Category: MS Hints

Let’s discuss a few quasi-private / quasi-public news items today:

Air Astana Nomad Club

I hadn’t known much of anything about Kazakhstan based Air Astana or its Nomad Club frequent flyer program until yesterday, but I’ve now investigated it because reasons. The interesting parts:

  • They have paid code-share flights
  • Nomad Club award tickets can only be redeemed for Air Astana metal flights
  • There’s good award availability between Central Asia and major European airports
  • Award prices are dynamic, but rates seem to be approximately:
    • Economy: 5,000 – 15,000 miles
    • Business: 15,000 – 60,000 miles
  • They have interline agreements with lots of partners, but only on the earn side.

Want more? Seek your favorite feline friend coded chat room for more information. At the very least, you’ll get a cat picture out of it. They’ll also be happy to tell you about Qatar Avios, but I think that one’s slightly less obscure.

The Robot Lady

In the 2010s there were two “robot ladies” that manufactured spenders befriended. We lost one of them, Kate, in 2016, and the other slightly less famous but more prolific one continued service unabated until a couple of days ago. The signs had been there, the robot lady overlords had been threatening to cut us off since mid December, but we were unsure what the deathbed would look like.

Now that we know though, I can confidently say that there’s a difference between life support and complete robot-death, you haven’t yet found the penultimate all set. Always be probing.

Happy “one of those obscure posts that nobody can understand”-day to all those who celebrate!

Where they are today: Kate’s widower husband.

  1. Barclay AA cards will become Citi AA cards on April 26. What to know:

    – Your balance will transfer to Citi
    – Barclay cards will work after the transition until you activate your Citi card
    – Citi card will have a new account number
    – The Barlcay variants will be converted to the Citi lineup, sorry Silver card holders*
    – Authorized user cards will be reissued too

    If you’re Citi shut, will this transition get you back in? We’ll see, but #citigonnaciti.
  2. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to JAL MileageBank through February 28, bringing the transfer ratio to 1,000:975.
  3. Chase has a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through February 28 which makes the transfer ratio 1,000:1,500.

    Let’s ask a rhetorical or philosophical question, whichever you prefer: What do you get when you turn an awful transfer ratio into a really bad transfer ratio?
  4. The Fairwinds Business Visa 1.5x everywhere cards have a heightened, tiered sign-up bonus:

    – $500 after $5,000 spend in 90 days
    – $1,500 after $50,000 spend in 180 days

    The cards carry no annual fee. If you haven’t figured out how to join banks or credit unions in another state, it’s probably time to experiment. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

*I guess sorry Silver holders of all types (too soon?)

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice’s promotion for triple points on stays through March 31.
  2. Capital One acquired Brex. The action items:

    – Get a Brex account if you qualify and you’re banned by Capital One
    – Finish off those Brex plays, they’re likely short for the world

    Brex likes venture funded technology companies apropos of nothing.
  3. The Chase IHG Premier card has an increased bonus of 175,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and an extra 10,000 points and $100 statement credit after $20,000 spend in the first year.

    This card will likely be available via referrals on Monday, so probably wait until then to make a friend’s day or get an even bigger bonus in two-player mode. If you don’t have a churning friend yet, George at TBB makes a good one.
  4. The American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business card has a sign-up bonus of three 50,000 point night certificates after $6,000 spend in six months. The sign-up bonus isn’t great, but American Express cobranded business cards have a special place in a churners wallet because reasons.

    This one is available via referrals, so use one.
  5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards excluding gas cards and Amazon for today only. Sometimes Friday only coupons stack in unexpected ways, always be probing.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Hot tip: Today is a great day to spot a Marcus / Kroger churner in the wild.
(Thanks to Fish for the photo)

Over the weekend, an enterprising churner posted a quick demonstration about how under Bilt 2.0v2, you can earn more points with less spend. I don’t know why the post was deleted, but my theory is that after Bilt’s marketing team shifted into turbo-overdrive on bad press starting on Friday (to wit, they got the New York Times article about their launch debacle to dial-back its rhetoric and lean more Bilt friendly, removing “The most complicated rewards system we’ve seen” from the article’s title amongst other things), they shifted their sites to Reddit mods and worked hard on this Reddit /r/CreditCards article. Of course, maybe it’s for an entirely different reason, who knows?

