Category: Gift Cards

  1. First Electronic Bank’s Bank’s Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $100, or 10,000 Membership Rewards, after $1,000 spend in 90 days. The card earns:

    – Rakuten portal: 4x up to $7,000 spend per year
    – Rakuten restaurants: 5x
    – Groceries and dining: 2x
    – Everywhere else: 1x

    The card definitely isn’t an unsung hero, but it is a card that earns unlimited 2x Membership Rewards at grocery without RAT concerns, and possibly soon unlimited 2x Bilt points at grocery too. It’s also a third party AmEx. Finally, it’s time for your annual reminder that Rakuten used to be called buy.com, but that was too hard to say and spell, or something.
  2. Existing Bank of America Preferred Rewards members have an opportunity for a $1,000 bonus for bringing $250,000+ in retirement or regular brokerage investments into a new Merrill account, even if have an existing Merrill account with promo 1000PR.

    You can ACATS transfer existing investments. Investments only have to be with Merrill for 90 days after transfer.
  3. American Express has newly targeted upgrade offers for:

    Delta Gold to Platinum: 30,000 SkyMiles + $250 statement credit with $3,000 spend
    Delta Platinum to Reserve: 35,000 SkyMiles + $300 statement credit with $4,000 spend

    Both give you six months to hit the spend.
  4. American Express’s Delta Personal Gold card also has a heightened $500 statement credit + 50,000 SkyMiles sign-up bonus after $3,300 spend in six months through October 29. The offer is presented while making a (dummy) booking, and the annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    This one won’t work with the above targeted upgrade offers in the first year though, thanks to CARD act, also known as the fried twinkee of credit card regulations.
  5. Vanilla Gift has fee-free Visa gift cards with promo code VISA100. I’d be surprised if other Incomm sites don’t also have promotions running, but they’re not advertising them in the same ways that they normally do so I can’t tell. Purchase limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours per account.

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Rove lets you now earn regular loyalty points and elite night credits on some hotel bookings in addition to miles earned directly with Rove.

Happy Wednesday!

Rakuten’s next rebrand.

  1. Do this now: Register for your Q4 Marriott targeted Q4 promotions, including:

    – Five bonus elite nights, usable 2x for stays through January 31, 2026
    – Extra elite night for all stays through December 31
    – 15,000 bonus points every five stays, up to 3x through January 31, 2026
    – 2,000 bonus per stay at AC, Courtyard, or Four Points properties through February 16, 2026
    – 2,025 bonus points per stay, up to 3x through January 10, 2026
    – 2,000 bonus points per stay, up to 3x at Outdoors properties through January 10, 2026

    Some of those numbers look big, but remember they’re still Bonvoy points.
  2. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. Staples.com has fee-free virtual $200 Visa gift cards, limit four per account. Sometimes obscure portals work on these too, sometimes.

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. American Express has a few new offers, all of which are valid through December 31:

    – Virgin Atlantic: $250 off of $1,800+
    – Hilton Cards (variation 1): Earn 6,000 bonus points for a $3,000+ purchase (up to 3x)
    – Hilton Cards (variation 2): Earn 20,000 bonus points for a $10,000+ purchase (up to 3x)
    – Qatar: $200 off of $850+ through AmEx Travel

    I’m told “gamers gonna (allegedly) game”. (Thanks to Stowe)

Happy Tuesday!

“Allegedly”

  1. Stop & Shop, Giant, Giant Food, and Martins have 2x point earning on Mastercards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or $1,500 for Giant Food because sibling spite).

