Category: Gift Cards

  1. Hyatt’s 2026 corporate status match, which instantly awards Explorist status through February 2028 and offers a fast track to Globalist with 20 nights in 90 days, is now available.

    You’ve got to have a big company email address to make this work, or you’ve got to be creative. Or, ¿por qué no los dos?
  2. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $8,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year.

    This offer is also available via referrals, but only for new Chase Business customers.
  3. The Rakuten American Express card has a heightened sign-up bonus of $100 after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the card carries no annual fee. The ability to earn unlimited 2x Membership Rewards (or temporarily Bilt Rewards) at grocery makes this card an Unsung Hero candidate.
  4. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of five free-night certificates after $3,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived the first year. Each certificate is worth up to 50,000 points. Remember with Marriott you’ll still pay resort fees and for parking on award stays, and 50,000 points probably doesn’t get you the kind of hotel you think it should.

    This offer should be available for referrals on Monday.
  5. There’s a targeted offer for $50 back on $250+ in airfare for existing Marriott Bonvoy Boundless cardholders, and its usable once between now and the end of June, and then once more between July and December.
  6. PSA: There’s a link floating around major blogs for the Bank of America Atomos Ascent Visa with a sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 120 days. This link isn’t generic, it’s someone’s referral link.

    If you’re interested in the card, use a friend or another player’s referral link instead for the same offer, and they’ll get 10,000 miles too. 👏 Always know the provenance of links you’re using.👏
  7. Stop & Shop and Giant stores have 2x points on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Paid parking on award stays? Non-issue at the Courtyard Anaheim because at 74,000 points/night, your certificate won’t even work. #bonvoyed

  1. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Marcus Apple Card portfolio will be moving to Chase with a deal inked yesterday. There’s a chance that current Apple Card holders banned by Chase may find their way back as part of the acquisition based on prior deals, but it’s definitely not a guarantee. (Thanks to mforch)
  2. The Nilson report for credit card purchase volume in 2024 by issuer was leaked on reddit yesterday. I believe the data to be dubiously accurate.

    Two questions: (1) Do you have a card from every issuer on the list? And (2), why not? If banned from Chase, see the previous item.
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards through Tuesday, January 20. As usual, Amazon and third party fuel gift cards are excluded from the promotion.

    In a Pepper-free, lame-Newegg world, market rates are surprisingly good for a January.
  4. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 26 and May 13 booked by tonight using promo code DREAMBIG. Yes, someone at Southwest dreamt of blackout dates, and yes they made that dream real.

Happy Thursday!

The Marcus-Chase card deal contract, with banana for scale.

  1. Expired free night certificates used to be worth 10,000 points for a category 1-4 certificate, or 20,000 points for a category 1-7 certificate if you called Hyatt right after expiration and asked, as long as those certificates were from the Hyatt program and not a partner like AA or Chase. That was nerfed, with the new values:

    – Category 1-4 expired certificate: 2,500 points
    – Category 1-7 expired certificate, 5,000 points

    It beats the devaluation points for Club Upgrade Award certificates for Globalists I guess.
  2. Chase Pay Yourself Back on the Sapphire Reserve Business card removed all bonus categories except for “Select Charities”, and the boost on that category dropped from 50% to 25%. #bonvoyed

    The personal Sapphire Reserve is unaffected. (Thanks to Chris)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 10x points on Lowes gift cards through Thursday. Of course their little brother Giant Food is only 4x. Why? Because reasons.
  5. JetBlue has 26% off of base fares booked by tomorrow for travel between January 13 and February 28 using code GO26. Of course there are blackouts, and also all Fridays and Saturdays are #NOGO26. You can stack this with a Citi Merchant offer for $50 off of $200+ too.

    Did I hear you want discounted Mint or transatlantic, or worse, discounted Mint+transatlantic? JetBlue was quoted as saying “That’s a nah from me dawg. Just ask Giant Food.”

Have a nice Tuesday!

It’s not all sadness at Giant Food though, their seasonal section carries this beauty.

  1. The generic Blue Business Plus and Blue Business Cash links currently have no-lifetime language (NLL) targeted offers:

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

    Both cards have no annual fee, and as far as I know, these offers are not available via referrals.
  2. Hey-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa gift cards through Sunday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. The Incomm sites have fee free gift cards for the holidays. The first two sites promotions run through December 17, and the last runs through December 31:

    – VanillaGift.com: Fee free $100+ Visas with promo VGHOLIDAY25
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Fee free $300+ Visas and Mastercards with promo HOLIDAY25
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Fee free Mastercards with promo NOFEES25

    Sometimes these codes stick around longer than they should, and sometimes they come back from the dead too. These are Incomm
  4. The Kudos shopping portal now offers payouts via PayPal directly with a $10 minimum. Prior to yesterday, Amazon cash-out at 1 cent per point was the best option available. Obviously (electronic) cash is mo betta though.

    If you’re not a member of Kudos, ask a fellow churner for a referral and make their day. If you don’t know any fellow churners with Kudos, reach out to me and I’ll send one at random.
  5. Breeze Airways has 40% off of base fares for travel booked today with promo code TWIST.

