Category: Airlines

  1. Chase is sending targeted offers via email for Hyatt cardholders that awards 5,000 point bonus for setting up recurring payments with three companies for three consecutive months in gyms, internet, phone, cable, transit, and utilities by November 30. Registration isn’t required.

    I debated writing about this given the work involved, but 5,000 Hyatt points are worth $100+ so here we are.
  2. The Barclays Hawaiian Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $1,000 spend in three months, and the $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year. The primary use case for this is to transfer to Alaska miles, and I guess 2x Alaska miles at grocery isn’t the worst deal in the world.

    Yes, you can get both the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Mastercard and the Barlcays Hawaiian Mastercard, though it may require a call to reconsideration to fix Barclays automated processing which occasionally denies one of the applications as duplicate even when they’re not the same card.
  3. Japan Airlines award flights can now be redeemed with JetBlue TrueBlue miles. The current rates from the US to Japan:

    – 39,900+ TrueBlue miles in economy
    – 64,000+ TrueBlue miles in business

    Pricing is based on regions and segments, and I expect these prices to last no more than 60 days before they’re devalued. Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou points transfer in at a 1:1 ratio, while American Express Membership Rewards transfers in at 5:4 and Capital One transfers in at 5:3.
  4. Speedway store purchases of Vanilla Visas, SecureSpend gift cards, and BetMGM cards are awarding 500 points for every $25 purchased through April 29.

    That’s 10,000 points for each $500 gift card for those that loathe to do math, or I guess even for those not that don’t loathe to do math. (Thanks to GCA)
  5. The Citi ThankYou Points program is reducing the transfer ratio to Emirates Skywards from 1:1 to 5:4 on July 27. Chase, Capital One, American Express, and Bilt will continue to transfer at a 1:1 ratio. (Thanks to CouchQB)
  6. Kroger stores have a promotion tomorrow only for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards.

    Let’s go on a tangent; we’ll have more Pepper updates once things stabilize, but a few interim notes relevant to this deal:

    – Fuel points rates are through the roof due to Pepper’s prior public drunkenness
    – Pepper is sobering up with large discounts gone, bulk gift card rates are recovering
    – Amazon is effectively unavailable on Pepper, so the lack of 4x matters more now than in the past

Happy Thursday!

Pictured: Pepper sobering up in the most Pepper way possible.

  1. There have been spotty reports for a couple of weeks of increased American Express Delta offers but I could never personally verify them. That changed yesterday when I found them via this link, and was also able to find them by trying different browsers and search engines to get to an offer page. If that link doesn’t work and searches are fruitless, you can possibly find them in the Delta mobile app (More → Delta Amex Cards) or potentially at this link that’s been floating around elsewhere. The offers:

    – 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 Gold: 80,000 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

    The Gold cards with their waived annual fee are the stand-out winners here.
  2. The American Express Blue Business Cash has a targeted, heightened sign-up bonus of $750 after $6,000 spend in four months, effectively matching the Blue Business Plus offer from Monday.
  3. Rakuten has a new referral bonus of $40 or 4,000 Membership Rewards for both the referrer and the referred. It’s probably not gameable, why would you say otherwise? Duh.
  4. American Express offers has an offer for $250 off of $2,500 in airfare booked directly through AmEx Travel through June 17. This is limited to USD transactions which is ever-so-slightly annoying, but there are always games to play. (UPDATE: the offer is valid “once converted to USD”, thanks to Churrently)
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between May 13 and October 2, booked by tomorrow night, there are blackout dates though not as many as they usually have.

    Flights booked before May 28 still get free lost checked bags.

Southwest delivers a lost bag.

  1. The US Bank Smartly Visa is changing on Monday:

    – Boosted 4x, 3x, and 2.5x earning will be capped at $10,000 spend monthly
    – Funds in brokerage, savings, or retirement accounts will no longer be eligible for boost
    – There are new exclusions to boosted spend including education, gift cards, bill payment services, and tax payments

    You can still get the older, better version of this card through Sunday night, so consider going for it now if it’s been on your radar, and especially so if you don’t have an Altitude Reserve.
  2. ANA will be devaluing on June 24. The changes:

    – High season redemptions all increase in cost, in the worst cases at 50%
    – One way award bookings will be supported
    – Round-the-world tickets will no longer be bookable

    American Express Membership Rewards transfer to ANA but it’s not instant. If you want a round-the-world ticket, there’s still time for one last hurrah.
  3. Alaska has a paid and award ticket sale, and the redemption values are great:

    – Mid-continental flights at 6,500 miles
    – Trans-continental flights at 9,000 miles
    – Mexico flights at 12,500 miles

    Travel is valid through June 17 and there are route specific blackout dates.
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards starting today and running through April 22. Amazon gift cards are excluded.

    Pepper continues to push the market for many third party cards down, but brands that Pepper doesn’t sell like lululemon and brands that Pepper limits like BestBuy are currently good options.

