Category: Gift Cards

  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.

  1. Chase Offers has a widely targeted offer for $100 off of $600+ on Chase Travel bookings through September 30.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. These work best when you buy in multiples of $600, and apparently based on recent observations, they also work best when you hide them behind other gift cards or inside the gift card rack🙄.

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points with a $500 gift card purchase through July 14. Unfortunately you’re limited to one per account, but fortunately, it turns out through some fluke of unnatural universal laws that it’s possible to have multiple accounts.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Staples.com has fee-free $200 virtual Visa gift cards, limit four per transaction. (Yes, yes, I know it says five but here we are.)

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, RIP those US Bank ones though, amirite?
  5. Lufthansa First partner award space seems to be back, at least on a limited basis.
  6. Alaska Airlines may have reverted to its old behavior of allowing the combination of wallet funds and companion fares on the same ticket, re-allowing gamers to game. Reports suggest that this may have been a one-day reversion or maybe a staggered rollout though, I haven’t seen any reports of anyone doing this successfully.

Happy Monday!

Pouring something out for US Bank gift cards.

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 12x points on $50+ in BestBuy gift cards through Tuesday. Register limits are $500 every 15 minutes.
  2. American Express’s on-again/off-again Summer transfer bonuses are on again, presumably this time for realzies:

    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300
    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400

    There are use cases for both, but especially the former. If you’re going to be speculative, might I suggest that the Hilton one, uhh, ain’t it chief.
  3. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to EVA through July 31, making the transfer ratio 1,000:975. Premium Citi ThankYou cards still transfer at 1,000:1,000 though.
  4. The Chase Sapphire Reserve personal card’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed to gas and transit, and the rate dropped from 1.25 cents per point to 1.20 cents per point for categories other than the annual fee and select charities. The Business version hasn’t changed, but still only offers boosted redemptions on charities.

    The Sapphire Preferred’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed and dropped too, with transit at 1.05 cents per point, and pet supply at 1.10 cents per point.
  5. The Rove travel and shopping portal added Frontier as a transfer partner, which whatever except that it’s a unique partner for a non-hotel program. They’ve got a 25% transfer bonus to Frontier through July 31 making the ratio 1,000:1,250.
  6. American Express Offers has various offers for $200-$250 off of $1,000-$1,250 at Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR properties in North America.
  7. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its July 2026 promo rewards for travel through the end of the year. North America to Europe cities:

    – Economy: ATL, DEN, MIA, PDX, RDU, YUL, YVR, YOW for 18,500 miles
    – Premium Economy: LAX, ORD for 30,000 miles
    – Business: JFK for 45,000 miles

    There’s surprisingly good availability in business this summer, so go get some European frites.
  8. Marriott Bonvoy Titanium and Ambassador elites or United Gold, Platinum, or 1K elites can register for a complex promotion for reciprocal bonus points on either paid United itineraries or paid Marriott hotel stays.

    Neither promotion is great, but they’re both better than Texas frites.

Happy Thursday friends!

With Rove and Frontier, you can check my math on Lubbock frites.

  1. PerfectGift.com has a bonus $150 choice gift card when sending a $500 choice gift card to a third party by July 4 using promo code 250SMILES. These can be redeemed for Visa, Home Depot, Target, and other high value gift cards. I hope this gets you more excited than Paze at Wendy’s did, but you’ll need to practice isolation to scale.

    These are Sutton gift cards.
  2. Chase has new co-branded spend offers, check for targeting at chase.com/mybonus. Offers have been seen on at least the Amazon, Aeroplan, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Ritz, and United cards, and include:

    – 10x points on $1,000 at gas, grocery, or restaurants
    – 5x points on $1,000 at gas, grocery, or restaurants
    – 3,000, 4,000, or 6,000 bonus points for between $3,000 and $6,000 spend

    Each of these are valid through September 30.
  3. The Twitter X Money Visa underwritten by CrossRiver bank launched for premium subscribers. The vitals

    – The Visa is a debit card
    – There’s reportedly 3% cash back
    – Savings kept in the account will reportedly earn 6% APR
    – You won’t have a custodial, FDIC insured account

    X premium costs $8 per month, and reportedly receiving a payment from an X user that already has the card makes you eligible for the account whether or not you’re a premium subscriber, so queue the worlds weirdest conga.
  4. Xander wrote in to let me know that American Express Blueprint can now create virtual cards for seemingly all business credit cards, including co-branded cards; so long PayWithExtend, and hello more shenanigans.
  5. The Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa card has a new application bonus via Rakuten of either $50 or $90 (or 5,000 or 9,000 points). The card’s $200 sign-up bonus after $500 spend in three months is also part of the deal.

