Category: Portals

Somehow the company that thought buy.com was too hard to remember, Rakuten, was the biggest mover for the holiday weekend:

  1. The RobinHood Gold Visa card issued by Coastal Community Bank did the most RobinHood thing ever: They added 3% foreign transaction fees without notifying anyone. Nice.
  2. The Rakuten Visa card’s online portal +3x rewards cap increased from $7,000 to $10,000 annually, and reportedly the card added a $100 referral bonus which will probably stack with the 1-2 days per month periodic $200 sign-up bonus.

    This card mixed with a Bilt Palladium is an affiliate-revenue free unlock.
  3. The Rakuten portal has an $200 / 20,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Visa. The card has a $200 sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and currently earns 6% back in the first year in several categories, capped at $2,500 spend per quarter.

    The double-double cash-back on Bank of America cards is sadly gone though. (EDITED: applied for -> being approved for, thanks to Jim)
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $100 / 10,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Citi Strata Premier Mastercard. The card’s own bonus is 60,000 ThankYou points after $4,000 spend in three months.
  5. The Rakuten portal also has a triple cash back promotion through July 5th, and includes a few hobbies favorites like: Chase Freedom Unlimited, IHG, Sam’s Club, StubHub, and Viator.
  6. Alaska Airlines has an economy award sale for travel booked by tomorrow and flown between September 1 and November 15. Notable prices:

    – Hawaii: 11,500 miles
    – Seoul: 20,000 miles
    – Amsterdam: 20,000 miles

    If you can book this on Alaska metal, you may find paid upgrades to business class are rather modestly priced.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Slightly less modestly priced.

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 12x points on $50+ in BestBuy gift cards through Tuesday. Register limits are $500 every 15 minutes.
  2. American Express’s on-again/off-again Summer transfer bonuses are on again, presumably this time for realzies:

    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300
    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400

    There are use cases for both, but especially the former. If you’re going to be speculative, might I suggest that the Hilton one, uhh, ain’t it chief.
  3. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to EVA through July 31, making the transfer ratio 1,000:975. Premium Citi ThankYou cards still transfer at 1,000:1,000 though.
  4. The Chase Sapphire Reserve personal card’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed to gas and transit, and the rate dropped from 1.25 cents per point to 1.20 cents per point for categories other than the annual fee and select charities. The Business version hasn’t changed, but still only offers boosted redemptions on charities.

    The Sapphire Preferred’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed and dropped too, with transit at 1.05 cents per point, and pet supply at 1.10 cents per point.
  5. The Rove travel and shopping portal added Frontier as a transfer partner, which whatever except that it’s a unique partner for a non-hotel program. They’ve got a 25% transfer bonus to Frontier through July 31 making the ratio 1,000:1,250.
  6. American Express Offers has various offers for $200-$250 off of $1,000-$1,250 at Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR properties in North America.
  7. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its July 2026 promo rewards for travel through the end of the year. North America to Europe cities:

    – Economy: ATL, DEN, MIA, PDX, RDU, YUL, YVR, YOW for 18,500 miles
    – Premium Economy: LAX, ORD for 30,000 miles
    – Business: JFK for 45,000 miles

    There’s surprisingly good availability in business this summer, so go get some European frites.
  8. Marriott Bonvoy Titanium and Ambassador elites or United Gold, Platinum, or 1K elites can register for a complex promotion for reciprocal bonus points on either paid United itineraries or paid Marriott hotel stays.

    Neither promotion is great, but they’re both better than Texas frites.

Happy Thursday friends!

With Rove and Frontier, you can check my math on Lubbock frites.

  1. US Bank has double cash back on both its portal and its card linked offers through Friday. Unfortunately, this portal is convoluted enough to need a cheat sheet.
  2. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard is sending targeted bonuses for 1,500 bonus points after two $10+ purchases using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay. I believe this generic link will work for every Virgin cardholder, but the terms and conditions don’t show on the target page for anyone so ymmv. (Thanks to David)
  3. Stater Bros has $10 off of groceries purchased with a $50+ One4All gift card through July 7. These work on back-to-back transactions too so bring your favorite cashier a thank you $10 Dunkin Paze gift card or something for tying up their line for an hour. (Thanks to GCA)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has two transfer bonuses:

    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400
    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300

    Frankly American Express should be bringing you a $10 Dunkin Paze gift card for your trouble in dealing with their Hilton transfer bonus.
  5. Thanks to a comedy of errors at Chase, Ink Plus cards will earn 5x on shipping through Saturday. Too bad Fat Bobby is out of business?
  6. Delta SkyMiles has an award sale through tomorrow night for economy travel in September, October, and November. Selected pricing:

    – Europe: 40,000 – 60,000 SkyMiles round trip
    – Central America and Mexico: 16,000 – 21,000 SkyMiles round trip

    AA and Delta’s economy award sales this week for fall travel should tell you something about how the airlines are doing at filling the back of the bus this fall.

