Category: Gift Cards

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U brands have 10x points earning on Zift cards through Saturday, and because in J4U land 10+4 = 12, you’ll probably get 12x earning on Saturday too.

    Some Zift cards can be converted to high value bulk brands like Amazon and Home Depot, for the others, well, I hope you like Cracker Barrel.
  2. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Giftcards.com has a promotion for a $10 giftcards.com gift card with a $100 Visa, Mastercard, or One4All card using promo code BONUSSEASON for purchases through tomorrow, limit one per transaction and three per account.

    These promo codes are showing on portals, so you should earn shopping portal rewards and seasonal bonuses too.
  4. The American Express Hilton personal cards have increased targeting on no-lifetime language (NLL) links:

    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Honors: 100,000 points after $1,000 spend in six months

    These are also available via referrals albeit with lifetime language, so go that route if NLL doesn’t matter. (Thanks to DDG)
  5. ShopRite stores have a promotion for $25 off of groceries with $100+ in One4All gift cards. Some One4Alls can be converted to high value bulk brands like Home Depot and GameStop.
  6. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through November 20.
  7. American Express offers has a card linked offer for $100 back on $300+ at Small Luxury Hotels through December 31.
  8. Chase Offers has multiple card linked offers:

    – 5%-7% back at Hyatt House & Studios, max $28-56 through December 15
    – 7% back at Park Hyatt, max $28-$56 through December 15
    – 10% back at Kimpton, max $62 through December 19

    Gamers gonna game, but these prizes aren’t as good recent ones so I guess #shrinkflation?

Hint? Troll? You decide.

  1. Bank of America “More Rewards Day” is today, and you’ll earn +2% or +2x on all Bank of America credit cards on up to $2,500 spend each as long as the spend happens before midnight Eastern time, sorry west coast night owls, BofA doesn’t love you.

    If you don’t regularly exercise your Bank of America cards, be prepared for a litany of fraud alerts.
  2. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Notably this doesn’t require clipping a digital coupon, so multiple transactions back-to-back will work really well.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. MastercardGiftCard.com has fee free gift cards through November 30 with promo code NOFEES25. Limits are $10,000 per account per rolling 24 hours, and first party American Express cards don’t earn points.

    These are Incomm / Vanilla gift cards.
  4. TheGiftCardShop.com has fee free Visa and Mastercard custom design gift cards through November 16 with promo code SHOPEARLY25.

    These are also Incomm / Vanilla gift cards.
  5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on One4All and Choice gift cards and for dining gift cards through Tuesday. There’s also 4x fuel points on fixed value Visas and Mastercards, and 400 bonus points on a fixed value or variable load gift card too.
  6. The FNBO Amtrak Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 40,000 points after $2,000 spend in the first three statements. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year, and the main bonus category for the card is 2x on dining and travel. Points are worth approximately 2.6 cents each for train travel.

    FNBO is often down to clown too.
  7. JetBlue has a promotion code for 20% off of domestic economy flights for a laughably small travel window for travel booked today and flown between December 2 and December 18. To make it worse, both Fridays and Saturdays in that window are excluded too. Use promo code TAKE20 for travel on the other 12 days I guess.

    Why even mention for something so lame? Some of you are doing 25 for 25, and it will work for that.
  8. Citi now allows product changes via chat, and let’s just say Citi gonna Citi unintentionally too.

Happy Thursday!

Real Bank of America fraud alert or fake? It can be hard to tell with BofA IT.

  1. The Rove Miles shopping portal added Lufthansa Miles & More as a transfer partner. This is great because:

    – There wasn’t previously a great way for US members to earn Miles & More
    – Lufthansa and Swiss availability is much better with Miles & More
    – Swiss First is bookable with matchable Miles & More Senator status

    With this development and with Rove’s ability to maintain elite benefits on hotel bookings, it’s probably a good idea to include Rove in your comparison shopping when booking paid hotel nights. Rove has referral bonuses, so use someone’s referral link if you’re going to join.
  2. The major airline portals have shopping portal bonuses (ordered by expiration date):