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. New no-lifetime language (NLL) Hilton card offers are available and they’ve been shared by DDG (note that DDG says that these are hacked links, but at least the Aspire and Honors links are generally available at hotels on Hilton WiFi):

    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Honors: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months

    These are good offers, and they’re great offers for NLL cards, but Hilton’s recent devaluations are significant so make sure you know the award prices for a booking you have in mind rather than blindly signing up for one of these bonuses.
  3. Ether.fi is cluster bombing travel influencers promoting their crypto backed 3% everywhere debit card and crypto account. It’s cool on the surface and by all means please try and work it into your churning portfolio, but you should know:

    – They’ll turn off your cash back earning really quickly if you have a big transaction or two
    – They’re pretty sure “cashback farmers” are constantly attacking their company
    – Their site is rather buggy, and their support doesn’t respond to tickets
    – They advertise debit card features that haven’t been implemented
    – You’re not actually earning cash back, you’re earning SCR which is down 75% for the year

    So, good luck I guess?
  4. Paid flights on Qatar have a 5% discount code and 3,000 bonus miles in most fare buckets (or 10% and 6,000 bonus miles in some expensive fare buckets) using promo code QRPCHILTON for travel booked by October 31 and flown by March 31, 2026.

    Why? Because somehow a Qatar+Hilton partnership gives you bonus earnings on Qatar and exactly nothing with Hilton except their name in a promo code. #marketingfail
  5. Stater Bros stores have $10 off of groceries with $50+ in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through October 21.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gif cards.
  6. Meijer stores have 10,000 bonus MPerks points with $100+ in One4All gift cards through Tuesday, limit 10,000 points per MPerks account.

    Meijer sells both Pathward / BlackHawk Network and Sunrise gift cards.

Have a nice weekend!

A cashback farmer driving to Meijer.

  1. The Citi Strata Elite Card has a public heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 ThankYou points after $6,000 spend in three months, no weird links or other in-branch shenanigans that may or may not involve eating pudding with a fork are needed.
  2. The AA eShopping portal currently has giftcards.com at 2.5x earning. You may be surprised to learn that giftcards.com sells things like gift cards.

    AA in particular is interesting because you’ll also earn Loyalty Points toward status through the shopping portal.
  3. Discount airlines are running sales:

    – Frontier: Sale on paid and award bookings made today, travel through December 18
    – American Express Offers for Frontier: $50 off of $200+ by December 31
    – Southwest: Sale on paid and award bookings made today, travel 21 days out

    The Frontier deals will be specifically great for churning legend Alan, but have utility outside of Alan too.
  4. Blit Rewards (sp) added Etihad Guest as a 1:1 transfer partner. I’m glad to see new partners, but this one adds about as much incremental value as mayonnaise does to pizza.

Happy Thursday!

Bilt adds Etihad, but as a pizza.

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points earning on all Zift cards through Saturday, digital coupon clip required. On Saturday, the typical 4x coupon may stack to make these 12x instead of 10x too. Some Just4U brands also have a stackable offer for $10 off of $50+ for third party gift cards (no coupon clip required) including Zift.

    Why is this a headliner? Some Zifts convert to high value brands like Amazon.
  2. Staples in-store has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. A link for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card with 80,000 miles after $1,000 spend showed up over the weekend from a new in-flight offer. You’ll need a flight attendant code to finish the application but pretty much any six digit number starting with ’00’ will work. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Rakuten’s $50 or 5,000 Membership Rewards referral offer for both the referral and referred is now running through December 31.

    Dormant Rakuten accounts aren’t valuable in the same way that Capital One Shopping accounts are, but they’re not un-useful.

Happy Monday!

The banana slicer: also not un-useful.

Let’s roll with a hypothetical and single out Capital One while we’re at it, because reasons.

Assume that you’re shopping for exactly $1,500.00 worth of hot Takis at the local Kroger affiliate. After ringing up your cart full of Takis, you swipe your Venture X card. The charge goes through, but then you get this message on your phone:

Hi, it’s Capital One. It looks like you may have purchased a gift card from FRYS-FOOD-DRG #0073 on your Venture X Business ending in 1111.

We want to remind you that Capital One and government agencies will never request payment in the form of gift cards.

If you think a scammer is trying to convince you to pay them with a gift card, don’t give them the gift card information. Instead, call us at the number on the back of your card.

Obviously, Capital One has already algorithmically determined that (1) your Takis look a lot like gift cards, (2) you’re either a manufactured spender or a rube, and (3) they don’t want to pay for your chargebacks once the jig is up whether or not you’re a rube.