The point of this article isn’t really about Bilt’s somewhat successful censorship though. Instead, my goal is to rehash how their 2.0v2 program can be beneficial for card holders, especially so for cardholders that have flexible leases with, for example, their P2 landlord. Earning under 2.0v2 “Option 1” for rent payments has four tiers, two of which are useful for us:

  • 1x points earned when your card spend is 75%+ of your monthly rent
  • 1.25x points earned when your card spend is 100%+ of your monthly rent

Cool I guess. But let’s say that you spend $5,000 monthly on your Bilt credit card before switching to other cards for the rest of your spend. Let’s also say you’re an expert negotiator with your P2 landlord. Under 2.0v2 Option 1, you can earn more points than with a higher rent. Let’s compare a negotiated rent of $5,000 and a negotiated rent of $5,500. Your $5,000 in monthly Bilt card spend would earn:

  • $5,000 * 1.25 = 6,250 points
  • $5,500 * 1.00 = 5,500 points

The punchline: You can earn more with a smaller rent. In fact, to optimize this completely, your monthly rent should be exactly your monthly spend / 1.25.

Good luck deleting this one, Mr. Kerr.

Happy Tuesday!

Next up: The Bilt 2.0v3 Rewards program.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s new promotion for 2,000 bonus points for every stay through April 30.
  2. The Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited card has $500 sign-up bonus after $5,000 spend in 90 days. The card in its default state is 1.5% cash back everywhere, but in its boosted state, it’s 2.625% cash back everywhere. (See the next item)
  3. Bank of America has a tiered sign-up bonus for new business checking accounts when you apply through a small business banker:

    – $1,000 bonus with $20,000 in new funds
    – $1,500 bonus with $50,000 in new funds

    If you bring $100,000 in new funds, you’ll earn Platinum Honors status which boosts earning on cash-back Bank of America cards tied to the same business. Note that new accounts can fast-track the status to avoid parking funds for a year, and note that you can churn these bank accounts and thus the fast-tracked status. There are rumors that the program is changing in May though, so #bonvoyed either way I guess.
  4. Capital One has a 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles through February 11.
  5. Spirit 90% off of base fares for travel on sale with promo code 90PCT for flights that depart on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays Between January 21 March 4 booked by tonight. A mini FAQ:

    – Will Spirit still be around by March 4? Maybe, it’s iffy
    – Will you get your money back if they’re not? Maybe, it’s iffy
    – Will you find MEAB flying Spirit? That one’s not iffy

    In case you’re wondering how many Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays this sale covers: I counted, there are 17. But don’t worry, Spirit threw three blackout dates in there too, so, on-brand.

Happy Wednesday!

From the future: The remnants of Spirit airlines in December, 2026.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We have a bonus guest post today from Jim – it’d have been better if it came out before December 31 for the sake of some states estimated tax payment due dates, but an oversight on Matt’s part prevented that. Jim is a consummate networker turned churner and attacks problems in unique ways. Special thanks for the guest post!

For those of you searching for something to like about the Big Beautiful (for the Rich) Tax Bill, I may have something:

The bill increases the amount of state taxes you can deduct from $10,000 to $40,000.

This makes the easiest best manufactured spend play (overpaying your estimated taxes by credit card and getting a refund, manufacturing spend at a cost of 1.8%) even better if you can overpay your state income taxes, because you can reduce your Federal income tax by tens of thousands of deductible State income tax overpayments. (Granted it is a temporary reduction for your 2025 taxes as you will now have taxable income from your refund for your 2026 taxes.)

If you are in a non-income tax State, or if you already have $40,000 in State tax deductions, you can still get manufactured spend benefits by paying your estimated tax payments on your Federal Income tax, you just won’t get the tax benefits.