Happy Wednesday!

Meanwhile in the rest of the blog-o-sphere…

This week is going to be a great week for buyer’s groups because reasons, and it’ll be a good time to get your toes wet to prepare for the holiday frenzy too. With that out of the way:

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s summer promotion for 2,000 bonus points for every two nights starting with your second stay between July 1 and September 7. This maxes out at a 🤏 8,000 bonus points.
  2. Bilt added Preferred Hotels and Resorts as a transfer partner at a 1,000:2,000 point ratio, which matches the Citi ThankYou transfer ratio. Quick, anyone want to guess what transfer bonus Bilt will have on July 1?
  3. Bilt also has a targeted spend bonus on your Bilt wallet page for 5x at Amazon, Walmart, and Target, but only up to a 🤏 $200 in spend through June 30.
  4. AA has an economy award promotion for travel on AA metal in August and September booked by July 7. Generally, sale fares are:

    – 9,000 miles for transcontinental flights, Mexico flights, and Central America
    – 21,000 miles for east coast transatlantic flights to Europe
    – 30,000 miles for other US transatlantic flights to Europe

    So how about that comfort? Well, you’ll get there, probably.

Happy Tuesday friends!

Bilt’s upcoming 🤏 swag sale.

  1. Chase increased its sign-up bonuses on several business cards the day after devaluing most of them. The new bonuses:

    – Ink Cash: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $8,000 spend in 4 months
    – Ink Unlimited: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $8,000 spend in 4 months
    – Sapphire Reserve Business: 200,000 Ultimate Rewards after $30,000 spend in 6 months

    Each of these URLs ends in 0626, which means … something, surely.
  2. The Chase Amazon Visa has a sign-up bonus of $200 after *checks notes* $0 spend in 0 months, making this an ♾️x boost on your minimum spend, provided you don’t explode from dividing by zero.

    In all seriousness, the real value of this card is uncapped 5%, not a stupid $200. But if you’re sign-up bonus chasing Amazon cards, this US Bank Business one has a variable $250-$750 sign-up bonus depending on how the random number generator likes your current browser, cookie-set, IP address, etc. Unlike the Chase card, this one has a $150,000 annual bonus spend cap.
  3. Stop & Shop, Giant, Giant Food, and Martins 6x points on third party gift cards through Thursday. Per-account limits are either $500, $2,000, or $500 on Zift and $2,000 on everything else depending on the chain because uniformity is overrated.
  4. Meijer stores have 50,000 bonus points with $500 in third party gift cards other than Amazon through June 23. Scale with multiple loyalty accounts and with miracle doctors I guess.
  5. United Airlines now allows partner bookings with pooled miles on select partners, which in practice seems to be all partners except JSX. According to ToP, there are several non-JSX restrictions:

    – Not valid for Hawaiian Airlines flights except for inter-island
    – Not valid for Emirates flights other than JFK-DXB

    No, you’re not the only one that finds three things about those restrictions weird.
  6. The AA eShopping has shopping portal has 500 bonus miles with $200+ spend.

    Giftcards.com remains a great way to do this, or as reader Sean mentions, buy a gift card that you’d use anyway like Safeway or Home Depot at Newegg via Paze to double dip.

Have a nice weekend!

The last guy that divided by zero.

