Category: Credit Cards

Introduction

An infamous, “only in churning” lofty play is to earn quasi-lifetime Japan Airlines status and lifetime oneworld lounge access via $450,000 spend on the FNBO JAL Mastercard. Don’t worry though, all of that spend will probably be at 1x, and you’ll pay 2,000 miles annually for the privilege. Oh, and more often than not it doesn’t go well either.

The Response

When someone first hears about this play, they almost always (smartly) say something like: “Wow, what’s the opportunity cost on that, how much are you actually paying for that lifetime status?” With a followup of something like: “That’s $9,000 cash back on a 2% card.” Why wouldn’t you just do that?

They’re not wrong, but maybe they’re not right too.

Is There Opportunity Cost?

Let’s read from the fictitious “Bible of Churning, Chapter 6, verse 7”:

1x spend has no opportunity cost if there’s no other credit line available to spend on.

Basically, yeah, $450,000 spend on a 2% cash back card is $9,000. But, what if you’re also already doing that and maxing out that 2% cash back card’s credit line? If you’ve got the spend capacity and you can make the numbers work, do both and don’t worry about opportunity cost from a fictitious credit line.

Good luck, and happy Tuesday friends!

PS: Thanks to everyone who reached out wondering if I had a medical event after at least three typos in yesterday’s post. I did have a medical event of sort, but strictly speaking a doctor might disagree. The condition: “AA WiFi speeds”

Pictured: If AA inflight WiFi speeds were a car.

  1. Southwest did a thing on Friday:

    – Elite tiers changed with Silver (formerly A-List), Gold (formerly A-List Preferred), and a new Platinum tier, requiring 35,000, 65,000, and 140,000 tier qualifying miles respectively
    – Companion Pass gets worse on January 1, when 95,000 elite points earn three trips, and unlimited trips have a heightened 140,000 elite points threshold (at least something was heightened in this announcement?)
    – Credit card spend will earn 1x elite qualifying point regardless of category bonuses multipliers
    – and, what could possibly go wrong with Southwest lounges?

    Don’t worry though, you’re still only getting shelf-stable snacks on your flight, and in uplifting news these snacks are now considered food quality in over three countries.
  2. The Synchrony Verizon Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of a $150 statement credit after a single purchase in 90 days. Yes, $150 doesn’t move the needle, but the card is still a quiet great because:

    – It earns 4x on dining, gas, and grocery
    – It’s Synchrony

    Why isn’t this card an unsung hero? Well, because you’re earning Verizon bucks which means you’re probably going to be cashing out via AirPods Pro resale.
  3. Safeway, Albertsons, and other Just4U stores have a 10x coupon on Zift cards excluding those redeemable for Amazon through Saturday.

    Related question, who’s your least favorite person that you still give gifts to around the holidays? No reason.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Stop & Shop and Giant stores have 2x points earning on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account.

Have a nice Monday, friends!

MEAB Exclusive: Southwest Flagship lounge fine dining preview. (Thanks to Josh)

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for a bonus 1.5x Aeroplan Points on stays in addition to regular Hyatt earning through February 14, 2027.

    Hyatt and Aeroplan launched a reciprocal status match challenge too which isn’t terribly compelling.
  2. The Rove shopping and travel portal added JetBlue TrueBlue as a new 1:1 transfer partner approximately 37 seconds ago. They’ll also have a 20% transfer bonus to JetBlue running through November 14, pushing the ratio to 1:1.2.

    If you don’t yet have Rove, use a friend’s referral and make their day.
  3. The Amazing line of credit cards (formerly AmaZing with a capital Z, I’m really glad they rebranded that err zinger) has an increased $1,000 sign-up bonus after $5,000 spend in 120 days. The cards carry no annual-fee:

    – National Bank of Arizona (Arizona)
    – California Bank and Trust (California)
    – Vectra Bank (Colorado and New Mexico)
    – AmegyBank (Texas)
    – Zions Bank (Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming)

