Category: Gift Cards

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 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

  1. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card, including bulk brands like Apple and BestBuy, through December 14. There’s a limit of 50,000 points per account, but what’s the limit on accounts? The limit does not exist.
  2. Meijer stores also have $10 off of $100 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through December 21. This one requires that you clip a digital coupon, but seems to be the variety that you can reclip after each purchase, meaning again, the limit does not exist but different.
  3. Alaska Airlines has a paid and award fare sale through this evening. I’m seeing:

    – Transcons at 9,000 miles each way
    – Mainland to Hawaii 9,000 miles each way
    – Mexico at 15,000 miles each way

    These continue to be the best award sales for medium-haul flights that no-one talks about because something something, apathy is real, something something.
  4. Costco has $100 in Uber Gift Cards for $75 through tonight. There are multiple reports that Uber charges more when you have credits on your account, so apply them retroactively to a ride instead of adding them to your account ahead of time, or just use Uber Eats to order a private taxi for your burrito.
  5. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the card that would probably be driving the private taxi for your burrito if it was human, has new beginning of month offers that reset monthly for December, January, and February:

    – $50 statement credit for 5 purchases of $75 or more each, up to $150 for all three months
    – $60 statement credit for $450+ spend, up to $180 for all three months

    (Thanks to Dave M and birt)
  6. The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card has an increased sign-up bonus of 40,000 Rapid Rewards points and a $400 statement credit with $3,000 in purchases in four months for applications through December 16.

    If you’re not going for a Companion Pass, which you probably shouldn’t chase if you don’t fly Southwest more than 3-4x annually, then this might be a better option than a pure points bonus.
  7. Preferred Hotels has a promotion for 35,000 bonus points for paid three night stays booked by Wednesday night for travel through March 31, 2025.
  8. Giftcards.com is currently 3x at most airline shopping portals and 4x at Chase portals. AA and Southwest points earned through portals count toward status too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  9. The Incomm gift card sites have new deals:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fees through December 31, code NOFEES24
    – VanillaGift.com: No fees through tonight, code VGCYBER24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: $10 Zillions with $100+ in Visa cards through tonight, code BF24

    These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
  10. Typically Citi offers 20% off of many ThankYou point gift card redemptions on Cyber Monday and today is (maybe? I dunno, I’m not getting up that early in the morning to verify #sorrynotsorry) traditional. With Apple cards reselling at about 91% of face value, you can use this promotion to cash out ThankYou points indirectly at ~1.1 cents each, or even better if you have the Rewards+ card.

Have a nice Monday!

Seatbelts are required in private taxis too.

We’ll try and keep it quick today, but there’s still a lot:

  1. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s promotion for 5,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed between December 2 and February 2, 2025 at most North American properties. You can earn the bonus up to four times which sounds like way too much Best Western for my taste, but you do you.
  2. US Bank has double cash back on all card linked offers and shopping portal bonuses through tomorrow night, and all the tips from last time still apply too.
  3. The American Express Delta Gold personal card has a heightened bonus of 50,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after $3,000 in purchases and making a single purchase at Delta.com within six months. You can find the offer by going through a flight booking on the checkout page, whether or not you actually buy a ticket.

    The annual fee is waived the first year, making this probably worth burning a 5/24 slot. (Thanks to DDG)
  4. Bilt Rewards has some promotions this week:

    – 3x earning on non-bonuses spend up to $500 spend through the end of November
    – Earning 0.5x on new mortgages (although they’re not truthful about being first, see Mesa)
    – Points are worth 1.4 cents each on December 1 at Amazon for Platinum members

    In churning, there’s always a pariah in a group (cf. gift card buying group A, buyers club B, and bank C), and Bilt is probably that for credit cards.
  5. American Express Offers has new travel related card offers:

    – $300 statement credit with $2,000 or more at Virgin Atlantic by December 30
    – $30 statement credit with $150 or more at Turo by April 3, 2025

    (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift card purchases through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  7. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have new gift card deals starting tomorrow for:

    – 12x points on Zillions gift cards
    – 10x points on Home Depot and Uber gift cards

    There’s likely a limit of $2,000 per account, but the fine print in preview ads is too low resolution to read. UPDATE: There is a $2,000 limit, and Giant Foods doesn’t currently show the promo. It will probably still work but may earn less than other affiliates based on historical patterns.
  8. Breeze has $29 fares for travel booked tomorrow through Sunday with travel through May 22, 2025. There are a few blackouts around days that you’d expect.
  9. Giftcards.com is currently earning 2.5 miles per dollar through the AA shopping portal, which is great for manufacturing Loyalty Points.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Never forget the AA First turkey sandwich, which unfortunately is real. Happy Thanksgiving!

