Category: Gift Cards

  1. The American Express Blue Business cards have new no-lifetime language (NLL) links at the usual public address (a prediction I got right for once). Both cards have no annual fee:

    – Blue Business Plus: 50,000 Membership Rewards after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Blue Business Cash: $500 statement credit after $5,000 spend in three months

    You can always find the generic links here. (Thanks to Parts_Unknown-)
  2. There’s an offer for 80,000 United MileagePlus after $3,000 spend via the United website, and another 5,000 bonus miles for adding an authorized user card too.

    88,000 MileagePlus miles is enough for a one-way partner business class award to Europe. (Thanks to Parts_Unknown- and DDG)
  3. Meijer stores have $10 off of $100 or more in Choice or One4All gift cards through Saturday. This one is automatically attached to your account and limit one per account, so scale with multiple MPerks accounts. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. Trigger warning, this is a niche play: Avis has up to 7,000 bonus Miles&More miles for 3+ day car rentals booked by August 31 for rentals through October 31.

    Miles&More miles are the best and often the only, way to get Swiss Airlines First Class award redemptions. What’s the worst way to earn Miles&More miles, asked no-one? Transfer Ultimate Rewards → Hyatt →Lufthansa at a 5:2 ratio!

While we’re on the subject of bad ideas, how about this playground gem?

  1. Staples stores have fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to kawnipi)
  2. The American Express Marriott Bonvoy family of personal cards has increased sign-up bonuses through October 2:

    – Brilliant: 185,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Bevy: 155,000 points after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Burden: seeing that you might still pay $95 for parking and $30 for resort fees per day for your free stay

    These offers are all available via referral, so go that route rather than applying directly, either using P2’s referral or making another churner’s day by using theirs.
  3. American Express Offers has a new offer for 5,000 Membership Rewards with the purchase of a $500 gift card through August 24, effectively an 11% discount. Hopefully you get this offer on a Platinum that also earns 5x.
  4. BankAmeriDeals has 10% off of Sheraton properties with $100+ in spend, up to $57 cash back through August 15.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Marriott Bonvoy 2024 summer party shirt.

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax has $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards running through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Buy even multiples of $300 in a transaction
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Bring your favorite cashier a gourmet cookie or a box of donuts

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to Jim)
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard sent new widely targeted offers for spend at utilities. Because it’s Citi and because this card has its province in Sears, it’s slightly complicated:

    – Minimum utility spend for a bonus: $400-$600
    – 5%-20% cash back
    – Maximum utility spend for a bonus: -$625-$800
    – Good once a month for August, September, and October

    This stacks with mid-July online spend offers too, provided your utility takes payments online. (Thanks to Brandon F and birt)
  3. Discover has 15% off of Apple gift cards when redeemed using your cash back balance through the end of August.
  4. New American Express Delta no-lifetime language (NLL) card links were shared. These seem to be from a mailer and are name locked on the personal side, but the business cards aren’t name locked:

    – Delta Business Gold: 90,000 miles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Delta Business Platinum: 100,000 miles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Delta Business Reserve: 125,000 miles after $12,000 spend in six months

    Make sure you’re comfortable with the risk of using a targeted mailer’s links. Because you didn’t ask, my personal opinion is that the risk is very low, especially compared to other AmEx shenanigans. But, no one should take my advice about anything, ever. (Thanks to DDG)

More advice that you shouldn’t take.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve been out of the country for a couple of weeks, but I’m now back. I tried to keep up on responding but fell woefully behind. I’ll do my best to catch-up by the end of the week though.

  1. Do this now: Check for 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards for enrolling your American Express charge cards (Green, Gold, or Platinum) into Pay Over Time. Then, set a reminder to shut off Pay Over time in 121 days.

    If you get the bonus offer on multiple cards, consider activating them in separate tabs as simultaneously as possible because reasons.
  2. Do this now: Add all of your Chase Sapphire and Freedom cards to your Instacart account for free Instacart+ membership, each card adds more time, and you use the same landing page each time too. You won’t be able to do this after tomorrow.
  3. Rakuten In-Store has 1-3x Membership Rewards or 1-3% cash back at Lowe’s with a linked card. Goose the offer with the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card’s monthly home improvement credit too.

    The terms say this doesn’t work with gift cards, but we all know that’s probably not true because reasons.
  4. OfficeDepot / Office Max stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Buy even multiples of $300

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Hilton for Business members earn double elite night credits for both business and leisure stays through the end of 2024. You can register for Hilton for Business and link your accounts here if you haven’t already done so. (Thanks to LoyaltyLobby)
  6. The American Express Business Gold card has a 200,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus after $15,000 in spend available by referrals only. Different cards from the referrer can have different bonuses, so check them all because reasons.

