile award on flights to Australia and New Zealand booked by May 31 and flown by March 31, 2027. You’re limited to 25,000 bonus miles.

    The fact that AA is awarding bonus miles for the longest haul flights, with the most expensive jet fuel per-seat costs in the network, in the face of soaring fuel costs, should tell you how poorly these routes are doing. Yes, AA makes boneheaded decisions but they’re not stupid. (Thanks to DDG)

Happy Friday!

AA as a hat.

  1. The Barclays JetBlue Premier Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 TrueBlue points after $5,000 spend in 90 days, and the $499 annual fee is not waived for the first year. They’ve also made negative changes:

    – 25 Tiles award for status is now at the end of your cardmember year
    – Basic economy tickets no longer get BlueHouse lounge access with this card
    – Companion fare statement credits post after travel is completed

    Strange flex by Barclays the week after they lost their AA card portfolio to Citi, but ok.
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard, which continues to be the stupidest Citi AA card, has an increased bonus of 90,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in four months.
  3. Two airline portals have Mother’s Day shopping bonuses, expect more before Sunday:

    – Alaska Atmos Shopping: 1,200 points for $400+ in spend through May 11
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 points for $400+ in spend through May 11

    Giftcards.com’s terms and conditions now vary across portals, but none preclude these bonuses.
  4. SoFi Crypto is $120 cash back or 12,000 points at Rakuten for new SoFi Crypto accounts, provided that you buy $30 of crypto. SoFi will also award between $5 and $1,000 of crypto “randomly” for new accounts through June 30.

    SoFi churns are a thing friends.
  5. The AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue program updated its 24-month mileage expiration policy: Now any mileage earned will reset the expiration clock, regardless of source.

Happy Tuesday!

Next SoFi innovation: “randomly” assigned haircuts.