The fuel points market remains unseasonably strong because: (1) Pepper has flooded the market so there are fewer buyers at Kroger, and (2) lots of Kroger stores have put all high-value third party gift cards behind the customer service counter. One of those things will probably change soon.
BankAmeriGuy makes his fifth blog appearance for BankAmeriDay.
– Reserve: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months – Platinum: 90,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months – Gold: 70,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months – Reserve Business: 110,000 miles after $10,000 spend in six months – Platinum Business: 100,000 miles after $6,000 spend in six months – Gold Business: 80,000 miles after 4 $4,00 spend in six months, waived annual fee
If you get the popup, try the other link which often has different popup criteria.
If you have money locked up with Yotta or Juno thanks to the Synapse FinTech collapse, check your email for a payout link from one of the underlying banks that was servicing accounts, Evolve. There are multiple reports of payments being correct and several where people are short, at least one by over $94,000, though it’s not clear whether that money was put at Evolve by Synapse or put somewhere else. To find the email, look for one of:
– Email: [email protected] – Subject: Return of Synapse Brokerage’s End User Funds
Don’t worry though! Bask is devaluing again today because of “a range of economic factors and current market conditions”, where now they’ll only pay out 2 miles for every dollar saved annually, down from 2.5 miles per dollar. I guess because still high interest rates mean they can collect a bigger spread? That’s #BaskMath. As of this writing they haven’t updated their website to reflect the devaluation, so that’s double awesome. I’m out.
Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction. For those playing sportsball at home: Yes, they’re really tweaking the per-transaction size, from five, to eight, to seven, and most recently to nine. What’s next, 7.5?
– 1% back at Lowes stores (no maximum specified) – 1% back at Stop & Shop stores (max $10 back per transaction) – 1% back at Food Lion stores (max $10 back per transaction)
The terms on this are regular for Rakuten, but weird: After activating, you’ve got 75 days to use the offer. After the first purchase, the offer will only work for another hour. After that hour, you can usually re-add the offer again until Rakuten pulls it in several weeks. Link your cards to your Rakuten profile here.
Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 4x, 5x, or 6x points (chain dependent) on third party gift cards November 21, limit $2,000 per account. Apple and BestBuy are the cards are likely your best choice if your’e not buying for personal use. (Thanks to GCG)
This card is useful beyond the sign-up bonus because it can eventually be product changed into the AAdvantage Silver card, but only after a year thanks to the CARD act.
– Link your credit cards to Dosh – Buy in even multiples of $300 – Look for lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them
These are Pathward gift cards.
Chase Ultimate Rewards has a heightened redemption for Apple products at a rate of 1.5 cents per point for the Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 cents per point for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred cards (or less on other, stupider cards). The promotion runs through the end of November.
These rates beat regular Pay-Yourself-Back rates, especially if you’re in the reselling game.
There are two small business merchant processing sign-up bonuses:
Since we’re MEABers around here, let’s caution a few items: (1) running more than a few gift cards will almost certainly get your account shut down and banned from the processor which could have repercussions on future real businesses; (2) running your own credit cards will almost certainly get your credit cards shut down, sometimes even same-day with banks like AmEx; and (3) you’ll get a 1099 for payments processed. So always be probing, but know when a fence is electrified too, and this one is.
My advice is to keep these accounts completely above board if you’re going for the bonus. If you don’t have a real business for merchant processing, consider selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. Combine with the previous item for extra #flair.
The sign-up bonus for both is 5,000 Mileage Bank miles after $5,000 spend in three billing cycles, and the Premium tier has an additional 5,000 miles after another $2,000 spend. For ongoing spend, you’ll earn 0.5x on the Basic or 1x on the Premium. Both cards earn 2x on JAL flights.
The Whale Angle
The Premium tier earns 5 Life Status Points (yes, that’s really what they’re called) for every $1,500 in spend. After 1,500 Life Status Points earned, you get JAL Global Club Three Star status for life, which also gets you JGC Premier status (second to highest JAL frequent flyer tier), which includesoneworld Sapphire status, and potentially also includes oneworld Emerald status; the terms are rather-unclear and no-one’s had time to try this yet to be sure. So, just spend $450,000 and get lifetime Sapphire or Emerald status, provided you pay 2,000 miles as a “membership fee” annually. Quirky enough yet?
Oneworld Sapphire is great because it grants you access to:
AA lounges including Flagship even when flying domestically
Alaska lounges, even when flying domestically
If you end up with oneworld Emerald, you’ll also get access to:
Qantas First lounges, even when flying domestically
Cathay Pacific First lounges, even when flying domestically
If $450,000 in spend is just another couple of days for you and you could easily burn 450,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles, then you can have some fun and some weird status if nothing else.
The Other Quirks
There are more quirks to contend with:
Mileage Bank miles expire after three years even if you hold the card, unless you hold JGC Four Star status or higher in which case they don’t expire. Don’t worry, Four Star only takes $900,000 spend at 1x
Paid tickets earn 10% “sector bonus” miles for every flight for cardholders
You earn 5,000 bonus miles on your first flight paid for with the card
You earn 5,000 bonus miles when booking your first flight with JAL International
There’s a promotion code to use during application, but it’s prefilled and non-editable: AFSPG1024
There’s more too, but the main quirks are covered.
Bonus: JAL MileageBank Sweet Spots
JAL MileageBank is traditionally a great program with a few (surprise) quirks. Sweet spots include:
140,000 miles for JAL first round-trip awards
100,000 miles for Emirates business one-way awards
24,000-30,000 miles for an upgrade from paid economy to business on JAL metal
Distance flown based partner redemptions with three stop-overs, including mixed partners
– Transcons at 9,000 points – Hawaii at 9,000 points – Alaska at 20,000 points – Mexico at 9,000 points
These continue to be the best award sales that no-one talks about, especially since you’re still able to transfer Membership Rewards to Hawaiian, then Hawaiian to Alaska MileagePlan miles.
– Earn elite qualifying miles (EQMs) on award travel redemptions based on distance and ticket class, a minimum of 1 EQM per mile flown including partner redemptions – Earn 1 EQM per $3 spent on a co-brand credit card, up to $90,000 spend – Earn EQMs for mileage partners, especially the MileagePlan shopping portal – Milestone rewards like AA – Multi-partner award redemptions are coming this “winter”
It’ll be relatively easy to earn MileagePlan status via manufactured spend next year, which when coupled with AA status, could make you a double oneworld Sapphire, capable of viewing the Double Rainbow.
If you’re banned from Barlcays, getting a GM card may be a back-door way back in, but historically Barclays is tough on bans so I wouldn’t count on it.
Do this now: Register for your targeted United Mileage Play offer. My offer was “Book and take a trip in a premium seat 2 times to earn 21,000 bonus miles.” My fine print says travel by December 13 and each ticket has to cost $500 before taxes and fees, so best case this is a +2x miles on spend deal.
– $100 back on $300+ at Radisson Blu or Cambria hotels through November 30 – $100 back on $300+ at Small Luxury Hotels through December 31 – $150 back on $650+ at The Hotel Collection properties through December 7
The top two are gameable, the bottom one, probably not so much. How do you game these? As always, buying a gift card is the simplest way, but not the only way.
