Category: Credit Cards

  1. Bilt has apparently leaked a transfer integration with JAL MileageBank, visible only after logging in, and then only sometimes. This will likely be really live around May 1 and it may have a transfer bonus then too. I don’t want to tell you how to feel about this integration, but I will say I’m quite excited personally.

    Why talk about it now if it’s not fully online yet? So you’ve got time to earn Bilt points for a possible transfer bonus in a week and a half. (thanks to nikaidoushinku)
  2. There’s a new link that enables what I’m going to call a targeted American Express sandwich. It utilizes three of my favorite five stack techniques:

    1. Business Gold with 200,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months (NLL)
    2. Business Platinum upgrade with 120,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months (this link is a hacked link, possibly risky)
    3. Employee card offers for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend on up to five employee cards

    Spend for (3) will work for both of the bonuses in (1) and (2) which gives lets you earn three bonuses with a single swipe. There are variations on this sequence to attempt to go further with employee cards, but I’m trying to keep this post short and I guess mysterious so we’ll cut it off here.
  3. Loyalty Lobby reports that Hilton is in the process of removing late check-out as an elite benefit, and standardizing the charge for late check-out across its brands. #bonvoyed
  4. American Express has a targeted offer for the Blue Business Plus card with 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in three months via head-on application and referrals. If you don’t see it, try incognito, other browsers, VPNs, mobile versus desktop, or by taping hot dogs to your fingers and typing with those.

Going overboard with hot dog fingers.

  1. The American Express Business Platinum card has several new sign up bonuses that include travel credits. Depending on where you are, the color of your socks, what type of browser you’re using, whether or not you liked Walter Mondale, or which geolocation your IP address is in, you’ll see one of:

    – 150,000 Membership Rewards + $500 off of $2,500 with AmEx Travel
    – 200,000 Membership Rewards + $500 off of $2,500 with AmEx Travel
    – 250,000 Membership Rewards + $500 off of $2,500 with AmEx Travel

    All three require $20,000 spend in three months earn the Membership Rewards. Each bonus is also available via referrals, and if you don’t see the offer you want, try changing how you feel about Walter Mondale and a new browser; even the same referral link can give different offers.
  2. The Cardless Avianca Elite personal American Express has an increased tiered sign-up bonus of:

    – 20,000 miles after a single purchase
    – 80,000 miles after $10,000 spend in six months

    Cardless limits you to one credit card per lifetime, so pretend to be a cat for nine cards? As far as Cardless cards go, there are worse ones I guess.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless has a new sign-up bonus of 50,000 Bonvoy points and three free night awards of 50,000 points each after $6,000 spend in six months. This will likely be available via referrals next week.

    I’d prefer a 200,000 point sign-up bonus personally, but for a $95 annual fee card this isn’t a terrible offer.
  4. Bank of America has a new personal checking $300 sign-up bonus with promo code PSJ300CIS through May 31. To qualify for the bonus, you need to receive at least $2,000 in direct deposits within 90 days. Personal checking accounts at Bank of America are useful for three reasons:

    – Fast track to Platinum Honors status
    – $5,000 or more in a checking account changes application rules and eases approvals
    – Reminds you of how bad your real bank’s UI could be

    These are churnable every 12 months.
  5. The Chase British Airways Avios personal Visa card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 Avios after $7,500 spend in six months, and this offer will likely be available via referrals next week.

    I’d rather just get an Ink card with the same sign-up bonus and annual fee to have transferrable points and to avoid the account reporting to any credit agencies, but you do you.
  6. The Barclay Wyndham Earner personal Visa has a pre-qualification tool available online. (Thanks to David)
  7. Staples has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Bank of America’s prototype advanced date of birth picker.

  1. The Capital One VentureX business card has a better offer than we discussed yesterday when working through a business relationship manager (a small business banker). The offer is still tiered:

    – 150,000 miles with $30,000 spend three months
    – 250,000 miles with $300,000 spend in six months

    Putting the two together with the base spend of 2x means 3.33 miles per dollar on $300,000 spend which is honestly great for people in their “$300k spend? 🤏!” era. If you don’t have a business relationship manager, call your closest Capital One branch and ask to be connected to one. (Thanks to urgetopurge)
  2. Frontier Airlines, the airline that left their cookie era more than a decade ago, has a Gold status match for any Southwest Rapid Rewards member with or without Southwest elite status. The match costs, $40 and lasts through the end of 2025; and is probably cheaper than a single carry-on bag fee with Frontier; so call it bag fee arbitrage.

Churning eras in concert.

  1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Hyatt personal card): Register for Hyatt’s 20x bonus points promotion at Under Canvas hotels and at ULUM Moab for stays through June 10. The 20x promotion caps out at 100,000 points.

    You’ll also earn 5x points plus any base spend status boost you have, so I’m surprised they’re not marketing this as 25x, but what do I know? Either way I appreciate the honesty.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card has new mid-month spend offers. We’ve seen:

    – 250,000 Shop Your Way points after $750+ in online spend
    – 325,000 Shop Your Way points after $1,000+ in online spend
    – $100 statement credit after $1,000+ in online spend

    Online gas doesn’t usually work for a lot of reasons, but otherwise this category is fairly wide open. (Thanks to irieriley, Michael)
  3. The Capital One Venture X Business charge card has a new tiered sign-up bonus:

    – 150,000 miles after $30,000 spend in three months
    – 200,000 miles after $200,000 spend in six months

    If you’re in your “sign-up bonuses are a big part of my earn” churning era, this likely isn’t worth your time. If you’re in the “sign-up bonuses barely move the needle” churning era, earning 3.75x on $200,000 spend is hard to beat.
  4. The Synchrony Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Mastercard is now accepting applications. The most important vitals:

