Category: Airlines

  1. Do this now: Try and register for Hyatt’s targeted promotion for 5,000 bonus points for each 5 nights stayed in the next 90 days, up to 45,000 total bonus points.
  2. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s fall promotions:

    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay (+2,000 if it’s an MGM property)
    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay for Marriott credit card holders

    These stack, but honestly 4,000 bonus Marriott points is probably worth $20 at best so don’t go nuts.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Remember that the variable loads work too

    Just don’t be like me last week and try and load $500 on a $200 card. The register will take it, but I promise nothing good happens.
  4. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the most sung of Unsung Heroes, has released new beginning of month offers, each is slightly complex because #extra. Each is good monthly for September, October, and November, and each will stack with other offers as applicable. We’ve seen:

    – $60 statement credit for a purchase $450+, good twice per month
    – $60 statement credit after six $75+ purchases
    – $50 statement credit for a purchase $375+, good twice per month

    I’ll be knocking this out with two $1,000 purchases at a grocery store to combine with outher outstanding credits. (Thanks to Brooke and birt)
  5. Rakuten has 15% back or 15x Membership Rewards on purchases at Dell, likely ending today. Use a friends referral if you don’t already have a Rakuten account, or use George at TBB’s otherwise.
  6. Avelo has $50 off of round-trip fares booked by Tuesday, for travel between September 17 and February 11, 2025 using promo code LABORDAY.

Pictured: The source of my instructions to load $500 onto a $15-200 variable load card.
(Thanks to IAD_Flyer for the picture)

  1. American Express widened its targeting for adding employee cards to business charge cards, with a 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus after $4,000 spend in 90 days for up to five employees online. These links appear in your AmEx Offers tab, and reader Jim notes that they’re not necessarily on top but may be buried much lower.

    Any cards that already earned five bonuses of 15,000 Membership Rewards using online links from Spring will not get the online bonus again; calling in for offers still works for those and gives a higher capacity of 99 total bonuses per card though.
  2. Canada’s ultra-low cost carrier Flair Airlines has a promotion for $1 base fare (+ tax) tickets between many major Canadian cities and Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Nashville, New York JFK, and several Mexico airports.

    Surprisingly, I’m seeing limited availability around US winter holidays. I was able to price out a complete bare-bones ticket at ~$15 each way including taxes. That said, “you get what you pay for” very much applies here, and Flair makes Southwest look like luxury.
  3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through September 29. Availability out of Canada is often better than out of the US, which I guess pairs nicely with the prior item. (Thanks to virginiarph)
  4. If it was a Cruel Summer and now you’re Down Bad waiting to be Bejeweled to reset your Karma with a Blank Space and Shake it Off, Hilton is giving you a chance to bid Honors points to meet Travis Kelce. You probably won’t meet his girlfriend, but statistically speaking it’s likely your best opportunity on Earth to do so. (This news item was just for Shay at TCB)
  5. The Barclays Hawaiian card has an increased bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after a single purchase using a link from an in-flight mailer. The $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year. For a promotional code, you can try a random number or email me for the promo code that reader Dean shared. (Thanks to Dean)
  6. Gary at VFTW notes that SkyTeam member SAS’s elite status match program doesn’t actually seem to be validating anything and is just awarding status when the form is filled out. So that’s a thing I guess.

Have a nice holiday weekend!

The SAS elite status match validation desk.

