Category: Credit Cards

  1. The FNBO Amtrak Mastercard’s sign-up bonus is now 40,000 points after $2,000 spend in three billing cycles, matching its all-time high bonus. These points are worth about 2.6 cents each for rail redemptions.
  2. The Ramp business credit card has a $1,000 sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 and making a payment within 90 days. You’ve also got to have $25,000 in an “operating account”, which I believe only needs to be linked to Ramp but not held at Ramp.

    The bonus is available only via affiliate links. I found a couple of random ones online for companies that I’ve never heard of and don’t know anything about, like this one for Fundrise (EDIT: Adds $1,000 to your Fundrise Innovation Account, thanks to Daniel G) or this one for some bank named “stifl” (EDIT: Adds $1,000 statement credit). Three things: (1) no, I didn’t make the name stifl up, but I wish I did, (2) I have no relationships with these companies, and (3) it’s entirely possible that these companies kill puppies, idk.
  3. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion running today through Sunday for third party gift cards other than Amazon, and for fixed value Visas and Mastercards.

    The post-Pepper gift card resale market is strong, looking much like the pre-Pepper gift card market.
  4. Rakuten has $300 bonus for new SoFi accounts, and you’ll get another $325 from SoFi with two $500 deposits in the first 45 days. For those who can’t math, $325+$300 = a bigger number. Actually whether or not you can math, it’s a bigger number.
  5. Hyatt has a code for between $50 and $100 in property credit for stays at Grand Hyatt properties in the Americas through September 30 using promo code GRANDSTAY.
  6. Emirates points transfers are back online with all major US banks. If your goal is Emirates first, Qantas is still a better option unless you have elite status.
  7. Stater Bros markets have $10 off of groceries purchased with $50+ in One4All gift cards through July 8.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The restrooms at stifl’s corporate offices, I assume.

It’s been years since the last Business Platinum refresh, and for reasons known to no-one, MEAB decided that haiku was the best way to report on updated, somewhat negative Business Platinum news. Today, we continue that tradition with new somewhat negative Business Platinum news about the 35% rebate on Membership Rewards bookings in any premium cabin:

Uplift soon leaves us
Premium dreams downgraded
September’s sharp edge

35%
Is limited to only
Airline selected

Mileage brokers cry
Discount Qatar tickets sigh
Dubai flyers lose

Codeshares give relief
JAL tickets look like AA
JetBlue’s partners glow

Multiple cards held
Opens more opportunities
Selections vary

One point three five cents
Is probably a low floor
Base price moves higher

Happy Thursday!

[no comment]

  1. I’m sure you’ve seen Sapphire news everywhere. Here’s a bit of tl;dr so you don’t have to read a bunch of thousand word promotional essays:

    – 1.5 cents per point and 1.25 cents per point travel booking uplift is going away
    – Targeted up to 2.25 cents per point bookings on some hotels and premium cabin flights
    – You can get both the business and personal card
    – You can get both a Preferred and a Reserve card
    – Approvals will be driven by an algorithm, no more 48 month language for bonus eligibility
    – The coupon overload is legit and real
    – Personal AUs will carry a $175 annual fee and will include lounge access

    For a great breakdown without blogger fluff, see this excellent reddit post for the personal side, and this adequate post for the business side.
  2. Southwest has a targeted offer for 6,000 bonus points for flying on a new business booking or 5,000 bonus points for flying on a new leisure booking, and the offer is valid for 90 days once you activate it. You’ve got until December 31 to start.

    The offer was also emailed with the subject “We’ve got a 🎁 just for you!” (Thanks to Larry)
  3. The Mesa Mastercard added Aeroplan and SAS EuroBonus as transfer partners, the latter of which is a unique in the US Market and is a great frequent flyer program for redemptions. (Thanks to FM)
  4. Second tier airlines are running second tier fare sales:

    – Breeze 35% off with promo code SUNSHINE book by Friday
    – Southwest fares “starting from $39”, book by tomorrow
    – JetBlue Award sale, book today

    No word from Allegiant or Spirit. Either that or I just didn’t care, who can tell?

