Category: Gift Cards

  1. The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of $700 after $5,000 spend in 90 days through September 14, but only in branch. The cards is relatively noteworthy for its quarterly 4% cash back on $7,000 spend in categories like grocery stores and gas. (Thanks to Mushu_Pork)
  2. AT&T and AA have a promotion for 20,000 AA miles with a phone number port-in, limit four. To maximize the promotion, you’ll need to keep AT&T service for three months. At $140 per month and a total of 80,000 miles, you’re effectively buying AAdvantage miles at 0.7 cents each.

    Mileage valuations for AA will probably range between 1.5 cents each to 8.0 cents each (for sites that share an acronym with Two Putting Greens), either way 0.7 cents is less.
  3. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 points with $500 in third party gift cards through August 11.
  4. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards through August 11.

Happy Thursday friends!

The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card, or MEAB mile valuations? Evidently both.

  1. Bilt has a status match with to Accor ALL on Saturday, with the match level is based on your Bilt status. The regular transfer ratio is 1,000:666, and you have to transfer miles to earn status which lasts through the end of 2027. Accor status is good for their hotels, but also Accor Gold and above have a fast track to Qatar status too, which includes oneworld Sapphire at Qatar Gold and above. Confused yet? The tiers:

    – Bilt Silver (or no status): Accor Silver with 5,000 points transferred
    – Bilt Gold: Accor Gold with 5,000 points transferred
    – Bilt Platinum: Accor Platinum with 15,000 points transferred

    Accor is an outstanding program in Europe and a good program elsewhere, but probably doesn’t pay affiliate revenue so it doesn’t get much coverage. In fact it gets so little coverage that this site apparently has the definitive guide on the program, which is a sad statement for both the site and the state of the churn-o-sphere. No I’m not bitter, you’re bitter.
  2. Three Incomm gift card sites are running a sale, for, *checks notes* a K-Pop boy heartthrob band:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fee $50+ Mastercards with code BTS26
    – VanillaGift.com: No fee $50+ Visas with code VGBTS26
    – InCommIncentives.com: No fees on $20,000+ in gift cards and a $200 bonus gift card for new accounts with code MORALE26

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (thanks to GCA)
  3. American Express Offers has a targeted offer for $50 off of $250+ at Delta through September 26. Stack with a targeted offer for a $50 Starbucks gift card with a Delta flight.

    There are changes to star earning and Delta activity requirements being introduced, but frankly unless you’re spending thousands of dollars a month at Starbucks I think it’s safe to ignore it all. If you are though, cool?
  4. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles has a 10% incoming transfer bonus for “finance or hotel points” through August 28, registration required. I heard (or made up) something about this being for BTS fans to see the band live in South Korea.

Happy Tuesday friends!

For the naysayers that say BTS means back to school.

  1. SoFi, a name derived by combining the words “sock” and “fiasco”, has a new account bonus of $335 through Swagbucks and $400 directly, provided you have direct deposits totaling at least $5,000 within 25 days of the first direct deposit and the first direct deposit is at least $400 (thanks to dylan for the note about the first deposit).

    These accounts are mostly churnable, contrary to the propaganda orchestrated by the big sock lobby.
  2. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five total and four per transaction, special thanks to Sean for the distinction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Kroger stores have a coupon for a fee-free $150+ Visa or Mastercard through tomorrow.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Offers has an offer for $80 off of $400+ spend with Hawaiian or Alaska through September 30. The level 0 churning game on this one is to book a non-basic economy flight for $400 and then cancel it to your travel wallet.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards. Oh wait, it just seemed like something I was supposed to type at this point.
  6. Emirates has a partner award sale for 25% off of economy redemptions through August 9. These are particularly attractive for short haul flights, which coincidentally is also exactly the type of flight that I’m willing to sit in economy on.
  7. Chase Offers has two new travel related offers:

    – 7% back on between $100 and $500 at Hyatt Place in the US through September 30
    – 10% back on between $100 and $500 at Marriott in the US through August 31

    The level 0 churning game on here is gift cards at the front desk.
  8. Giant, Martins, and Stop & Shop have 2x rewards on Mastercards. Giant Food has 8x points on Zift Zillions gift cards.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday, friends!

Ever wonder why you don’t see these out in the wild much? Again, big sock.

The churn-o-tron has a figurative, literal, figurative fire bomb of news today:

  1. The Bank of America AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus:

    – 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in the first 90 days
    – 30,000 miles after $7,500 total spend in the first six months
    – 100 XP

    You can hold multiple FlyingBlue cards. For bonus fun points, get one in Dutch and one in French. Or I guess two in French if that’s how you roll.
  2. The PenFed Defender Visa was announced yesterday, and the waitlist is open. The card’s vitals:

    – No annual fee
    – 5x at gas and EV charging
    – 3x at grocery, restaurants, sporting goods, military commissaries, and base exchanges

    Before you get too excited, PenFed is really good with gas pump versus gas store coding, and their points are worth about 0.8-0.9 cents each. (Thanks to MattyB)
  3. Bank of America has targeted $750 sign-up bonuses using this link on:

    – Customized Cash Rewards
    – Unlimited Cash Rewards
    – Travel Rewards

    All three require $5,000 spend in 90 days. For bonus fun points part deux, get multiple with multiple tax IDs or products.
  4. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third-party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards today and tomorrow.

