The Chase British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus credit cards have heightened bonuses for 90,000 Avios after $5,000 spend in three months, and their $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year. Each card has different ongoing benefits after the sign-up bonus so if you’re going to hold the card, it’s worth investigating each. Generally the favorite is the British Airways flavor for its three award ticket fee reimbursements and companion ticket available after $30,000 spend.
Side note: What is British Airways flavor? Don’t ask.
– 50,000 points after $3,000 spend by January 31, 2027 – $95 annual fee, not waived the first year – 3x points on travel and transit – 2x points everywhere else – Points worth 1.0 cents each for travel, or 0.7 cents for a statement credit – Points can be pooled with other USAA cards
With the right plays and payments there’s probably room for another 2x Visa card in lots of manufactured spending wallets, but my compel-o-meter measurement gives this card a solid 5.5 out of 10.
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 2x points earning on Mastercard gift cards through Wednesday, limit $1,500-$2,000 per week. Meanwhile Giant Food has 8x earning on Zift cards which, if you’ve done anything recently with Zift cards, frankly feels like a punk rather than a perk to its customers.
AA has new targeted loyalty point promotions for September on your account’s promo page. Reportedly 2,000 bonus Loyalty Points with two flights booked in premium economy, business class, or first class, and flown by the end of October is widely targeted.
Hilton’s program is currently a dumpster fire sitting on the deck of a sinking oil tanker, but there can be use cases where this makes sense.
JetBlue debuted its BlueFirst cabin, and I guess to prove the K-shape economic recovery model, is also reducing pitch in economy from 32″ to 30″.
Smart & Final grocery stores have $10 off of your next purchase with a $50 One4All Ultimate gift card through Tuesday. Smart & Final deals are transactional, so scaling is generally easy.
– 10-22% back through Capital One Shopping – $5 off of physical Visas with promo ECO5 (works with portals) – $10 Kroger gift card with a $100 virtual Visa with promo KROGER10 – 10% off of virtual Visas with promo code SD10OFF – 10% off through Slickdeals
Mastercard gift cards are no longer eligible for portal cashback for the second time in the last 30 days.
Based on their transfer partner loadout, I imagine the next partner will be something that (1) every other major bank has, (2) no other bottom-tier bank can transfer to, and (3) no one really wants, like Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub.
These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
Accor ALL has a 4x points promotion at “new” hotels, registration required. Book by September 27 for stays through January 24, and cry because this is only valid for a single stay.
The American Express Delta cards have new, highest ever offers through November 4, but caveat emptor because those marked with “*” are “as-high-as” offers, which means without some sleuthing you won’t know what your bonus is until you’re approved (it feels like that sort of offer ought to be addressed by law, but I’m just a guy who writes stuff on the internet, what do I know?)
– Gold: 80,000* SkyMiles + $250 credit after $3,000 spend in six months – Platinum: 90,000* SkyMiles + $300 credit after $4,000 in six months – Reserve: 50,000 SkyMiles + two free round-trip flights in Main Cabin or Comfort Plus after $10,000 spend in six months
– Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months – Business Reserve: 200,000 SkyMiles after $20,000 spend in six months
The personal Reserve free-flight certificates have a value of well over $3,000 for the right use cases, and there aren’t restrictions on fares either. Eligible destinations are the continental 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands on Delta branded metal with a 21 day advance purchase requirement. These are all available via referral, do that or remember this gem.
– Third-party gift card sales, which earn miles on purchase – A new mobile app – In-store earning with card-linked offers
They’ve also added card-linked dining rewards and revamped their hotel portal. Rove has the potential to be Pepper 3.0 with these changes, hopefully without the unredeemable loyalty currency a few years later.
One of churning’s early achievements is to break American Express’s application status site – not intentionally, but rather from sheer volume. AmEx has just made that trophy harder with a new Application Status site better equipped to handle our shenanigans:
– Award availability is usually good at launch – They’re adding a bunch of narrow body A321-XLR routes
You do you, but personally I’m not flying long haul on a narrow body aircraft except in dire situations, so pay attention to equipment when you book these new routes.
Imprint American Express cards are useful for several reasons, not the least of which being that you probably shouldn’t be concerned about an Imprint shutdown so go wild.
David shared an interesting analysis of Leaders Club redemptions showing a post-tax value of generally 1.9 cents per Membership Reward transferred, or I guess now per ThankYou point transferred so it is worth paying attention.
