Category: Credit Cards

  1. The Venmo app has a targeted offer for unlimited triple rewards for the first six months, which means 9% cash back on your top category. A couple of notes:

    – Synchrony will axe you if you cycle this thing, though it may take a few months
    – Categories on this card are weird, but typically weird good not weird bad
    – The targeted offer isn’t at Venmo.com

    Your Venmo account will survive if your card is axed. Oh, and at the risk of taking more flak, the sites that “always show you the best offer” don’t seem to be showing this offer… yet?
  2. The Bank of America personal Alaska Atmos cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Ascent: 85,000 miles after $4,500 spend in 120 days.
    – Summit: 100,000 miles after $6,000 spend in 90 days

    Why no business? I’m not sure, wait for April 1 I guess.
  3. American Express’s Platinum card is removing its semi-annual Saks $50 credit starting on July 1. I don’t know about you, I’m quite happy about this devaluation.
  4. BetMGM credit card junkies should queue up to play the whah-whah trombone, since they won’t be accepting new credit cards in the near future, starting *checks notes* err yesterday, though Apple Pay will continue to be a hole for now. (Thanks to David)

Next time: Analyzing whether the peanut butter omelette is weird good or weird bad.

  1. Do this now: Register for National’s Spring promotion for a free rental day with every two rentals between April 6 and June 7. Promotional free days must be used by the end of the year.
  2. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. There are multiple reports that Cardless now allows holding three cards. You can’t get the Celtics card anymore, so just make sure you dial back that enthusiasm by 8x, or is it 6x?

Happy Monday!

DIY short and sweet.

I’ve split today’s post up into (1) interesting items, and (2) other, I guess?

  1. Kroger stores have 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards. Both promotions are running through Tuesday, April 7.

    For reasons no one has been able to discern, fuel points are worth quite a bit more than normal right now.
  2. The American Express Graphite charge card has been released, and American Express’s random number generator for the sign-up bonus is in full swing:

    – $1,500 (or $2,000) sign-up bonus after $50,000 spend in six months
    – $295 annual fee
    – 2% cash back everywhere, (except 5% on AmEx Travel flights and hotels)
    – Cash back is not convertible to Membership Rewards

    If you don’t see the heightened bonus, try VPNs, incognito browsers, mobile, letting the application timeout and reload, or summoning SideShowBob233. This card replaces the infamous Plum card, also a charge card.
  3. Two Incomm gift card sites have fee-free gift cards:

    – VanillaGift.com: No purchase fees on Visas with code VGEASTER26
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No purchase fees on Mastercards with code EASTER26

    Clearly this is because of the lack of oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
  4. Delta has an award sale to its Asian destinations, but especially Taiwan and Hong Kong, running through today. Economy flights are 30,000-50,000 miles round trip, and in theory there are sale Delta One fares but they’re not exactly widely available so I wasn’t able to verify pricing.

And:

  1. American Express Business Gold and Business Platinum cards will soon have an annual $300 ChatGPT credit. Before you get excited, they’re likely for the two user $600 annual ChatGPT business plan.
  2. Cathay Pacific is devaluing long-haul business class redemptions by 3%-5%.
  3. JetBlue is reportedly shopping around for buyers, despite assuring everyone they weren’t last week. Since United CEO Scott Kirby said just last week that United wasn’t interested in buying JetBlue at all, there’s a good chance that United is currently in advanced discussions with JetBlue (or maybe I’m just cynical about Kirby).
  4. Bilt added Wyndham as a 1:1 transfer partner. In a sea of bad ideas in travel hacking, transferring more than a de minimus number of Bilt points to Wyndham is a shark sized bad-idea.

Happy Thursday friends!

More shark-sized bad ideas.

Alexander Graham Bell apparently invented the phrase “When one door closes another door opens…” which I assume is the only reason anyone’s heard of him.

Well, yesterday a big churning door closed which rendered some back buttons useless, and I’m not sure another door opened despite Mr. Bell’s admonitions to the contrary. You’re not out of luck though, the hallway has multiple doors, so maybe just take a few other probing steps and see what other doors lurk in the hallway.

General cryptic MEAB disclaimer: If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t stress, it likely doesn’t affect you.

Happy Thursday!

Next time: Reciting the floosie’s business plans.

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has an offer for an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 Virgin points and a $100 statement credit during a ticket booking flow. You don’t have to checkout to see the offer.

    Virgin Red points are ok, but the Synchrony card is more than just Virgin Red points. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. Meijer stores have 7,500 mPerks points with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per account. Obviously scale with multiple accounts.
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business’s travel portal has implemented price matching for hotel rooms including Edit properties. The terms require that you submit a claim within 24 hours of booking and the stay must be more than a day away, oh and that the price difference has to be at least $5.

