Category: Hotels

  1. Two airline portals have bonuses for online spend:

    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $300+ through January 15
    – AA eShopping: 1,000 miles with $500+ through January 12

    Giftcards.com is on both of these portals, so you can take a Kudos college break.
  2. The Alaska Airlines business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year. Pair a few of these with the personal 75,000 miles offer for more cowbell. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Do this now: Register for double Hyatt elite night credits at Under Canvas Resorts for stays between March 7 and June 15. I hesitated to put a “do this now” on this one because y’all don’t seem like the glamping under a canvas tent type, but I mean you never know when you might accidentally end up in a tent I guess.
  4. Choice Hotels have devalued redemptions and added some dynamic room pricing. There’s still value to be had, but this change moves it from a secondary program to a tertiary program in my mind.
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 28 and May 7 booked by tomorrow night, with some variability on those dates for Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Based on my extremely limited searches, early and late flights carry most of the discounts with mid-day travel at regular pricing.
  6. JetBlue has a fare sale for travel between January 11 and April 9 booked by January 14, and this one has teeth in a way that most JetBlue sales don’t, for example $89 LAX-BOS fares, $99 BOS-SAN fares, and $49 short and medium haul fares. Mint fares look higher than normal though, so there’s that.

How do we know this JetBlue plane isn’t Mint-equipped? Bees.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

By popular demand we’ll have at least a few guest posts during the break. If you’d like to write one, please reach out, I’d like to find guest posts for the whole break!

  1. Do this now: Register for 5x categories on quarterly cards:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Grocery, fitness, gyms, hair, nails, spas, and Norwegian Cruises (welcome to the world of sponsored 5x categories friends)
    – Discover IT: Restaurants, home improvement, and some streaming
    – Citi Dividend: Amazon and some streaming
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics stores

    I try and knock these out on the first day or two of the quarter so I don’t have to think about them after.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card sent new mid-month targeted spending offers for online spend through January 14, 2025. We’ve seen:

    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $1,000+
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $750+
    – $70 statement credit with $1,000+
    – $50 statement credit with $750+

    As usual, these stack with other offers. (Thanks to birt, Adam, Lindsay, and Tyler)
  3. Giftcards.com has 10% off of its own gift cards through December21. These cards can be used to buy other, third-party fee-free gift cards on the site with promo code EPICGIFT. These probably won’t track on shopping portals when you buy them, but when you use them on another purchase that’ll probably track. There are several credit cards that earn 3x on giftcards.com.
  4. Answering a few of the questions we asked on Friday with American Express’s new Business Platinum $50 quarterly Hilton credit:

    – Will this work with HiltonGiftCards.com? Yes
    – Will this work buying gift cards at a hotel? Yes
    – Will this work at Hilton restaurant? Usually, watch for a 15% extra hold for tip
    – Will this work for a regular hotel to pay your bill? Yes, depending on the front desk’s skillset
    – Who is John Galt? I dunno; or if I do, I don’t want to talk about it here, why do you ask?

    Also, orange-you glad I didn’t say banana? (That’s called a “long con” friends, at least on internet time scales.)

Yes, I know I deserve this.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

  1. Hyatt now lets you apply Suite Upgrade Certificates to a reservation yourself online. In the past, Hyatt’s long had a quirk that when (a) standard suites are available at a property, but (b) standard rooms weren’t available with points, you couldn’t book using points and a suite upgrade certificate without working directly with the property and some luck. That’s now fixed with the new change.
  2. Citi is going to be the exclusive issuer of AA cards in a year and change. If you’re Citi banned, getting a Barclays AA card in the next several months may get you back in with Citi when they assume the Barclays AA card portfolio, which is also part of the deal.

    Side note: The Citi AA Business card will often bypass Citi bans regardless of this news.
  3. You can currently buy Hilton Honors Points at 0.5 cents per point, up to 160,000 points. At the low end (e.x., Lubbock, TX), Hilton points are worth about 0.5 cents so this is a wash, but at high end properties it’s not hard to get 1.5-4.0 cents per point, and 8.0 cents per point isn’t unheard of at the Maldives.

    I wouldn’t buy speculatively but if you know that you’ll be staying at a high end property in the next year, there’s plenty of outsized value to be had.

