Category: Gift Cards

  1. The Chase United Business MileagePlus card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months. The $99 annual-fee isn’t waived, and neither is the surly service that you’ll get onboard either.

    This probably isn’t the best option to hold on to after year one, but I do like holding at least one United card at a for expanded award availability (XN acccess).
  2. The Chase United Club Business card also has a heightened sign-up bonus of 75,000 MileagePlus Miles and 1,000 Premier Qualifying Points after $5,000 spend in three months. The $450 annual-fee isn’t waived, and the card also gets you access to unlimited crackers, cheese cubes, and Coors Light when visiting a United Club.

    I’d hold this card if I were regularly flying United out of an airport with a United Club for XN access and club access, but fortunately for all of us I’m not currently doing that; if I was you’d have suffer through me whining about United a lot more than you already do.
  3. Kroger.com has $10 off of $150 or more in physical Visa and Mastercard gift cards through January 31 with promo code NEWYEAR2024. A few notes:

    – The activation fee recently increased to $6.95 on the $100 cards
    – You’ll be earning 2x fuel points
    – You won’t earn a grocery category bonus
    – These are US Bank cards

    You’ll pay shipping too, but the cheapest option is ~ $0.50.
  4. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercard 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, in-store limits are $480 every six minutes, unless you get lucky and your store cycles through merchant accounts.
  5. The Chase Marriott Boundless Visa card has a heightened sign-up bonus for five free night certificates for up to 50,000 points per night after $5,000 in spend in three months, and the $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year. The certificates expire one year after issue.

    Given Bonvoy’s hyper-inflated currency, 50,000 points may not get you a night at your favorite hotel, so double check that you won’t need to burn these in Lubbock because everything else is priced out of your range. No really, the Courtyard Lubbock is 39,000 points.
  6. Giant Food and Martin’s stores are running a 10x points promotion on Apple gift cards through February 1, limit $2,000 in spend per account. (Thanks to GCG)
  7. Some American Express accounts have a targeted upgrade from a Business Gold to a Business Platinum with 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months. To see if you’re targeted, look for a popup on the dashboard. (Thanks to joremero)

With hip styling like this, who wouldn’t want to burn 39,000 Bonvoy points at the Courtyard Lubbock?

It’s short and sweet today:

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards this week through Saturday. As usual:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Look for the lower fee variety of Everywhere cards provided you can liquidate them
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Don’t forget about any AmEx Business Gold monthly credits
    – This deal scales differently than it probably should

    These are Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place that doesn’t involve melting the plastic into liquid, that doesn’t work. (Thanks to GCG)
  2. American Express Offers has a card linked offer for $200 off of $700 or more in airfare with Delta through March 31. Delta provides ample opportunity to game this one. One of the above board methods includes booking a non-basic economy ticket, waiting 24 hours, and then refunding it to a travel credit for use on future airfare.

    There’s a spectrum of other methods too. As usual, gamers gonna game. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)

Have a nice Monday!

Failed liquidation plan, illustrated.

  1. The Chase Hyatt cards have new signup bonuses through March 6. Both bonuses are tiered. The personal card:

    – 35,000 points after $3,000 spend in 90 days
    – 30,000 additional points after another $12,000 spend in six months

    The business card is similar, with:

    – 60,000 points after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – 15,000 additional points after another $7,000 spend in six months

    You can get both back-to-back with a modified double dip. For those of you manufacturing globalist, getting both and hitting the minimum spend will earn you 16 status nights and two category 1-4 free night certificates.
  2. Do this now: Register for Delta’s 10%-20% bonus MQD promotion for flights to and from the Pacific Northwest between February 2 and March 15.

    In case you were wondering how airlines in general are doing, or how Delta’s new elite program in particular is doing, the fact that this promotion exists should tell you everything you need to know.
  3. If you have upcoming travel on Spirit Airlines, especially if it’s more than a couple of months away, I’d suggest booking refundable backup flights on another carrier because Spirit is exploring bankruptcy and may file as soon as next week.