    For those playing only casually: Watch out, Kroger stole bonus points and is now requiring ID and a social security number for BestBuy gift card purchases over $200.
  5. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 bonus points with $100+ in MasterCard gift cards through Tuesday, one per account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. Capital One Shopping is “featuring” giftcards.com today. As of this writing, I don’t know what the featured bonus is though so watch for egg on my face.
  7. Alaska Atmos, also known as the last to the finish line, added a back to school shopping bonus like earlier finishers American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Alaska’s is 2,000 miles after $750 spend by August 10.

    Giftcards.com will work for these.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Meanwhile, at the FlyingBlue shopping portal.

  1. Citi ThankYou has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through August 22.
  2. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, known for it’s boundless ability to trap business travelers that don’t know any better, has a heightened sign-up bonus of:

    – 125,000 Bonvoy points
    – 50,000 point free night certificate
    – Free rental of a two plastic keycards with every stay

    The bonus requires $3,000 spend in three months, and is available via referrals too. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.
  3. Chase Offers has an offer for a $100 statement credit with $1,000+ at Air Canada in a single purchase through September 18.
  4. Greendot’s Gobank, not to be confused with Greendot’s Go2bank, eliminated bill payments this month. Its real utility is long gone, and now its little remaining utility is gone too, kind of like cigar umbrellas which were also apparently a thing.

    So long, debit card version of the cigar umbrella.
  5. A few more airline shopping portals added back-to-school bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 2,500 bonus miles with $1,200+ spend through August 8
    – Delta SkyMiles: 2,000 bonus miles with $600+ spend through August 10

    Giftcards.com is still the too-cool-for-school way to hit these.

Happy Tuesday!

Rejected marketing campaign for the cigar umbrella.

  1. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards on sale through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. Bank of America cards have retention offers, and they’re occasionally available in-app via chat with Erica, the virtual agent, too. Just open the app and click “Close” when you’re presented with a list of options (the act of clicking Close won’t actually close your card), and you may see an offer. In bad news for my P2, the app does need to be up-to-date. Current best offers are $175 after $1,500 spend in three months.

    I’m not saying it’s a good idea, but closing a Bank of America card a month or two after meeting a retention offer doesn’t seem to cause any lasting repercussions on your account.

Happy Monday!

I’m not saying this is a bad idea either, but […]

  1. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, the let’s go with Messi of credit cards, sent new mid-month targeted offers for:

    – $50 statement credit with $750+ online spend
    – $75 statement credit with $1,000+ online spend

    The no-annual fee card remains unavailable for new applicants, and the likelihood of that changing is about the same of the US winning the World Cup this year. Go head and prove me wrong, Citi.
  2. Hyatt and Air Canada Aeroplan have a new partnership, you can link your accounts here. The tl;dr:

    – Aeroplan miles can be redeemed for Hyatt Category 1-4 certificates “starting at” 25,000 miles
    – 50,000 Hyatt points can be redeemed for a 30,000 point Aeroplan reward certificate

    – Aeroplan elites get a 20 night Globalist Hyatt status challenge
    – Aeroplan elites can convert Aeroplan to Hyatt at a 2:1 ratio
    – Hyatt elites will have an Aeroplan status challenge opportunity later this year

    – Hyatt elites get an annual CAD $20 Aeroplan flight credit, which is worth approximately one gallon of milk at current exchange rates
    – Hyatt points transfer to Aeroplan at a less bad, but still bad, 2:1 ratio

    On the positive front, that CAD $20 flight credit can be used to cover taxes on an award ticket, and on the uh-oh front, there’s now a backdoor from American Express to Hyatt.
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 100% transfer bonus to IHG through July 30, bringing the transfer ratio from 1:1 to 1:2, which, like above, is less bad but still bad. On July 31, the bonus drops to 70% through the end of August.
  4. Singapore Airlines has discount business class awards for travel booked this month and flown next month between Los Angeles and Tokyo for 79,800 miles.

    There are lots of economy class discounts too, but uh, yeah.
  5. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 points with $100+ in One4All gift cards, limit 10,000 points per customer through Tuesday. I think this deal signals the end of the “mPerks is great” era, and brings us to the “mPerks is ok” era. Long live Nob Hill I guess?

Happy Thursday friends!

Don’t worry, science has already charted Meijer past and present.

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in integer multiples of $600
    – Look for the lower fee “Everywhere” cards if you can liquidate them

    Remember that zero is an integer too if you’re exhausted by $200s. These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. The original American Express Blue Cash, unavailable to new applications since 2018 (!), is being transitioned to a Blue Cash Everyday card on March 4, 2027.

    It’s not too hard to spend $56,500 at grocery stores, gas stations, and drug stores in two months and American Express doesn’t care about cycling for seasoned accounts, so send it.
  3. The Synchrony Plus World Mastercard has a targeted offer for 10% back on spend for 60 days. If you don’t have a mailer, you’ve got a few options:

    – According to the Javascript on the site, a promo code is two letters followed by nine numbers
    – Remember that zero is also a percent and opt for the alternate, zero bonus multiplier
    – Try and browbeat a Synchrony representative into a code

    For no reason at all, here’s a friendly reminder that Synchrony cards shouldn’t be cycled, at all, ever.
  4. A long useful travel hack is about to become less useful, so smoke ’em if you got ’em while you still can. Also, learn from this trick because travel hacking across different loyalty programs, or even different aspects within the same loyalty program, often rhymes.

Happy Monday!

More lessons in rhyming.