  1. Kroger has 4x fuel points promotion running tomorrow through Sunday on fixed value Visa and Mastercards and third party gift cards other than Amazon.
  2. Bilt’s rent day falls on a Sunday in September. This is also the last rent day for double points on up to $10,000 spend; in October the maximum double point spend will be $1,000. There are two main transfer bonuses on Sunday:

    – 50% bonus to Avianca LifeMiles
    – 25-100% bonus to Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub, based on Bilt status

    What’s the maximum transfer for bonus miles, especially Virgin Atlantic with its tiered bonus? They haven’t announced it so double check the terms and conditions on Sunday. (Cynical MEAB thinks that they haven’t announced the maximums because they’re really low, but go ahead and prove me wrong Kerr, please.) UPDATE: Gary at VFTW let me know that these bonuses are unlimited.
  3. Do this now: Register for Southwest’s promotion for increased elite status earning through November 30. (The promotion mainly gives 2x-3x tier qualifying points on flights, and 2,000 tier qualifying points for every $5,000 in co-branded credit card spend). (Thanks to Brian M)
  4. Do this now (if you live in Washington, or move into a closet there during the NFL season): Register for Delta’s 12Status program and you’ll get:

    – One SkyMile for each passing yard earned by the Seahawks
    – Priority boarding on Delta flights at SEA airport during the NFL season

    According to a random ESPN page, last year there were 4,167 passing miles.
  5. Vietnam Airlines has a paid, year long status match for non-SkyTeam elites. The price is $99 for low tier, $159 for mid tier, or $299 for high tier status. Vietnam Airlines has five status lines, these are the middle three. The lowest matched status SkyTeam elite, which gets lounge access on international SkyTeam flights including Delta. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Thursday!

A notorious churner’s Seattle NFL season rented “condo”, which houses a family of 4.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 1,000 bonus points per night at Unbound Collection hotels between September 1 and November 30. The promo caps at 20 nights.
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s fall promotion for double points on all stays between September 3 and November 18. The bad news with this promotion is that you’ll be staying in a Best Western.
  3. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards in-store through Saturday with a clipped digital coupon. This type of promotion typically lets you reclip the coupon after each transaction too.

    Meijer carries both Sunrise and Pathward gift cards.
  4. Hy-Vee stores have have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards through Sunday. You don’t need to clip any digital coupons and you can repeat the discount ad-infinitum with new transactions, at least until the store manager runs you off of the property.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
  5. Bilt Rewards now earns on purchases at Walgreens made with any linked card, Bilt issued or otherwise. The earn rate on general spend is 1x for most items, or 2x on Walgreens house branded items.

    Gift cards are excluded via the terms and conditions, but may or may not actually be excluded.
  6. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Link your credit cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after $2,000 spend plus a purchase. The $99 annual fee is not waived. The bonus is split into:

    – Main card: 60,000 miles after $2,000 spend
    – Employee card: 10,000 miles after a purchase

    The best play for gamblers is to bet that these will turn into Alaska MileagePlan miles next year at a ratio of 1:1. If they don’t, the best use will probably be either inter-island flying or using miles to upgrade a paid coach ticket to business on Hawaiian metal. (Thanks to BleedBlue__)
  8. Southwest has 30% off of flights to or from Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Central America using promo code BEACHES for bookings made by tomorrow, and travel from September 29 through February 10, 2025.

    Blackout dates that you’d expect are present. And just like last time, John Wayne airport is excluded because Southwest hates any actors that promote the southwest as a region instead of as an airline.
  9. Chase Offers has 5%-10% back on Southwest Airlines airfare of $50 or more through September 6, on up to $400-$800 spend for a max cash back of $40. I suppose you could fly somewhere with a Best Western if you’re not into the whole “basic comfort” thing.

Happy Tuesday!

Southwest’s new marketing campaign is coming to a city near you.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, today’s post has a lot of words (for MEAB), but there’s good stuff in there, or if not good stuff, there’s at least stuff. I promise.

  1. JetBlue has a status match challenge for elites of all major US airlines except Southwest, which I can only assume was excluded out of spite. The matched status is Mosaic 1 or Mosaic 2, which are low-tier and mid-tier statuses and don’t include Mint upgrade certificates.

    Status lasts three months and can be extended through the end of 2025 by receiving 10-25 tiles within the same timeframe.
  2. Bilt Rewards, the purveyor of fine food and dining to travel bloggers, the program founded by a gamer who hates gamers, has removed Hawaiian Airlines from its transfer partners page with no notice, apparently because contract negotiations didn’t lead anywhere fruitful for Bilt.

