Category: Credit Cards

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice’s Q4 promotion for 8,000 bonus points on two night (or longer) paid stays through January 5.
  2. Do this now: Register for Marriott and Singapore Airlines reciprocal earning promotion for bookings and flights between October 10 and December 12. You’ll earn:

    – 500 Singapore KrisFlyer miles on paid Marriott stays
    – 1,200 Marriott Bonvoy points on paid Singapore flights

    Because Marriott is Marriott, 500 Singapore miles are probably more valuable than 1,200 Bonvoy points.
  3. The Chase Hyatt personal card has a new sign-up bonus for five free category 1-4 free night certificates with $4,000 spend in three months. The $95 annual-fee is not waived the first year. I prefer the points version of the sign-up bonus since those don’t effectively expire and are more flexible. (Thanks to shris420)
  4. Etihad Guest has a tiered 20%-40% transfer bonus for incoming Citi ThankYou point transfers through October 31. With the transfer bonus, AA short0haul flights are cheaper to book with Etihad than with Alaska MileagePlan.
  5. Qatar Avios has a 25% transfer bonus for incoming Citi ThankYou points transfers through October 31.
  6. Bank of America has a $500 personal checking account bonus requiring $15,000 deposited within 30 days, keeping the money there through day 120, and one of: sending a bill payment, using Zelle (don’t do this), mobile depositing a check, or making a singe direct deposit. Use promo code MCC500CIS. There are exclusions for

    The effective APR of this deal is 13.3% in the best case or 10.0% in the worst case, but the real reason to do this is for opening up Bank of America credit card approvals. (Thanks to DDG)
  7. US Bank has a $900 business checking account bonus requiring $30,000 deposited within 30 days and maintaining the balance for 60 days using promo code Q4AFL24. This bonus requires that 12 months have passed since you last had a business checking account with US Bank.

    The effective APR of this deal is 36% at best and 18% at worst which is reason enough to go for it, but like with Bank of America, opening a checking account will help with credit card approvals. (Thanks to DoC)
  8. Chase’s Q4 Pay Yourself Back 25% bonus categories are: utilities, insurance, fitness clubs and gyms, gas stations, and annual fees. Bonuses are all only the Sapphire Reserve this quarter too. “Select Charities” remains at its 50% bonus value. So long high volume gold cash-out, but hello octopus insurance cash-out!
  9. Chase is making a change to the Sapphire Reserve $300 annual travel credit which seems to be:

    – $300 travel credit resets in December as usual for use past your December statement
    – Remainder of unused December credit becomes a statement credit on December 31
    – $300 travel credit for January 2025 – [your anniversary date]
    – $300 travel credit for [your anniversary date 2025] – [your anniversary date 2026]

    I think this means a bonus $300 travel credit in 2025.
  10. Chase’s has a few targeted promotions for booking through the travel portal:

    – 10,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after booking a hotel stay of $400+ by January 31 (via email)
    – $100 back on $500 in spend by October 31 (via Chase Offers)

    These will stack, and these are (probably) both gameable. (Thanks to FM)

Pay yourself back hiccups when buying Octopus insurance.

  1. There’s now a public, safe version of an upgrade link to a Business Platinum for Business Gold and Business Green American Express card holders with 120,000 bonus Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in 90 days.

    This one is safe for anyone to use, potentially unlike the one made public last week which was dubious at best and err, scary at worst. Why was that one dubious? It was a manufactured link specifically constructed with two contradicting offers that happened to pass through the application system in an unintended way. Side-note: That fact that this link is dubious still isn’t noted on other blogs, hopefully because they just don’t know. Always know the province of links before diving in. (Thanks to reb702)
  2. Southwest has a 40% fare sale for selected flights booked by tomorrow night for travel between October 29 and January 31, 2025 with the typical blackout dates that you’d expect using promo code SAVEWOW.

