Category: Gift Cards

  1. Do this now: Register for 6,000 bonus Aeroplan miles on “select” Air Canada flights to Canada. Based on the terms and conditions, it looks like “select” flight mostly means paid non-basic economy flights booked after registration, and for travel through March 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM.

    What happens if your flight is delayed past 11:59 PM on March 31, 2025? I dunno, but I image it wouldn’t be fun to clean up. (Thanks to Vince for sending me the correct promotion end date)
  2. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of the purchase price of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. A few tips:

    – There are Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals for Meijer currently floating around
    – You have to clip the coupon in your MPerks account
    – This looks like the kind of deal that you can reclip after buying to repeat
    – Sometimes Meijer gas stands also sell gift cards

    Meijer sells Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Delta Stays and Delta Car Rentals have a promotion for MQD earning on hotels and car rentals booked directly through the portal by September 30 for travel by October 31, earning at one mile per dollar spent. A few random thoughts:

    – You can book VRBO bookings through Delta Stays
    – You can list things on VRBO, and sometimes VRBO runs promotions
    – Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve American Express cards have a Stays credit
    – For upcoming travel where status doesn’t matter, you might as well earn MQD
    – Delta Stays is not the same thing as Delta Vacations, don’t confuse them
    – Delta gift cards do not work at Delta Stays

    Always be probing. Am I playing this one, asked no-one? No, because I have Diamond through 2030 thanks to prior shenanigans and as a result MQDs are effectively worthless for me until then.
  4. Delta Vacations has a tiered $75-$250 off of a flight+hotel booking promotion that seems available for all Delta Medallion members using promo code SMMED2024 booked by January.

    Again, remember that Delta Vacations is different than Delta Stays even though they’re technically the same company, so your AmEx credits won’t work here because I guess late-stage capitalism, or something.
  5. Stephen Pepper at GCG has a thoughtful opinion piece on Pepper Rewards. As usual, my strategy with Pepper is to avoid floating more (rewards in this case), than I could stand to lose.

    Side note: John Reeder challenged me once on my position about “floating what I could afford to lose”, and his counter-point is that in advantage play, the Kelly betting method governs your bets (or as an analog, money at risk) in order to maximize potential profit and indirectly minimize the risk of loss. There’s something there for churners; stand-by for a future post on the topic. Or don’t; you do you.

How to deal with chronic messy room? Its atrocious. Details in comments. : r/CleaningTips

AirCanada Aeroplan’s customer service center, but as a bedroom.

  1. Clear has a promotion for a $75 Uber voucher with a new membership and also some existing expired memberships. In the past, these have been an ok-ish way to cash out American Express Clear credits. Note the following from prior promotions:

    – The voucher doesn’t does work outside of the US, but ymmv
    – The voucher can be used on multiple orders
    – The voucher works for Uber and Uber Eats
    – You’ve only been able to apply one voucher per Uber account per promotion

    The vouchers typically come about a month after the end of the promo. (Thanks to nutella)
  2. Radisson Rewards has a promotion for a one year upgrade to its highest level of status, VIP. The main benefits of VIP status are free breakfast for two and access to suites for complimentary upgrades.

    Remember that Radisson Rewards covers properties outside of the Americas, and Choice covers properties inside the Americas.
  3. Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. For best results:

    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Look for lower fee versions of the card

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. American Express offers released new offers for:

    – $90 off of $450 or more in airfare at Delta
    – $20 off of $200 at Viator

    The first one is easily gameable. The second one might be if you’re creative and have a penchant for shenanigans.
  5. Southwest has a code for 25% off of award bookings booked today for travel between September 4 and December 18 with promo code SAVE25NOW. The blackout days and cities paragraph is too lame to summarize, so just assume that the sale only applies on days that you don’t want to travel from cities that you don’t want to visit.

    I repriced ten upcoming reservations and only one was eligible for the discount.

Happy Monday!

The answer to the question: What happens if you combine bad Monday jokes with Uber Eats?

  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.