Commemorative summer coffee mug; presented because reasons.

  1. The last horse may have crossed the finish line on back-to-school airline portal bonuses for spend through August 12:

    – Delta SkyMiles Shopping: 2,000 miles with $800+ in spend

    My made up sources last week said that Delta wasn’t going to have a bonus, so clearly I shouldn’t trust those sources ever again. In other news, AA hasn’t released a bonus, and my sources are silent on whether they will.
  2. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. These are Pathward gift cards.
  3. Citi ThankYou Points has two transfer bonuses through August 17:

    – 25% bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue
    – 20% bonus to Wyndham Hotels

    The Wyndham one is slightly more special given its rare appearance and the programs (decreasing) gameability, especially if you’re Barclays banned and can’t get the Wyndham Business Earner as a result.

The Delta horse finally crosses the finish line.

  1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards in-store tomorrow only. Amazon gift cards remain excluded from the promotion.

    Fuel point rates and some bulk resale rates are increasing slightly as we enter crop harvest season, despite Pepper’s continued dominance depressing rates.
  2. Alaska has a back-to-school shopping portal bonus for 1,000 bonus miles after $550 or more in online spend through August 5. As my made up sources confirmed, Delta still hasn’t pushed bonus, though I still expect AA to release one joining United and Southwest’s versions.
  3. American Express Offers has a $250 statement credit with $1,250 or more in US originating airfare with Qantas through August 27.
  4. The Capital One Venture card has a 75,000 point and $250 Capital One Travel Statement credit sign-up bonus after $4,000 spend in three months. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year.

Preparing for the fall harvest.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Mastercard has new mid-month targeted spending offers for online spend:

    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000
    – $30 statement credit after $500
    – $50 statement credit after $750
    – $70 statement credit after $1,000

    These offers stack with other ongoing offers leading to $350+ in statement credits monthly for many. Sure the sign-up bonus sucks, but that’s not what this card is about. If only giftcards.com, this offer, and the next news item could form some kind of holy trifecta. (Thanks to Justin O, Dave 37, and birt)
  2. Two airline portals have back-to-school shopping portal bonuses for cumulative spend through August 12, which is an extremely long time for a shopping portal.

    – Southwest Rapid Rewards : 2,000 miles after $500 spend
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 miles after $600 spend

    Likely Alaska and American will have similar bonuses later this week, and Delta won’t because they don’t believe in holy trifectas (according to sources that I just made up).
  3. American Express Offers has several new airline offers:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards with $2,000+ spend at ITA Airways through September 30
    – $300 statement credit with $2,000+ spend at Virgin Atlantic through September 16

    Normally these are semi-gameable, but ITA is particularly hard to deal with so caveat emptor. (Thanks to Connor and DoC)
  4. The Chase IHG Premier One Business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 200,000 points after $9,000 spend in six months, and the $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year. The card also gives $50 in United Travel Bank credit annually, so I’d consider that part of the sign-up bonus too.

    We talked about an IHG devaluation last week and now that the dust has settled, the point value should probably be taken as somewhere between 0.45 cpp and 0.85 cpp, or even more if you have the IHG Select card for it’s 10% rebate and you book flexible rates.

Have a nice Tuesday!

The other holy trifecta.

  1. Southwest has a 20% rebate on a single award flight booked by today with registration for travel through November 20. (Thanks to imadogg)
  2. Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 10x points on Home Depot, Lululemon, and some gift cards that aren’t high enough rate on the resale market to bother with through Thursday, limit $2,000 per account.

    Pepper still offers competitive pricing on one of those two brands, so expect demand to be slightly lower than normal. (Thanks to GCG)
  3. The Wells Fargo Choice Privileges cards have heightened bonuses. Note that there seems to be an affiliate code in the link, and I get error codes when I strip it out. I don’t know if anyone will be paid a commission when you apply through this link, but I can tell you I definitely won’t (just like all MEAB links):

    – Mastercard Select: 100,000 points after $3,000 spend in three months, $95 annual fee
    – Mastercard: 70,000 points after $1,000 spend in three months, $0 annual fee

    The Mastercard Select earns 5x at gas, grocery, and home improvement stores, and has a 30,000 point annual bonus. Choice has some awful hotels, but they’ve also got some good to great properties in the Ascend Collection, some Radisson properties, and Preferred Hotels. (Thanks to DDG)

Happy Monday!

Counterintuitively, free breakfast at Choice Hotels diminishes the value of Choice points.