    I got approximately 25,000 Rapid Rewards points back by grooming by existing bookings, though most of those existing bookings are backup flights so the expectation value for my actual cost is lower than 40%.
  3. Marriott Bonvoy has a transfer bonus of 15% to AirCanada Aeroplan miles through the end of October. Points transfer at a 3:1 ratio and if you transfer in 60,000 point increments you get a bonus 5,000 miles too, which means you’ll earn:

    (60,000 * 115% * 1/3) + 5,000 = 28,000 miles

    Which increases the normal transfer ratio to 2.143:1. (Thanks to TheSultan1)
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue program has released its promo awards for October for travel through March 31, 2025 to and from Europe. US cities include Dallas, Austin, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, and Detroit. US-lite cities include Havana and Toronto.

    There’s a ton of economy space at 15,000 miles in this month’s drop, more than I’ve ever seen in-fact. Discount business class space is almost non-existent this year and barely-existent next year.
  5. American Express has 100% off of purchase fees with promo code 100AMEXGIFT. The main use for these is shifting spend to a later time while earning the sign-up bonus now, but only if your manufactured spend-fu can’t support immediate spend needs. (Thanks to GCG)

Calendar view of discount business class inventory in this month’s FlyingBlue promo awards.

Apropos of nothing, do you have an American Express Platinum or Business Platinum card? Hmm, interesting. That probably means you shouldn’t worry about Bilt’s stupid elite status challenge tomorrow, right? Still, I bet you can find a few tens of thousands of words written about the match between Friday and now though. Yay marketing!

  1. Do this now (if you have the Schwab American Express Platinum card): Cash-out as many Membership Rewards today as you can physically bring yourself to do; this applies especially if you’re sitting on 10 million or more points with no redemption plan (if you think I might be talking about you – you’re right, I am).

    Today’s the last day of unlimited 1.1 cents per point cash-out. Starting tomorrow, you’re limited to 1 million per calendar year though points cashed-out today don’t apply to that limit.
  2. Do this now: Cash out any Ultimate Rewards points in increased value pay-yourself-back categories, all of which are set to expire today and may or may not be refreshed or replaced tomorrow.
  3. Do this now (if you have a Chase United card): Check for a spend bonus on spend through December 15. I had three choices:

    – 1,000 bonus miles after $1,000 spend (extra 1x)
    – 7,500 bonus miles after $5,000 spend (extra 1.5x)
    – 18,000 bonus miles after $9,000 spend (extra 2x)

    Even though United MileagePlus miles suck, the third one is a big enough bonus on top of base spend that I’ll hit it.
  4. Meijer Perks has $10 off of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards in-store through Saturday with clipped digital coupon. This type of coupon can usually be re-clipped after each use.

    Meijer carries both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Both variable and fixed load cards work
    – Look for lower fee Everywhere cards if you know how to liquidate them
    – Try for multiple transactions back to back

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to Will)
  6. Turkish Airlines has 40% off of economy award flights booked by Wednesday for travel from November 1 until March 31, 2025. Most of Turkish’s network is included.
  7. Weis Markets have 8x points on One4All and Choice gift cards through October 9. Some Choice cards can be easily converted to high resale rate bulk brand gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)

Too soon, or too not soon enough?

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s double points promotion on stays in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa between October 7 and December 20.
  2. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for 7,500 bonus points on paid 2+ night stays with Wyndham, and a bonus 5,000 points if you hold a Wyndham credit card. There’s a whopping limit of 15,000 bonus points if you don’t have a credit card, or 20,000 points if you do.
  3. Transfers between Alaska MilagePlan and Hawaiian HawaiianMiles are now live and must be done in 500,000 or fewer mile increments. Sorry to all of you that are moving 37 million miles, that’s a lot of clicking. Also, is this a good time to remind everyone that Barclays Hawaiian card members can transfer miles to immediate family members? No reason.

