Do this now:Register for free HotelSlash membership using promo code FREE4LIFE. Incidentally, you can mention the same promo code to get into the employee restroom at the back of the Waste Pro Garbage Truck Museum in Florida. In case you’re wondering, yes, that’s a real place and no, I didn’t make it up. (Thanks to FM)
– 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months – 30,000 miles after $20,000 in additional spend in 12 months
The card also earns 3x points at grocery stores, so it’s particularly friendly for manufactured spenders. (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
Martins, Giant, and Stop & Shop stores have either 2x or 3x points (depending on location) on Vanilla visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account, and obviously it’s impossible to have more than one loyalty account, right?
These are either Pathward or Sutton gift cards depending on the store. (Thanks to DoC)
If you follow churning blogs or forums, you’ve no doubt seen that US Bank has double cash back rewards running through Saturday. But, I think based on the content out there, most of the major content creators haven’t actually used it, so let’s add some practical notes:
There are multiple aspects of the double cash back promotion. Not only are card-linked offers doubled for the next three days (which is the only thing I’ve seen written), but the US Bank shopping portal’s earnings are also doubled for the next three days.
It can be really hard to find US Bank rewards landing pages. So, I’ve linked to both variations, just make sure you login to your US Bank account first before trying these links:
Did you even know US Bank had a shopping portal, and that it earns points on point earning cards? Did you know that Lubbock is considered the one of the world’s capitals for burrowing owls? Did you know that owls can even burrow in the ground? (Wow, we’re off track today, my bad)
The card linked offers are their own kind of special:
– You have to add card-linked versions of the offer during the promotion or they won’t double – They work for any personal card on your account, and maybe for any business card too – Grocery stores occasionally show up – Gaming works like Chase Offers or BankAmeriDeals – The card-linked portal often just shows a spinner, and when that happens, try later (I don’t have a better solution, but if you do, please let me know)
This promotion is actually much more lucrative than you’d probably think. Always be probing, and good luck!
Mr. burrowing owl is shocked that content creators aren’t always experts when they write on a topic.
Let me start today with a bit of advice: It’s easy to register for 5x promotions, and it’s also easy to hit all your spend in a single day. It’s also easy to assume that you’ll do it and then never get to it. So, consider setting aside a single day in early April to hit all your quarterly 5x spend so that you can focus on bigger, better deals.
Do this now:Register for Discover IT Q2 5x categories. This time: Gas stations and home improvement stores, both of which sell many types of gift cards; also public transit.
Do this now: Choose your US Bank Cash+ Q2 5x categories. I always choose utilities and electronics stores, the latter of which typically sells many types of gift cards.
Virgin Atlantic has a promotion for 50% off the mileage cost of award tickets booked by Wednesday for travel through June 30 for travel on Virgin Atlantic metal. This doesn’t reduce the often substantial surcharges that go along with the tickets. (Thanks to DoC)
– $50 off of $250 or more in spend at several IHG brands through June 15 – $150 off of $750 or more in spend at the Four Seasons through July 11 (if they do string matching, Four Seasons Total Landscaping may also work)
Foreword: There were a few high profile AmEx shutdowns yesterday, but it’s too early to know much about what happened other than most of them probably involved a big volume of online MS. Stay tuned for future updates when we know more, and don’t forget the Sneak Attack Strike Back if you’re concerned you might be next. If you haven’t heard about these before now, you probably don’t need to be concerned. I’ll do a writeup with lessons if and when we learn more.
Airlines have become overly concerned with what day it is this week, as we’ll soon see:
Clear.me has a new promotion for a $75 Uber voucher with a new clear account with promo code SAVETIME75. These are great for cashing out American Express Clear credits as Uber vouchers, but you’ve got to be creative on the redemption side because there’s a limit of one $75 Uber voucher per account. (Thanks to jnjustice)
– two one-ways: 5,000 total bonus points – six one-ways: 15,000 total bonus points – eight one-ways: 30,000 total bonus points
I believe based on on the terms and conditions an American Express Travel phone booking would qualify, but I can’t be certain. Alternatively you can book through an SWABIZ account. (Thanks to sctrader)
Because it’s JetBlue and because JetBlue hates giving meaningful discounts, these only work for travel on Monday through Thursday and don’t work for international flights or Mint cabins.
American has an economy award sale for flights that depart on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday in April or May. There are some good deals here, including 5,000 miles for short-haul and medium-haul international flights.
The throttle started out with certain BINs on certain products, then moved to other BINs on other products, and they’ve now hit a major, high volume product with the same limit. If one of your plays involves high volume InComm cards, maybe run a few tests before your next big order.
For everyone else, assume that most InComm products now have a three card limit per liquidation trip.
Have a nice Wednesday!
New elite status award for Southwest A-List members.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The feedback I’ve gotten for guest post Saturday has been resoundingly positive. I’ve got a few posts left to publish, but I’m running low. If you’re interested in a guest post, please reach out!
One of the most consistently inconsistent methods in manufactured spend is earning sign-up bonuses by paying yourself as an OnlyFans model bulk gift card resale, roughly because the basic version involves selling to third parties that ultimately use the card and that makes you beholden to their whims. Their whims are really more about demand though, and that demand is cyclical for slightly different reasons:
Gift Cards
The bulk gift card resale market for cards like BestBuy, Apple, Target generally varies by quarter:
Q1: Starts out depressed, but rates and demand increase slowly, especially around holidays
Q2: Rates hold steady, demand is lumpy but persistent
Q4: Rates reach local maxima, demand is typically the biggest for the year
Grocery Loyalty Points
The profitability of bulk gift card resale markets for manufactured spenders centers around grocery loyalty points, which make up the difference between cost and resale rate for most bulk brands. If you’re cashing those out by selling to a third party, demand looks like:
Q1, Q2: Lumpy
Q3: Strong
Q4: Starts strong, ends weak
The main reason for the difference in loyalty points demand is that they’re often redeemed for discounted fuel by industry and agriculture that sees peak use in Q3.