    – American: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,600+ (+2.5x) through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 bonus miles with $650+ (+2.3x) through November 19
    – Delta: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,500+ (+2.67x) through November 21
    – United: 5,000 bonus miles with $1,100+ (+4.55x) through November 22
    – Southwest: 4,000 bonus miles with $900+ (+4.44x) through November 24

    Each of these portals has giftcards.com as an option, and Chase Offers has a targeted offer for 5% back on up to $1,000 spend too.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 6x point earning on third party gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or 4x earning for Giant Food because apparently it’s a running joke at the parent company).
  5. Wyndham and Vacasa’s partnership is ending for reservations after November 30 and stays after January 31, 2026. Here’s your obligatory wah-wah trombones sound.
  6. Rakuten has portal bonuses for applying for several Chase cards through their links:

    – $30 for the Freedom Unlimited (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $30 for the Sapphire Preferred (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $25 for the Ink Unlimited (or $50 for exactly no one)

    Referral offers for the Freedom and Sapphire Reserve are generally a much better deal for the referrer, but Chase Business referrals are restricted to new businesses (to Chase) only, so the Rakuten bonus is often the best choice. (Thanks to DoC)

Happy Monday!

Embargoed oil is also a thing.

  1. American Express has a few generic links for targeted new card offers meant for existing card holders:

    – Business Gold: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months
    – Business Gold: 200,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months

    If you’re targeted for both, I hope it’s obvious which one you should chose [both]. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  2. Meijer stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through November 11, limit one per digital coupon. With the right liquidation channels this deal can be worth traveling to Meijerland even if you’re nowhere near.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, though Meijer occasionally also sells Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Clear has a promotion for 5,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles for new memberships. Multiple Platinum cards with multiple players could make this worth your time, but you do you.

Happy Thursday!

SideShowBob233’s clown car runs into issues on its way to Mejierland.

  1. Wells Fargo added JetBlue TrueBlue as a transfer partner at a 1:1 ratio. This is mildly interesting because:

    – TrueBlue can book United and JAL tickets at not-wholly unreasonable rates
    – TrueBlue points are worth ~ 1.35 cents each for low demand tickets

    It’s mildly uninteresting for the same reasons.
  2. Office Depot/ OfficeMax stores have an offer for $15 back on $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. As usual:

    – Try for the lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them
    – Even multiples of $300 are better than odd multiples

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. American Express has a few new interesting targeted offers:

    – $100 off of $300+ at Hyatt Regency properties
    – $100 off of $300+ at Radisson Blu and Cambria Hotels in the Americas
    – $100 off of $500+ at Mandarin Oriental in US, Europe, and Asia

    All of these have participating property lists, and both cover most properties in their geographic regions.
  4. American Airlines is resuming its schedule to Tel Aviv on March 28, and as a result there’s an atypical glut of saver award space in both business and economy. The same is expected of United this week.
  5. Bilt footnote-worthy news:

    – On November 1, there will be a 25-100% transfer bonus to Etihad Guest
    – Milestone rewards are being replaced with Bilt Cash (Itchy and Scratchy money)

    Maybe I’m being too hard on Bilt Blit, but also, maybe not.

Happy Tuesday!

The Bilt footnote (thanks to John-K).

  1. Citi ThankYou has a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas Frequent Flyer through November 8.

    Qantas’s highest and best use is typically for Emirates or Qantas F redemptions.
  2. Citi launched a new “mid-tier” (lulz) AA credit card yesterday. Vitals of the “AAdvantage Globe Mastercard”:

    – $350 annual fee, 4x single use AA lounge passes
    – 90,000 AA miles after $5,000 spend in four months
    – 2x earning at restaurants, taxis, and rideshare
    – 3x earning with AA, 6x with AA Hotels (also lulz)
    – 1x everywhere else
    – 1x Loyalty Points regardless of mileage earning
    – $100 inflight purchase rebate, which practically means inflight booze because AA doesn’t really cater buy-on-board food as a general rule
    – Companion certificate, but not until your second year

    This card gives United Quest vibes, a card which I (in)famously hate. I guess the sign-up bonus is moderately acceptable, but let’s just say I disagree with anyone who says this card belongs with other “best sign-up bonus” list cards.
  3. The idea of #citigonnaciti went mainstream last week when the WSJ made their Strata Elite 4506-C shenanigans public. Their make-good to say sorry about the press getting wind of their incompetence is to refund the annual-fee and award the sign-up bonus whether or not you hit minimum spend.