A soon to be collectors item.

  1. The American Express Business Platinum’s Dell and Adobe credits are changing starting on July 1:

    – The Dell credit will be $150 annually, plus another $1,000 after $5,000 in spend at Dell
    – The Adobe credit will be $250 off of $600 in Adobe products

    You can take advantage of the current credits before July 1 and still be eligible for the updated credits when they come. I’m personally disappointed that Dell isn’t gone so that I don’t have to think about it any more, but for people playing Dell buyer’s groups games, the new structure is probably better.
  2. Zift Zillions cards earn 12x points at Giant, Martins, and Stop & Shop through Wednesday Thursday (Thanks to Eugene for the correction). Note that Giant Food stores are owned by the same conglomerate but are only paying 4x.

    There’s a Citi Merchant offer for 5% back up to $30 at Stop & Shop too. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. The best and worst performing major US airlines as measured by the stock market have Q2 shopping portal bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 500 miles after $200+ spend through April 14
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 500 miles after $100+ spend through April 14

    An obvious choice is giftcards.com.
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for 5% back at giftcards.com, and it’s potentially available on multiple cards for the same cardholder too too. (Thanks to Carl)
  5. The Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus is now available via referrals.

  6. US Bank’s business checking bonus for Q2 is here using promo code Q2DIG25. For both tiers of bonus, you need to maintain a minimum balance and have five transactions within the first 60 days. Last time I knocked this out, I scheduled five $1 ACHs. The tiers:

    – $500 for bringing $5,000 and maintaining at least that between days 30 and 60
    – $900 for bringing $25,000 and maintaining at least that between days 30 and 60

    Both are interesting if you time it right, and holding $5,000 in a business checking account with US Bank is a great way to shake-loose credit card approvals. If you’re not in the US Bank footprint, opening a brokerage account or CD first will get you in the door.
  7. United has an economy award sale for co-brand card holders with travel booked by tomorrow night for flights to Latin America through September 30. One-way fares:

    – 9,000-11,000 for Mexico
    – 18,000 miles for Central America
    – 30,000 miles for South America

    If you choose your route correctly, lie-flat business class cash upgrades can actually be quite reasonable and there’s no cancelation fee so you don’t have to slum it in the back if the cheap upgrade doesn’t materialize.

Happy Tuesday!

Eight cardboard computers at Dell will soon earn a $1,000 statement credit.

  1. Southwest has a fare sale for paid and award travel between April 22 and August 27 with promo code TAKE30. There are some blackout dates, and the blackout dates seem more city specific than the terms and conditions suggest.

    Tickets booked before May 28 still get free checked bags and no change fees, and a small bright spot is that the variable Rapid Rewards redemption rates are more favorable on the flights eligible for the promo code too. For some bad analysis redemption values, compare the pre-sale cash price to the post-sale award price and marvel at how your math approaches TPG valuations.
  2. Chase’s Q2 2025 Pay Yourself Back categories for Sapphire cards are: gas, grocery (but not Walmart or Target, and probably not Han’s Deli either), pet supply and vets, charities, and annual membership fees. Charities pay a +25% bigger boost, and redemptions continue to be uncapped.

    They have co-brand card Pay Yourself Back on Marriott Bold, United, Southwest, and Aeroplan with relatively small limits, but the cashout typically only makes sense on Marriott Bold or Aeroplan.
  3. AirCanada Aeroplan has opened registration for a promotion for 3,000 bonus points on a one-way booking, or 6,000 bonus points on a round-trip booking made by April 13 for travel through December 15.

    News outlets have been parroting a 75% drop in bookings between the US and Canada since the trade war started which is likely extremely exaggerated due to flawed study methodology and sample bias. The real number may be closer to 10-20%, but either way it’s bad. I expect this promotion will be copied in spirit by US Airlines relatively soon.
  4. JetBlue and Icelandair have a new partnership, so I guess you can choose between poor redemption values from TrueBlue and poor (future) redemption values from Southwest Rapid Rewards.
  5. American Express Membership Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to Etihad Guest and a 20% transfer bonus to AeroMexico ClubPremier. The former is a great backdoor way into short-haul AA travel.
  6. Chase Ultimate Rewards has an 80% transfer bonus to IHG through April 30, making it a 1,000:1,800 transfer ratio. In general you can do better by other booking games, but there are use cases where IHG points bookings have outsized value.

Deriving TPG point valuations.

  1. American Express has targeted more accounts with a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards for enabling Pay over Time on its charge cards. A few notes:

    – Set a reminder to disable Pay over Time after 121 days to be eligible to be retargeted
    – If multiple cards are targeted, activate quick on all of them

    What happens if you turn off Pay over Time before then? To the penalty box! (Maybe)
  2. American Express has a Q2 referrer bonus for 5x earning on up to $25,000 spend in travel and transit for three months in addition to the 15,000-35,000 Membership Rewards the referrer typically gets.

