Category: Gift Cards

  1. The Capital One Quicksilver Mastercard is changing:

    – Moving cardholders from Mastercard to Discover (possibly targeted)
    – Adding 3x categories at grocery stores and gas stations

    There’s been a lot of hate about the change, but for a manufactured spender’s perspective this is great because: You’ll have 3x unlimited gas and grocery transferrable miles when paired with another Capital One card, and if you don’t like the Discover transition, you can opt out by May 4th, just as the Star Wars gods foretold.
  2. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spirit and the government are negotiating a $500 Million rescue package.
  3. Kroger has 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel gift cards, since the preceding two weeks’s promotion for the same thing wasn’t enough.

    It turns out that when fuel prices soar, fuel points are worth more. Wild right? Oh wait, no it’s not.
  4. AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program has a promotion for 10,000 bonus miles for paid economy flights from the US to Amsterdam or Paris and beyond on AirFrance or KLM metal. Book by May 3 for travel through September 30 and credit to your US FlyingBlue account.
  5. JetBlue has a promotion for double elite tile earning (yes, it’s silly to even write “that in a sentence “double elite tile”). Book $1,000+ before taxes and fees by tomorrow and stay by August 31.
  6. Meijer MPerks has 7,500 points with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards, but the promotion is limited to one per MPerks account, also known as 🤏.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

Sample Star Wars god.

  1. American Express Offers has new targeted offers for:

    – AirFrance / KLM: $250 or $400 back on $1,000+ or $2,000+ spend through May 31
    – Marriott: $50 or $150 off of $250+ or $500+ spend through August 22
    – Hilton: $40 off of $200+ spend through August 15

    For the hotel offer, a gift card is an easy game to play. For the airline offer, its not as easy but just like Jurassic Park taught us: gamers uh, find a way.
  2. Wells Fargo Offers and US Bank Cash-Back Deals have new offers at various Marriott properties:

    – Renaissance: 15% back up to $75 on $100+ through April 30
    – TownPlace Suites: 15% back up to $57 on $100+ through April 30
    – Le Meridian: 15% back up to $57 on $100+ through April 30
    – Marriott: 10% back up to $80 on $100+ through May 15

    These are usually a lot easier to deal with than American Express Offers.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visas through Saturday, limit nine per person.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. ANA and Japan Airlines both set their fuel surcharges on the two month rolling average of the cost of Singapore Kerosine, which you might be surprised to learn, is a lot higher than it was a few months ago. As a result, the surcharges for both airlines have approximately doubled. You can find discussion and a few data points here.

    Someone please queue the whah-whah trombones for me.

Apparently the Japanese whah-whah trombones also have new fuel surcharges.

  1. Capital One rebranded its Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select business credit cards, and it brought new sign-up bonuses in the process:

    – VentureOne 1.5x everywhere, 50,000 miles after $4,500+ in three months
    – Venture: 2x everywhere and 75,000+75,000 miles after $7,500+ in three months and $30,000+ in six months

    I’m sure someone thought this was a good idea, but choosing to rebrand other cards as Venture when there’s already a Venture X (charge) card that everyone just calls “Venture” is a choice. Also, hello inconsistency with spacing. (Thanks to padbodh)
  2. Bilt introduced a way to earn points through referrals to your enemies which is frankly quite innovative. Richard Kerr was quoted in my imagination as saying:

    “We know that after failing to pay mortgages, numerous social media gaffs, and building the most obtuse rewards platform in history that you’d hesitate to refer our program to your friends and family, but we think you won’t have such qualms against your enemies. Now you can earn while you get revenge!”

    Well said.
  3. The AA eShopping portal has a promotion for 500 bonus miles with $200+ spend through Monday.

    Giftcards.com remains a viable option, especially when you’re stacking offers.
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for a 10% statement credit with Best Western spend May 24, with a maximum credit of $32.
  5. Southwest has a promotion for 2x companion pass qualifying points on cobranded card spend at home improvement stores on up to $10,000 through June 30, registration required.
  6. Breeze has a promotion for 20% off of base fares booked by tomorrow and flown through January 12, 2027 excluding winter holiday travel with promo code PLANIT.

