Category: Gift Cards

  1. Citi ThankYou Points has two transfer bonuses through April 18:

    – Virgin Atlantic: 30%, or 1:1.3
    – Avianca LifeMiles: 25%, or 1:1.25

    They’re also devaluing two of their hotel transfer partners:

    – Choice: -25%, or dropping to 1:1.5
    – iPrefer: -50%, or dropping to 1:2

    Both programs offered outsized value for the ThankYou Program.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for the lower fee “Everywhere” cards if you know how to redeem them
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Target in store and online has a bonus $10 Target gift card with $100+ in One4All gift cards. Using a RedCard drops the total cost down to $95.50 for both.
  4. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points on Lowe’s gift cards (or 12x points on Saturday).
  5. Chase Offers has short-term offers on Hyatt spend:

    – 15% back at Park Hyatt on up to $467 in spend
    – 15% back at Hyatt Unbound, up to $467 spend

    Both are valid through March 31.
  6. Discover has a targeted offer for 15% off of Apple gift card redemptions. With Apple gift card sale rates at around 92%, that gives you a cash out of about 1.08 cents per point, which *checks notes*, is better than the usual redemption of 1.00 cents per point.

Happy Monday!

More Monday math tips.

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has an offer for an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 Virgin points and a $100 statement credit during a ticket booking flow. You don’t have to checkout to see the offer.

    Virgin Red points are ok, but the Synchrony card is more than just Virgin Red points. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. Meijer stores have 7,500 mPerks points with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards through Tuesday, limit one per account. Obviously scale with multiple accounts.
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business’s travel portal has implemented price matching for hotel rooms including Edit properties. The terms require that you submit a claim within 24 hours of booking and the stay must be more than a day away, oh and that the price difference has to be at least $5.

    Chase Points Boost is a mixed bag at best, but the mix just got better. On the other hand, Edit hotels haven’t been so fortunate.
  4. The Kudos Shopping Portal quietly added a $2.99 fee to cash out your rewards via PayPal. Don’t worry, they’ll waive the fee if you pay them $12 per month though 🙄.
  5. PayPal Offers has 1% back at Giftcards.com on up to $2,000 spend when paying with PayPal through March 31. This stacks with other portal bonuses, however science has yet to discover exactly what Giftcards.com sells.

I guess it’s time for us to go do Wednesday now.

Next up: Learn how to price match garlic bread for savings of $0.01, and that’s per loaf.

  1. It’s time to register for Q2 rotating category card bonuses:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Amazon, Chase Travel, and Feeding America
    – Discover IT: Restaurants and Home Improvement
    – Citi Dividend: Grocery and Citi Travel
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics

    Every one of these has a way to manufactured spend your way to your $1,500 quarterly. I’d suggest knocking these out on day one so you don’t have to think about them, but you do you.
  2. The Chase Freedom Unlimited no-annual fee card has an increased sign-up bonus of $250 after $500 spend in three months via referrals only.

    The sign-up bonus isn’t great, but there are a number of use-cases for 1.5x Ultimate Rewards everywhere. Its 3x categories have niche use-cases too.
  3. Citi ThankYou Points sharing between different accountholders is ending on May 17. If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, it’s not really because the limits were 100,000 points annually. You’ll just have to join team QR now.
  4. The American Express Bevy and Brilliant Marriott Bonvoy cards have new language restricting eligibility for cardmembers that:

    – Have or had a Chase Marriott card in the last 30 days
    – Opened an American Express Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful card in the last 90 days
    – Got a sign-up bonus for a new Boundless, Bold, or Bountiful in the last 24 months

    Can gamers still game? Undoubtedly. Or should I say, Bundoutably?
  5. There was a time when PayPal Bill Pay games could amount to huge profits in a short period of time. Then there was another period with different games, and yet another period with even more games. PayPal has thrown in the towel now, BillPay is completely gone from the app and website.

    Other FinTechs that use the same backend have been going through interesting changes recently too. Coincidence? I doubt it.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Even playing the whah-whah trombones for PayPal BillPay died.

  1. Do this now (if you like camping I guess): Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 2,000 bonus points per night at Under Canvas locations through July 1.
  2. The Chase Hyatt Business Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 Hyatt points after $10,000 spend in three months.

    This bonus is available for referrals too, and remember that good things happen to 5/24 dreamers when new Chase business card bonuses come out.
  3. The American Express issued Marriott cards have increased sign-up bonuses available direct and via referrals:

    – Brilliant: 200,000 Bonvoy points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Bevy: 175,000 Bonvoy Points after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Business: Five free night awards after $9,000 spend in six months

    Of course use a referral instead of a random link on ye-olde internet.
  4. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards today through Sunday.

    The current state of gas prices seems to be good news for resellers.
  5. American Express has targeted spend offers worth between +0.25x and +1.5x on between $20,000 and $30,000 spend.
  6. Marriott Bonvoy raised the free night award top-off limit to 25,000 points, 10,000 higher than before. According to my future-news-o-tron, next week Bonvoy will raise average award redemption costs by 10,000 points.
  7. Giant, Giant Food Stores, Martin’s, and Stop & Shop stores have 2x rewards on Mastercard Gift Cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 per account at Giant and $2,000 per account otherwise.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice weekend friends!

The all new, always sophisticated, future-news-o-tron 2,000.

