One of the common refrains from people who have been in the hobby for too long is “there’s nothing new in the space”. That’s usually absolutely untrue because instead what’s usually happening is myopathy on a single play, but today it seems correct? I’m not old, you’re old!
– Buy in even multiples of $200 – Don’t forget about your American Express Business Gold monthly credit – Look for ‘Anywhere cards’ which may be cheaper as long as you can liquidate them
– $75 statement credit after in $750 in online spend – $100 statement credit after $1,000 in online spend – 15,000 ThankYou Points after $1,000 in online spend – 250,000 Shop Your Way points after $750 in online spend
It stacks with the other ongoing offers too, obviously. Now we just need Lowe’s or Home Depot to sell Visas or Mastercards online to make the stack even easier. (Thanks to Cashback Cowgirl, Matt, Santosh, and Brandon)
– 40,000 Ultimate Rewards → 60,000 Bonvoy Points – 60,000 Bonvoy Points → 25,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles
In other words, you’re getting a 1:0.625 ratio from Ultimate Rewards to Milage Bank which isn’t great, but isn’t awful for the utility of JAL’s own upgrades and expanded award availability.
There is commentary on various forums on the internet that this is a modified link, but I believe the commentary is incorrect and there’s no abnormal risk in this link, rather it’s using a different campaign code than the previous version of the offer.
Happy President’s Day!
The Presidential Citi Shop Your Way Rewards salary beats the average US Government Job *circa 1940.
– Spend $800+ at home improvement, get 10% back up to $100 monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 15% back up to $175 back monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ at home improvement, get 175,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points monthly for three months – Spend $1,000+ anywhere, get 100,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points through March 31
Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through February 17. Virgin Atlantic’s own metal awards recently have great availability, but they also have variable pricing. Finding space isn’t typically the issue; rather the issue is finding space that’s cheap enough for your taste.
– Business: 100,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months – Club Business: 75,000 points + 1,000 PQP after $5,000 spend in three months
I’d choose an Ink Preferred card over these unless you’re chasing status or want United Club access, because where else can you get unlimited cheap cheese cubes under a sneeze guard?
Yes gamers gonna game, but Emirates First award fees for US originating flights tend to be slightly over $1,000 so luxers gonna luxe too.
Pepper had sales for gift cards yesterday with 25x at Southwest, 22x at Delta, 22x at Sam’s Club or Walmart, 18x at Home Depot, and 20x at Amazon.
If you’re not already neck deep in the Pepper in the game I think now is a terrible time to jump in, but if you want to take advantage of those deals at small scale, I’d suggest reaching out to the other churners in the community to buy some inventory at a couple of percentage points above those rates. You’ll probably find plenty of sellers and won’t need to worry about Pepper risk.
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.
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.
– $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.
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.
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.
Side note: The Citi AA Business card will often bypass Citi bans regardless of this news.
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.
You have to book by tonight, but for travel at least 21 days out so that you’ve got plenty of time to anticipate your upcoming crappy flight, unless your airport is SNA; they continue to exclude it from sales because reasons.