    The offers available to the referred haven’t changed, but referring to a business card that you close quickly without hitting a sign-up bonus is one way to play the game. (Thanks to mra101485)
  3. Kroger has fee-free virtual Visa and Mastercard $100 gift cards online with promo code NOFEEMADNESS through tonight, and these will earn Kroger fuel points too. This also marks the first time that I’ve seen Mastercards sold at Kroger.com since they transitioned from US Bank to BlackHawk Network for gift card fulfillment.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Chase’s Sapphire Reserve used to earn 10x points on all Lyft purchases, now that drops to 5x through September 30, 2027 which matches the earn on Inks and the Sapphire Preferred. There’s a new monthly credit of $10 towards Lyft rides for the Sapphire Reserve only through the same time period.
  5. As of today Fiji Airlines award tickets can be booked with AA AAdvantage miles joins oneWorld and uses AA as its currency for dynamic awards. On average, that probably means today is the best day for redemption availability, so I guess there’s no time like the present eh?

April Fool’s day is every day but April 1 at MEAB, so here’s a boring image as your feed cleanser for the rest of the day’s onslaught.

  1. Chase made all the United cards dumber this week. The major changes:

    – Every card with an annual fee gets a bigger annual fee
    – The no-annual fee Gateway card doesn’t get XN inventory access unless you have $10,000 in annual spend
    – One time lounge access passes are no longer transferrable
    – You can now earn 1K status with nothing but spend on either of the ridiculously priced $695 personal and business Club cards
    – There are new credits on the annual fee cards, most of which are annoying, carved up throughout the year, and less valuable than they seem
    – Lounge access gets more restrictive without massive spend

    DD has a good rundown on the details of the changes if you care to read more.
  2. Southwest is releasing its winter schedule for travel between November 2 and January 5 today, which means today is statistically speaking the best time you have to game holiday travel, or just to play it straight to book holiday travel directly.

    Now’s a good time to book for other reasons too, like avoiding change fees on cheap tickets and paying bag fees, all of which will be implemented soon. Unfortunately double secret Rapid Rewards redemption values already quietly launched yesterday.
  3. On Tuesday, Bilt will have a transfer bonus of between 50% and 100% to British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Ibera Avios, depending your status level. Because Avios can be transferred freely amongst airlines, this is good for Qatar, Vueling, and FinnAir too.

    Why mention this early? So you can earn Bilt points before then.
  4. Accor ALL has new Q2 promotions for:

    – 2x-3x points on stays 3+ nights in many countries through June 8, valid for two stays
    – 4x points at new properties through September 7, valid for one stay

    You’ve got to book by April 27 and May 11 respectively, so these suck for last minute travel. (Thanks to FM)
  5. Breeze has 45% off of fares booked today for travel between April 9 and September 2 with promo code VACAY. There are a few blackout days around Easter, Independence Day, and National Peach Cobbler Day, but in general Summer travel is wide open.

    We haven’t played Breeze Dartboard Bingo™ for a while, but in honor of National Peach Cobbler today, we’ll take another round. [drumroll] Today’s draw is: Pensacola, FL to Norfolk, VA, PNS-ORF! If you hit Bingo, come see the MEAB front desk for your prize.
  6. AA’s shopping portal has a 500 mile bonus for the referrer and 1,000 mile bonus for the referred, as long as the latter makes a $75+ purchase by April 6 through the portal. The referral bonus is limited to 10 per account.

    With GiftCards.com’s current annoying portal rules, having multiple players with multiple shopping portals is one of the methods for scale (like banana).

Happy Thursday friends!

The other way of scaling.

I’m allergic to booking airfare for my own travel with third parties as a general rule, but the American Express Business Platinum’s 35% Membership Rewards rebate for points bookings (~1.54 cents per point) on your selected airline, or on any first or business class seat, is valuable enough that I use their third party platform anyway. When you book via third party it’s rather hard, or sometimes impossible, to get an airline to help you when:

  • Schedules change
  • You need to make a non-trivial itinerary change
  • You want to pre-pay for services
  • You want to take advantage of travel waivers
  • You want to play games with frequent flyer numbers

But, it’s possible with many airlines to take advantage of American Express Travel’s rebate and to funnel that booking into a different ticket booked directly with the airline. Today, we’ll focus on how to do it with Alaska:

  1. Book a non-basic economy Alaska flight with AmEx Travel
  2. Wait 48 hours
  3. Contact Alaska, and tell them you’d like to refund to flight credit
  4. Wait 2-3 days for the flight credits to come via email
  5. Apply the flight credits to your Alaska wallet
  6. Book airfare directly with Alaska using your wallet

You’ll end up with the best of both worlds, a regular, first party booking but also a 35% Membership Rewards rebate. Of course, it’s possible that airfare prices change between steps 1 and 6, so factor that risk in as necessary.

Good luck!

Next time: An entirely different type of Alaska Airlines game.