The CFPB is effectively non-existent 🪦, which means that when a bank holds your money and shouldn’t, doesn’t award a bonus when they should, changes credit card terms in an illegal manner, or sends all of your personal details to an adult website owner, you don’t have an easy, central resource for fixing it. You still have tools at your disposal to help though (ordered by of likely ease of use):
Your state banking regulator and charter administration
Arbitration (most banks have these clauses in their paperwork, and they’re almost always obligated to pay for the arbitration too)
Don’t shy away from the arbitration option when the numbers get into five digits, if the bank obviously behaved incorrectly your odds are probably great.
Even though the language says that enrolling at airport is required after registering online, that’s never been enforced prior and probably won’t be this time either, just ask your aunt, dog, or lampshade.
There are two shopping portal bonuses for airline portals:
Because Avios transfer freely between British Airways and other Avios airlines, this is really a transfer bonus for FinnAir, Qatar, Ibera, and Aer Lingus too.
Because Hawaiian miles transfer freely to Alaska, this is really a great sign-up bonus for a Alaska miles. This product will turn into a pumpkin soon so it’s getting close to now or never.
– Reserve Business: 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months – Platinum Business: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months – Gold Business: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months and a waived first year annual fee
Each of these cards have Delta Stays credits, and since they’re business cards you’re not stuck with the same product for the first year due to the CARD act.
– Spend $800+ at home improvement, get 10% back up to $100 monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 15% back up to $175 back monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 175,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ anywhere, get 100,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points through March 31
Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through February 17. Virgin Atlantic’s own metal awards recently have great availability, but they also have variable pricing. Finding space isn’t typically the issue; rather the issue is finding space that’s cheap enough for your taste.
– Business: 100,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months – Club Business: 75,000 points + 1,000 PQP after $5,000 spend in three months
I’d choose an Ink Preferred card over these unless you’re chasing status or want United Club access, because where else can you get unlimited cheap cheese cubes under a sneeze guard?
Yes gamers gonna game, but Emirates First award fees for US originating flights tend to be slightly over $1,000 so luxers gonna luxe too.
Pepper had sales for gift cards yesterday with 25x at Southwest, 22x at Delta, 22x at Sam’s Club or Walmart, 18x at Home Depot, and 20x at Amazon.
If you’re not already neck deep in the Pepper in the game I think now is a terrible time to jump in, but if you want to take advantage of those deals at small scale, I’d suggest reaching out to the other churners in the community to buy some inventory at a couple of percentage points above those rates. You’ll probably find plenty of sellers and won’t need to worry about Pepper risk.
The American Express Platinum and Business Platinum cards (side note: Am I supposed to ™/® those 14 times? everyone else does) famously have $200™ annual incidental airline credits®. There’s no trophy for being the first data point on what works for gaming the credits, so often waiting a few weeks to learn what works is the right play. As an aside, here’s what that looks like in 2025:
United: Buy TravelBank credit directly. It expires in five years and can be used to pay for United flights. You can usually sell this for 85%+ too, and with a little trickery you can turn them into flexible credits good for other people and on other airlines [more info]
Delta: Buy airfare and pay partially with a gift card or travel credit, pay for the remainder with your card (don’t go over the incidental credit amount though). Alternatively if you have a co-branded American Express Delta card and are eligible for Pay with Miles™, pay partially with miles and the remainder will be credited™ [more info]
Alaska: Buy a seat upgrade after booking (*cough* but call it a seat selection fee®) or buy a flight paid partially with Alaska wallet funds and partially with your AmEx (less than $100), then refund to your wallet after 24 hours [more info]
Southwest: Buy a flight less than $109, or book an international flight with taxes under $109 per ticket, then refund to a travel credit. Combine with Wanna Get Away+ to get around name-locking [more info]
American: Buy cheap airfare, then change it to a flight that you really want that costs more and pay with your credit card (don’t go over the credit amount though). If you want to gamble, you’ve got roughly even odds that award taxes and fees will count [more info]
JetBlue: Buy a flight less than $137 then cancel the flight after 24 hours and refund to your JetBlue wallet. Side note, whomever figured out that $137+ wouldn’t work but < $137 would is my hero [more info]
Spirit: Buying a Big Front Seat upgrade works, and airfare below approximately $60 also works [more info]
We’ve buried the lede though, January is special with American Express because you can change your selected airline once online this month only, even if you’ve already received your incidental credit on a different airline. You’ve got five days left to do that, don’t dally!
Status is most useful for free checked bags, economy plus seating, and lounge access on international itineraries. In theory you can only match every five years, but also in theory: (1) communism works, and (2) the colors of gummy bears are evenly distributed. (Thanks to FM)
The Chase Marriott cards have increased sign up bonuses:
– Boundless: $150 statement credit + 100,000 Bonvoy points after $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee – Bold: A free night certificate for up to 50,000 points plus 60,000 Bonvoy points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee
They’ve also introduced Pay Yourself Back on the cards at a rate of 0.8 cents per point, which is more than the market value of a Bonvoy point so actually pretty good. The bad news though? You’re limited to $750 in total redemptions annually. But at $750 + $150, you could turn the Boundless into a $900 sign-up bonus and convert it to a Ritz Carlton card after a year (a move we call the reverse Bonvoy).
– Premier: 170,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee – Rewards: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee
I prefer points offers to capped free-night certificates approximately 122% of the time, but not everyone thinks like I do.
40,000 points in the IHG program is good for average, mid-tier hotels, and if you stack the free night certificates with fourth night free, you can make this effectively a six night free sign-up bonus.
Qantas will devalue its points program on August 5, raising redemption costs between 5% and 20%. Redemption fees will increase too, because duh. (Yes, some short haul Qantas metal redemptions will decrease in cost; no, that doesn’t make it any better.)
No blackout dates are listed unless you’re traveling to Hawaii or Puerto Rico, then black out days are longer than an entire month.
Breeze Airways has 50% off of base fares with promo code GONOW for travel through May 22, sort of. They took a page from Southwest’s book and added a blackout periods of over an entire month, but decided it’d be funner to apply it to all destinations and not just non-continental US destinations.
– $50 back on $250+ at Grand Hyatt through April 15 – $250 back on $1,000+ at Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13 – $150 back on $750+ at Hiltons in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America through March 31 – $30 back on $150+ at Turo
There are games everywhere with these, starting with being able to use a single offer multiple times by thinking differently about saving offers. (Thanks to Tom)
In case you’re not seeing the heightened referral, there are also two modified, unintentional links for the same offer with no-lifetime language (NLL). There’s (probably minimal) risk in using modified links that American Express didn’t build, so do your own risk / value judgement. The first link is here, and the second is here. (Thanks to DDG)
More helpful notes for people that think differently.