    There are Washington and Nevada banks with the same family of cards, but without the increased sign-up bonus. All of these banks do manual underwriting, and it’s annoying but not arduous.
  4. The Imprint Safeway forU American Express card launched yesterday. The card carries no annual-fee, and takes over with stupid naming from the now sunsetted AmaZing brand. Earn:

    – 5% on Safeway, Albertsons, and other Just4U online
    – 3% on Safeway, Albertsons, and other Just4U in store
    – 3% on gas, dining, utilities, and streaming
    – 1% elsewhere

    There’s a whopping $50 after $1,000 spend too.
  5. American Express is now attaching new cards to their own Membership Rewards accounts automatically. Apparently functionality now exists to link Membership Rewards accounts in your profile, but I’ve yet to see it.
  6. Hyatt supports points transfer from one member to another online, as of approximately six hours and 37 seconds ago. Limits are 525,000 points sent and a separate 525,000 points received per year. (Thanks to DDG)
  7. Meijer stores have 50,000 points with $500 in third-party gift cards excluding Amazon, Apple, and betting cards through October 27, limit 50,000 points per account.
  8. Enterprise Car Rental has a promotion for double points between October 28 and February 28, 2027, registration required.

Happy Thursday!

Things I’d rather be doing instead of typing “AmaZing”.

I don’t normally post about rumors because (1) they’re wrong with let’s call it at least p=0.50, and (2) they’re rarely actionable. Well, today we have a few rumors that buck that trend, partially because it’s about Triple Dip Season™.

Rumors

  1. On January 1, the American Express Platinum personal cards will probably have their Fine Hotels and Resorts credits restricted to 2+ night stays, sorry for everyone with their $300*n one-night bangers.

    They’ll also reportedly add an annual $250 Airbnb Experiences credit that’s only valid in conjunction with an Airbnb Luxe stay. I’d call the likelihood of this at p=0.90.
  2. Lululemon may be integrating Level 3 transaction into its POS systems to prevent Personal Platinum quarterly credits from working on gift cards. What’s my likelihood estimate here, asked no one? I think about p=0.55, but there are some strong indications of FUD.

News

With that out of the way, a few quick hits:

  1. There’s a now open waitlist for the Flex.One Elite Visa card, which offers 3% base cash back and up to 5% with a ridiculous $1 million capital on deposit requirements, prolly with no interest. The card carries no annual fee though, so there’s that.

    Since today is p day, let’s call the likelihood of Flex.One Elite Visa surviving with 3% base cash back on spend for at least six months p=0.40. Also, let’s call the likelihood of you sticking through the site’s annoying forced animations without flipping to something else p=0.33.
  2. Giftcards.com has 10% off of $100 virtual Visa gift cards with promo code VISATREAT, limit three per account. This code hasn’t hit the portals yet, so I wouldn’t expect them to track but I’d still try.
  3. Citi Offers has two new travel related offers:

    – $50 off of $300+ with JetBlue through November 30
    – $30 off of $300+ with Marriott through November 30

    (Thanks to FM)
  4. Bank of America was fined $1.2 Billion for failing to have a compliant anti-money laundering program.

Happy Wednesday!

About the accuracy of those probabilities…

  1. One of the Citi AA Business Mastercard’s soft, often under-reported perks is that spend on employee cards earns loyalty points for both the employee AA account and the account holder’s AA account.

    I was surprised when the feature was extended from 2025 into 2026, so color me double surprised that it’s now been extended through the end of 2028.
  2. Ye-olde American Express BBT seems to have died, or at least is in long term cryo-storage bug mode. Don’t know what that is? That’s ok, it won’t affect you in that case.

    Possibly related: American Express was fined $350 million last week for insufficient anti-money laundering oversight. Also, before you ask: No, the prior paragraph wasn’t even tangential money laundering, but different people with different focus are sailing the ship now, so keep your game changing.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Giant Food has 2x points earning on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account. Meanwhile, sister-stores Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 8x points on Zillions gift cards, but the limit is a stupidly low $500 per account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios through October 31.
  6. American Express offers has an offer for $225 off of $1,250+ in spend at ITA Airways through November 30 for US originating fares.

Happy Monday, friends!

