Category: Portals

Last minute update: The AA5342 collision with a helicopter hits hard, condolences to all and forgive today’s jovial tone, it was written before the accident.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s Q1 targeted promotion for a bonus elite night for all nights stayed, up to 10 bonus elite nights through April 28. If the site asks, the promotion code is 63666.
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western Q1 promotion for 2,000 bonus points per night, up to a total of 20,000 points through May 11.
  3. Kroger has a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards excluding Amazon on Friday only.

    Thanks to Pepper, the brands that work for a reseller are largely limited to BestBuy and Lululemon.
  4. Rakuten in-store’s card linked program has two new promotions:

    – 1% bonus or 1x Membership Rewards at Food Lion stores
    – 1% bonus or 1x Membership Rewards at Stop & Stop stores

    Both are good through March 31, both require re-adding the offer an hour after its first use to continue using, and both have a bonus cap of $10 or 1,000 Membership Rewards per transaction. Fortunately, we’ve developed the technology to run transactions back-to-back though.

Happy Thursday!

What is this, and is it good? I’m not sure, but it’s slightly more interesting than the new JetBlue card.

  1. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s Q1 promotion for 1,000 bonus points and a bonus elite night credit for every paid night stayed between February 11 and April 28.
  2. Do this now: Register for Accor ALL’s promotion for 4x points earning on all 2+ night stays booked by March 16 and completed by July 13. Edit: this is only “new” hotels, not all hotels.
  3. Delta has an award ticket sale for round-trip flights booked by Friday for travel through the end of the year the, as long as the first flight happens by March 31. Rough pricing:

    – East coast to Europe in economy: 36,000-45,000 miles round-trip
    – West coast to Europe in economy: 50,000-65,000 miles round-trip
    – East coast to Europe in business: 220,000 miles round-trip
    – West coast to Europe in business: 290,000 miles round-trip

    Delta cut its daytime flights to Europe last fall which is the only way I’d do this in from the west coast in economy, but I could probably be talked into it from the east coast if I had imbibed a bit too much.
  4. Frequent Miler notes that Alaska MileagePlan Shopping awards elite qualifying miles on both regular spend and on portal bonuses, so prepare for a swole rank of 100k MVPs in 2026.

Coming soon: Alaska gate when MVP Group A boarding is called.

  1. UPromise has a $230 sign-up bonus that stacks with a SoFi $300 bonus for opening checking and savings account and direct depositing $5,000+ within 45 days. There’s no requirement to keep money in the account after your direct deposit.

    For anyone that doesn’t think in terms of math, that’s $530 total. (Thanks to Vince)
  2. American Express offers has new offers for:

    – $50 back on $250+ at Grand Hyatt through April 15
    – $250 back on $1,000+ at Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13
    – $150 back on $750+ at Hiltons in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America through March 31
    – $30 back on $150+ at Turo

    There are games everywhere with these, starting with being able to use a single offer multiple times by thinking differently about saving offers. (Thanks to Tom)
  3. The American Express Gold personal card has increased targeted via referrals for 100,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in six months.

    In case you’re not seeing the heightened referral, there are also two modified, unintentional links for the same offer with no-lifetime language (NLL). There’s (probably minimal) risk in using modified links that American Express didn’t build, so do your own risk / value judgement. The first link is here, and the second is here. (Thanks to DDG)

More helpful notes for people that think differently.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard sent out mid-month offers for online spend through February 14, which stack with other offers nicely:

    – 325,000 SYWR points after $1,000 spend
    – 250,000 SYWR points after $1,000 spend
    – 11,500 ThankYou points after $750 spend
    – $100 after $1,000 spend
    – $45 after $500 spend

    Because Citi gonna Citi, not all online spend counts as online spend. (Thanks to Tyler, birt, Cashback Cowgirl, Jen T, and Charlie)
  2. There are a few more card linked travel related offers:

    – American Express: $50 off of $250+ at Grant Hyatt hotels through April 15
    – Chase: $15 off of $50+ at Lyft through February 27
    – BankAmeriDeals: $30 off of $150+ at Turo through January 26
    – BankAmeriDeals: 15% back, up to $150 with Celebrity Cruises through February 14
    – BankAmeriDeals: 15% back, up to $150 with Royal Caribbean Cruises through February 14

    Some are more gameable than others.
  3. The Alaska MileagePlan Shopping portal has 1,200 bonus miles with $300 spend through January 24. Giftcards.com is a good option for churners that aren’t keen on spending $300 on Dubai chocolate bars.
  4. Some long lost friends from a popular bill payment service are back in town. Always be probing.