Have a nice Wednesday!

Striving for adequacy and succeeding.

  1. It’s time to register for quarterly 5x card earning for Q3:

    – Chase Freedom: Gas, EV charging, live entertainment, and instacart
    – Discover IT: Gas
    – Citi Dividend: Gas and home improvement
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose electronics stores and grocery

    I’d recommend knocking all of these out in the first week of July so you don’t have to think about it for the rest of the quarter.
  2. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  3. American Express offers has a targeted offer for: 3-5x at gas stations with Delta cards, up to 5,000 bonus SkyMiles. There’s a speedy way to knock this one out.
  4. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 65% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through June 30. Also because it’s Marriott, they’ve pre-Bonvoyed you by lowering the bonus to 50% between July 1 and August 15.

    There’s a slightly interesting play for converting Ultimate Rewards into difficult to earn airline programs like Lufthansa Miles&More (EDIT: Gary reminded me that Lufthansa Miles&More is no longer part of the program), which has a transfer ratio from Ultimate Rewards through Bonvoy of 1:0.687 in 25,000 mile increments.
  5. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard sent new mid-month spending offers for online spend:

    – $100 statement credit with $1,000+
    – $75 statement credit with $750+

    (Thanks to Dave 37 and K)
  6. It’s time for a new churning drinking game: Now that we’re less than two weeks away from American Express Membership Rewards being able to be transferred to Hawaiian, we’ll be bombarded by blog posts, reddit comments, FlyerTalk comments, and group chats about transferring to Hawaiian (and thus Alaska) while you still can. Two things:

    – If you’re going to do a transfer, just knock it out now so you don’t have to think about it later
    – Every time you see one of these articles, take a shot of your favorite beverage

    The churner who finds the most articles and comments about the “partnership ending” and “last chance” gets a prize!

Happy Tuesday!

A churner passes out after reading RSS feeds for 17 minutes while playing the new drinking game.

  1. The American Express Hilton cards have increased offers, all of which have six months to hit minimum spend:

    Honors: 100,00 points + $100 statement credit after $2,000 spend (no annual fee)
    Surpass: 130,000 points after $3,000 spend and waived first year annual fee
    Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend
    Business: 150,000 + 25,000 points after $8000 in spend and $2,000 spend respectively

    These are available via referral, so use P2’s referral or a friend’s referral and make their day. The Surpass in particular is extra juicy when you play upgrade games after a year and you’ve got good spend.
  2. Cardless will be releasing a Coinbase American Express card with tiered rewards up to 4% cash back on all spend. You can join the waitlist for “early access” too. (Thanks to David and pluckyhere)
  3. Chase has newly targeted, heightened redemptions Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cardholders. Increased redemptions only work for some hotels and for some premium cabin travel in the Ultimate Rewards portal, and redemption values are as high as 2.25 cents per point.
  4. The Wells Fargo Expedia OneKey Mastercards have heightened sign-up bonuses through August 5, matching their launch all-time high offers:

    – OneKey: $400 in OneKeyCash with $1,000 spend in three months, no annual fee
    – OneKey+: $600 in OneKeyCash with $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee

    Both earn 3x at gas, grocery, and resturants restaurants.
  5. Monday is your last day to make Q2 estimated tax payments, ideally with a credit card via Pay 1040 at 1.75% or ACI Payments at 1.85%. There are other ways to get credit card payments there but probably not in a way that meets the Q2 deadline.

    If you see higher fees on business cards, wrap them in PayPal. If you get an AmEx Hilton card from item (1), you can probably get an instant number and knock out the sign-up bonus right away too.

Have a nice weekend friends!

If you don’t get an instant card number, at least you can buy this deal?
(Thanks to John K)

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus points at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and Hyatt Studios through September 7. Bonus tiers are at three, five, and eight nights.
  2. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for stays through August 30. You’ll earn 7,500 bonus nights for two night stays, 12,500 bonus points for three night stays, and 15,000 points for longer stays. The promotion is capped at 15,000 points.
  3. US Bank has “Double Bonus Days” running today through Friday. During this promotion, all portal purchases and all card linked purchases from the US Bank site will have doubled rewards.

