Category: Gift Cards

  1. The American Express Delta cards have new, highest ever offers through November 4, but caveat emptor because those marked with “*” are “as-high-as” offers, which means without some sleuthing you won’t know what your bonus is until you’re approved (it feels like that sort of offer ought to be addressed by law, but I’m just a guy who writes stuff on the internet, what do I know?)

    – Gold: 80,000* SkyMiles + $250 credit after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 90,000* SkyMiles + $300 credit after $4,000 in six months
    – Reserve: 50,000 SkyMiles + two free round-trip flights in Main Cabin or Comfort Plus after $10,000 spend in six months

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 200,000 SkyMiles after $20,000 spend in six months

    The personal Reserve free-flight certificates have a value of well over $3,000 for the right use cases, and there aren’t restrictions on fares either. Eligible destinations are the continental 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands on Delta branded metal with a 21 day advance purchase requirement. These are all available via referral, do that or remember this gem.
  2. The Rove shopping and travel portal launched a few new features today:

    – Third-party gift card sales, which earn miles on purchase
    – A new mobile app
    – In-store earning with card-linked offers

    They’ve also added card-linked dining rewards and revamped their hotel portal. Rove has the potential to be Pepper 3.0 with these changes, hopefully without the unredeemable loyalty currency a few years later.
  3. Google Travel’s AI companion now has access to award pricing and availability for Alaska, AA, Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Wyndham. “In the coming weeks” they’re adding Accor, Flying Blue, Hyatt, LATAM, and Lufthansa group airlines.

    It hallucinates award space that doesn’t really exist, though that is likely a temporary phenomenon. (Thanks to isaacides)
  4. American Express offers has an offer on Hilton cards for 13,500 bonus Hilton points with $4,500 spend, up to three times through December 31.
  5. Stop & Shop stores have 10x points on Delta gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per week. Giant and Martins have 8x, and Giant Food has 6x.

Happy Friday!

Watch out for evaporating award space on, *checks notes*, ZephyrJet?

  1. Giftcards.com has 10% off of $100 Visa gift cards with promo code SD10OFF, limit three. I’m pretty sure the SD doesn’t mean shutdown, but you can’t ever be completely certain. Portals usually don’t combine with promo codes but usually doesn’t equal always.
  2. One of churning’s early achievements is to break American Express’s application status site – not intentionally, but rather from sheer volume. AmEx has just made that trophy harder with a new Application Status site better equipped to handle our shenanigans:

    https://newaccounts.americanexpress.com/eaol/welcome.do

    The first one to break this site gets a commemorative cookie.
  3. United announced new routes to Japan and Europe which is interesting for two reasons:

    – Award availability is usually good at launch
    – They’re adding a bunch of narrow body A321-XLR routes

    You do you, but personally I’m not flying long haul on a narrow body aircraft except in dire situations, so pay attention to equipment when you book these new routes.
  4. Meijer stores have a promotion for 10,000 mPerks points with a $100 One4All gift card through September 8, limit one per mPerks account.

Happy Thursday!

Watch out, the commemorative cookies are going fast.

  1. The Imprint Rakuten American Express card has a $200 or 20,000 Membership Rewards, or 20,000 Bilt Rewards sign-up bonus after $2,000 spend in 90 days depending on your Rakuten account. The heightened bonus ends today.

    Imprint American Express cards are useful for several reasons, not the least of which being that you probably shouldn’t be concerned about an Imprint shutdown so go wild.
  2. Citi ThankYou has a 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club through September 19. The transfer bonus brings the ratio to 4:1, or exactly the same as the regular American Express transfer rate.

    David shared an interesting analysis of Leaders Club redemptions showing a post-tax value of generally 1.9 cents per Membership Reward transferred, or I guess now per ThankYou point transferred so it is worth paying attention.
  3. Staples online has fee-free $200 Visa virtual gift cards on sale, limit four per transaction and five total.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards and yes, there are liquidation methods, always be probing. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per transaction. It should be easy to figure out how to scale this one.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. American Express Offers has an offer for $200 off of $1,000 spend at Lufthansa group airlines booked through American Express Travel by October 31.

And yes, there wasn’t actually a Kroger FYI yesterday, oops; stand by for that one later. Also, happy Tuesday friends!

Instructions unclear; liquidating Hy-Vee gift card didn’t work.

  1. The AA World Elite Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 125,000 miles after $15,000 spend in five months, and it’s bringing along an increased $695 annual fee.

    Don’t worry though, there’s still bad news to go with the good news: AA devalued award prices recently so your increased sign-up bonus doesn’t go as far as it would have a few months ago. It’s not quite “heads I win, tails you lose” situation, but there are better ways to get at least 160,000 AA miles, unless you want lots of AA lounge cheese cubes I guess.
  2. Walmart and Sams Club started accepting Apple Pay today, at least at “select locations”. The non-select locations will have support by the end of the year.

    Always be probing.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

More good news mixed with bad news.