    Chase Points Boost is a mixed bag at best, but the mix just got better. On the other hand, Edit hotels haven’t been so fortunate.
  4. The Kudos Shopping Portal quietly added a $2.99 fee to cash out your rewards via PayPal. Don’t worry, they’ll waive the fee if you pay them $12 per month though 🙄.
  5. PayPal Offers has 1% back at Giftcards.com on up to $2,000 spend when paying with PayPal through March 31. This stacks with other portal bonuses, however science has yet to discover exactly what Giftcards.com sells.

I guess it’s time for us to go do Wednesday now.

Next up: Learn how to price match garlic bread for savings of $0.01, and that’s per loaf.

  1. The Chase IHG Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 200,000 points after tiered spend:

    – 140,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 60,000 points after $9,000 spend in six months

    This should also be available via referrals in a couple of days. (Thanks to ArchEveNix)
  2. Wyndham is updating its hotel award tiers on April 15. Apparently 8% of hotels are moving to a lower tier and 4% to a higher tier. That means you’ve got until April 14 to book any Wyndham aspirational stays in anticipation of the price increasing.

    I’d like to see the same numbers out of Hyatt in May. I’d also like a new, free Gulfstream Jet which seems equally likely.
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for $250 off of $1,000+ at Marriott Homes & Villas through May 24.
  4. Lufthansa’s Allegris business class seats have now been certified after years of complications. Watch for quite a bit more Lufthansa business availability dropping in the next week, though probably only with the airline’s own miles.
  5. Singapore KrisFlyer has 30% off of both economy and business class redemptions to and from many destinations for travel booked by the end of March and flown in April. Destinations in the US aren’t currently advertising reduced business class rates though.

Happy Tuesday!

The Allegris seats certification issue: Footwell made emergency egress hard.

  1. It’s time to register for Q2 rotating category card bonuses:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Amazon, Chase Travel, and Feeding America
    – Discover IT: Restaurants and Home Improvement
    – Citi Dividend: Grocery and Citi Travel
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics

    Every one of these has a way to manufactured spend your way to your $1,500 quarterly. I’d suggest knocking these out on day one so you don’t have to think about them, but you do you.
  2. The Chase Freedom Unlimited no-annual fee card has an increased sign-up bonus of $250 after $500 spend in three months via referrals only.

    The sign-up bonus isn’t great, but there are a number of use-cases for 1.5x Ultimate Rewards everywhere. Its 3x categories have niche use-cases too.
  3. Citi ThankYou Points sharing between different accountholders is ending on May 17. If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, it’s not really because the limits were 100,000 points annually. You’ll just have to join team QR now.
  4. The American Express Bevy and Brilliant Marriott Bonvoy cards have new language restricting eligibility for cardmembers that:

    – Have or had a Chase Marriott card in the last 30 days
    – Opened an American Express Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful card in the last 90 days
    – Got a sign-up bonus for a new Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful in the last 24 months

    Can gamers still game? Undoubtedly. Or should I say, Bundoutably?
  5. There was a time when PayPal Bill Pay games could amount to huge profits in a short period of time. Then there was another period with different games, and yet another period with even more games. PayPal has thrown in the towel now, BillPay is completely gone from the app and website.

    Other FinTechs that use the same backend have been going through interesting changes recently too. Coincidence? I doubt it.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Even playing the whah-whah trombones for PayPal BillPay died.

  1. Do this now (if you like camping I guess): Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 2,000 bonus points per night at Under Canvas locations through July 1.
  2. The Chase Hyatt Business Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 Hyatt points after $10,000 spend in three months.

    This bonus is available for referrals too, and remember that good things happen to 5/24 dreamers when new Chase business card bonuses come out.
  3. The American Express issued Marriott cards have increased sign-up bonuses available direct and via referrals:

    – Brilliant: 200,000 Bonvoy points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Bevy: 175,000 Bonvoy Points after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Business: Five free night awards after $9,000 spend in six months

    Of course use a referral instead of a random link on ye-olde internet.
  4. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards today through Sunday.

    The current state of gas prices seems to be good news for resellers.
  5. American Express has targeted spend offers worth between +0.25x and +1.5x on between $20,000 and $30,000 spend.
  6. Marriott Bonvoy raised the free night award top-off limit to 25,000 points, 10,000 higher than before. According to my future-news-o-tron, next week Bonvoy will raise average award redemption costs by 10,000 points.
  7. Giant, Giant Food Stores, Martin’s, and Stop & Shop stores have 2x rewards on Mastercard Gift Cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account at Giant and $2,000 per account otherwise.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The all new, always sophisticated, future-news-o-tron 2,000.