Category: Gift Cards

  1. Hyatt sent targeted spending bonuses via email and in-app pop-up yesterday. Offers reported:

    – 1,000 – 1,500 bonus points for night multiples, up to 15-30 nights total
    – 20% back on award stays, up to 150,000 points spent / 30,000 points back
    – double or triple elite nights on up to five or ten nights
    – a free night certificate after a two or three night stay
    – double or triple points on up to 30,000 points earned

    Note that many of these require registration by June 6 and have a 90 day window for the promotion runtime, so it probably only makes sense to register the day before your first stay, as long as that’s before June 6. There is a collection of links here, but if you’re not targeted they won’t work.
  2. Southwest’s schedule is now open through March 5, 2025. On an related news item, if you book and board a Southwest flight, you’ll be flying Southwest so know what you’re getting yourself into. (Are they perfectly fine? I mean, mostly – but that’s not high praise.)
  3. The American Express Business Platinum card has a new 300,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus after $20,000 spend in three months. To find it, you may need to try all the gyrations:

    – Go incognito
    – Try different browsers, like Brave, Qikfox, Firefox, or Edge
    – Try both desktop and mobile devices
    – Connect to a VPN in various cities
    – Burn an old green employee card in effigy

    (Thanks to Heather)
  4. American Express has a new version of the Delta Reserve and Delta Reserve Business card that’s partially made out of the airframe of an old 747. Existing cardholders can request that version of the card by using the app’s “replace card” functionality, and if you’re not an existing card holder but you really want one, you can get one with AmEx and still be on good terms by either:

    – Applying for a new card, never hitting the sign-up bonus, and closing it within 30 days for no annual fee
    – Upgrading an existing card to a Delta Reserve without an upgrade bonus, getting the 747 card, then downgrading back to your existing card

    Of course if you care enough to run through all of this just for a card made out of an alloy that partially once had metal from a 747’s airframe, you’re an avgeek. Sorry, not sorry.
  5. Kroger online has 5% off of Visa and Mastercards with promo code SPRING24. I was only able to get this to work with physical gift cards, but I could get 10 total cards in a single order with the promotion applied.

    These are US Bank cards, and you’ll earn fuel points for the purchase too. It won’t code as grocery though.
  6. Staples stores have fee free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  7. Kroger stores have 4x fuel points promotion on fixed value Visa and Mastercards and third party gift cards, but this one is today only. (Thanks to GCG)
  8. Ramp Capital’s corporate charge card program has launched travel partner points transfers with a transfer ratio of 1 ramp point = 0.667 mile. Like the card’s flat 1.5x points per dollar earning structure, the travel partners are completely uninspired. I only bring it up today because reading a couple of sentences about it here will save you from reading a couple of pages about it on a dozen other blogs only to figure out that it’s probably not worth your time. (Thanks to sammyph200)

Have a nice weekend!

The room where it happened: Ramp Capital’s inspiration room for finding airline transfer partners.

  1. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through the end of May. These are best for:

    – Delta One to and from Europe in business
    – Necker Island trips
    – Air New Zealand business to and from the US

    They have decent availability on their own metal for premium cabin space too, but fuel surcharges are high so it’s usually a more useful mental model to think about those as roughly the same price as a coach ticket plus some miles for business class redemptions.
  2. Express (unrelated to the American version; also both a clothing store and a former a medium tier gift card on the resale markets) has filed for bankruptcy. It’s time to think seriously about what to do with inventory you’re holding, and to reinforce that holding inventory carries risk. (Thanks to GCG)
  3. Virgin Australia flights are now bookable with Qatar Avios at attractive rates, especially for short and medium haul economy.
  4. Kent Brockman famously said that democracy doesn’t work, and reddit added a datapoint to that debate after I declared that US Bank is the most ghetto bank. According to the popular vote, the most ghetto banks in decreasing order are:

    – Citi
    – Bank of America
    – Barclays

    US Bank didn’t even make the top three. Why is Citi less ghetto than US Bank? Because pay by phone friends, pay by phone.

US Bank’s corporate landscaping signage presents additional evidence.

Introduction

The gift card resale market for most major bulk brands has been turned on its head recently, which has had ripple effects on the fuel points markets:

  • BestBuy, Home Depot, and other bulk rates have fallen to new lows, down 3-6%
  • Kroger fuel point rates have risen to record highs, up nearly 50%

What’s even going on? The answer with all things gift cards in 2024 always comes back to the Big Pepper Trifecta: for example, news at Stephen Pepper at GC Galore, or the Pepper Rewards app.