    For more on the mostly unknown US Bank shopping portal and card-linked program, see last year’s postards. There’s a browser extension available too which is often easier than trying to hunt for the portal.
  4. JetBlue has a special status match to Mosaic for AA and Delta elites running through June 30 which gives Platinum Pro or higher on AA and Platinum or higher on Delta immediate access to Mosaic 2 status and a fast track to top-tier Mosaic 4 status with 50 tiles required to maintain until 2027.

    With the Barclays JetBlue card, $50,000 spend will earn those 50 tiles which makes this deal potentially great. (Thanks to Tom R)
  5. A trustworthy anonymous source corrected me yesterday regarding Sapphire Reserve changes: The changes will be officially announced with details on June 17, and the program will switch on June 21 which gives you a few days to decide whether to exist under the old or the new program. Apparently significant parts the old program will be grandfathered for a significant amount of time for existing card holders.
  6. The United Mileage Plus Shopping portal has a promotion for 1,000 bonus miles with $400 spend through June 15.

MEAB status check.

  1. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card has rumored upcoming changes for months, and now it’ confirmed that they’re happening on July 20 June 21. What we know:

    – You’ve got until July 19 June 20 to get in under the old structure
    – Annual fees will increase
    – Monthly and annual credits will change
    – There will be a business version of the card

    Hopefully you’ve already got a Sapphire Reserve or you’ll be under 5/24 by July 19 to apply under the older, almost certainly better terms. If you’re a “let’s ride the vibes” kind of person, you can read the rumors here.
  2. American Express offers has new travel related offers:

    – $75 off of $300 at Avis through September 7
    – $100 off of $500 at some Hyatts through September 15
    – $50-$80 off of $250 at Hilton through December 9

    Yes, gamers gonna game, but also Apire resort credit stack, amirite?
  3. You can move credit lines between Chase cards when eligible using both the app and the Chase website. In honor of the recent trend for major blogs to make videos about “how to click around to do something mundane and intuitive in an app (video)”, you can see how at at SideShowBob233.com (video).
  4. The American Express personal Delta Gold card has a new sign-up bonus for 50,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after spending $3,000 and making a purchase with Delta in six months. The annual fee is waived the first year, and this one is available when making a flight booking at delta.com on the checkout page (you don’t actually need to purchase the flight).

    In general this is a better offer than the public 80,000 offer, unless you’re getting outsized value for SkyMiles which is technically still possible, the same way that it’s technically possible for a Razor scooter to out-pace a Volkswagen Beetle.
  5. Rakuten In-Store has 1% or 1x Membership Rewards on its card linked site for purchases at Giant stores (not to be confused with Giant Foods, owned by the same people) on purchases of up to $1,000 per transaction.

    You’ve got 75 days after adding the offer to use it, and once you use it the offer remains valid for another hour. After that hour, you can add it again and start over. If this seems like deja-vu, that’s because we had the same discussion yesterday about Food Lion.
  6. Unsolicited advice: When you’re part of a private group that helps you spend on cards in special ways, consider making sure you understand how the group owners make money or fund the operation. If you can’t answer how, maybe consider your position and exposure.

Happy Tuesday!

The churning blogosphere’s new official uniform.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through July 17.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have increased offers:

    Personal cards:
    – Personal Gold: 70,000 SkyMiles after $3,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Personal Platinum: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months

    Business cards:
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve : 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months

    Cobrand cards like this remain easier to play popup games than non-cobrand cards.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy cards have new sign-up bonuses, also available via referrals so use those instead:

    – Bonvoy Boundless: Five free night certificates, 50,000 points each after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Bonvoy Bold: 60,000 points and one free night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months

    The Bonvoy Bountiful card, one of the three most ridiculously named Chase Bonvoy cards, has no increased bonus.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The head of Chase’s Bonvoy credit card naming team.