If, on the other hand, you toss a few coins into the register or swipe a nearly empty gebit card and watch it auto drain before swiping that Venture X, you’ll never hear a peep from Capital One’s automated systems because rubes don’t buy $1,499.22 worth of gift cards (obviously).

So, carry some extra change, nearly drained gebits, or go to an actual cashier and ask them to split payments before buying hot Takis in the future; your account’s longevity probably depends on it.

Have a nice weekend!

Alternate method: buy a bag of hot Cheetos with the hot Taki’s, but be aware that this may cause the spontaneous and abrupt end of the universe.

  1. The American Express Hilton cards have increased sign-up bonuses, though the increased bonuses don’t make up for recent devaluations:

    – Honors: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business: 175,000 points after $8,000 spend in six months

    These are available via referrals, use another player or another churner’s referral. Don’t apply head-on, make a churner’s day.
  2. It’s October transfer bonus time:

    – American Express 20% to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through October 31
    – American Express 30% to Marriott Bonvoy through November 30
    – Chase 30% to British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia Avios through October 31
    – Chase 80% to IHG through October 31
    – United 30% incoming transfer bonus from hotels, registration required, through October 31 (Marriott becomes 60,000:35,000)

    Even with the transfer bonuses IHG is an awful value, and Marriott Bonvoy is of dubious value, though it does offer a roundabout way to convert Membership Rewards to United MileagePlus which after the two bonuses will shake out to 1,000:758 (let’s call this a 6-7).

  3. Royal Jordanian is selling a 12 month long membership to oneworld airline lounges status match to oneworld Sapphire (Gold Sparrow) for $149. You can match with status from most non-oneworld airlines. Oneworld Sapphire gets access to AA and Alaska lounges when flying domestically, including AA Flagship lounges.

    The IATA code for Royal Jordanian is RJ (fixed, thanks to Kevin), which believe me will be helpful to know if you’re trying to use this for US domestic lounge access.
  4. Meijer MPerks has a clipable coupon for $10 off of $150+ in Mastercards through Tuesday.

    Meijer sells both Sunrise and Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. The Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Pay Yourself Back categories for Q4 are grocery, gas, department stores, and annual fees for 1.25 cents per point. The “select charities” option at 1.5 cents per point is still around too.
  6. American Express Offers has lots of new offers:

    – Viator $30 statement credit with $300+ through October 31
    – Best Western $50 statement credit with $250+ through December 31
    – Marriott Brands (various): $200-$300 off of $500-$750+ through December 31

    Most things bookable on airbnb experiences are also bookable on Viator, so you may find organic opportunity on that one.
  7. The Barclays Lufthansa Miles&More Mastercard has an all time high tiered sign-up bonus of 50,000+20,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days and $12,000 spend in the first year, respectively.

    There is a Swiss First niche where this card can make sense if you’re good at ignoring opportunity cost. Apropos of nothing, where are my FNBO JAL groupies at? (Thanks to pizza42bob)

Happy Thursday!

The Membership Rewards United backdoor, as a mug.

  1. The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card, the pop-tart costume version of a credit card, has a heightened, in-branch only offer For Wells Fargo Premier clients of 100,000 points after $4,000 spend in ninety days. The card earns 5x transferrable points at hotels and “hotels”.

    Wells Fargo Premier technically requires $250,000 held at Wells Fargo in either a bank or a brokerage account, but paying $35 a month (obviously for only one month before you downgrade) gets you the status too.
  2. The American Express Business Platinum has a new link for employee cards with a bonus of 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months, up to five per primary account.

    The fozzie wocka wocka is alive and well too.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Last week’s Mastercard offer was spotty, working only on some days and only in some stores, so I’d exercise caution with this week’s offer. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for back-to-back transactions

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Publix stores have a digital coupon for $10 off of $25 worth of groceries with a $100 Visa gift card through Saturday. Is the juice worth the squeeze on this one? I guess depends on the type of juice.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey mascot costume, new for Halloween 2025.