Smoothing Out Demand
How do you make demand relatively consistent? I’m going to offer two primary ways:
First, it’s easy on paper but relatively hard in practice: Be the end-user. That means do what the end-users do, which is:
Buy goods on sale and sell them at Amazon, ebay, craigslist, or internationally
Buy Apple products and sell them internationally in places like Brazil
Use loyalty points to buy things like Airpods and sell them
Use loyalty points for discount gas, either for yourself or as a fueling service
I’ve dabbled in every single one of these, and while they were all successful to an extent (and in one case wildly successful), they’re all a ton of work to scale. Ultimately, I wasn’t fulfilled by any of it and I didn’t enjoy it in the way that I enjoy manufactured spend, so I don’t do those things any more.
That brings us to the second method of smoothing demand, acting as a gift card reserve banker and holding your cards until demand is high, then unleashing fury on the market whenever buyers return.
Finally, let’s talk a bonus method for smoothing out demand Paying yourself as an OnlyFans model which is really a cheater method: Shift the demand elsewhere. For me, that means I’m focusing on other manufactured spend techniques when demand in bulk card resale isn’t solid. There’s plenty of other opportunity out there.
EDITOR’S NOTE [1]: The feedback I’ve gotten for guest post Saturday has been resoundingly positive. I’ve got a few posts left to publish, but I’m running low. If you’re interested in a guest post, please reach out!
EDITOR’S NOTE [2]: Yes, it’s another DaVinci Code post, sorry not sorry I guess. Stay tuned for a future site rebranding: Miles Earn and Burn, Confusing Beginners Since 2020™.
We don’t know how much the app that rhymes with booze was relying on this volume for its ongoing cash-flow, revenue, and profitability. We do know that there was a staggering amount of volume pushed through this channel though, and most of it dried up in a flash. Is this an issue? I have no idea, but it’s another good time to re-evaluate your risk assessment and tolerance with the platform.
Anything that still works on PayPal Bill Pay will probably see a huge increase in volume as players shift toward what works, ultimately causing those things to die more quickly too (probably).
We’re likely entering a new era of discovery in manufactured spend, so research and networking is likely to be more fruitful for the next month or two than normal while we search for the next big thing.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this still matters to you because this is a great opportunity to read between the lines and learn about what’s worked in the past; the object lessons here are lucrative and that knowledge will almost certainly help you in the future.
Happy Thursday!
Work in progress: The app that rhymes with booze’s logo, but in ripples.
The resale market for both fuel points and gift cards is traditionally soft in the first couple of months in a new year, and we’ve settled into that funk in 2024 too. I do expect the funk to evaporate in the next month or so, but right now the game will probably involve longer inventory hold times.
– Blue: 75% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 1,750 miles) – Silver: 100% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,000 miles) – Gold: 125% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,250 miles) – Platinum: 150% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,500 miles)
Aeroplan is one of the best transfer programs for Star Alliance awards because it they’ve got good technology and low-friction booking, though they still have cancelation fees on their lowest awards and their prices are occasionally more expensive than other Star Alliance programs. I’ll be transferring most of my Bilt points to Aeroplan, but don’t do something just because I’m doing it.
– 60,000 miles after $2,000 spend in 90 days – 10,000 miles for adding an employee card and making a purchase in 90 days
This card has plenty of other features, but frankly probably none of them are worth using or holding past year one. (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
Today may be the last day for adding employee cards with spending bonuses online to several American Express cards; they were set expire on February 2 according to the terms and conditions but one of them has already died:
Hopefully new offers replace these, but you know what they say about hopes. Also, could you tell me what they say about hopes? Because I don’t actually know. Anyway, if you have spend capacity to meet these bonuses I’d order the cards right now.
If the gift card and resale market in January and February were a food, it’d be week old ketchup on ramen.
I’ll be knocking both of these out with giftcards.com. If you’re doing the same, double check in 15 days that the orders have tracked and open a case if not. The AA portal in particular has had widespread tracking issues since December with giftcards.com.
– $5,000 deposit in 30 days – $5,000 average balance after depositing for 60 days – 5 transactions within 60 days
These are limit one per business and one per login, so to scale you may need more of each. The account earns a 1.30% interest rate, so you’re losing approximately 370 basis points, or $36, as compared to a high yield savings account over two months.
If you want a Breeze Airways line in your travel log, what better reason could there be to fly from Provo, Utah to San Bernardino, CA? That’s right, none.
Chase Offers and BankAmeriDeals have 10% back on Hyatt Place properties on between $100 and $400 in spend through March 3. The catch? Hyatt Place. Notably for reader Dean who is overnighting in Lubbock later this week, Hyatt Place Lubbock isn’t excluded.
Gaming one of these offers won’t exclude the other. The most above board way to game is to pick up a gift card at the Hyatt Place front desk for resale or future use, but make sure to call and check that they’re sold at the property before you make a trip. (Thanks to DoC)
– $250 statement credit with $1,000 in spend at Marriott Homes & Villas through April 15 – $100 statement credit with $500 in spend at Hyatt Canadian properties through April 30
Gaming with gift cards? Ibid. Gaming in other ways? Possible. (Thanks to Jen T and GetFreeCash)
