Category: Credit Cards

Warning: Lots of words today, sorry.

  1. Do this now: Register for 2,000 bonus points per two night or longer paid stays at Marriott properties through November 26.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Gold: 80,000 SkyMiles after $3,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Platinum: 90,000 SkyMiles after $4,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six month

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

    There’s also a targeted offer for the personal Gold at 50,000 SkyMiles + $500 after $3,000 spend and a single Delta purchase in six months during a flight booking, so consider that too. Also, note that all three versions of the business cards still have offers for adding employee cards and spending, up to 99 times.
  3. The American Express Marriott Business card has a heightened sign up bonus for five 50,000 free night certificates after $8,000 spend in six months. The certificates expire after one year, and can be topped off with points for up to 15,000 additional points per night. I expect this offer will be available via referrals shortly, so maybe wait for a couple of days and get it via referral. This card also has offers for adding employee cards and spending, up to 99 times.

    When evaluating the value of this card, please check the points cost of properties you might be interested in staying at; 50,000 points isn’t exactly top-tier in the Marriott program. Also, remember you’ll still be paying for resort fees and parking when staying on your free night certificates.
  4. The Chase IHG cards have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Personal IHG Premier: Five free night certificates (60,000 points each) after $4,000 spend in three months
    – Business IHG Premier: 200,000 points after $9,000 in tiered spend in three and six months

    Both of these are likely more valuable than their Marriott counterparts if IHG’s hotel footprint follows your travel patterns. Both will likely be available via referrals in a few days too – so practice patience again.
  5. Giant, Giant Foods, and Martins stores have 2x fuel points on Vanilla Visa gift card purchases through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account.
  6. Stop & Shop, which is part of the same conglomerate as Giant, Giant Foods, and Martins, has a 3x fuel points promotion on Vanilla Visa gift card purchases through Thursday with no limit currently specified. But, historically “no limit specified” doesn’t mean no limit at these stores, so mind the gap I guess.
  7. Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Have a nice weekend!

Note: Adding 99 employee cards to your new accounts does have side effects.
(Thanks to Malia for this unfortunately very real image)

Let’s focus on news from a few banks today:

  1. Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards status was removed from many business accounts on September 6, and it seems related to early enrollment during new account setup. If you’re affected, there are two action items:

    – Consider whether you want to pause spending on Bank of America cards until it’s fixed
    – Consider contacting Bank of America and opening a case

    Generally speaking, calling a bank as a manufactured spender about missing rewards isn’t the best idea, it’s kind of up there with betting in Vegas on John McCain winning the 2024 Presidential Election; but in this case I think the team you’ll be working with (Preferred Rewards) is sufficiently distant from the rest of banking that the risk is low and reward is potentially high. You’re all adults, so make your own judgement call.
  2. If you’ve given full, non-Bank of America card numbers to Bank of America representatives recently, consider locking or replacing those cards; there are multiple correlated reports of fraudulent charges that surfaced yesterday stemming from Bank of America.
  3. Bloomberg reports that Barclays is nearing completion of a deal to purchase the Marcus GM portfolio of credit cards in a few months. If you’re banned from Barlcays, getting a GM card now could be a way back in. UPDATE: This didn’t work for people banned by Barclays when they acquired the Banana Republic card, so adjust your calculus as necessary.

Have a nice Thursday!

Bank of America’s vault mirrors the rest of their technology stack.

  1. The Barclays Wyndham cards have increased sign-up bonuses from a promotional email:

    – Earner Rewards: 45,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $0 annual fee
    – Earner Plus: 75,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $75 annual fee
    – Earner Business; 80,000 points in tiers after $15,000 spend, $95 annual fee

    The major use case for manufactured spenders is gas stations, which earn at 5x, 6x, and 8x respectively. On the burn side both both Vacasa and Wyndham have good options.
  2. American Express Offers has an offer for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $700 or more in spend at Leading Hotels of the World properties through December 8.

    As usual, buying a gift card at the front desk is the easiest and most above board way to game the offer, but gamers gonna game.
  3. Singapore Airlines has a 25% discount on all economy award redemptions and business and premium economy redemptions for travel between January 15, 2025 and May 29, 2025 booked by September 22. (Thanks to TheSultan1)
  4. The Southwest Rapid Rewards portal has a new spending bonus for 2,000 Rapid Rewards after $350+ spend by September 18.