  1. Cardless’s Avianca Elite American Express card has an increased tiered sign-up bonus worth 120,000 LifeMiles in aggregate:

    – 80,000 LifeMiles after $4,500 spend in 90 days
    – 40,000 LifeMiles after $25,000 spend in 365 days

    Cardless has a one card per person lifetime limit, so consider whether cards like the Qatar Privilege Club may better fit your style. The Avianca card’s best features are that: it’s a third party American Express, and that it includes a Lifemiles+ lite membership which gives award redemption rebates and a cheap upgrade to Lifemiles+ basic membership for free award cancellations.
  2. American Express Offers has card-linked offers for either a statement credit, co-brand points, or Membership Rewards after spending $2,000-$7,000 depending on the offer. The rebates’ average values quite good at around 10% of spend. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 3x points on Visa gift card purchases through Thursday, limit $2,000 spend per account.
  4. Giftcards.com has a bonus $10 giftcards.com gift card with the purchase of a $100 Virtual Visa gift card through Wednesday using promo code GOBBLE, limit one per transaction. The great irony sadness is that giftcards.com gift cards can’t be used to purchase Visas or Mastercards.
  5. Do this now: Check your email inbox for a targeted $50 Marriott Bonvoy bonus gift card, but also note that it expires on December 21. A good search query is probably: “in:anywhere subject:Enjoy a gift from Marriott Bonvoy to celebrate your upcoming stay”.

Happy Monday!

Once per lifetime Cardless credit card unboxing photo, presumably.

  1. Do this now: Register for 20% back in World of Hyatt points at Homes & Hideaways properties worldwide EDIT: No need to register, you’ll automatically get 20% back for award bookings through March 9, 2025.
  2. H-E-B stores have a promotion for a $20 H-E-B gift card with $100 or more in several gift card brands including bulk friendly like Airbnb, Lowes, and Home Depot through November 28. Scale with multiple H-E-B accounts. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Kroger.com has 5% off of $100 Visa e-gift cards using promo code TURKEY2024 through Tuesday. The purchase won’t code as grocery but will earn fuel points. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. In case you needed further proof that Southwest hates cheapskates, they’ve launched a paid and award ticket sale for crappy flights:

    – Departing before 8AM
    – Departing after 7PM

    You have to book by tonight, but for travel at least 21 days out so that you’ve got plenty of time to anticipate your upcoming crappy flight, unless your airport is SNA; they continue to exclude it from sales because reasons.
  5. Alaska has a sale for flights to Sydney or Auckland that (in theory) connect in Honolulu, Hi for travel through September 30, 2025. The paid fare sale isn’t amazing, but on the award side I’m seeing:

    – Prices about 17% cheaper than the low level Alaska redemption price
    – The discount applying on non-stop, direct flights too

    There’s decent availability in down-under Summer time.

Happy Thursday! (It’s Thursday right?)

My office calendar explains everything.

  1. American Express Offers has a card linked offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards or $200 after $1,000 spend with AirFrance or KLM through December 31.
  2. The three Chase co-branded Avios credit cards have an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 Avios after $7,500 spend in six months, and each has a $95 annual fee.

    – AerLingus Avios
    – British Airways Avios
    – Iberia Avios

    It is possible to hold multiple Avios cards, but unfortunately they’re still personal cards. (Thanks to makhav)
  3. VanillaGift.com has 100% off of purchase fees of orders of at least $250 with promo code VGTHANKS24 through November 28.

    These are Incomm gift cards, and they won’t earn credit card points when purchased with American Express.
  4. Rakuten has “unlimited” $40 or 4,000 Membership Rewards points referral bonuses for both the referrer and the referred, provided the referred makes $40 of purchases through the portal within 90 days.

    What could possibly go wrong with unlimited referrals?

Happy Tuesday!

Post-bot, pre-shutdown Rakuten dashboard view.