    Spirit’s in a very tenuous position after a judge blocked its planned merger with JetBlue airlines on anti-trust grounds, and let’s just say it’s not currently well positioned for long term success after it followed Breeze Airways down the “shovel money into the fire” path.
  4. Safeway, Albertsons, and other Just4U stores have a promotion for 10x points on $50 or more in certain gift cards running through either Tuesday or Friday depending on your region. The good options for our purposes are Choose Your Card gift cards which can be converted to other high resale value cards.

    Note specifically that Choose Your Card gift cards have a Visa BIN, an expiration date, and a CVV. Does this mean anything? I honestly don’t know currently, but always be probing because in the past it’s meant something. (Thanks to GCG)

Have a nice weekend friends!

The currently display on Spirit Airlines’s in-air aircraft alerting system.

Editor’s note: I have a few straggler guest posts ready to go and a few more on the way, so for January and perhaps beyond we’ll be doing guest post Saturdays, making this a six day a week blog, or a 20% increase in content. Hooray for progress science math Stanley cups guest authors!.

  1. Hilton Honors has a promotion for free Silver status through April 29, and you’ll earn Gold status if you stay eight times through the same date. Gold status lasts through March 2026. Silver status gets you fifth night free on award stays, and not much else really.

    Don’t forget that most of you probably have Gold or Diamond from a Hilton card, or are eligible for instant Gold status by holding an AmEx Platinum.
  2. Staples has a promotion for fee free $200 Visa gift cards starting on Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction.
  3. Dell.com is 9x for accessories on the AA eShopping portal as of this writing, which is a nice way to top off any Loyalty Point gaps between now and the end of the current elite year in conjunction with American Express Business Platinum credits. For those keeping score at home, the end of the loyalty year is obviously February 29, duh.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The AA elite calendar.

Since we missed major news items over the last two and a half weeks, it’s time to play ketchup catchup:

  1. Do this now: Register for 5x bonus categories for rotating bonus category cards:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: 5x at groceries, gyms, and spas, $1,500 max per quarter
    – Discover IT: 5x at restaurants and drug stores, $1,500 max per quarter
    – Citi Dividend: 5x at Amazon and streaming, $6,000 max per year
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics retailers, $1,500 max per quarter

    The Cash+ currently has a measly $200 sign-up bonus, the Freedom is only available via product change, the Freedom Flex has a $200 sign-up bonus and 5x at grocery on up to $12,000 in spend, and the Dividend isn’t generally available any more.

    Gaming most of these should be easy with gift card purchases at grocery stores, CVS, and Amazon. For the Cash+, look in to how your local utilities deal with card payments, especially when the payment doesn’t match the bill.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, which incidentally hasn’t been mentioned on this blog in the entirety of 2024, has a few new targeted offers that stack with other spend offers:

    – 15,000 ThankYou Points per month on $1,500+ in spend at grocery, gas, or restaurant
    – $150 statement credit per month on $1,500+ in spend at grocery, gas, or restaurant

    The Citi SYWR card isn’t just interesting for spend bonuses, especially in the face unregulated debit cards. (Thanks to Brooke)
  3. Staples has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. I’d say Staples is trying to make 2024 look like 2023 with this sale, except technically the promotion started in 2023 so I’m legally prevented from saying so by the Staples and Uber Eats cabal. The cabal also prevents buying these cards via Uber Eats as far as I can tell.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place.
  4. American Express Offers has a few interesting new promotions:

    – $125 back on $600 or more in spend with Delta
    – 25,000 Membership Rewards after $1,000 or more in spend with ANA
    – 15% to 20% back on up to $100 in spend at Martin and Giant grocery stores
  5. Do this now: Register for a 10% bonus from Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles, paid when transferring points in from credit card programs.
  6. PayUSATax has lowered the cost of tax payments with a credit card to 1.82%. Games people play:

    – Lower W-2 federal tax withholdings and make up for it with quarterly estimated tax payments
    – Overpay taxes with a credit card and wait for a refund

    Don’t attempt either unless you’ve got the discipline to ride it out if you run into any issues, like the IRS delaying refunds for months or years. Remember what the 33rd president of the United States and former head of the IRS, Spiderman, said: with great power comes great responsibility. (Thanks to GodLovesFrags)

When Texas cities play ketchup, Lubbock misses the point.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to today’s author, my good friend Nathan, for writing this post while I’m on vacation. I’ll see you on January 1!