    Unfortunately Membership Rewards transfers to HawaiianMiles are currently being rejected and refunded, so that’s great. #bonvoyed
  4. The Chase Aeroplan Visa, notable for 3x earning at grocery stores, has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 bonus Aeropan miles after $4,000 spend in three months, and another $16,000 tiered spend in 12 months. The $95 annual fee is not waived. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Southwest said a lot of words yesterday, but the salient points you probably care about are:

    – Flights with assigned seating will be sold in late 2025 for flights in 2026 and beyond
    – Checked bags remain free
    – Southwest will partner with IcelandAir in 2025
    – A-List Preferred elites will get free preferred seating selection at booking
    – A-List elites will get free preferred seating selection at T-48 hours

    They’re also scrambling to avoid massive losses by trimming markets and selling aircraft so I expect these details to change somewhat as they continue to focus on top line revenue and making the bottom line turn black. No word from Southwest on the diagonal line.
  6. Citi has a new card linked offer for 4% back at Giftcards.com with up to $30 cash back two times by November 10. Historically these promotions ironically haven’t worked when buying Visa and Mastercard gift cards, but in 2024 they’ve been working as you’d expect. (Thanks to GCG)
  7. Reader Mike let me know about a deal at Aloft Hotels via Wells Fargo Deals through September 30. When I went looking for it, I found a few other good ones, all expiring the same day:

    – 10% back at Renaissance Hotels up to $75 cash back
    – 10% back at Hilton Garden Inn up to $65 cash back
    – 10% back at TownPlace Suites up to $57 cash back
    – 10% back at Aloft Hotels up to $57 cash back

    Wells Fargo offers are gamble in the same ways as Chase and BankAmeriDeals.
  8. Wells Fargo points can now be transferred to Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red at a 1:1 ratio.

BankAmeriGuy is upset that Wells Fargo offers is encroaching his territory.

  1. Do this now: Register for a targeted promotion for 50 or 100 American Airlines Loyalty Points earned per 1,000 miles redeemed through the end of the year, but only on new flights booked by October 7.
  2. There’s been a 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in 90 days link for upgrading an American Express Business Green or Gold card to a Platinum card floating around in the darker corners of the internet, and it’s now public. A few notes:

    – If you have a Green or Gold to upgrade, get employee cards first (see item #3)
    – Do the upgrade
    – Order 5 more employee cards with the new POID

    Don’t forget that spend on employee cards counts toward upgrade bonus spend. Also note that this link is of dubious origin so calibrate the reward to your risk tolerance scale. I went for this, but just because I did something doesn’t mean you should too; it might mean that you shouldn’t.
  3. The American Express Hilton Aspire resort credit now only works at a specific set of listed properties, providing further evidence that it’s easier to game these credits than to use them as intended.
  4. MasterCardGiftCard.com has a promotion for 100% off of purchase fees with promo code 100MCGIFT. There’s currently no expiration listed, but the email promoting the code has a copyright date of 2023 which should tell you something about Incomm gift card brands.

    These are Vanilla gift cards.
  5. Some Bank of America payment systems were offline yesterday and may be today too. It’s not you, they’re the problem it’s them.
  6. Amtrak has a promotion for a mystery, per-account bonus multiplier on fall travel through October 31 with registration. I got 2x on my account which means I’ll probably earn 2*0=0 points between now and Halloween. (Thanks to frequentflyerbonuses)

Obligatory photo of Bank of America’s payment processing data center.

  1. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards in-store through Saturday with a clipped digital coupon. This type of promotion usually lets you re-clip the coupon after each transaction, so four dozen MPerks accounts aren’t needed for scale even though a banana still might be.

    Meijer typically carries both Sunrise and Pathward gift cards.
  2. Reportedly Citi is discussing how much it’ll have to pay to become the sole issuer of AA credit cards in contract negotiations for a new co-branded credit card deal, and rumors say that the Barclays AA portfolio would be purchased by Citi under the new contract.

    If you’re banned by Citi and not by Barclays, I think getting a Barclays AA card now is your best chance to get back with Citi with minimal hassle; of all banks with bad IT and poor practices around closures and blocklists, Citi ranks first. At least Citi ranks best at something right? If you can count on anything in churning, it’s that #CitiGonnaCiti and the most logical, simple thing will never be the one that happens.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Remember that fixed and variable load cards work
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. IHG has a targeted fast-track promotion for Diamond Elite status, requiring only 10 mattress-runs nights between October 1 and December 31 to earn and keep status through the 2025 Elite year.