  1. Ford launched a new Comenity issued Visa. It looks great until you see that Ford Rewards points are worth only 0.5 cents each toward the purchase of a new car, after which it looks just ok. The vitals:

    – No annual-fee
    – 15,000 point ($75) sign-up bonus
    – 6x (3%) back on grocery, gas, restaurants, EV charging, insurance, tolls, and parking
    – 2x (1%) for other purchases

    It’s not unheard of for a churner to use an auto-manufacturer card to churn a car, but this one would be a lot of time at your favorite Kroger, Speedway, or similar to end up with a Ford. The fact that it’s a Comenity card could change the calculus.
  2. GiftCards.com has a promotion for a $10 GiftCards.com gift card with a $100 Visa or Mastercard gift card through tomorrow night using promo code SPDBOGO. This is limited to three per account, but players don’t let that stop them.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. MGM Rewards has a free 90 day status match and challenge to keep status through January 2028. Match status by the end of June, and retain status after 90 days with either 50,000 Tier Credits for Gold or 150,000 Tier Credits for Platinum.

    For those mathing at home, 50,000 Tier Points is a breeze to earn with only *checks notes, furrows brow* $12,500 in spend. *sigh*

Happy Thursday!

Good news: It’s not against the rules to buy a kids Ford and say you churned a car, I checked.

  1. The Rove shopping and portal travel added SAS EuroBonus as a 1:1 transfer partner on Monday, and they’ve got a 20% transfer bonus through April 8. You can search for award space on their ‘Explore’ tool too.

    SAS EuroBonus is great for its 60,000 mile business class redemptions between the US and Europe, at least as long as you can find availability.
  2. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. The Emirates partner award chart changed, including some increases and some decreases. Generally it’s a positive change after dozens of bad ones from the program, or as it’s called in the industry, five canceled flights followed by one diverted flight that got you 25% of the way there.
  4. More Saks stores are dying. If one of those is near you, perhaps visit now to cash out American Express Platinum credits before you can’t.

Have a nice Tuesday friends!

I don’t think Mesa and Rove are anything alike, but, uh, they are both four letter names.

  1. Do this now: Register for a widely targeted promotion for bonus AA Loyalty Points on flights booked by April 30.
  2. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for 7,500 bonus points for each two night stay booked by May 9 for travel through the end of June, up to four stays. Barclays co-brand cardholders qualify for an extra 7,500 bonus points on one stay, as long as you use that card to pay. Paid Wyndham Insider members also qualify another 7,500 bonus points, but, don’t waste your time.
  3. The Chase Aeroplan Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 85,000 Aeroplan miles after $4,000 spend in three months. The card’s $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year. This offer is generally available but isn’t the public offer at the main Chase landing page. The link comes from both an email and postal mail campaign that started this week. (Thanks to wake-and-bake)
  4. The First Bank Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of $100 after $1,000 spend in three months. The card is generally notable for (1) being an uncapped 5% earner at gas stations, and (2) a generally worse version of the defunct Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card.
  5. RobinHood announced a new Platinum credit card complete with “big coupon book energy”â„¢ and a $695 annual fee. A few notes:

    – If you like twice monthly $10 DoorDash credits, this card’s got your number!
    – How about a $20 monthly dining credit at participating restaurants? Check!
    – Are you the only churner without a Priority Pass card? Good news!
    – Chase Edit credits aren’t hard enough for you? RobinHood’s got your back!

    For the “think biggers” among us, it earns 5x on dining up to $50,000 annually, 1x on regular spend, and a relatively easily usable 2x$150 travel credits. The other credits are frankly just a ton of work and largely noise. My best hope for this card is that it pays affiliate commission so I can be entertained watching the blog-o-sphere try and sell this one.
  6. Meijer MPerks has 50,000 bonus points on $500 in third party gift cards other than Amazon, limit one per MPerks account. With the right gift cards and buyers group purchases, you can do really well on these, be creative.
  7. Kroger Stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on One4all gift cards through Tuesday. There’s a coupon for 4x fuel points on fixed value Visas and Mastercards too.
  8. Marriott Vacations has a promotion for 25,000 bonus points (worth about $120 and a bloody nose) on five night or longer stays booked by March 31 for travel through July 31. No registration required.
  9. Chase Offers has 10% back on Air India bookings on $100+ in spend, up to $50 back, through March 31.

    The best game for this one is to not fly Air India under any circumstances, ever. Fun fact: It’s actually a good deal to pay $50 to get out of flying Air India.

Happy Thursday!

No punchline today, just a real, undoctored photo of an Air India flight post landing to explain your $50.

We’re going to keep it short and sweet today:

  1. Chase has a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways, Ibera, and Aer Lingus Avios through March, making the transfer ratio 1:1.2. Because you can transfer Avios between airlines too, this is effectively a transfer bonus for Qatar, FinnAir, and Vueling.

    There’s a small issue on the redemption side: Qatar flights aren’t flying at the moment. For that matter, neither are non Avios airline Emirates flights as of this writing.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to Preferred Hotels I Prefer through April 1, making the transfer ratio 1:2.6.
  3. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has March promo rewards for travel booked in March and flown by August 31. The list of promo reward US cities is huge, which should tell you something about US European summer travel demand. Those cities are: Orlando, Seattle, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Atlanta.

    I searched each of these cities for business class availability and found only a single business class seat at low level during the promo period, which should also tell you something about European summer travel demand. This makes the transfer ratio nearly 1:0.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, “limit nine per customer” which practically speaking means limit nine per transaction as long as you’re a schmoozer. Fan favorite golden liquidation Costco is a popular outlet for these.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Head of FlyingBlue promo rewards explains why there’s a single promo business class seat.