  1. Chase is changing the Sapphire Preferred card:

    – Transfers to Hyatt will be 4:3 on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – The annual 10% rewards bonus ends on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – 3x earning on gas, EV charging, Airbnb, and VRBO
    – A new Global Entry / PreCheck credit since the other 14 you have aren’t enough
    – Changed travel insurance
    – A one-time Apple TV coupon

    Generally speaking this is a negative change, but don’t worry if you want a positive spin from lala land, TPG has your back: “And at a time when many travel cards are becoming increasingly expensive and complicated, there’s a strong argument that the Sapphire Preferred just became an even better fit for casual travelers.” Erm, ok.
  2. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card will also devalue transfers to Hyatt starting on June 15 for new cards, and October 1 for existing cards. Side note: Reportedly the sign-up bonus for several Ink cards and the Sapphire Reserve Business card will be increased on June 15, I guess to counter bad-press?
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through July 7.
  4. For those of you that like it when portal-like companies that you’ve never heard of team up with business banks that you’ve never heard of, there’s a $300 promotion between Finder and Grasshopper. To earn a $300 Finders gift card which can apparently be turned into a Visa e-gift card:

    – Open a new Grasshopper business checking account via Finders
    – Deposit $100+

    In theory the Finders gift card arrives quickly, and it might be clawed back if you don’t keep the account open 150+ days. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Kroger, Fry’s, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, and other family stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and Flexible fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards, running through Tuesday, June 23.

    Fuel points demand is currently through the roof for probably obvious reasons.
  6. Two airline portals have a summer bonus promotion:

    – Alaska Shopping: 500 miles with $200+ spend by June 19
    – United Shopping: 750 miles with $250+ spend by Sunday

    Giftcards.com is a quick way to knock these out.
  7. Southwest has 40% off both award and revenue flights using promo code FLYWOW for travel between August 4 and December 16 and booked by today.

    Blackout dates? You betcha. Only select flights on non-blackout dates? Of course, this is Southwest after all.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

Preview of upcoming Chase automation, built to address their most common customer request.

Let’s start with a PSA and a disclaimer, but in reverse order: I don’t work in marketing and I have no formal training in marketing, so smart money would ignore anything I have to say about the subject. With that out of the way, dear marketers: If you want to make a splash, maybe don’t wait until the second half of the first week in colloquial summer to launch a campaign.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some new marketing campaigns.

  1. IHG has a targeted summer promotion for double elite night credits, maximum five, through July 31. Registration is required.
  2. The American Express Delta cards have new sign-up bonuses:

    – Gold (via dummy booking): 60,000 miles + $500 credit after $3,000 spend in six months and a single Delta purchase
    – Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months
    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months

    These are all available via referral, except for the dummy booking version. If you’re going for one where a referral is available, use a friend’s link and make their day.
  3. The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 125,000 points and a free-night certificate worth up to 50,000 points after $3,000 spend in three months.
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $90 or 9,000 point offer for new Chase Freedom Unlimited applications, which have their own $200 or 20,000 point bonus after $500 spend in three months.

    On the subject of marketing, exactly who at Chase / Rakuten thought a guy either inhaling or exhaling a big line of smoke was exactly what the public needed to entice them to sign up for a Freedom Unlimited?
  5. The American Express Delta cards have added new benefits:

    – Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards, both personal and business, get a second free checked bag
    – Personal Gold cards get a (lame) $10 monthly statement credit on rideshare

    One of these is objectively nice, and one seems nice but is really just more work for you.
  6. Frontier has a contest for a free Go-Wild pass and a $100 TaskRabbit promo code. Someone’s going to win these, and it might as well be one of you.

    With the previous marketing disclaimer still in full force, Frontier did a good job of making you look twice at their promo, good show. (Thanks to David)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Actually, maybe some promotions are better launched in the second half of the first week of summer. (Thanks to Lea)

  1. AA has stopped releasing space for partner non-stop award redemptions within 144 hours of departure. Workarounds:

    – Hidden city ticketing
    – Use AA miles
    – Book at T-144.01 hours out of spite

    This affects all cabins too.
  2. Bank of America added credit card referral links for some accounts via the mobile app only. Currently first party personal cards are the only options, the referrer gets $100, and each account is limited to five referrals annually.
  3. The Rove shopping and travel portal has a 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Miles&Smiles through June 30. With this transfer bonus, United flights to Hawaii have good pricing again with the program:

    – Economy continental US → Hawaii: 16,667 Rove Miles
    – Business continental US→ Hawaii: 26,667 Rove Miles

    If you don’t yet have a Rove account, use a fellow churner’s referral link and make their day.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Also, yes, some people got credit line increases on some of their credit cards this weekend and somehow that’s big news elsewhere. Cool, let’s go content monster!

Next up on the content monster: Allan Savory had two views in 1947.