Category: Portals

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s Q1 promotion for 3,000 points for every three nights through April 15. As a way of saying “sorry” in advance, Hyatt Place and Hyatt Select hotels actually get 4,000 points for the same stays. You’re limited to seven bonuses under this promotion.
  2. Two Bank of America Atmos Visas have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Personal Ascent: 85,000 miles after $4,500 spend in 120 days
    – Business: 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 90 days

    If one is good, three is better right? Also, side note, aren’t you glad I don’t have to write “The Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature®” like everyone else? No, that’s just me? Hmm.
  3. Two US Bank Visas have increased sign-up bonuses:

    – Leverage Business: $750 after $7,500 spend in 120 days
    – Triple Cash: $750 after $6,000 spend in 180 days

    Just like with Bank of America, why have just one? The Triple-Cash card comes with a free monthly subscription to seats.aero, at least sort-of.
  4. There are February shopping portal bonues at major airline portals:

    – AA Advantage: 500 miles with $200+ through February 11
    – Alaska Atmos: 500 miles with $150+ through February 11
    – United MileagePlus: 500 miles with $150+ through February 11

    Watch for the Southwest portal bonus to arrive late in the next couple of days as winter weather spreads through their technology stack.
  5. American Express offers has new travel offers for:

    – Virgin Atlantic: $250 back with $2,000+ spend through March 29
    – Air France via AmEx Travel: $250 back with $1,400 spend through February

    Something something gamers gonna game something something.

Happy Tuesday friends!

Southwest IT troubleshooting delays on their shopping portal server.

  1. The American Express Delta cards have heightened sign-up bonuses, all of which are available via referrals too so go that route instead of using a blog link, P2 will thank you:

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived
    – Personal Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months

    There’s also a Personal Gold link for 60,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after $3,000 spend in six months with a waived first year annual fee during the ticket booking workflow, you don’t have to actually buy the ticket to get it.
  2. Four of the Chase United family of cards also has increased sign-up bonuses, and these are available for referrals too, so it’s either your best churning buddy or P2’s time to shine!

    – Personal Explorer: 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in three months, annual fee waived
    – Personal Quest: 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – Business MileagePlus: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Business Club: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months

    What’s the difference between the last two? A few things, but also an extra $495 for unlimited cheese cubes at any United Club location. I hope you like cheese!
  3. Kroger stores have a digital coupon for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards excluding fuel points cards and Amazon, and on fixed value Visas and Mastercards between Friday and Sunday.
  4. The Rove Miles Shopping Portal that also has a travel booking engine has several promotions including: 4x on Visas and Mastercards at GiftCards.com, 10x at Viator, and 2x when purchasing Alaska Atmos or AirCanada Aeroplan miles. Increased bonuses run through Sunday.

    Obviously you should sign up for Rove with either P2 or a churner buddy’s referral.
  5. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 10x points on Home Depot cards through Thursday, and Giant Food earns 6x during the same period. You’re limited to $2,000 or $1,500 per loyalty account depending on the brand.
  6. If you want to go all in on Accor ALL, there’s an interesting Accor ALL Signature+ subscription now available world-wide. The important parts:

    – Pay 1,149 Euros for a one year subscription
    – Earn 1,500 Euros worth of Accor ALL points (75,000 annually / 6,250 monthly)
    – Earn 12,000 status points (1,000 monthly)

    Gold status requires 7,000 points and Platinum requires 14,000, so earning Platinum becomes almost trivial. Effectively, if you were going to spend 2,000 Euros on Accor hotels in 2026 you’ll come out ahead by about 350 Euros and have Platinum status when you’re done. (Thanks to LL)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Gearing up for Player 2 referral shenanigans.
(Thanks to smirley)

  1. US Bank has a double cashback promotion for its card linked offers and its shopping portal today through Friday.

    The portal and offers are hard to find and are quirky, so double check the US Bank portal cheat sheet if you’re not sure how to get there.
  2. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a tiered 15-25% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through January 5, 2026:

    – 15%: transfer <= 74,000 miles
    – 20%: transfer between 74,000 miles and 174,000 miles
    – 25%: transfer >= 175,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a transfer bonus personally, but welcome to #2025.
  3. The Chase Aeroplan Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 75,000+25,000+20,000 miles with tiered spend:

    – 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 25,000 miles after $20,000 spend in 12 months
    – 1.5x on 1x spend through January 15, 2026 up to 20,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a sign-up bonus personally either, but welcome to #2025 again.
  4. The Rove shopping portal, notable for its transferability to Lufthansa Miles & More, has a promotion through Black Friday for 4x-5x at giftcards.com.

    If you’re not a member of Rove, use a friend’s referral link. If you don’t have a friend with Rove, reach out to me and I’ll send you a random churner’s link.
  5. Giftcards.com has a $10 gift card with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards with promo code VISABOGO. This code is appearing on most shopping portals, so it should stack with portal earning.
  6. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  7. On December 1, Bilt will have a 50-100% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios depending on your Bilt status. Two things:

    – You’ve still got a few days to earn if this is interesting to you
    – To decide if it’s interesting, would you trade 1.50-2.00 Avios for a Hyatt point?

    Even with a big Hyatt balance, I’d generally still answer the second question with a definite “yuuup”.
  8. Royal Air Maroc has a paid status match opportunity for non-US frequent flyer elites (that is, they’re not matching US airline status). Matches to Gold ($349) get oneworld Sapphire and to Platinum ($749) get oneworld Emerald status though the end of 2026. 

    Both will get you access to AA and Alaska lounges even when flying domestically with either airline. (Thanks to David) 
  9. There are two niche hotel promotions, register for either or both if there’s any chance of you staying with either program in the next quarter:

    – Best Western: 5,000 bonus points for 2+ night stays through February 1, limit 20,000 points
    – Preferred Hotels: 35,000 bonus points after two night stays through June 30, 2026 booked by December 4

    I’ve been told Best Western has some really nice properties, but I’ve personally yet to see one. I can confirm however that Preferred Hotels does have some really nice properties.

Happy Wednesday, safe travels!

The kind of quirk you should expect from the US Bank shopping portal.

  1. The Rove Miles shopping portal added Lufthansa Miles & More as a transfer partner. This is great because:

    – There wasn’t previously a great way for US members to earn Miles & More
    – Lufthansa and Swiss availability is much better with Miles & More
    – Swiss First is bookable with matchable Miles & More Senator status

    With this development and with Rove’s ability to maintain elite benefits on hotel bookings, it’s probably a good idea to include Rove in your comparison shopping when booking paid hotel nights. Rove has referral bonuses, so use someone’s referral link if you’re going to join.
  2. The major airline portals have shopping portal bonuses (ordered by expiration date):

    – American: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,600+ (+2.5x) through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 bonus miles with $650+ (+2.3x) through November 19
    – Delta: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,500+ (+2.67x) through November 21
    – United: 5,000 bonus miles with $1,100+ (+4.55x) through November 22
    – Southwest: 4,000 bonus miles with $900+ (+4.44x) through November 24

    Each of these portals has giftcards.com as an option, and Chase Offers has a targeted offer for 5% back on up to $1,000 spend too.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 6x point earning on third party gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or 4x earning for Giant Food because apparently it’s a running joke at the parent company).
  5. Wyndham and Vacasa’s partnership is ending for reservations after November 30 and stays after January 31, 2026. Here’s your obligatory wah-wah trombones sound.
  6. Rakuten has portal bonuses for applying for several Chase cards through their links:

    – $30 for the Freedom Unlimited (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $30 for the Sapphire Preferred (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $25 for the Ink Unlimited (or $50 for exactly no one)

    Referral offers for the Freedom and Sapphire Reserve are generally a much better deal for the referrer, but Chase Business referrals are restricted to new businesses (to Chase) only, so the Rakuten bonus is often the best choice. (Thanks to DoC)

Happy Monday!

Embargoed oil is also a thing.