Happy Monday friends!

A different kind of churner’s triple for those banned at Citi, but 30 years ago.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 3,000 bonus points per night at Hyatt Vacation Club properties between December 1 and March 30, 2025 with a maximum of 30,000 bonus points.
  2. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third-party gift cards excluding Amazon, and fixed value Visas and Mastercards through December 3.

    Holiday demand for third party gift cards is soaring, and fuel points demand remains steady.
  3. The Barclays JetBlue Plus Mastercard has an offer for 80,000 TrueBlue points after $1,000 spend and paying the annual fee within the first 90 days in the mobile app. I can’t make this appear on desktop without some trickery, but it appears on the front page of the mobile app even if you’re not signed in. (Thanks to abhirpduttamit)
  4. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.
  5. The personal United cards from Chase all have an increased sign-up bonus for those of you light on MileagePlus miles. Yes, the increased bonus even includes the stupidest United card of all, the Quest:

    – Gateway: 30,000 miles after $1,000 in three months, no annual-fee
    – Explorer: 60,000 miles after $3,000 in three months, $95 annual fee is waived
    – Quest: 70,000 miles and 500 PQP after $4,000 in three months, $250 annual fee
    – Club: 90,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months, $525 annual fee

    Only the Club’s bonus gives enough miles for a one-way long-haul partner redemption from the US to Europe or Asia, which should tell you something about the actual value of these cards especially as compared to an Ink. Each card does get you XN award space access, which is great for domestic economy awards I guess. Each card also earns an extra 5,000 bonus miles for adding an authorized user within the first three months. (Thanks to DDG)
  6. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa gift cards through Monday. You can repeat this with back-to-back-to-back transactions until either the police are called or they run out of stock.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

More weekend catchup (?) fun.

  1. US Bank launched the stupidly named Smartly card yesterday and is now accepting applications, and unfortunately applications for the Altitude Reserve have been taken down.

    The Smartly card is a 2-4% everywhere uncapped cash back card, with the cash back amount determined by the assets held in either a Smartly savings or a self-directed investment account. $100,000 average funds over 90 days in either is enough for 4%, and you have to have a Smartly savings account open even if most of the assets are in an investment account to qualify.
  2. Wells Fargo Deals has new travel-related card linked offers:

    – 5% back on British Airways through November 29, up to $45 back
    – 10% back at Renaissance Hotels through November 18, up to $75 back
    – 10% back at Fairfield Inn through December 1, up to $38 back
    – 10% back at Westin through December 1, up to $68 back

    Gamers gonna blah blah blah gift cards at the front desk or blah blah blah blah something else. (Thanks to Mike at Cheapskate Travel)
  3. The Citi Double Cash has $100 off of $300+ in hotels booked through the Citi travel portal by December 6. I don’t think this is targeted, but double check that you see a banner under the search page advertising the credit after selecting your Double Cash card.
  4. Chase has several targeted offers for $400+ in hotel booked through the Chase portal:

    – 20,000 Ultimate Rewards with $500+ spend
    – 10,000 Ultimate Rewards after $400+ spend
    – $100 statement credit after $400+ spend

    Book by January 31, 2025 for stays through August 31, 2025.

Rejected US Bank Smartly Visa card design.

  1. Bask Bank has long offered savings accounts that earn AA miles. In the past era of ZIRP, the earning potential relative to regular savings account interest was huge, but ZIRP is a distant memory and Bask has devalued several times since.

    Don’t worry though! Bask is devaluing again today because of “a range of economic factors and current market conditions”, where now they’ll only pay out 2 miles for every dollar saved annually, down from 2.5 miles per dollar. I guess because still high interest rates mean they can collect a bigger spread? That’s #BaskMath. As of this writing they haven’t updated their website to reflect the devaluation, so that’s double awesome. I’m out.
  2. Choice Hotels will have a lower cost saver level award tier of 6,000 points, allow for award bookings at 50 weeks in advance, and allow for redeeming points for room types other than base rooms. But, and here’s the kicker, not until early 2025.
  3. Staples in-store has fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction. For those playing sportsball at home: Yes, they’re really tweaking the per-transaction size, from five, to eight, to seven, and most recently to nine. What’s next, 7.5?