Spend any decent amount of time purchasing physical VISA/MasterCard prepaid or 3rd party gift cards and you’re bound to come across at least one that has been compromised. Purchasing a tampered gift card (GC) and dealing with the fallout is a seeming right of passage into the physical world of manufactured spend. 

For the same reason GCs are useful to manufactured spenders in that they are available in high denominations and easy to liquidate, they are particularly attractive to scammers as they provide the added benefit of anonymity because all that is needed for redemption are the card details itself.

The process of compromising a GC will generally involve the scammer obtaining unactivated cards, bringing the cards to a location where they can record and/or remove essential card details, then placing the cards back on the shelves at retailers. A fraudster’s window of opportunity starts the moment after the GCs are loaded but before you or the recipient has the ability to use the funds or report the card as compromised to the card issuer.

Depending on the extent of the tampering, it may physically impossible for you to redeem / use the card since the magnetic stripe itself was tampered or the pertinent information was defaced. Other times, they will record the information and although you still have the ability to access the funds, they are hoping that they can drain the funds before you do.

Retailers and card issuers usually add hurdles to replace compromised cards and recover stolen funds. The best thing you can do is catch anomalies in the pre-activation phase, as sorting it out after can be a huge headache.

Common Card Features / Attack Vectors

  • Activation Barcode
  • Card Number / Redemption Code
  • PIN (for some brands, synonymous with the redemption code)

Pre-Activation Inspection

Familiarize yourself carefully with the GC you are purchasing, it’s packaging, and card features. Try to find a safe source for cards (ie. freshly stocked cards or shrink wrapped bundles behind the gift card case). 

If possible, open and inspect the packaging and/or card before activating. In general:

  • Inspect the area over and surrounding the activation barcode carefully. Make sure the activation barcode is the original, nothing foreign is covering it, and if it was covered with a reveal tab or security sticker, it was not previously uncovered and re-applied.
  • Check the card number and PIN to make sure they were not tampered with. Tampering includes details being scratched off altogether or security stickers removed and re-applied. 
  • Warped packaging could suggest that the package was opened and resealed.
  • Most manufacturers use a type of one time use glue. Glue that is too sticky or too hard is usually a giveaway that the package has been tampered with.
  • If the activation barcode is separate from the card number itself (common with popular brands such as Apple and Best Buy), there will often be an identification number on both pieces, make sure these numbers match to indicate the card wasn’t swapped.
  • Check sequence numbers of the card batch.
    • If the brand utilizes sequence numbers, a card out of sequence could indicate that cards were planted.
    • When scaling, examining each card carefully can slow you down. If you determine one card from a batch is fine, the rest of the cards from that batch are more likely to be safe.
  • Generally the register will show the last 4 of the serial number of the GC that will be activated. Make sure this matches with the serial number printed on the packaging as they are scanned in.

Activation Issues

If you discover you have a compromised GC after purchasing, act immediately. If you have access to the card details and/or the mag stripe hasn’t been tampered with, make it a priority to spend or use the funds as soon as you can. If you don’t have a quick liquidation plan in mind, contact the card issuer or the retailer as soon as possible. Usually the retailer will defer to the card issuer, but depending on the retailer and manager, they may be able to help you replace the card.

If a GC was purchased with a swapped barcode, you can use a barcode scanner (in a pinch there’s a free online version at https://online-barcode-reader.inliteresearch.com) to help determine which card the funds were routed to.

