Make sure you set a reminder to turn off Pay Over Time in 121 days, and if you get the bonus offer on multiple charge cards, consider activating them in separate tabs as close together as possible. All of this is obviously because reasons.
– $50 back on $250+ at Grand Hyatt through April 15 – $300 back on $2,000+ at Qatar through April 30 – $150 back on $1,000+ at Emirates through April 30 – $100 back on $500+ at Mandarin Oriental through May 6 – $100 back on $400+ at SLS hotels through May 14 – $200 back on $900+ at Four Seasons in the Americans and Europe through May 21 – $40 back on $200+ at Ceasars though June 30
In normal times there are plenty of brands that are well suited to this promotion, but in the current Pepper-pocolptic market, the workable brands are basically Apple and Lululemon.
Even though the language says that enrolling at airport is required after registering online, that’s never been enforced prior and probably won’t be this time either, just ask your aunt, dog, or lampshade.
There are two shopping portal bonuses for airline portals:
Because Avios transfer freely between British Airways and other Avios airlines, this is really a transfer bonus for FinnAir, Qatar, Ibera, and Aer Lingus too.
Because Hawaiian miles transfer freely to Alaska, this is really a great sign-up bonus for a Alaska miles. This product will turn into a pumpkin soon so it’s getting close to now or never.
– Reserve Business: 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months – Platinum Business: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months – Gold Business: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months and a waived first year annual fee
Each of these cards have Delta Stays credits, and since they’re business cards you’re not stuck with the same product for the first year due to the CARD act.
In what might be the lamest churn known to the community: You can book the Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn for $76.80 with AAA or similar discounts, and 2*$76.80 =$153.60. That means you can churn $50 Best Western gift cards for only $153.60, and get two nights in a hotel that probably won’t kill you and two elite night credits too.
If you don’t already have the credit card, it’s probably not worth your time, just get a Citi Double Cash and Strata Premier instead for much better earning, especially when paired with a Rewards+ for its 10% redemption rebate.
In the before times, I loved getting multiple Alaska cards each time a heightened offer came out. Now that (a) BofA’s payment options aren’t what they used to be, and (b) the Alaska and Hawaiian merger completed so you can transfer Membership Rewards → Hawaiian → Alaska, this card is mid at best; especially when Membership Rewards card bonuses approach a half-million points with a little 15x fun.
If you time everything perfectly, that means that you only need funds in the present for 31 days, which is an effective APR of 43%. Last I checked, 43% was slightly better than, let’s say Chase, was paying on checking accounts too. Having this account will help with US Bank business credit card approvals, like the $750 Business Leverage or $750 Triple Cash rewards cards. (Thanks to DDG)
The American Express Delta SkyMiles personal cards have increased sign-up bonus for direct links and referrals, but the increased bonuses require the American Express random number generator to work in your favor. The offers:
– Gold: 80,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived first year – Platinum: 90,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months – Reserve: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months
If you don’t see the heightened offer, try switching browsers, using incognito mode, or poking an Ed Bastion voodoo doll.
Have a nice weekend, and watch for a guest post tomorrow!
Q: Why does the Ed Bastion voodoo doll have a cape? A: AmEx works better that way.
– $250 off of $1,800+ with Virgin Atlantic through March 30 – $100 off of $500+ with Marriott through March 31 – $250 off of $1,000+ with Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13
Gamers gonna game, but family Virgin Atlantic Business redemptions gonna tax.
– 1x at Food Lion through February 28 for a single purchase, the cap is variable – 1x at Staples through January 31 for two purchases, the cap is variable
SimplyMiles works with any Mastercard, not just AA cards.
Each has economy tickets at 15,000 miles each way between the US and Europe, and I was able to find a few 50,000 mile Business class redemptions between those cities and secondary European cities, but the availability is about as rare as recovering stolen meat in Cupertino, CA.
Pictured without further comment: Police recover stolen meat.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to today’s author, a hilarious demi-whale with a penchant for writing, irieriley for writing this post. I’ll see you on January 1! If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please reach out!
If you’ve managed to find your way to this little corner of the Internet full of award hackers, manufactured spenders, degenerate gamblers, and various other scallywags, chances are you’re drinking from an uninterrupted firehose of information.
There is just so much content and media to consume (and that was even true before the era of AI slop), even in the churning space, that it can be difficult to stay on top of what’s going on.
Between public blogs, private groups, reddit, neverending Doctor of Credit comments sections and hundreds of pages of Flyertalk discussion on the proper Maldives soundtrack when flying to Conrad Rangali, it’s impossible to read everything.
