Yes, JetBlue, AA, and United increased their checked baggage fees and it’s an easy article for every travel reporter or travel blogger to write so we see it everywhere. Even worse, it’s also probably the kind of article that’ll get a disproportionally high number of clicks because airline fees rile people up.
Should you care? I dunno, but it does change the calculus slightly for the enduring value of an airline’s cobranded card if you check bags regularly.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The feedback I’ve gotten for guest post Saturday has been resoundingly positive. I’ve got a few posts left to publish, but I’m running low. If you’re interested in a guest post, please reach out!
One of the most consistently inconsistent methods in manufactured spend is earning sign-up bonuses by paying yourself as an OnlyFans model bulk gift card resale, roughly because the basic version involves selling to third parties that ultimately use the card and that makes you beholden to their whims. Their whims are really more about demand though, and that demand is cyclical for slightly different reasons:
Gift Cards
The bulk gift card resale market for cards like BestBuy, Apple, Target generally varies by quarter:
Q1: Starts out depressed, but rates and demand increase slowly, especially around holidays
Q2: Rates hold steady, demand is lumpy but persistent
Q4: Rates reach local maxima, demand is typically the biggest for the year
Grocery Loyalty Points
The profitability of bulk gift card resale markets for manufactured spenders centers around grocery loyalty points, which make up the difference between cost and resale rate for most bulk brands. If you’re cashing those out by selling to a third party, demand looks like:
Q1, Q2: Lumpy
Q3: Strong
Q4: Starts strong, ends weak
The main reason for the difference in loyalty points demand is that they’re often redeemed for discounted fuel by industry and agriculture that sees peak use in Q3.
Smoothing Out Demand
How do you make demand relatively consistent? I’m going to offer two primary ways:
First, it’s easy on paper but relatively hard in practice: Be the end-user. That means do what the end-users do, which is:
Buy goods on sale and sell them at Amazon, ebay, craigslist, or internationally
Buy Apple products and sell them internationally in places like Brazil
Use loyalty points to buy things like Airpods and sell them
Use loyalty points for discount gas, either for yourself or as a fueling service
I’ve dabbled in every single one of these, and while they were all successful to an extent (and in one case wildly successful), they’re all a ton of work to scale. Ultimately, I wasn’t fulfilled by any of it and I didn’t enjoy it in the way that I enjoy manufactured spend, so I don’t do those things any more.
That brings us to the second method of smoothing demand, acting as a gift card reserve banker and holding your cards until demand is high, then unleashing fury on the market whenever buyers return.
Finally, let’s talk a bonus method for smoothing out demand Paying yourself as an OnlyFans model which is really a cheater method: Shift the demand elsewhere. For me, that means I’m focusing on other manufactured spend techniques when demand in bulk card resale isn’t solid. There’s plenty of other opportunity out there.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The feedback I’ve gotten for guest post Saturday has been resoundingly positive. I’ve got a few posts left to publish, but I’m running low. If you’re interested in a guest post, please reach out!
– Link your credit cards to Dosh – Try for multiple transactions, back-to-back – Try for scale in a single transaction, it usually works out – Don’t forget about your monthly American Express Business Gold credits
These are Pathward gift cards which often have a $480 per five minute transaction limit for liquidation at popular in-person liquidation spots.
We’re going to go short form, followed by long form, followed by short form today because that’s how the wind is blowing. Let’s just call it the churning burger.
Personal Gold (annual fee: $150, up from $99) – $200 flight credit after $10,000 spend – $100 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays
Personal Platinum (annual fee: $350, up from $250) – $10 monthly Resy credit – $10 monthly rideshare credit – $150 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays – Companion certificate now valid for first class and for international trips
Personal Reserve (annual fee: $650, up from $550) – $20 monthly Resy credit – $10 monthly rideshare credit – $200 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays – Companion certificate now valid for international trips
Business Gold (annual fee: $150, up from $99) – $200 flight credit after $10,000 spend – $150 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays
Business Platinum (annual fee: $350, up from $250) – $10 monthly Resy credit – $10 monthly rideshare credit – $200 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays – Companion certificate now valid for first class and for international trips
Business Reserve (annual fee: $650, up from $550) – $20 monthly Resy credit – $10 monthly rideshare credit – $200 Delta Vacations credit for hotel stays – Companion certificate now valid for international trips
The annual fee increase starts on May 1. There’s a path to Delta status just by holding a set of these cards too, the Platinums and Reserves each have a $2,500 MQD “head-start”, and according to the terms and conditions each card type is eligible (up to $10,000 MQD per card holder per year), which means you’ve got a path to Gold status just by holding the right set of credit cards.
For those keeping track at home, this leaves 36 refreshes left on the AmEx refresh-o-meter, and I think the Resy credits and annual fee increases are a telling sign of what’s to come.
The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the original MEAB’s Unsung Hero credit card, has a targeted spending bonus for February, March, and April for 15% back on up to $1,200 spend at home improvement stores, once per month. This one arrives either by USPS, email, or both. (Thanks to FlashStash)
Have a nice weekend!
The limited edition churning hamburger gift card; yes, it works on PayPal Bill Pay.
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).
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.
– 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.
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.
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.
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)
– 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)
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)
– 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.
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.
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.
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 progresssciencemathStanley cups guest authors!.
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.
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.