A readable Citi error message shows that not everything at Citi is dysfunctional.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s second Q4 promotion for 3x points at several brands you’ve probably never heard of for stays October through December. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Best Western Hotels has launched two new credit cards issued by Mercury Financial, and in addition to the sign-up bonuses there are spend bonuses too, like a free night certificate after $10,000 spend on the Premium card:

    – Premium Signature Visa: 80,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, $89 annual fee
    – Rewards Signature Visa: 40,000 points after $1,500 spend in three months, $49 annual fee

    Both of these sign up bonuses say “up to” and that your bonus will appear before you submit your application, so double check that they haven’t tried to #bonvoy you during the sign-up flow. Speaking of Bonvoy, how do Best Western points values compare? Well, two things: (1) They’re worth 10-20% more than Bonvoy points, and (2) you’re staying at a Best Western, so discount as appropriate.
  3. The American Express Hilton cards have increased sign-up bonuses, and they’re available via referral so go that route before using any public link, and yes it’s ok for P1 to refer P2:

    – Business: 175,000 Hilton points after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 Hilton points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 165,000 Hilton points after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Honors: 100,000 Hilton points after $2,000 spend in six months

    Sometimes these offers appear with free-night certificates too but not this time. Also, remember “to get out of PUJ use BBT”.
  4. The Synchrony Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard is now available. The card’s vitals:

    – 40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 90 days
    – Upgrade certificates or other rewards after $15,000 and $30,000 annual spend
    – 2x at dining and grocery, and other less fun categories
    – $99 annual fee

    In the current state of the rewards landscape, Synchrony cards are slightly preferable to many other issuers, which makes this card worthwhile for me even though it’s a personal card.
  5. Giant Foods, Giant (which is the same-ish but different), Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 10x points on Home Depot gift cards through Thursday of next week, limit $2,000 per rewards account. (Thanks to GCG)
  6. Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals have 10% back at Sheraton Hotels, W Hotels, and TownPlace Suite hotels on between $100 and $570 in spend with various expiration dates.

For photos that are, you know, mildly interesting

Giant and Giant Foods stores, but as Oreos.

  1. Do this now: Activate Q4’s quarterly rotating credit card categories:

    – Chase Freedom: PayPal, McDonalds, pet shops, vets, and some charities
    – Discover IT: Amazon and Target
    – Citi Dividend: Currently the page errors out, cause #CitiGonnaCiti, but in theory it’s restaurants and Citi travel
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics stores

    For gaming these in the absence of organic use: PayPal P2P works well, Amazon and Target both sell gift cards, utilities usually allow overpayments, and electronics stores like BestBuy sell gift cards. Amazon, Target, and electronics stores are also typically good targets for buying group activity.
  2. Do this now: Register for IHG’s Q4 promotion for 3,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed between this Thursday and December 31.
  3. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, run by a team who seems to think that they’re a venture capitalist funding a FinTech that will make money “really soon now”™, sent mid-month offers for online spend. We’ve seen:

    – $30 statement credit after $500 spend
    – $50 statement credit after $750 spend
    – $75 statement credit after $1,000 spend
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $750 spend
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000 spend

    (Thanks to Y, MS Ninja, BrandonV, and Jack)
  4. Citi ThankYou Points has two transfer bonuses running through October 19:

    – Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club: 25% transfer bonus
    – Avianca LifeMiles: 25% transfer bonus

    Both are solid choices, and if you’ve never looked into Leaders Club redemptions, it’s probably worth your time to do it. (Thanks to yt-nthr-rddtr and Oofzies)
  5. The Chase Avios co-braneded cards have increased sign-up bonuses for 100,000 Avios after $7,500 spend in six months. You can choose between British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus cards, and once you have Avios you can transfer them between programs. The $95 annual fee is not waived the first year. Note that smaller benefits, like economy companion certificates or flight statement credits after lots of spend aren’t the same on all three cards.

    Yes, it’s possible to collect all three, but maybe grab some Inks with a referral instead and transfer into Avios programs if you really need them?
  6. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points for $500 in third party gift card purchases through September 28, limit one per MPerks account.

    We all know that you can only have one MPerks account per email address, and we all know that you can have only one email address, right?
  7. M&T Bank has a $350 bonus for opening a new checking account with promo code TN and direct depositing, or “direct depositing” $500 within 90 days. Some regions like California are excluded because reasons.

Who wouldn’t want $1,500 (times n cards) worth of this?