    – 38,000 bonus miles after $3,000 spend in three months
    – $99 annual fee
    – 2x earn on dining, 3x on Cathay Pacific, and 1x otherwise

    Synchrony cards are often more valuable than they appear, maybe read deeper than the almost uniform negativity around this card in the space.
  5. The Hilton American Express NLL offers shared in the past continue to work:

    Aspire: 175,000 Hilton points after $6,000 spend in six months
    Surpass:130,000 Hilton points and a Free Night Certificate after $3,000 spend in six months
    Honors: 70,000 Hilton points and a Free Night Certificate after $2,000 spend in six months

    Why share again? They’re making the rounds in the community as though they were new, sometimes with the disclaimer that they’re modified or hacked leaks. People are wrong though, these are neither. They’re links from a US hotel’s captive WiFi page.
  6. David let me know that the AA eShopping portal added the following language limiting earning for Apple purchases for apparently your entire account life:

    Your rewards are subject to lifetime rewards limits of: (a) six (6) units per model in each of the following product categories: iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch, Vision, Apple TV, and HomePod; (b) thirty-two (32) units of each of the following: AirTag 1-pack and AirTag accessories; (c) eight (8) AirTag 4-pack; and (d) ten (10) units of each of the following: AirPods and other eligible accessories. The lifetime rewards limit applies to any purchase you make from the Apple Store website and app. Rewards will not be issued once you exceed the lifetime rewards limit for a product.

    This change has spread to the other airline portals too, including the weirder ones like FlyingBlue and Virgin Atlantic. Likely each portal has its own lifetime limit, but that remains to be tested.
  7. American Express offers has an offer for $100 off of $500+ in spend at Delta, but flights have to be booked through American Express Travel. Fortunately this trick works on Delta too with slight tweaks.
  8. Breeze Airways has a sale for 40% off of base fares booked by tomorrow night for travel between April 30 and January 6, 2026 with promo code SMILE.

    There are a few blackout dates around major holidays, but the fact that this promotion runs all the way through next year gives us a good indication of fall and winter domestic travel demand.

A dapper churner reads deeper.

  1. United has new personalized and targeted MilePlay offers for travel through June 18, registration required.

    My offer was 3,000 bonus miles after booking and flying a trip with a fare of at least $100. I looked at rebooking my one existing paid flight on United, but the fare difference was approximately $200; fortunately for me I’m not bad at math (or at least I’m conceited enough to think that I’m not bad at math).
  2. Citi ThankYou Points has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through May 17.
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for $250 off of $1,800+ at Virgin Atlantic, which pairs well with family travel and the previous item.
  4. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300 for a bigger percentage discount
    – Don’t forget American Express $20 monthly credits on Business Gold cards
    – Look for the Everywhere variety of cards which have different liquidation profiles
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Chase has a targeted offer for 5x (or 7x with IHG) in gas, grocery, or dining through June 30 on at least its Marriott, United, Ritz Carlton, and IHG cards for up to $1,000 spend.

Happy Monday friends!

Visualizing MEAB math.

  1. The Citi AAdvantage Aviator Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.

    You can double dip these if you do it and have multiple tax IDs by applying for one card, waiting 8 days, then applying for a second card. Don’t hit minimum spend until you have both cards in hand, and definitely don’t get more than three AA card bonuses in a year unless you want Toby to visit you in your sleep.
  2. Wells Fargo Deals has a card-linked offer for 10% back on $100+ at Hilton properties through May 16, limit $65 cash back.
  3. OfficeDepot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard purchases through tomorrow night and according to their press release, “this time it workie for realsies 🥺👉👈”. For best results, buy these in even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. There’s an interesting $625 bonus stack for a SoFi Checking and Savings new account bonus requiring $5,000 in direct deposits within 45 days, and it requires the use of a referral link:

    1st: $325 bonus from SoFi via referral
    2nd: 45,050 MyPoints, worth approximately $300 (about 0.67 cents per point but can be more valuable with games)

    The $325 bonus doesn’t exist without a referral link. I’d prefer you find a friend or other player’s referral link to use to maximize your payout, but you can email me for one if you can’t find another option. Yes, I’m extra. Note that the stack requires you to click the referral link first, then click the MyPoints link and apply through that tab. (Thanks to USCCS)

Have a nice weekend!

ODOM personified.

  1. A few quick Pepper updates:

    – Pepper has two processing backends, PayArc and Stripe
    – AmEx cards work if you have Pepper on PayArc, but not on Stripe
    – Merchant coding has changed from software to advertising on PayArc
    – Exceeding purchase limits is no longer obvious, and your account gets locked if you do
    – This isn’t new, but as a reminder, new Pepper accounts don’t see increased payout rates until (1) Pepper decides they should, or (2) they spend a lot of money in a short amount of time
    – Pervasive errors generating gift cards continue to be pervasive

    The company’s plan to drop bonus payout rates “toward sustainability” happened last week, but this week’s publicized step-down hasn’t occurred as of this writing.
  2. The Capital One Venture card has increased its bonus to 100,000 bonus miles after $5,000 spend in three months via referrals because it was jealous that Chase got six articles in 12 h at a prominent travel blog for its 100,000 point bonus. This referral offer was around in February too, but more are now targeted.

    The non-referral public offer is still 75,000 miles so ask around before applying. (Thanks to David)
  3. Alaska MileagePlan Shopping has a bonus of 500 miles after $100+ spent through the portal by April 18.

    Perhaps pair with this week’s rage, a Tory Burch American Express $50 off of $250 or $100 off of $500 offer?
  4. Apparently the RebatesMe has a $45 referral bonus after the referred spends $10, though I couldn’t find it on my accounts, possibly because I use them? (Thanks to MtM)

Happy Thursday!

In other news, water continues to be wet and the mountain on your water bottle is only for illustration.

  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.