We’ve seen a wave of shutdowns for heavy hitters from both Chase and American Express since Friday. The two banks shutting down at around the same time seems coincidental, but it’s a double whammy for a few manufactured spenders. We can talk about the reasons behind the shutdowns later, but there’s an important lesson that it’s time to reiterate:
Burn your points early and often. When you’re shutdown, you may lose them altogether.
I can only assume that you don’t want to be the guy stuck with 80 million Membership Rewards that were just confiscated, but you know what they say about when you assume.
For those keeping track at home, American Express lowered their transfer ratio for Cathay Pacific from 1:1 to 1:0.8 just 59 days ago. Are we about to enter the Wells Fargo era of churning?
In case you’re wondering if Bilt devalued the brightest spot of their dim program: Yes, they have. They’ve limited the transfer bonus to the first 100,000 miles.
Happy Tuesday friends!
If you don’t have a transferrable points Wells Fargo credit card yet, don’t worry you actually might.
Air Canada Aeroplan will devalue in June. The churnosphere is largely blaming this on rising oil prices which I think is a contributing factor, but I believe a bigger factor is United exerting pressure on its partners for price parity, one such datapoint is here. The changes:
– Atlantic business redemptions rising 5,000 – 10,000 miles on average – Atlantic first redemptions rising 10,000 miles – Pacific business redemptions rising 2,500 – 10,000 miles on average – Pacific first redemptions rising 10,000 miles
Some of the edge cases have prices going down, and some have higher than 10,000 mile increases too.
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 10x points on Lowes cards through Thursday. Giant Food stores on the other hand are only earning 6x because the corporate overlords hate Maryland, I can only assume because one of the corporate executives has a shellfish allergy.
– Movingcardholders from Mastercard to Discover (possibly targeted) – Adding 3x categories at grocery stores and gas stations
There’s been a lot of hate about the change, but for a manufactured spender’s perspective this is great because: You’ll have 3x unlimited gas and grocery transferrable miles when paired with another Capital One card, and if you don’t like the Discover transition, you can opt out by May 4th, just as the Star Wars gods foretold.
– Look for the lower fee Everywhere cards if you know how to liquidate them – Even multiples of $300 work even better – Yes, zero is an even number if you want to be technical, but you’re trying too hard
These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
Wyndham points redemptions are worth somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0 cents per point, so two of them for one Wells Fargo point is a great option. Or if you prefer TPG valuations, two Wyndham points should be worth about the same as a barrel of oil.
Incomm:
– VanillaGift.com: Fee-free Visas with promo code VGMOM26 – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Fee-free Mastercards with promo code MOM26 – TheGiftCardShop.com: Regular price gift cards with promo code YOURMOM26
– Norwegian Cruise Lines: $200 off of $1,000+ through June 30 – Preferred Hotels & Resorts $100 off of $500+ through July 8 – Omni Hotels: $100 off of $500+ through July 13 – Hilton Hotels: $40 off of $200+ through August 15
Some of these are easier to cash out than others, but games exist everywhere.
I never found a direct Spirit Airlines liquidation bet on Kalshi or Polymarket, but I did find this gem which would indirectly let you bet on Spirit liquidation.
Have a nice weekend friends!
This was just foreshadowing service, it had nothing to do with fares 🙈.
Capital One rebranded its Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select business credit cards, and it brought new sign-up bonuses in the process:
– VentureOne 1.5x everywhere, 50,000 miles after $4,500+ in three months – Venture: 2x everywhere and 75,000+75,000 miles after $7,500+ in three months and $30,000+ in six months
I’m sure someone thought this was a good idea, but choosing to rebrand other cards as Venture when there’s already a Venture X (charge) card that everyone just calls “Venture” is a choice. Also, hello inconsistency with spacing. (Thanks to padbodh)
“We know that after failing to pay mortgages, numerous social media gaffs, and building the most obtuse rewards platform in history that you’d hesitate to refer our program to your friends and family, but we think you won’t have such qualms against your enemies. Now you can earn while you get revenge!”
I realize it’s been a while since we’ve had another Breeze RouteMap Dartboard Bingo™ call so let’s make today’s a twofer: South Bend IN to Fort Meyers FL, and Cincinnati OH – Portland ME. If you got Bingo, come see the host for your prize.
Happy Wednesday!
Bilt Partner restaurant Tom’s Diner shows that it’s a team player.
Taxes and manufactured spend are often intertwined and given that taxes are sort of due tomorrow, let’s focus on some churning centric tips. Before that though, it’s time for my periodic reminder that I’m not a financial professional and I’m definitely not your financial professional, but I do know how to spell professional without autocorrect so that’s something.
So, let’s start with deadlines:
Your 2025 tax return or extension is probably due tomorrow
Your 2025 tax bill is probably due tomorrow
Your 2026 Q1 estimated taxes are probably due tomorrow
Next, information on payments:
You can pay taxes with a credit card or debit card
Churners have lots of 1099s because reasons, and when there are lots it’s easy to miss one. If that sounds like you, consider waiting until June for your IRS transcript to be fully populated and use it to cross reference your paperwork
Not all 1099s have taxable income, and not all taxable income has a 1099
Good luck, and I’m sorry for the time-suck you’re going to have to endure dealing with this.