  1. Air France / KLM FlyingBlue is devaluing mileage redemptions by introducing three fare classes for all cabins on September 8: Light, Standard, and Flex. Light means fewer or no checked bags, no refunds, seat assignments carry a fee, lounge access isn’t included. Standard is fairly close to the status quo, and Flex includes free changes and refunds. How is this a devaluation? Let’s look at low-level business class transatlantic award redemption costs:

    – Light: 60,000 miles
    – Standard: 75,000 miles
    – Flex: 110,000 miles

    So what you used to get for 60,000 miles will now cost you an extra +15,000 miles. It brings me absolutely no pleasure to report that I thought we’d see a devaluation when Tiffany Funk took over as the FlyingBlue leader. I also think we haven’t seen the last FlyingBlue devaluation in the coming year. Spend any FlyingBlue miles you have quickly.
  2. Kroger stores will have a 4x fuel points promotion Friday through Sunday on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fuel retailer gift cards.

    Best Buy is still hard out there, but Best Buy also isn’t the only game in town.
  3. Meijer mPerks has a promotion for 10,000 points with $100+ in Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per mPerks account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Citi Merchant Offers has a card linked offer for $50 off of $400+ in JetBlue spend through September 30.
  5. Bilt added Equinox redemptions for its Itchy and Scratchy Cash for classes and spa sessions. The redemption amount is tied directly to your Bilt Status. There are also coupons for new Equinox memberships which are, uhh, something.

    Coming soon: An Equinox credit card. Source? I made it up, but watch for it anyway.

Happy Thursday!

Equinox personal training session, courtesy of Bilt.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan through September 30, and Aeroplan Visa card holders can stack their regular 10% bonus for a total of 30%.

    Unless you have a specific award redemption in mind, 1 Hyatt point is probably worth more than 1.2 or 1.3 Aeroplan miles so speculate at your own risk.
  2. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x on One4All and Choice gift cards through August 25.
  3. The half-life of US Bank transfer partners seems to be a day; now there are only two left:

    – Ethiopian Sheba Miles
    – Accor ALL

    I guess by Friday we’ll have a half of a transfer partner, otherwise known as Frontier?
  4. Capital One Shopping has targeted promotions on the home page for:

    – $100 off of $100+ in hotels booked through Capital One Travel
    – $100 off of $100+ in rental cars booked through Capital One Travel

    Of course $100 off really means $100 worth of gift cards that are worth an average(ish) of $90 on the resale market. If you don’t have a Capital One Shopping account, use a friend’s referral and you’ll be in, even if you’re banned from Capital One Bank.
  5. Kroger stores also have a new promotion for 4x on all gift cards excluding Amazon from tomorrow through Sunday. Notably, flexible fuel cards are no longer excluded from 4x.
  6. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 points on $100+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per mPerks account.
  7. American Express added about 350+ hotels to its Fine Hotels and Resorts collection and its The Hotel Collection. There’s good new coverage in most of Europe, Asia, and North America.
  8. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard is targeting more people for its 8% back on $1,250+ in travel and entertainment, up to $125, once a month for August, September, and October. You might find it on the ThankYou dashboard offers section, Chrome seems to work best for that. (Thanks to Hippo 387)
  9. American Express offers has a card linked offer for $80 off of $400 at Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines through October 23. Alaska refund to wallet is a safe and easy way to game this one.

Happy Thursday friends!

Does this count as a good prediction or a bad prediction? The Western Union app could confirm either.

  1. The Barclay’s Lufthansa Miles & More credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend and paying the $89 annual fee within 90 days.

    The card is basically 1x everywhere on the earn side generally speaking, but it’s one of the best way to earn Lufthansa miles so I guess you win some and lose some? Did anyone notice that lose rhymes with floosies?
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $3,500 spend in four months. The card’s $99 annual fee is waived the first year.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax Stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Practically speaking you should be buying these in even multiples of $300. Remember even and odd numbers friends? #MathIsHard

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Wyndham has a weird partnership with Costco that’s I guess tailored to the intersection of manufactured spend and award travel: Get 4,000 Wyndham points and a $40 shop card with a new Executive Membership using promo code WYNDHAM26 through September 16; you’ll provide your Wyndham Rewards number during the sign-up process.

    There’s also an offer for the Gold Star Membership, but you’d be making TeddyH cry if you chose that option. Of course Groupon may still be better because reasons. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Tuesday!

Leaving half eaten bars of chocolate ice cream in the fridge also makes TeddyH sad, reportedly.

  1. American Express’s Resy monthly and quarterly credits now have certain excluded Resy restaurants, and because complexity is the mother of annoyance and American Express maximizes annoyance as a core KPI, excluded restaurants will change periodically.

    Most restaurants are currently still eligible, but to check you’ve got to (1) login to Resy, (2) add an AmEx card with a Resy credit to your wallet, (3) search for the restaurant in Resy, and (4) see if the restaurants says “Qualifies for Resy Credit”. KPI indeed.
  2. Turkish Miles & Smiles has a 40% incoming transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou Points through August 31, limit 50,000 bonus miles from 125,000 miles transferred in.

    Bonus miles will be awarded by Turkish in early September.
  3. Capital One has a transfer 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles through September 15. This is generally a good opportunity if you have bookings, but absolutely watch out for phantom space which plagues LifeMiles.
  4. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Some stores had this last week too, it’s not just you.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Staples.com has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five total and four per transaction, again just like last week.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, and these were also on sale last week.

Have a nice Monday!

Leaked AmEx KPI Master dashboard.