The Temporary New Kid in Town

What’s Pepper Rewards doing that’s disruptive? It’s right there on their web page front and center as the first text you see:

“New users even get 10% back for their first 15 days of shopping on yes… EVERYTHING!“

Pepper sells BestBuy, Home Depot, airbnb, and other gift cards, and yes with the right credit cards you earn even more rewards for buying through Pepper, so it’s easy to sell a BestBuy gift card to someone for less than normal and still take a big profit, which turned the market toward a local minima for resale rates on those cards. (Side question: What’s a new user anyway?)

Kroger fuel points supplies have fallen off a cliff because they’re normally earned by buying bulk gift cards during a 4x fuel points sale, and regular suppliers aren’t out there doing that because gift card resale rates are low. If we channel Economics 101 for fuel points: falling supply means increased prices due to supply shock.

How to Play It

In the post-modern economy, the role of FinTech companies observationally is to transfer money from venture capitalist (VC) bank accounts to consumers’ wallets, and that’s almost certainly what’s happening with Pepper. The excess supply of the $23 million in VC money invested into Pepper will dry up eventually, which probably means rather soon in practice. In the mean time, gift card resellers that want to weather the storm have a few plays:

  • Hold bulk gift cards for when Pepper inevitably runs out of money and rates rise, but sell fuel points now
  • Buy gift cards for home or business use at Kroger and sell the fuel points now
  • Switch to Pepper and forgo fuel points, and use someone’s referral link to make their day
  • Switch to another manufactured spend technique all together

There’s always a play; Always be probing.

The third pepper in the Pepper Trifecta currently skewing the gift card market.

  1. Do this now: Register for double points at Hilton properties for stays between May 2 and September 2.
  2. Do this now: Register for free HotelSlash membership using promo code FREE4LIFE. Incidentally, you can mention the same promo code to get into the employee restroom at the back of the Waste Pro Garbage Truck Museum in Florida. In case you’re wondering, yes, that’s a real place and no, I didn’t make it up. (Thanks to FM)
  3. The Chase Aeroplan card has a new, tiered sign-up bonus of 100,000 miles, and the $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year:

    – 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 30,000 miles after $20,000 in additional spend in 12 months

    The card also earns 3x points at grocery stores, so it’s particularly friendly for manufactured spenders. (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
  4. Martins, Giant, and Stop & Shop stores have either 2x or 3x points (depending on location) on Vanilla visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account, and obviously it’s impossible to have more than one loyalty account, right?

    These are either Pathward or Sutton gift cards depending on the store. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Staples has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through Saturday, limit five per transaction.

    These are Pathward cards.

Have a nice weekend!

Display rack at Staples adjacent to the gift cards, or relic from the garbage truck museum? You decide.

  1. Do this now: Register for your personalized United MilePlay offer. I got 7,400 bonus redeemable miles with a $650+ premium fare flight booked and flown by June 7.
  2. The Citi AA Business card has an elevated 75,000 mile sign-up bonus after $5,000 spend a single purchase, and the $99 annual fee is waived the first year. Note: I tried to strip off any tracking parameters from the offer, but it wouldn’t load when they’re stripped off. As usual, I’m not here to sell you credit cards and I won’t earn anything if you use this link.

    If you thread the needle through the terms and conditions and the sign-up bonus sticks around long enough, you can get it twice in just over three months, keeping in mind that business card approvals at Citi require 91 days between applications.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best bang:

    – Even multiples of $300 typically offer bigger per card discounts
    – Try for multiple transactions back to back
    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Don’t forget the American Express Business Gold $20 monthly credit
    – Look for lower fee Visas (currently, new cards are rolling out with a $7.95 activation fee)

    These are Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  4. You can make six credit card payments with your tax return or extension due today, which is a low friction way for manufactured spend provided you can float the money in case of any potential IRS holds. You get two payments each with PayUSATax [1.82%], Pay1040 [1.87%], and ACI Payments [1.98%]. The same game works with quarterly estimated taxes to scale this throughout the year.

    Usual disclaimer: I’m not a tax professional or an accountant, and you shouldn’t listen to my advice about anything, ever.
  5. Southwest has a promotion for 25% off base fares with promo code SAVE25NOW booked by this evening. There are blackout dates, and not all flights on non-blackout dates are included, but isn’t that what Wanna Get Away+ fares are for?