    If you fell into the 4506-C hole and didn’t get the make-good offer from Citi, perhaps a phone call to customer service is in order.
  4. Staples in-store has fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Predicting that Staples fee-free gift cards are coming the week after a Mastercard scale is about a sure as a bet as putting it all on Joey Chestnut.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Buy these in even multiples of $300 for a bigger per-card discount.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards too.
  6. Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping has an offer for 1,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points with $100+ in spend through today.

Happy Monday!

The Citi Strata Elite situation.

  1. First Electronic Bank’s Bank’s Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $100, or 10,000 Membership Rewards, after $1,000 spend in 90 days. The card earns:

    – Rakuten portal: 4x up to $7,000 spend per year
    – Rakuten restaurants: 5x
    – Groceries and dining: 2x
    – Everywhere else: 1x

    The card definitely isn’t an unsung hero, but it is a card that earns unlimited 2x Membership Rewards at grocery without RAT concerns, and possibly soon unlimited 2x Bilt points at grocery too. It’s also a third party AmEx. Finally, it’s time for your annual reminder that Rakuten used to be called buy.com, but that was too hard to say and spell, or something.
  2. Existing Bank of America Preferred Rewards members have an opportunity for a $1,000 bonus for bringing $250,000+ in retirement or regular brokerage investments into a new Merrill account, even if have an existing Merrill account with promo 1000PR.

    You can ACATS transfer existing investments. Investments only have to be with Merrill for 90 days after transfer.
  3. American Express has newly targeted upgrade offers for:

    Delta Gold to Platinum: 30,000 SkyMiles + $250 statement credit with $3,000 spend
    Delta Platinum to Reserve: 35,000 SkyMiles + $300 statement credit with $4,000 spend

    Both give you six months to hit the spend.
  4. American Express’s Delta Personal Gold card also has a heightened $500 statement credit + 50,000 SkyMiles sign-up bonus after $3,300 spend in six months through October 29. The offer is presented while making a (dummy) booking, and the annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    This one won’t work with the above targeted upgrade offers in the first year though, thanks to CARD act, also known as the fried twinkee of credit card regulations.
  5. Vanilla Gift has fee-free Visa gift cards with promo code VISA100. I’d be surprised if other Incomm sites don’t also have promotions running, but they’re not advertising them in the same ways that they normally do so I can’t tell. Purchase limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours per account.

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Rove lets you now earn regular loyalty points and elite night credits on some hotel bookings in addition to miles earned directly with Rove.

Happy Wednesday!

Rakuten’s next rebrand.

  1. Do this now: Register for your Q4 Marriott targeted Q4 promotions, including:

    – Five bonus elite nights, usable 2x for stays through January 31, 2026
    – Extra elite night for all stays through December 31
    – 15,000 bonus points every five stays, up to 3x through January 31, 2026
    – 2,000 bonus per stay at AC, Courtyard, or Four Points properties through February 16, 2026
    – 2,025 bonus points per stay, up to 3x through January 10, 2026
    – 2,000 bonus points per stay, up to 3x at Outdoors properties through January 10, 2026

    Some of those numbers look big, but remember they’re still Bonvoy points.
  2. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. Staples.com has fee-free virtual $200 Visa gift cards, limit four per account. Sometimes obscure portals work on these too, sometimes.

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. American Express has a few new offers, all of which are valid through December 31:

    – Virgin Atlantic: $250 off of $1,800+
    – Hilton Cards (variation 1): Earn 6,000 bonus points for a $3,000+ purchase (up to 3x)
    – Hilton Cards (variation 2): Earn 20,000 bonus points for a $10,000+ purchase (up to 3x)
    – Qatar: $200 off of $850+ through AmEx Travel

    I’m told “gamers gonna (allegedly) game”. (Thanks to Stowe)

Happy Tuesday!

“Allegedly”