Category: Credit Cards

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!

Happy Monday!™

Adventures in learning how to bury the lede.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus British Airways Executive Club tier points for paid flights booked by February 14 for travel any time after March.

    British Airways Gold status traditionally was somewhat easy to game and had great value, but after March, the games are largely gone.
  2. United has a status match to Silver, Gold, or Platinum, and an accompanying challenge running through June 30. The match is good for 120 days once it’s activated; but to activate it you have to take a United flight within 90 days of the match approval. You can retain status through the program year (through January 2027) with some Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) earning.

    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)
  3. 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).
  4. Yesterday we talked about a Chase IHG Premier sign-up bonus with five free night certificates, but David let me know that there’s a different version of the sign-up bonus:

    – 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.

Theory doesn’t always predict the real world.

  1. The Chase IHG Premier Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of five free night certificates, each good for 40,000 points a night, with $4,000 spend in three months. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

    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.
  2. 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.)
  3. H-E-B stores have a digital coupon for a $20 H-E-B with every $100 Visa, Mastercard, or AmEx gift card purchased in-store through Tuesday, limit one per H-E-B account.

    If only it were possible to have multiple H-E-B accounts through some miracle of modern technology called multiple email addresses.
  4. Southwest has a fare sale for paid and award bookings made by tonight for travel between February 11 and May 22.

    No blackout dates are listed unless you’re traveling to Hawaii or Puerto Rico, then black out days are longer than an entire month.
  5. 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.

Techno-lord mug of the day.

  1. UPromise has a $230 sign-up bonus that stacks with a SoFi $300 bonus for opening checking and savings account and direct depositing $5,000+ within 45 days. There’s no requirement to keep money in the account after your direct deposit.

    For anyone that doesn’t think in terms of math, that’s $530 total. (Thanks to Vince)
  2. American Express offers has new offers for:

    – $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)
  3. The American Express Gold personal card has increased targeted via referrals for 100,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in six months.

    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.

  1. The Bank of America Alaska Business card has an increased offer of 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 90 days. You can usually get multiple cards with multiple businesses.

    In the before times, I loved getting multiple Alaska cards each time a heightened offer came out. Now that (a) BofA’s payment options aren’t what they used to be, and (b) the Alaska and Hawaiian merger completed so you can transfer Membership Rewards → Hawaiian → Alaska, this card is mid at best; especially when Membership Rewards card bonuses approach a half-million points with a little 15x fun.
  2. US Bank has a $900 sign-up bonus for a new Platinum Business checking account with promo code Q1DIG25 through March 31. You’ve got to bring $25,000 in new funds within 30 days and maintain them through day 60, and you’ve got to have 5 debit, ACH, or other transactions.

    If you time everything perfectly, that means that you only need funds in the present for 31 days, which is an effective APR of 43%. Last I checked, 43% was slightly better than, let’s say Chase, was paying on checking accounts too. Having this account will help with US Bank business credit card approvals, like the $750 Business Leverage or $750 Triple Cash rewards cards. (Thanks to DDG)
  3. The American Express Delta SkyMiles personal cards have increased sign-up bonus for direct links and referrals, but the increased bonuses require the American Express random number generator to work in your favor. The offers:

    – Gold: 80,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived first year
    – Platinum: 90,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months

    If you don’t see the heightened offer, try switching browsers, using incognito mode, or poking an Ed Bastion voodoo doll.

Have a nice weekend, and watch for a guest post tomorrow!

Q: Why does the Ed Bastion voodoo doll have a cape?
A: AmEx works better that way.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard sent out mid-month offers for online spend through February 14, which stack with other offers nicely:

    – 325,000 SYWR points after $1,000 spend
    – 250,000 SYWR points after $1,000 spend
    – 11,500 ThankYou points after $750 spend
    – $100 after $1,000 spend
    – $45 after $500 spend

    Because Citi gonna Citi, not all online spend counts as online spend. (Thanks to Tyler, birt, Cashback Cowgirl, Jen T, and Charlie)
  2. There are a few more card linked travel related offers:

    – American Express: $50 off of $250+ at Grant Hyatt hotels through April 15
    – Chase: $15 off of $50+ at Lyft through February 27
    – BankAmeriDeals: $30 off of $150+ at Turo through January 26
    – BankAmeriDeals: 15% back, up to $150 with Celebrity Cruises through February 14
    – BankAmeriDeals: 15% back, up to $150 with Royal Caribbean Cruises through February 14

    Some are more gameable than others.
  3. The Alaska MileagePlan Shopping portal has 1,200 bonus miles with $300 spend through January 24. Giftcards.com is a good option for churners that aren’t keen on spending $300 on Dubai chocolate bars.
  4. Some long lost friends from a popular bill payment service are back in town. Always be probing.

Citi marketing materials, proving again that Citi gonna Citi.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s Bonus Journeys promotion for:

    – 3x points at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House, up to 10,000 bonus points
    – 2x points at other Hyatts, up to 20,000 bonus points

    Valid for stays between January 27 and March 28.
  2. American Express has several new travel and gift card related offers, and with some trickery you can often get the same offer on multiple cards too:

    – $200 back on $1,000+ at Norwegian Cruise Lines through April 23
    – $70 back on $250+ at Hertz through March 10
    – $75 back on $250+ at Avis through March 31
    – $30 back on $75+ at Pepper through March 31
    – 5,000 bonus points on $2,000+ on the Marriott Business card through April 30

    The Pepper one is a $30 hedge against any potential failure, should they fail in the next couple of weeks.

With some trickery you can often get different types of hundos too.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saturday’s emailed newsletter missed picking up Sam’s guest post, please take a look here if you missed it!

  1. Citi has a heightened offer on the AAdvantage Business Mastercard for 75,000 AA miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. The current enforced language requires that you won’t receive the bonus if you’ve had a Citi Business AA sign-up bonus in the last 48 months.

    You can double dip by separating two applications by eight days with one business AA card and one personal, just don’t hit the spend target on either card until you have both cards in hand. UPDATE: Corrected double dip language
  2. There’s are two generic, targeted no lifetime language (NLL) American Express no-annual fee card offers:

    – Blue Business Plus 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in four months
    – Blue Business Cash $750 statement credit after $6,000 spend in four months

    These cards usually have offers for additional points or statement credits for adding employee cards and spending on those cards too. (Thanks to EarthlingMardiDraw)
  3. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on Southwest airfare, up to $40 cash back, through February 15.

    Buying discounted Southwest gift cards is always 10% off at Sam’s, but occasionally 20% off too so gamers will likely find this offer more interesting than non-gamers.
  4. The Dosh app, famous for awarding extra cash back at Korger, Office Depot, and OfficeMax (and sometimes paying it out too), is shutting down on February 28. They’re allowing redemptions through that date in theory, but there’s no bonus prize for waiting until the last minute and there’s no guarantee that they won’t prematurely fold so cash-out early, cash-often.

    Now it’s time to queue the song: Ding-dong the Dosh is dead! Which old Dosh?
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Monday!

The Dosh executive staff delivers the news.