    Giftcards.com still hasn’t returned to the main Cartera white-labeled airline portals, but it is now on JetBlue Shopping, Emirates Skywards Shopping, and Virgin Atlantic Shopping. I still pick Rakuten over those though.
  5. United has an economy award sale for flights booked today for travel between the US and London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, or Frankfurt between September 15 and December 12; but only for Chase cobranded card holders. Prices are 50,000 MileagePlus miles round trip. (Thanks to TheSultan1)

Happy Tuesday!

The Wingate by Wyndham Lubbock is a good redemption for masochist elites with suite upgrades, so there’s that.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus JetBlue TrueBlue miles with IHG hotel says through November 30. You’ll earn 1,000 miles for one or two night stays, or 3,000 miles for three night and longer stays. The maximum bonus earned for this promotion is 15,000 TrueBlue miles.
  2. Do this now (if you have a Chase Southwest Business card): Register for 6,000 bonus points after $6,000 in spend through November 30.

    For the math challenged, that works out to be an extra 1x on $6,000 spend. In fact, it works out that way even if you’re not math challenged. (Thanks to Brian M)
  3. The Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More personal card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days. The $89 annual fee is not waived the first year. This is the highest bonus seen on this card since last year, when it was 100,000 miles for a short period.

    The main use case for this card is for good access Swiss First Class award space for Miles & More members which costs 182,000 miles between the US and Europe, after a status match. You can also pair the bonus with 150,000 additional miles for $1,960 through September 30 . Or skip it, Swiss F is great but at a cost of $1,960+$89, so are plenty of other things.
  4. The Korean Skypass Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 Skypass miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days. The $450 annual fee is not waived the first year. I believe this is an all-time high bonus.

    The main use case here is good access to Korean Business (Prestige) and First award space, which cost 80,000 miles and 120,000 miles between Asia and the US, respectively.
  5. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Because Staples likes messing with churners, this time the limit is nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Staples messes with non-churners too, as Portsmouth discovered after contracting sign design.

  1. US Bank has opened a waitlist for its annoyingly named Smartly Visa credit card. The card’s earning structure is 2%-4% cash back depending on your balance in an equally annoyingly named Smartly Savings account; you’ll need to keep $100,000 parked there for 4% earning.

    The annual fee is currently unspecified. (Thanks to LiftBroski)
  2. Southwest has a fast-track promotion to earn a two month Companion Pass. The requirements are:

    – Book two one-ways or one round-trip by tomorrow night
    – Fly both legs by November 20
    – Both legs must be paid flights, and existing bookings don’t count

    The promotional companion pass is valid between January 6 and March 6, 2025.
  3. Rakuten in-store offers has 1% back or 1 Membership Reward per dollar spent at Giant Food stores. As usual, once you use the promotion you’ve got to re-add it to your account after an hour, though any purchases in the first hour after use will continue to track.

    Apropos of nothing: Giant Food stores sell gift cards.
  4. AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its September promotional rewards. North American cities include Phoenix, Las Vegas, Washington DC, New York, Montreal, and Ottawa.
  5. Breeze Airways has 50% off of base fares with promo code BIGDEAL for travel between September 18 and May 13, 2025 booked by tomorrow night.

    What they’re not telling you is that the big deal isn’t as big as you’d think because they blocked out lots of days from the promotion, so don’t listen when they say “I’m kind of a big deal”. In fact, that’s just good general life advice. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Wednesday!

Sioux City takes a swing and a miss at Lubbock.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 1,000 bonus points per night at Unbound Collection hotels between September 1 and November 30. The promo caps at 20 nights.
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s fall promotion for double points on all stays between September 3 and November 18. The bad news with this promotion is that you’ll be staying in a Best Western.
  3. 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 typically lets you reclip the coupon after each transaction too.

    Meijer carries both Sunrise and Pathward gift cards.
  4. Hy-Vee stores have have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards through Sunday. You don’t need to clip any digital coupons and you can repeat the discount ad-infinitum with new transactions, at least until the store manager runs you off of the property.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
  5. Bilt Rewards now earns on purchases at Walgreens made with any linked card, Bilt issued or otherwise. The earn rate on general spend is 1x for most items, or 2x on Walgreens house branded items.