Happy Wednesday!

A clam demonstrates isolation for PerfectGift.com.

  1. The Delta American Express Business cards have new, targeted online upgrade offers:

    – Delta Business Platinum: 50,000 SkyMiles with $8,000+ in six months
    – Delta Business Reserve: 60,000 SkyMiles with $12,000+ in six months

    If you have a Business Gold and your account is lucky, you can do the Business Platinum upgrade, wait about 31 days, then do the Business Reserve upgrade. If you want to (likely) get shutdown, you could potentially go in the opposite direction.
  2. Staples stores have fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Kroger stores have a coupon for a fee-free variable load Visa or Mastercard loaded with at least $150, expiring today.

    Unfortunately these are limited to one per account, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you might have more than one of those. Call me crazy I guess.
  4. I don’t know of a good place for consolidated grocery news for manufactured spenders, so let’s quick-form one today:

    – Safeway’s Just4U program’s $20 and $15 cash-out options are back after a month hiatus
    – Kroger’s shutdown team works regular business hours, more or less
    – New gold Zift cards aren’t earning Just4U points automatically
    – Kroger coupons continue to stack in new and unusual ways

    I’m still workshopping a name for a periodic section like this, and grocery quickies just doesn’t feel like it.

Happy Monday!

MEAB meets the internet.

  1. Meijer has 10,000 bonus points on $100+ in Mastercard gift cards, limit 10,000 points per account.

    Meijer sells both Pathward / BlackHawk Network and Sunrise gift cards.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards running through July 7. Yes, this is different than the last two-week 4x fuel points promotion that ended the day before this one started.

    The last promotion saw Kroger fighting back against gamers, but gamers just found a variation on the game because good/evil (choose one) always wins, except those times that they lose I guess.
  3. American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonuses to Hilton and Virgin Atlantic ended prematurely. Speculation suggests that they were accidentally released ahead of their intended July 1 date. (Thanks to FM)
  4. Expedia’s OneKey program is devaluing, with earning now based on status tier instead of a fixed 2% cash back on non-flights, no earning on flights, and the removal of its price guarantee.

    The Expedia OneKey credit cards remain an interesting niche play though. If you haven’t heard of this card in a long time, or possibly ever, it’s probably because they don’t pay much in the way of affiliate sales commission; do with that what you will.
  5. Asiana Airlines will complete its acquisition by Korean Air later this year. As of December 17, they’ll no longer honor Star Alliance award bookings, even those already ticketed.

    If you have one of those bookings, I’d start looking (a) at legal recourse, and (b) backup award flights on other carriers.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

The Expedia OneKey cards sit in the corner wondering why no one loves them.

  1. US Bank has double cash back on both its portal and its card linked offers through Friday. Unfortunately, this portal is convoluted enough to need a cheat sheet.
  2. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard is sending targeted bonuses for 1,500 bonus points after two $10+ purchases using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay. I believe this generic link will work for every Virgin cardholder, but the terms and conditions don’t show on the target page for anyone so ymmv. (Thanks to David)
  3. Stater Bros has $10 off of groceries purchased with a $50+ One4All gift card through July 7. These work on back-to-back transactions too so bring your favorite cashier a thank you $10 Dunkin Paze gift card or something for tying up their line for an hour. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has two transfer bonuses:

    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400
    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300

    Frankly American Express should be bringing you a $10 Dunkin Paze gift card for your trouble in dealing with their Hilton transfer bonus.
  5. Thanks to a comedy of errors at Chase, Ink Plus cards will earn 5x on shipping through Saturday. Too bad Fat Bobby is out of business?
  6. Delta SkyMiles has an award sale through tomorrow night for economy travel in September, October, and November. Selected pricing:

    – Europe: 40,000 – 60,000 SkyMiles round trip
    – Central America and Mexico: 16,000 – 21,000 SkyMiles round trip

    AA and Delta’s economy award sales this week for fall travel should tell you something about how the airlines are doing at filling the back of the bus this fall.

Happy Wednesday!

Meanwhile in the rest of the blog-o-sphere…