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express Offers has $20-$50 off of $300-$750 in gift cards at amexgiftcard.com, and you can combine this with promo code SHOPEARLY24 for free shipping. As usual, the main use for these is shifting spend, but of course gamers gonna game. (Thanks to Stephen at FM)
  5. Rakuten in-store has card linked offers for:

    – 1% back at Lowes stores (no maximum specified)
    – 1% back at Stop & Shop stores (max $10 back per transaction)
    – 1% back at Food Lion stores (max $10 back per transaction)

    The terms on this are regular for Rakuten, but weird: After activating, you’ve got 75 days to use the offer. After the first purchase, the offer will only work for another hour. After that hour, you can usually re-add the offer again until Rakuten pulls it in several weeks. Link your cards to your Rakuten profile here.
  6. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 4x, 5x, or 6x points (chain dependent) on third party gift cards November 21, limit $2,000 per account. Apple and BestBuy are the cards are likely your best choice if your’e not buying for personal use. (Thanks to GCG)

More #BaskMath courtesy of John K.

  1. Buying Apple gift cards with Membership Rewards has a targeted, boosted redemption rate of 94.12 points per dollar, which works out to a cash-out rate of ~1.062 cents per point.

    With Apple gift card resale rates hovering at nearly 92%, this gives you a Membership Rewards to cash conduit at 0.977 cents per point, which is useful if you’ve hit capacity on Schwab and business checking cashouts and don’t yet have the Morgan Stanley card. (Thanks to DoC)
  2. Kroger online has 5% off of fixed value “Visas or Mastercards” with promo code OCT2024. Of course Kroger.com hasn’t sold Mastercards since May, but even they don’t seem to have noticed. These will earn fuel points which makes the play potentially lucrative, but won’t code as grocery.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  3. After registering here and then logging into the IHG Rewards mobile app, you’ll earn 500 bonus points, assuming you didn’t do the last iteration of this promotion.

    Yes, this is only worth about $2.50, but the hourly rate is still (maybe) over the line if you’ve already got the app downloaded. (Thanks to FM)
  4. The Capital One Spark Cash business credit card has a $750 sign-up bonus after $7,500 spend in three months and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. The card closed to new applications in 2021, but quietly reappeared recently.

    If you’ve got a miles earning Capital One card like the Venture X personal or business card, you can convert cash-back rewards to miles at a 1 penny to 1 mile ratio, and because this is a credit card and the Venture X is a charge card, you can hold both at the same time.

Happy Tuesday!

The alternate-alternate Apple cashout method.

  1. The Barclays Wyndham cards have increased sign-up bonuses from a promotional email:

    – Earner Rewards: 45,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $0 annual fee
    – Earner Plus: 75,000 points after $2,000 spend in 180 days, $75 annual fee
    – Earner Business; 80,000 points in tiers after $15,000 spend, $95 annual fee

    The major use case for manufactured spenders is gas stations, which earn at 5x, 6x, and 8x respectively. On the burn side both both Vacasa and Wyndham have good options.
  2. American Express Offers has an offer for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $700 or more in spend at Leading Hotels of the World properties through December 8.

    As usual, buying a gift card at the front desk is the easiest and most above board way to game the offer, but gamers gonna game.
  3. Singapore Airlines has a 25% discount on all economy award redemptions and business and premium economy redemptions for travel between January 15, 2025 and May 29, 2025 booked by September 22. (Thanks to TheSultan1)
  4. The Southwest Rapid Rewards portal has a new spending bonus for 2,000 Rapid Rewards after $350+ spend by September 18.

    Giftcards.com still hasn’t returned to the main Cartera white-labeled airline portals, but it is now on JetBlue Shopping, Emirates Skywards Shopping, and Virgin Atlantic Shopping. I still pick Rakuten over those though.
  5. United has an economy award sale for flights booked today for travel between the US and London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, or Frankfurt between September 15 and December 12; but only for Chase cobranded card holders. Prices are 50,000 MileagePlus miles round trip. (Thanks to TheSultan1)

Happy Tuesday!

The Wingate by Wyndham Lubbock is a good redemption for masochist elites with suite upgrades, so there’s that.