    Gift cards are excluded via the terms and conditions, but may or may not actually be excluded.
  6. 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
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Link your credit cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after $2,000 spend plus a purchase. The $99 annual fee is not waived. The bonus is split into:

    – Main card: 60,000 miles after $2,000 spend
    – Employee card: 10,000 miles after a purchase

    The best play for gamblers is to bet that these will turn into Alaska MileagePlan miles next year at a ratio of 1:1. If they don’t, the best use will probably be either inter-island flying or using miles to upgrade a paid coach ticket to business on Hawaiian metal. (Thanks to BleedBlue__)
  8. Southwest has 30% off of flights to or from Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Central America using promo code BEACHES for bookings made by tomorrow, and travel from September 29 through February 10, 2025.

    Blackout dates that you’d expect are present. And just like last time, John Wayne airport is excluded because Southwest hates any actors that promote the southwest as a region instead of as an airline.
  9. Chase Offers has 5%-10% back on Southwest Airlines airfare of $50 or more through September 6, on up to $400-$800 spend for a max cash back of $40. I suppose you could fly somewhere with a Best Western if you’re not into the whole “basic comfort” thing.

Happy Tuesday!

Southwest’s new marketing campaign is coming to a city near you.

Introduction

In one of the weirder developments of 2023, a year full of weird developments, American Express temporarily offered bonuses for downgrading its Membership Rewards earning cards to cheaper variants. It happened in late 2022 as well with the Delta cards too.

These offers have surfaced again in the last couple of weeks, proving that 2024 now officially exists in American Express’s mainframe.

What’s Going On?

The offers appear via targeted link in your online dashboard, via targeted email, or as a retention offer when you chat or call a customer service agent. Because these offers were visible to agents, my assumption in the past was that downgrade offers were an intentional decision by American Express to prevent losing card members who might no longer want a premium card.

My new opinion though is that these aren’t intentional, but rather a periodic bug in American Express’s systems because:

  • Their lifespans don’t match other AmEx offer lifespans (they’re shorter)
  • They’re targeting some members that have had the card for years,
  • They’re targeting members a few months after annual fees were paid
  • The T&C language specifically mentions the word “upgrade”
  • They’re only appearing on personal cards false, thanks to Bork

American Express’s technology stack includes a mix of systems that date back many decades, and I’m sure it’s hard to fully predict the outcome of a change in one part of those systems. I hope it’s obvious that in general that’s a good thing for churners.

How to Play It?

If you get one of these offers, I’d note a few things:

  • To avoid pop-up jail, keep the card open for 12 months after accepting a bonus (but only if you earn the bonus)
  • Earning one of these bonuses won’t put a new card on your credit report or affect 5/24
  • You can stack this bonus with a retention offer, assuming one is available after downgrade

Good luck friends!

American Express’s technology interconnection switchbox.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s Q4 promotion for 2,500 bonus points on every stay between September 3 and December 31.
  2. Do this now: Link your Virgin Atlantic account to your Virgin Red account on the Virgin Red account page for 4,000 bonus points, which you’ll receive via an emailed code after linking.
  3. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select personal card has a heightened offer for 75,000 AA miles after $3,500 spend in four months and the annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    Citi makes it easier than a lot of banks to pay your bill in less orthodox ways.
  4. American Express has a targeted upgrade offer for Business Green to Business Gold cards with 70,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months. Assuming you can hit that spend in 4x categories, that’ll net you 11x on $10,000 spend. (Thanks to joghi)
  5. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the Yusuf Dikec of credit cards, has sent new, targeted spending offers for August for online spend. We’ve seen:

    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $750 spend
    – $70 statement credit after $1,000 spend
    – $50 statement credit after $750 spend
    – $30 statement credit after $500 spend

    For the first time in forever, there’ll be music, there’ll be light Citi is now showing (some) registered offers on the Offers tab after logging in; in my case, two of four are showing, which is divide by zero times more than before. (Thanks to con_man101, Brandon F, Jon, and Ben)
  6. The RebatesMe shopping portal has a new member cash back bonus of $40 for new accounts that spend $10 or more through the portal in the first year. Rather than signing up directly on the site though, use a friend’s referral and they’ll earn $45 if you earn more than $10 in cash back in the first 90 days. Lots of numbers there, right?

    Typically RebatesMe requires only a new email address for sign-up, but may also do phone number text verification for redemption. (Thanks to FM)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Friendly weekend activities reminder.