Gift card fraud has been running rampant at US grocery stores this year. Kroger, BlackHawk, and Pathward have been making changes to make fraud harder recently, and that’s especially escalated in the last several weeks. Updates for gift card buyers:

  • The newest batches of BestBuy and Apple gift cards are now geo-locked to the store they were shipped to (they won’t activate at other stores, and this locking applies to different stores in the same chain in the same city)
  • Older stock bulk gift card brands like HomeDepot, BestBuy, and Apple are slowly being removed from Kroger’s POS terminal software so they can’t be activated
  • Visa gift cards are going away at some stores, replaced by higher fee Mastercards with better tamper proofing
  • New gift card packaging now includes the phrase “This package is the property of BHN until purchased”
  • Kroger has installed new one-way gift card hangers in some stores that only allow removing cards from the hanger, but don’t allow putting them back

I think it’s safe to assume that geo-locking and better gift card inventory management will spread to other gift card brands quickly, and it’s also safe to assume that BlackHawk Network (BHN) is actively working on language and tamper measures to improve their legal position when fraud and theft take place.

Stay safe out there!

The scammers almost got me with this one!

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard card sent new mid-month spend offers that stack with existing offers. We’ve seen:

    – $50 off of $750+ in online spend
    – $70 off of $1,000+ in online spend
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $750+ in online spend
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $1,000+ in online spend

    (Thanks to BrandonV, SPX, Y, and Charlie)
  2. The Cardless Qatar cards have both increased sign-up bonuses and increased on-going spend bonuses through the end of the 2024.

    – Infinite: 80,000 Avios after $5,000 spend in 90 days, plus uncapped 6x at restaurants and 2x everywhere else
    – Signature: 60,000 Avios after $3,000 spend in 90 days, plus uncapped 4x at restaurants and 2x everywhere else

    There’s a status play with the Infinite card that’s even better with the increased spending bonuses, and so is the Infinite’s rebate on award taxes and fees after $15,000 spend.
  3. The Wyndham Business Earner credit card gives Diamond status with Wyndham, which can be matched to Caesars Rewards Diamond status. The match for elites that earned status through the card only is going away on January 31, 2025 though, reducing the value of the card and the value of any trademarks paid for based on the process.

    You might want to care because Caesars Diamond gives an annual, free four-night stay at Atlantis provided you gamble for four hours during your stay, but there are smaller benefits like show tickets, no resort fees, and free parking at Caesars properties too.
  4. Citi added an extended warranty benefit to its no-annual fee Mastercards, doubling the warranty for up to 24 months after the factory warranty expires. The Citi warranty exclusions list is smaller than is typical too. (Thanks to Country Boy)
  5. Giftcards.com has $6 off of $100 Visa gift cards with promo code EARLYJOY through November 28. Shopping portals usually don’t combine with promotion codes at giftcards.com, but if something goes wrong, sometimes they do. There’s a Chase offer for 5% back on up to $1,000 spend too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Always buy in even multiples of $300 for best results.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Watch out, filing a complaint with Caesars may not be successful, I guess?

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 3,000 bonus points per night at Hyatt Vacation Club properties between December 1 and March 30, 2025 with a maximum of 30,000 bonus points.
  2. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third-party gift cards excluding Amazon, and fixed value Visas and Mastercards through December 3.

    Holiday demand for third party gift cards is soaring, and fuel points demand remains steady.
  3. The Barclays JetBlue Plus Mastercard has an offer for 80,000 TrueBlue points after $1,000 spend and paying the annual fee within the first 90 days in the mobile app. I can’t make this appear on desktop without some trickery, but it appears on the front page of the mobile app even if you’re not signed in. (Thanks to abhirpduttamit)
  4. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.
  5. The personal United cards from Chase all have an increased sign-up bonus for those of you light on MileagePlus miles. Yes, the increased bonus even includes the stupidest United card of all, the Quest:

    – Gateway: 30,000 miles after $1,000 in three months, no annual-fee
    – Explorer: 60,000 miles after $3,000 in three months, $95 annual fee is waived
    – Quest: 70,000 miles and 500 PQP after $4,000 in three months, $250 annual fee
    – Club: 90,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months, $525 annual fee

    Only the Club’s bonus gives enough miles for a one-way long-haul partner redemption from the US to Europe or Asia, which should tell you something about the actual value of these cards especially as compared to an Ink. Each card does get you XN award space access, which is great for domestic economy awards I guess. Each card also earns an extra 5,000 bonus miles for adding an authorized user within the first three months. (Thanks to DDG)
  6. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards through Monday. You can repeat this with back-to-back-to-back transactions until either the police are called or they run out of stock.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

More weekend catchup (?) fun.