    I realize it’s been a while since we’ve had another Breeze RouteMap Dartboard Bingo™ call so let’s make today’s a twofer: South Bend IN to Fort Meyers FL, and Cincinnati OH – Portland ME. If you got Bingo, come see the host for your prize.

Happy Wednesday!

Bilt Partner restaurant Tom’s Diner shows that it’s a team player.

  1. Accor has a registration required promotion for double points at North America and Brazil properties for stays booked by August 8 and completed by September 8.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Don’t forget that sometimes math maths and that three $200s might work out better than two $200s.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. SoFi paired with Swagbacks has a net sign-up bonus of $815:

    – $415 from Swagbucks for new accounts
    – $400 from SoFi after $5,000 in direct deposits within 30 days

    If you already have a SoFi account, it’s probably a good time to close it for next time, eh?
  4. Early this year, Citi went rogue and decided that it wouldn’t allow corporate debit payments on its personal cards. Last week, Bank of America copied Citi by showering siren, goat, and sobbing emojis on the churning community, at least vicariously.

    Well, just like it’s possible for a photocopier to copy a photo of a photocopier, Citi is copying Bank of America who was copying Citi by disabling those same payments on its business cards too as of June 1.
  5. Meijer MPerks has a promotion 10,000 points on $100+ in One4all gift cards, limit one per MPerks account.

Happy Monday!

Citi IT producing a copy of a Bank of America photocopier.

  1. AA raised checked bag fees yesterday to match JetBlue, United, Delta, and Southwest. Then, Alaska decided it was time too.

    For those keeping track at home, that leaves exactly zero major US airlines that didn’t raise bag fees effectively in tandem.
  2. AA is also devaluing elite benefits for Basic Economy fares, starting on May 18:

    – No more free seat assignments
    – No more complimentary domestic upgrades
    – No more systemwide upgrades
    – Higher checked bag fees where applicable

    There’s still some value in AA elite status, but their drive to make that de-minimus is succeeding.
  3. American Express has newly targeted links for 70,000 Membership Rewards for opening a new business checking account [LINK 1] or [LINK 2]. Both versions require $15,000 in deposits within the first 30 days, five transactions, and maintaining at least a $15,000 account balance for 60 days after deposit.

    For things like these, I prefer to transfer in $15,005 and then schedule five $1 ACHs out.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 8x points on Zift Zillions cards through Thursday. Some of these cards are convertible to high value brands like Amazon and Home Depot. In the most surprising twist of 2026 yet, even Giant Food has the same offer. I assume their corporate overlords are playing reverse April Fools for the entire month.
  5. The American Express Business Platinum’s generic travel landing page has newly targeted no-lifetime language (NLL) offers for 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months. This isn’t the best offer out there, but it is the best NLL offer we’ve seen recently.
  6. It’s not just you, American Express airline incidental credit tricks didn’t work for at least a week in March, but they seem to be working again for more recent purchases; take posts like this with a grain of salt for a few weeks.

Have a nice weekend!

AA and Alaska’s inspirational red wine for April, 2026.

  1. Chase has a new transfer bonuses for the end of April:

    – 20% to Air Canada Aeroplan, making the ratio 1:1.2
    – 70% to IHG, making the ratio 1:1.7

    One of these is a good deal, which one is left as an exercise to the reader.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines MileageBank through the end of April, which makes the transfer ratio 1:0.975
  3. The Bank of America Alaska Atmos cards have new offers different than the new offers from a few days ago:

    – Summit: 100,000 miles and a 50% flight discount after $6,500 spend in 90 days
    – Ascent: 80,000 miles and a 50% flight discount after $4,000 spend in 120 days
    – Business: 85,000 miles after $5,500 spend in 90 days

    The 50% discount has to be flown between September 8 and November 18 with lots of other asterisks, so cool I guess. (Thanks to Jerry)
  4. Mixed data-points are coming in about Lululemon physical stores implementing new gift card rules to presumably combat American Express Platinum exact value cashouts. The rules:

    – Gift card face values must be in multiples of $50
    – One credit card per gift card purchase
    – One gift card per customer per day

    These aren’t implemented at the register level though, so your success level may be tied to your rizz level. Data points specifying rizz are needed to confirm.
  5. March’s Chase Air India offer for 10% back on $100-$500 in spend has a new, April version. The March warning still applies: The best game for this one is to not fly Air India under any circumstances, ever, which should make your game clear.
  6. Chase Pay Yourself Back has several changes for Q2:

    – Personal: grocery stores, pet stores, veterinaries, annual fee, and select charities
    – Business: select charities

    Businesses don’t need cash-back I guess?
  7. If you like glamping and have a Chase Hyatt card, register for Hyatt’s promotion for 20 points per dollar at Under Canvas and ULUM locations for stays between June 1 and September 8.
  8. American Express is ending two relationships:

    – The Amazon Business card portfolio is moving to US Bank in August
    – They’re ending transfer to Etihad Guest at the end of June

    Reportedly American Express dumped both with the cliche, “It’s not you, it’s me”, because creativity is hard.
  9. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has released its April promo rewards for discounted award travel. US cities include: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Detroit, Boston, Atlanta, San Diego, Austin, Orlando, and San Francisco.

    I didn’t see any promo award business class availability in the two cities I checked which is worse than normal.

Happy Thursday!

Fun fact: Thanks to the Lego+Lulu partnership, your $75 can be cashed out for two bricks instead.

  1. Do this now: Register for National’s Spring promotion for a free rental day with every two rentals between April 6 and June 7. Promotional free days must be used by the end of the year.
  2. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. There are multiple reports that Cardless now allows holding three cards. You can’t get the Celtics card anymore, so just make sure you dial back that enthusiasm by 8x, or is it 6x?

Happy Monday!

DIY short and sweet.

I’ve split today’s post up into (1) interesting items, and (2) other, I guess?

  1. Kroger stores have 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards. Both promotions are running through Tuesday, April 7.

    For reasons no one has been able to discern, fuel points are worth quite a bit more than normal right now.
  2. The American Express Graphite charge card has been released, and American Express’s random number generator for the sign-up bonus is in full swing:

    – $1,500 (or $2,000) sign-up bonus after $50,000 spend in six months
    – $295 annual fee
    – 2% cash back everywhere, (except 5% on AmEx Travel flights and hotels)
    – Cash back is not convertible to Membership Rewards

    If you don’t see the heightened bonus, try VPNs, incognito browsers, mobile, letting the application timeout and reload, or summoning SideShowBob233. This card replaces the infamous Plum card, also a charge card.
  3. Two Incomm gift card sites have fee-free gift cards:

    – VanillaGift.com: No purchase fees on Visas with code VGEASTER26
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No purchase fees on Mastercards with code EASTER26

    Clearly this is because of the lack of oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
  4. Delta has an award sale to its Asian destinations, but especially Taiwan and Hong Kong, running through today. Economy flights are 30,000-50,000 miles round trip, and in theory there are sale Delta One fares but they’re not exactly widely available so I wasn’t able to verify pricing.

And:

  1. American Express Business Gold and Business Platinum cards will soon have an annual $300 ChatGPT credit. Before you get excited, they’re likely for the two user $600 annual ChatGPT business plan.
  2. Cathay Pacific is devaluing long-haul business class redemptions by 3%-5%.
  3. JetBlue is reportedly shopping around for buyers, despite assuring everyone they weren’t last week. Since United CEO Scott Kirby said just last week that United wasn’t interested in buying JetBlue at all, there’s a good chance that United is currently in advanced discussions with JetBlue (or maybe I’m just cynical about Kirby).
  4. Bilt added Wyndham as a 1:1 transfer partner. In a sea of bad ideas in travel hacking, transferring more than a de minimus number of Bilt points to Wyndham is a shark sized bad-idea.

Happy Thursday friends!

More shark-sized bad ideas.