The timing: Overpay State estimated taxes for 2025 by their due date (the due date depends on your state), so they are deductible. If you missed this year, you can do it next year. Then, overpay your Federal estimated tax payments: before January 15, 2026 (last date you can make estimated tax payments). Finally, overpay 2025 Federal Income tax payments before April 15, 2026. In either event you should file as soon as you can to get your refund, preferably electronically, which is quicker.

The risk: I have been doing this for years to the tune of tens of thousands (last year ~$20,000 state refund, $55,000 federal refund), and I’ve talked to others into doing this. I have been reading ~20 points/miles blogs and in that time I’ve heard of 2 problems, which were both huge ($70,000 or so) overpayments and both of which resulted in delayed refunds. It’s unclear if this was due to overpaying or to other issues. However, as Matt says: “I am not a tax advisor and I am certainly not your tax advisor.”

And, although this is about as low of a risk of an American Express RAT attacks as it gets, nothing in manufactured spend has 0 risk. (Speaking of low RAT risk plays, you can buy a no-lifetime language (NLL) mailer that lets you open a Business Platinum and a Business Gold every 90 days and avoids American Express’s once in lifetime language. (It doesn’t t evade American Express’s limits of one card of the same type every 90 days and two cards of any type every 90 days though.)

If you’re looking for channels for mailers and don’t have access, you can reach out to me for help. Emailing me is also my incredibly high tech way to subscribe to my occasional People’s Points emails which are kind of like MEAB guest posts, but safer for those with coulrophobia.

– Jim

There’s no coulrophobia here.

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 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs (also, jifs is wrong way to pronounce that word – also known as the Bonvoy way).

  1. Klarna released a new rewards earning Visa debit card, apparently with WebBank’s charter. The application link is live on their site too. The earnings structure seems to be:

    – Plus:, $9.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.0% (1.0x?)
    – Premium, $19.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.5% (1.5x?)
    – Max, $44.99 monthly fee: Earns 2.0% (2.0x?) and provides lounge access

    They mention transfer partners like SAS Eurobonus, British Airways, FlyingBlue, Accor and Radisson, but transfer ratios and mechanics are currently unknown. Also the “Max” tier’s card comes in either rose gold or bro’s gold (aka rose gold), your choice. The T&Cs exclude lots of things from earning, but… (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard has a heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 AAdvantage miles after $10,000 spend in three months. The card’s main utility after its sign-up bonus is in AA lounge membership for the card holder and its modest loyalty point boosts. You can also add up to three authorized user cards with their own AA lounge access for $175 total. I suggest you don’t add up how many cheese cubes you need to eat to offset the annual fee though.

    There was a glorious time in the mid-2010s where you could apply for 12 of these cards back-to-back, get approved for all of them, hit all the spend, get the bonuses, and then close the card before the annual fee hit. Those games are long gone though, at least with Citi.
  3. There are a few short lied airline shopping portal bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 500 miles with $150+ spend by tomorrow night
    – Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping: 1,000 miles with $200+ spend by tomorrow night
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $150+ spend by Saturday night

    As usual, giftcards.com is an easy way to hit these.

Have a nice weekend friends!

AA lounge cheese cube alternative: Adult hot dog Mac ‘n Cheese, now non-toxic*.

Credit card rewards are kind of a big deal. Obviously earning 4x at grocery stores, 5x at office supplies, 8x at gas stations, 10x on travel, or 14x hotel spend can be used to leverage lifestyle creep in the form of (choose at least one):

  • outsized value
  • discount travel
  • cash-flow

A non-significant boost also comes from earning on the payment side. Plays vary, but consider some public options like:

  • paying your taxes with a credit card or rewards debit card
  • paying a local credit union HELOC with a credit card or rewards debit card
  • paying your mortgage with Plastiq (yes, it still exists)

The biggest unicorns allow payments directly with a credit card, but plenty of demi-unicorns work with a debit card too. A few options:

There are other options too, always be probing.

Three wheel to four wheel upgrade lifestyle creep.