If you had activation issues and multiple cards were involved, make sure you leave the store with the correct cards as they can easily be confused.

– Nathan

Not all scam gift cards are easy to spot, watch out for this one before it bites you in the, err, foot.

NOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation between December 18 and 31, during which there may or may not be any posts. But, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2024 with the 2023 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms. What’s this “may”, you ask? I’m soliciting for guest posts and I’ll use those during the regularly scheduled newsletter. They should be non-sponsored, non-promotional, non-political, and at least travel hacking or churning adjacent. Please reach out to me if you’re interested, it’ll be the third easiest gig you’ve ever gotten!

  1. The American Express Delta co-branded cards have increased sign-up bonus via referral or at deltaamexcard.com:

    – Personal Gold: 70,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived the first year
    – Personal Platinum: 80,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 90,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months

    There are a couple of ways to play this: (1) Just think of a SkyMile as worth 1.0 cents toward Delta airfare and churn the card, (2) get the Platinum and/or Reserve card and hit big spend in the next couple of weeks to earn elite status before the program changes in 2024, noting that MQMs will post in the year you hit spend and not in the year that the statement closes, and that you can get business cards too. (Thanks to TheSultan1)
  2. Safeway / Albertsons stores have a digital coupon for 5x rewards points on third party gift cards running through December 19, but only for J4U chains that run weekly promotions starting on a Wednesday, not for those starting on a Friday. No, I’m not making this up.

    Occasionally when there’s a coupon like this, 5x actually means 6x, but that’s not the case this time based on my testing.
  3. Southwest is opening up its schedule through October 2, 2024 this morning. This extension includes Labor Day and end-of-summer travel. (Thanks to the unstoppable Brian M)
  4. Do this now (if you hold a Hyatt credit card): Register for 5,000 bonus points per stay of three nights or longer at Inclusive Collection hotels between January 8 and March 3, 2024, limit 10,000 bonus points.
  5. The Alaska Business card has a heightened bonus of 75,000 bonus miles after $4,000 spend in three months. This link is from an in-flight promotion, and you can use a referral code of 000000. UPDATE: This link is now dead.

    If you’re going to go for one Alaska Business card, why not a few? Also, don’t forget that the personal card still has a 70,000 bonus mile offer if you VPN to Southern California. (Thanks to DDG)
  6. Alaska’s elite program is changing for 2024. The major points:

    – Status is earned only via elite qualifying miles, or EQMs
    – Credit cards earn 4,000 EQMs per $10,000 spend, up to five times
    – Top tier members will have excess EQMs rolled over from year to year

    Unfortunately credit card spend alone will only earn you MVP status, which practically speaking means a few free checked bags on Alaska and other oneworld airlines but not a lot else.

Happy Thursday!

The tenth easiest gig you’ve ever gotten.

NOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation between December 18 and 31, during which there may or may not be any posts. But, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2024 with the 2023 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms. What’s this “may”, you ask? I’m soliciting for guest posts and I’ll use those during the regularly scheduled newsletter. They should be non-sponsored, non-promotional, non-political, and at least travel hacking or churning adjacent. Please reach out to me if you’re interested, it’ll be the third easiest gig you’ve ever gotten!

It’s short and sweet Tuesday!

  1. Rakuten’s in-store program has a card linked offer for 5%-10% cash back or 5x-10x Membership Rewards points on up to $300 in purchases at Staples, good up to four times for spend through December 24.

    This pairs nicely with fee-free Visa $200 gift cards running through Saturday, and with monthly American Express Business Gold credits. (Thanks to Doug)
  2. Giftcards.com has 10% off of electronic Visa gift cards using promo code VISACHEER or HOLIDAYVISA10, limit three per transaction, and $2,000 per rolling 48 hours.

    Don’t forget go through a shopping portal, but lately portals haven’t been paying cash back at giftcards.com when using a promo code.

Have a nice Tuesday friends!

The fifth easiest gig you’ve ever gotten.