Next time: Manufactured spend with Ye Olde Mint.

  1. The Goldman Sachs Apple Credit Card has a $100 sign-up bonus after $100 spend in 30 days. Why is $100 notable? Chase is acquiring the Apple Credit Card portfolio and will take over management likely by the end of next year, though maybe much sooner. If you’re shutdown with Chase, this may get you back.

    Don’t worry: The same Goldman that lost lots of money on the Apple Card also lost lots of money on the GM card so there’s a strong track record despite strong conviction otherwise.
  2. InComm Incentives has a $500 bonus gift card and fee-free Visa, Mastercard, and American Express gift cards for new customers on their first $50,000+ order using promo code NOFEE26 through Sunday. Just don’t use an American Express card to buy.

    These are Sutton / InComm gift cards. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. MasterCardGiftCard.com has a promotion for 50% off of purchase fees with promo code SHOPEARLY26 through October 31. Just don’t use an American Express to buy: the InComm sites don’t earn points on American Express first party cards.

    There was a time when the SHOPEARLY family of codes outlasted its planned expiration by nearly a half of a year.
  4. American Express Offers has offers for:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards or a $300 statement credit after $2,500+ spend on US-originating flights at ANA through November 30
    – $50 statement credit with $250+ spend at Best Western through December 31

    Fuel surcharges are bad on ANA now, but they’re not $2,500 bad.
  5. The Chase Southwest Visa cards have a targeted promo for 25% bonus miles with at least $3,000 spend through the end of the year, registration required. The maximum earn is 20,000 bonus miles, or $80,000 spend in non-bonus categories.

Happy Thursday friends!

Goldman has conviction in its government services investments too.

Since at least September 28, you’ve been able to self refer via Rakuten for the Citi Strata Premier credit card with $150 back. Sounds good, right? You’d think so based on a plethora of (late) coverage yesterday, but the answer is no. The current sign-up bonus with your self referral is:

  • 60,000 ThankYou points after $4,000 spend in 90 days
  • $150 (or 15,000 points) via Rakuten

This card often has a 80,000 point bonus which is *checks notes* 20,000 points more than currently. That bonus especially likes to appear in Q4 too. Even if you only value Citi ThankYou points at their straight-to-cash value of one cent each, waiting for the increased sign-up bonus would give $200 in additional ThankYou Points. Last I checked $200 > $150. Of course Rakuten will still probably offer its regular, non-increased rate of $50 back when the bonus jumps to 80,000. Also, last I checked $200+$50 > $150.

tl;dr: Having an increased bonus on a portal doesn’t mean you’re getting a good deal. (Thanks to reader Harisch for letting me know about the increased offer in September)

Happy Wednesday!

On the other hand, there’s always alternative math.

  1. The Barclays Mastercard Black has a new sign-up bonus of 75,000 points (worth $1,500 toward airfare) after $6,000 spend in 90 days. Never heard of it? That’s probably because it’s got a stupid-high annual fee and typically no sign-up bonus. The card’s vitals:

    – $699 annual fee
    – Effectively 2% earner on purchases, at least as long as you redeem for airfare
    – $200 annual airline credit
    – $100 annual dining credit
    – A Priority Pass with restaurant access

    If you’ve got the right angle and dig deep, there’s a little hidden value in this card.
  2. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points earning on Zift Zillions cards through Saturday, but caveat emptor: As of yesterday evening, these points weren’t properly posting.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday, always buy in even multiples of $300. Why? Math.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Membership Rewards has two transfer bonuses:

    – 25% to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue (1:1 → 1:1.25) through October 30
    – 20% to AeroMexico Club Premier (1:1.6 → 1:1.92) through October 31

    Why 1:1.6? Something about the metric system #themoreyouknow.
  6. Marriott Bonvoy has a 15% transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan through October 31. In 60,000 point increments, the transfer ratio under the bonus is 6:2.8.
  7. American Express offers has $75 off of $350+ at Hertz through October 14.

Happy Monday friends!

A churner discovers value in the stupidly named Barclays Mastercard Black Card.