MEAB vibes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: ⚠️Warning! Your subscription to MEAB is cancelled effective immediately due to rewards abuse⚠️ (Just kidding, that was Bilt, and they were apparently just kidding too)

  1. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through April 23.

    The fuel points market is currently slightly depressed, but if you can hold them for a few weeks you’ll probably get better rates. Kroger account shutdowns are largely a thing of the past with good account hygiene and keeping balances well below six figures.
  2. There’s a new free churning called CardRight that tracks sign-up bonuses, card eligibility rules, when you can close a card without clawback, current card offers, and similar features related to card churning.
  3. H-E-B Stores have a $10 H-E-B gift card with the purchase of $50 or more in Home Depot or Lowe’s gift cards. Scale with multiple H-E-B accounts. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. Yes, there have been scattered reports of big retention offers for Business cards at American Express, and we’ve been hearing them in quasi-private forums for several weeks; no, we don’t know a way to be targeted if you’re not already targeted. Either way though, you should always be checking for retention offers and comparing those to new sign-up bonuses before accepting.

Happy Thursday friends!

Bilt company party invitation preview just dropped.

  1. Do this now: Register for 1,000 bonus SkyMiles for each Hilton stay through July 7. Stays must be booked after registration to be eligible.
  2. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit one per MPerks account. Obviously it’s impossible to have more than one MPerks account, right? The science just isn’t there yet.

    Meijers sell both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. A few reminders:

    – Don’t forget your monthly AmEx Business Gold office supply credits
    – Typically these scale nicely in a single transaction
    – Link your cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. US Bank has all-time high sign-up bonuses for a few cards:

    – Leverage: $900 after $7,500 spend in 120 days
    – Triple Cash Rewards: $600 after $4,500 spend in 150 days
    – Altitude Connect Business: 75,000 points after $6,000 spend in 120 days
    – Attitude Power: 75,000 points after $10,000 spend in 120 days
    – Korean Airlines SkyPass Visa: 70,000 miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days

    Every single one of these cards is churnable, but the points for the Altitude Power and Connect aren’t transferrable to the Altitude Reserve unfortunately. Remember to check US Bank tips and that US Bank combines hard-pulls for same day applications. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. A Chase Ink Unlimited $1,200 sign up bonus after $6,000 spend in 90 days has been floating around private forums for several weeks, and has now became public, though with extra tracking information (the link I used lacks the extra info). This is the same link you get from an in-brach business banker which means:

    – It should be safe
    – It will usually not be subject to 5/24, you may be approved up to 8/24

    Just like the US Bank points above, these points are stuck with this credit card and can’t be transferred to another card, making it effectively a cash-back only play.

Happy Monday!

At least science knows some things.

Editor’s note: Yes, I’m being extra hard on Boeing today, and no, I don’t actually think their planes are unsafe. But this post is how it is because reasons.

  1. Do this now (if you ever take Amtrak rides): Register for double base points on Amtrak travel through May 21.
  2. Simon bulk gift card orders have increased in price to $5.49 per card, and an unspecified “small increase” in shipping fees. They’ve also become much less friendly to manufactured spend for new accounts, so the utility is shrinking even faster than Boeing’s 737-MAX factory output. (Too soon?)

    These accounts were typically extremely valuable before the Incom three-swipe limit rules were implemented, just like how Boeing 737s were more valuable before the MAX line.
  3. Target will have 10% back on Target gift cards of up to $500 in eight days on April 13, reminiscent of the typical annual holiday sale. You’ve got plenty of time to get a few of burner accounts spun up to maximize this deal. (Thanks to FM)
  4. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Red, which can be converted 1:1 to Virgin Atlantic miles, through April 30.

    Sweet spots include business class redemptions to and from Europe on non-Virgin metal and domestic economy flights on Delta.
  5. A public service announcement: Yes, sign-up bonuses of 175,000 Membership Rewards are still available via referral, but you can still get 250,000 Membership Reward sign-up bonuses with some effort and a little luck by varying browser, IP address, landing page link, letting the application timeout and reloading, waiting for another door-plug to fall off of a 737-MAX9, etc. So, stick with the 250,000 variant without a referral in two player mode unless you’re able to maximize a 10x bonus on dining effectively.

Have a nice weekend!

Simulating 737-MAX9 door plug roulette.