    Richard Kerr, the a VP of Travel at Bilt, “[is] confident the partnership [will] return shortly“. I like the confidence, but I don’t completely share it. My actionable take from this news is that I’m going to assume Bilt partners could disappear at any point without notice and act accordingly. For me that means never hold more than 50,000 Bilt Rewards, since the last transfer bonus was capped at that level and I expect future ones will be too.
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards in-store tomorrow through Sunday, again. They’ve also got a single use coupon for $8 off of two $100 gift cards through September 3 which pairs nicely with the fuel points promotion, in the same way that politics pairs nicely with scandal.

    The bulk resale market for gift cards is currently wildly volatile largely due to Pepper; if there were a VIX for gift cards (GIX?), it’d probably be approaching historic highs. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. The merger of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines won’t be challenged by the DoJ, but the DoT may still put up road blocks. A few notes:

    – Alaska says they’ll “preserve the value of HawaiianMiles at a one-to-one ratio when they become Alaska Mileage Plan miles“
    – There’s a 20% Membership Rewards transfer bonus to Hawaiian in August
    – Hawaiian miles aren’t worthless, but they’re worth much less than Alaska miles

    I’ve seen the question “should I transfer miles to Hawaiian with the bonus?” in about a dozen places since the news dropped. My opinion that no-one asked for: Wait until August 30-31 to decide and see if we get any indication of the DoT’s feelings in the meantime. And also how many Alaska MileagePlan miles have you redeemed in the last 18 months? That should probably play into your calculus.
  5. Southwest opens its schedule this morning for travel through April 7, 2025. Booking tomorrow gives you, statistically speaking, the best random choice odds for gaming schedule changes during Spring Break, 2025.

    Fair warning on these flights: Southwest will have some form of assigned seats in early 2025, so you may find yourself paying for a seat assignment in the new booking window. (Thanks to JR76)

Happy Thursday!

More calculus, but put to evil. Also the answer is π because mathematicians hate society.

  1. Do this now: Register for 6,000 bonus Aeroplan miles on “select” Air Canada flights to Canada. Based on the terms and conditions, it looks like “select” flight mostly means paid non-basic economy flights booked after registration, and for travel through March 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM.

    What happens if your flight is delayed past 11:59 PM on March 31, 2025? I dunno, but I image it wouldn’t be fun to clean up. (Thanks to Vince for sending me the correct promotion end date)
  2. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of the purchase price of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. A few tips:

    – There are Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals for Meijer currently floating around
    – You have to clip the coupon in your MPerks account
    – This looks like the kind of deal that you can reclip after buying to repeat
    – Sometimes Meijer gas stands also sell gift cards

    Meijer sells Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Delta Stays and Delta Car Rentals have a promotion for MQD earning on hotels and car rentals booked directly through the portal by September 30 for travel by October 31, earning at one mile per dollar spent. A few random thoughts:

    – You can book VRBO bookings through Delta Stays
    – You can list things on VRBO, and sometimes VRBO runs promotions
    – Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve American Express cards have a Stays credit
    – For upcoming travel where status doesn’t matter, you might as well earn MQD
    – Delta Stays is not the same thing as Delta Vacations, don’t confuse them
    – Delta gift cards do not work at Delta Stays

    Always be probing. Am I playing this one, asked no-one? No, because I have Diamond through 2030 thanks to prior shenanigans and as a result MQDs are effectively worthless for me until then.
  4. Delta Vacations has a tiered $75-$250 off of a flight+hotel booking promotion that seems available for all Delta Medallion members using promo code SMMED2024 booked by January.

    Again, remember that Delta Vacations is different than Delta Stays even though they’re technically the same company, so your AmEx credits won’t work here because I guess late-stage capitalism, or something.
  5. Stephen Pepper at GCG has a thoughtful opinion piece on Pepper Rewards. As usual, my strategy with Pepper is to avoid floating more (rewards in this case), than I could stand to lose.