I don’t think you should, either. If you only get your share of churning news from one source, you’re in the right place. Matt is very good at getting the point across succinctly (unfortunately, I am not), and understanding some references here requires reading between the lines. Some of the plays shared here and elsewhere aren’t spelled out 100%, whether for brevity, sensitivity, or both.
Due to this (and the general deluge of noise in the space), you likely find yourself skipping past posts and comments talking about cards you don’t have, airlines you don’t fly, and plays you aren’t playing.
In some cases, that makes sense. I care much less about Kroger than someone in Ohio. But when there isn’t a clear geographic or similar barrier to something, you’re likely making a mistake by not taking the time to understand the play. And sometimes, even geography doesn’t matter – as long as you “live, work, or worship here”.
Pictured: Vincent “irieriley” Adultman explaining his local business to a CSR at a credit union in Twin Falls, Idaho
Things change really fast in manufactured spending, and some of the most profitable things don’t last long*. The amount of plays I decided to ignore over the years because I wasn’t already doing it are up there with my penchant for calling my very-not suave self “Rico Suave” in high school in the annals of irieriley’s regrets.
While I believe you should do your best to understand an angle, there are definitely levels to it. If the DQ thread on reddit is delving into a trivial change to an Amex coupon benefit or Doctor of Credit comments are discussing free Hawaiian BBQ sauce, you can probably safely skip learning more, unless you really like Audible (or BBQ sauce).
But if you’re in a smaller community and someone is discussing the intricacies of how to complete a fuel dump mistake fare or how a new fintech fits into a liquidation strategy and you don’t understand the conversation, you should be trying to figure out why.
It may not even be a conversation – it could be an observation that you make yourself as part of probing and think to yourself why on earth does this need to be spelled out as company policy?
Some examples of things I’d probably want to look deeper into if I came across them and didn’t understand them:
Why, oh why is MEAB’s favorite credit card a Sears store card?
Why does a cash back fintech not pay out on certain vendors? And for that matter, why do they not pay out on a subscription to a churning podcast?
Why does the Android app store say everyone who downloaded a different fintech’s app downloaded the app of a random credit union in Lubbock?
Why are people talking so much about the timeframe for the 35% rebate on cash business fares booked with MRs via an Amex Business Platinum? I thought transferring was always the best value?
Why does the new group I’ve joined talk so much about Costco gold?
It might not necessarily even be some big, hidden secret. If the blogosphere is to be believed, the slowdown on Amex NLL offers and continued prevalence of pop-up jail was probably one of the biggest negative trends of the year for the hobby.
But I’d argue that the most negative news of the year, especially for our friendly cetacean population, is the cap on Schwab cash out and subsequent cap on 4x dining MR points on the Amex Personal Gold. There’s not much to parse through here – no need for a SUB when you’re a whale that’s gonna whale.
Ultimately, it’s up to you how much time you want to spend on this hobby. It can be like a full time job, but with the right knowledge, it can pay like one too. Sharing finds and data points and making friends in the community can go a long way towards finding your like-minded group of maximizers.
– ireriley
Pictured: a whale with a mentee regaling on the days when you could cash out $50k $44k of Membership Rewards points per week. No, I don’t know why it has both legs and a tail, and yes, I am extremely afraid of it.
*Footnote: While I am advocating for you to put more effort into understanding plays, I am not advocating for you jumping into a new play without doing your due diligence and assessing your personal risk tolerance. I regret missing a lot of plays, but I don’t regret missing Hardbody, The Plastic Merchant, etc.
This card is useful beyond the sign-up bonus because it can eventually be product changed into the AAdvantage Silver card, but only after a year thanks to the CARD act.
– Link your credit cards to Dosh – Buy in even multiples of $300 – Look for lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them
These are Pathward gift cards.
Chase Ultimate Rewards has a heightened redemption for Apple products at a rate of 1.5 cents per point for the Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 cents per point for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred cards (or less on other, stupider cards). The promotion runs through the end of November.
These rates beat regular Pay-Yourself-Back rates, especially if you’re in the reselling game.
There are two small business merchant processing sign-up bonuses:
Since we’re MEABers around here, let’s caution a few items: (1) running more than a few gift cards will almost certainly get your account shut down and banned from the processor which could have repercussions on future real businesses; (2) running your own credit cards will almost certainly get your credit cards shut down, sometimes even same-day with banks like AmEx; and (3) you’ll get a 1099 for payments processed. So always be probing, but know when a fence is electrified too, and this one is.
My advice is to keep these accounts completely above board if you’re going for the bonus. If you don’t have a real business for merchant processing, consider selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. Combine with the previous item for extra #flair.