Citi marketing materials, proving again that Citi gonna Citi.

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. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card, including bulk brands like Apple and BestBuy, through December 14. There’s a limit of 50,000 points per account, but what’s the limit on accounts? The limit does not exist.
  2. Meijer stores also have $10 off of $100 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through December 21. This one requires that you clip a digital coupon, but seems to be the variety that you can reclip after each purchase, meaning again, the limit does not exist but different.
  3. Alaska Airlines has a paid and award fare sale through this evening. I’m seeing:

    – Transcons at 9,000 miles each way
    – Mainland to Hawaii 9,000 miles each way
    – Mexico at 15,000 miles each way

    These continue to be the best award sales for medium-haul flights that no-one talks about because something something, apathy is real, something something.
  4. Costco has $100 in Uber Gift Cards for $75 through tonight. There are multiple reports that Uber charges more when you have credits on your account, so apply them retroactively to a ride instead of adding them to your account ahead of time, or just use Uber Eats to order a private taxi for your burrito.
  5. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the card that would probably be driving the private taxi for your burrito if it was human, has new beginning of month offers that reset monthly for December, January, and February:

    – $50 statement credit for 5 purchases of $75 or more each, up to $150 for all three months
    – $60 statement credit for $450+ spend, up to $180 for all three months

    (Thanks to Dave M and birt)
  6. The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card has an increased sign-up bonus of 40,000 Rapid Rewards points and a $400 statement credit with $3,000 in purchases in four months for applications through December 16.

    If you’re not going for a Companion Pass, which you probably shouldn’t chase if you don’t fly Southwest more than 3-4x annually, then this might be a better option than a pure points bonus.
  7. Preferred Hotels has a promotion for 35,000 bonus points for paid three night stays booked by Wednesday night for travel through March 31, 2025.
  8. Giftcards.com is currently 3x at most airline shopping portals and 4x at Chase portals. AA and Southwest points earned through portals count toward status too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  9. The Incomm gift card sites have new deals:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fees through December 31, code NOFEES24
    – VanillaGift.com: No fees through tonight, code VGCYBER24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: $10 Zillions with $100+ in Visa cards through tonight, code BF24

    These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
  10. Typically Citi offers 20% off of many ThankYou point gift card redemptions on Cyber Monday and today is (maybe? I dunno, I’m not getting up that early in the morning to verify #sorrynotsorry) traditional. With Apple cards reselling at about 91% of face value, you can use this promotion to cash out ThankYou points indirectly at ~1.1 cents each, or even better if you have the Rewards+ card.

Have a nice Monday!

Seatbelts are required in private taxis too.

  1. American Express Offers has a card linked offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards or $200 after $1,000 spend with AirFrance or KLM through December 31.
  2. The three Chase co-branded Avios credit cards have an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 Avios after $7,500 spend in six months, and each has a $95 annual fee.

    – AerLingus Avios
    – British Airways Avios
    – Iberia Avios

    It is possible to hold multiple Avios cards, but unfortunately they’re still personal cards. (Thanks to makhav)
  3. VanillaGift.com has 100% off of purchase fees of orders of at least $250 with promo code VGTHANKS24 through November 28.

    These are Incomm gift cards, and they won’t earn credit card points when purchased with American Express.
  4. Rakuten has “unlimited” $40 or 4,000 Membership Rewards points referral bonuses for both the referrer and the referred, provided the referred makes $40 of purchases through the portal within 90 days.

    What could possibly go wrong with unlimited referrals?

Happy Tuesday!