    You know what that means, right? It’s time for more Breeze Route Bingo™. Today’s route is Gulfport, MS (GFP) to Las Vegas, NV (LAS). If you have a bingo, reach out to me for today’s grand prize, up to $10,000 daily in fee-free gift cards through December 17!

Happy Wednesday!

Second place in Breeze Route Bingo™ gets half a sandwich.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has a heightened bonus of 75,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months today only.

    This is a great card for ancillary benefits, but it’s a relatively lame bonus at face value given that Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards also transfer to Virgin and have cards with higher bonuses.
  2. The Mesa Homeowners Visa card added Omni Hotels as a transfer target. Until it’s nerfed, there’s good value on the high end at 30,000 points for a free night at any Omni hotel. Transferring within the next three months also earns you “Champion Status” in the Omni program, which is about the same as the mid-tier status levels at other hotel chains.
  3. The two biggest US airlines that you don’t want to fly that don’t start with “American” are having fare sales:

    – Southwest: 50CYBER for 50% off of base fares booked by tomorrow
    – JetBlue: SAVE35 for 35% off of base fares booked today

    It might shock you to learn that there are certain blackout dates with each sale. I know, crazy right?
  4. Kroger online has 5% off of Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo code TEACHERS25, limit ten per account through December 8. These cards earn fuel points which makes it a great deal provided you know how to use or sell those points. The purchase will not code as grocery.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping has 1,000 bonus miles with $200 spend through Sunday. Giftcards.com remains on the shopping portals, but only 1x at Southwest so a single $200 gift card should be about right.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Trigger warning: Omni hotel shower drain.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you sent me an email, message, or something else over the last week and a half, I probably haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s not you, it’s me; well, it’s me and a disconnected international trip.

  1. Rakuten In-Store card linked offers has offers for:

    – 6% or 6x at Walgreens
    – 1% or 1x at Food Lion
    – 1% or 1x at Giant
    – 1% or 1x at Martin’s

    Remember, it’s not just credit cards that link to Rakuten. You’ve got to re-add the offer an hour after its first use, though any purchases within that hour are still active. These offers generally aren’t supposed to work for gift cards, but “supposed to” and “the real world” don’t always align. (Thanks to Douglas)
  2. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, formerly the Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, continues its predecessor’s reign in the Unsung Heroes realm, and it continues to taunt churners who don’t have the card since you can’t currently apply for it. Offers for those with the card were sent for:

    – $50 statement credit after $450 spend, twice monthly for three months

    For #mathchallenged: $50*2*3 =$300. Also, e^{i*\pi}=-1 (just thought you’d want to know). (Thanks to Adam)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Staples.com has fee-free $200 virtual Visa electronic gift cards, limit five.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Giftcards.com has increased portal payouts like it’s going out of style, and some of those increased payouts will last through the week. The most interesting:

    – ShopBack: 5%
    – AA: 2.5x

    Use a referral for the first portal if you don’t already have account there and make a friend’s day.
  6. Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cards earn 5x at PayPal for the month of December only, and [checks notes] it’s now December. The $1,500 5x spend quarterly limit still applies.

Good luck on your buyer’s group and reselling activity today, and happy Monday!

Sometimes math is easy.

November and December historically offer the best spreads between retailer discount gift card cost and brokers’ buying prices. The best rates are going to be with private buyers and small brokers, not with the big guys, but for obvious reasons you’re not going to find private buyers and small brokers here. We can discuss major brokers that are open to (most) churners though. For weekend funzies, let’s review the brokers as if they were greek gods:

You’ve still got time to onboard with most of these for the holidays if you’re not already a member. Have a nice weekend, and may Olympus favor your manufactured spend.

(Bonus analogy) Dell’s order verification team: Cerebus for guarding the gates to hell.

  1. Kroger has a bonus 1x fuel points promotion that stacks with its currently running 4x fuel points promotion for a total of 5x fuel points earning on One4All Ultimate cards through November 27.

    Some One4All cards convert to Home Depot.
  2. JetBlue announced new service from Boston to both Milan, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. Points availability is often best right when it’s first bookable, especially for third party airline partner bookings.
  3. Chase had been threatening an AmEx style pop-up for ink cards via their T&Cs for about a week, but it had been an empty threat until yesterday when a report surfaced that Chase presented an Ink applicant with an AmEx style popup:

    “A quick update about your application. It looks like you’re not eligible for a bonus for a Chase Ink Business Cash credit card. This can happen if you currently have this card or have had it previously. Customers who are applying for a Chase Business card without an annual fee or who have held this card are also ineligible.”

    The user had the option to continue without the bonus, no report on whether or not a hard pull occurred. #bonvoyed
  4. Virgin Atlantic is awarding 12,000 points after flying at least one Flying Club award or paid Virgin metal flight credited to Flying Club for five non-consecutive years, with a look-back to 2021. You’ll earn “High Five” status.

    You’ll also earn a 10% bonus on redeemable miles from flying with High Five. (Thanks to DLD)

Happy Thursday friends!

The Inspiration for Virgin’s High Five status.