    Side note: John Reeder challenged me once on my position about “floating what I could afford to lose”, and his counter-point is that in advantage play, the Kelly betting method governs your bets (or as an analog, money at risk) in order to maximize potential profit and indirectly minimize the risk of loss. There’s something there for churners; stand-by for a future post on the topic. Or don’t; you do you.

How to deal with chronic messy room? Its atrocious. Details in comments. : r/CleaningTips

AirCanada Aeroplan’s customer service center, but as a bedroom.

  1. Alaska Airlines has a good award and paid fare sale for flights through December 18 booked by tomorrow night. I’m seeing:

    – Transcontinental flights at 7,500 miles
    – Medium-haul flights at 6,500 miles
    – Short-haul flights at 4,000 miles (which is only 500 miles off the regular price)

    Hawaii flights are showing a steep discount in cash fares with one-way prices hovering around $110, but I don’t see mileage availability to Hawaii in this sale.
  2. Hyatt now has an AA status match on the account overview page for elites with linked AA accounts. Offers vary, but matched status seems to be either AA Platinum or Platinum Pro.

    There’s reciprocal 90 day Hyatt status match for AA elites too which requires 20 nights over 90 days to earn Globalist. There’s lower status available too, but my hot take is that Globalist is the only Hyatt status worth having. (Thanks to EccentricINTJ)
  3. American Express offers has a $225 statement credit with $1,500 or more in airfare spend with Iceland Air through November 5. Gamers gonna game.
  4. The Barclays JetBlue Plus card has a new offer for 80,000 TrueBlue Points after $1,000 spend within 90 days. There’s also ominous language about “paying the annual fee in full” within 90 days, so I guess don’t default on $99 worth of payments this time, cause apparently that happens?

    Remember though that unless you live in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, or Boston, you’ll be flying JetBlue economy which is only slightly better than traveling via motorcycle side car.

Happy Wednesday!

JetBlue’s new inflight digital announcement system, coming soon.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through August 14. This is an all-time high, and makes the program relatively competitive with other hotel programs.

    The real play with this one might be backdoor transfers to JAL Mileage Bank or Alaska MileagePlan in 60,000 Bonvoy Point intervals for 25,000 miles in both programs. The math on that one, because America loves math, is 35,294:25,000 or 1.41:1 Ultimate Rewards to airline miles. (Thanks to Mark)
  2. American Express Membership Rewards has a few transfer bonuses through August 31:

    – 20% bonus to Hawaiian HawaiianMiles
    – 30% bonus to British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Iberia Avios

    The best Hawaiian use cases are either (1) first or business mileage upgrades on paid economy tickets or (2) for speculative arbitragers hoping to earn Alaska miles if the Alaska-Hawaiian merger goes through. For Avios, there’s plenty of good redemption options, but also plenty of bad ones so hopefully you have something in mind before you transfer.
  3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas Frequent Flyer through August 31. The best use cases of this program are international first class on Qantas metal to and from Oceana, a round the world award ticket, or medium hall economy to and from Europe on AA.
  4. The free Cranky Dorkfest 2024 on September 14 has an LAX ramp visit planned and no current capacity limits. This is an avgeek must-attend-at-least-once event, and the ramp visit makes it even better.
  5. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has released August promo awards for travel through the end of January, 2025. Economy flights are 15,000 miles each way, and these cities seem to have greater 50,000 mile business class award availability too. The US and near US cities are Boston, Detroit, Houston, and Toronto.
  6. “Gee, let’s take a trip to beautiful, historic Sacramento” said no-one ever. There’s a reason to visit “The Taco Bell of California” now though: Raley’s, Bel Air, and Nob Hill stores in the area have 20% back in grocery rewards through August 13 with the purchase of high value bulk resale gift cards like Nordstrom which often sells for 90-92% of face value.

    I guess Raley’s is the new Meijer, and Sacramento is the new midwest?

The entertainment district in Sacramento.