Post-bot, pre-shutdown Rakuten dashboard view.

  1. The major airline shopping portals have a big holiday bonus promotion before black Friday, all of which are more lucrative than typical:

    – AA: 4,000 extra AAdvantage miles with $1,600+ through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 extra MileagePlan miles with $650+ through November 18
    – Delta: 2,000 extra SkyMiles with $1000+ through November 18
    – Southwest: 4,000 extra Rapid Rewards with $1,000+ through November 24
    – United: 5,000 extra MileagePlus miles with $1,200+ through November 22

    Giftcards.com is present on all of these portals.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the Detlef Schrempf of credit cards, sent out beginning of the month offers:

    – 150,000 Shop Your Way points with $1,500 spend through December 31
    – 10% statement credit with $350-$400 spend in utilities each month through January (total $120)
    – $125 statement credit $600 spend in utilities, each month through January (total $375)

    My offer was stolen out of my glove by rabid baseball fans this month, or at least I assume that’s what happened. (Thanks to GoBolts, SPX, BrandonV, IAD_Flyer, and birt)
  3. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has renewed its paid status match for non-SkyTeam airlines through October 2025. Notable in this iteration is that it’s possible for to match to a full 12 months of Platinum status in Canada for $499 CAD.

    I suppose an American with status in Air Canada could match too with a sleight of hand, and for the right use case Platinum is absolutely worth $499 CAD. I mean, what could that possibly be in US dollars? $20? $25? Yes I could look it up, but [insert excuse here].
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has released its November promo awards. North American cities include Boston, New York, Vancouver, Denver, Seattle, and Ottawa, with tickets at 15,000 miles to and from Europe each way in economy for travel through April 2025.

    I’m also seeing limited availability promotional business class awards from Seattle and Denver, the only two cities I bothered to check, for 50,000 FlyingBlue miles each direction.
  5. American Express Offers has new offers valid through December 31 for:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards with $2,000 at ANA
    – $100 statement credit after $500+ with Delta
    – $250 statement credit after $1,000+ with Delta
    – $75 statement credit after $300+ at US and Europe Destination by Hyatt properties

    The easiest hotel play is to buy a gift card at the front desk. For airlines, it’s figuring out how to refund to a travel bank or travel wallet for future use. Gamers may find more lucrative options too.

Happy Monday!

More outsized value: Multi-country soda arbitrage.

  1. Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running for two weeks, limit nine per transaction. The two week promotional window is odd, normally when promotions are extended it’s because either (1) people pick up other profitable things when in store for the promotion, or (2) there’s not enough volume to exhaust the promotional budget in one week, so they extend. Neither feels like the right explanation though.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  2. Giftcards.com has returned to major airline shopping portals. As of this writing, they’re all at 1x and cashbackmonitor.com hasn’t refreshed, but I expect both of these to change soon. Stack with Citi Merchant Offers for 4% back on spend on up to $750.
  3. Bilt Rewards has two new transfer partners, which solves the, err, mystery of why some travel bloggers were at a Bilt offsite earlier this week. I wonder who paid for the offsite? Anyhoodles:

    – Accor Hotels at a 3:2 ratio
    – TAP Air Portugal at a 1:1 ratio

    Accor Hotels partners with Citi and Capital One but with a worse 2:1 transfer ratio. Accor Hotel points are worth about 2.2 cents per point with fixed redemption values and are often a great deal in the European equivalents of Lubbock, TX. TAP Air Portugal is a Capital One transfer partner with the same ratio as Bilt.
  4. Giant, Giant Food Stores, Martin’s, Stop & Shop have 2x points on Visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 or $2,000 per account depending on store. (Thanks to his eminence, Stephen at GCG)
  5. American Express Membership Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through November 10. Sweet spots:

    – Promo awards, which are mostly economy
    – Business class to and from Europe
    – European short-haul
    – Delta domestic short-haul

    The sweet spots don’t mean transfer speculatively though, you can often find bonuses of up to 30% in multiple bank flexible currencies.

Europe’s versions of Lubbock, like Lübeck Germany, look slightly nicer than the American equivalent.