  1. Citi ThankYou has a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas Frequent Flyer through November 8.

    Qantas’s highest and best use is typically for Emirates or Qantas F redemptions.
  2. Citi launched a new “mid-tier” (lulz) AA credit card yesterday. Vitals of the “AAdvantage Globe Mastercard”:

    – $350 annual fee, 4x single use AA lounge passes
    – 90,000 AA miles after $5,000 spend in four months
    – 2x earning at restaurants, taxis, and rideshare
    – 3x earning with AA, 6x with AA Hotels (also lulz)
    – 1x everywhere else
    – 1x Loyalty Points regardless of mileage earning
    – $100 inflight purchase rebate, which practically means inflight booze because AA doesn’t really cater buy-on-board food as a general rule
    – Companion certificate, but not until your second year

    This card gives United Quest vibes, a card which I (in)famously hate. I guess the sign-up bonus is moderately acceptable, but let’s just say I disagree with anyone who says this card belongs with other “best sign-up bonus” list cards.
  3. The idea of #citigonnaciti went mainstream last week when the WSJ made their Strata Elite 4506-C shenanigans public. Their make-good to say sorry about the press getting wind of their incompetence is to refund the annual-fee and award the sign-up bonus whether or not you hit minimum spend.

    If you fell into the 4506-C hole and didn’t get the make-good offer from Citi, perhaps a phone call to customer service is in order.
  4. Staples in-store has fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Predicting that Staples fee-free gift cards are coming the week after a Mastercard scale is about a sure as a bet as putting it all on Joey Chestnut.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Buy these in even multiples of $300 for a bigger per-card discount.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards too.
  6. Southwest Rapid Rewards shopping has an offer for 1,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points with $100+ in spend through today.

Happy Monday!

The Citi Strata Elite situation.

  1. First Electronic Bank’s Bank’s Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $100, or 10,000 Membership Rewards, after $1,000 spend in 90 days. The card earns:

    – Rakuten portal: 4x up to $7,000 spend per year
    – Rakuten restaurants: 5x
    – Groceries and dining: 2x
    – Everywhere else: 1x

    The card definitely isn’t an unsung hero, but it is a card that earns unlimited 2x Membership Rewards at grocery without RAT concerns, and possibly soon unlimited 2x Bilt points at grocery too. It’s also a third party AmEx. Finally, it’s time for your annual reminder that Rakuten used to be called buy.com, but that was too hard to say and spell, or something.
  2. Existing Bank of America Preferred Rewards members have an opportunity for a $1,000 bonus for bringing $250,000+ in retirement or regular brokerage investments into a new Merrill account, even if have an existing Merrill account with promo 1000PR.

    You can ACATS transfer existing investments. Investments only have to be with Merrill for 90 days after transfer.
  3. American Express has newly targeted upgrade offers for:

    Delta Gold to Platinum: 30,000 SkyMiles + $250 statement credit with $3,000 spend
    Delta Platinum to Reserve: 35,000 SkyMiles + $300 statement credit with $4,000 spend

    Both give you six months to hit the spend.
  4. American Express’s Delta Personal Gold card also has a heightened $500 statement credit + 50,000 SkyMiles sign-up bonus after $3,300 spend in six months through October 29. The offer is presented while making a (dummy) booking, and the annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    This one won’t work with the above targeted upgrade offers in the first year though, thanks to CARD act, also known as the fried twinkee of credit card regulations.
  5. Vanilla Gift has fee-free Visa gift cards with promo code VISA100. I’d be surprised if other Incomm sites don’t also have promotions running, but they’re not advertising them in the same ways that they normally do so I can’t tell. Purchase limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours per account.

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Rove lets you now earn regular loyalty points and elite night credits on some hotel bookings in addition to miles earned directly with Rove.

Happy Wednesday!

Rakuten’s next rebrand.

  1. The Citi Strata Elite Card has a public heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 ThankYou points after $6,000 spend in three months, no weird links or other in-branch shenanigans that may or may not involve eating pudding with a fork are needed.
  2. The AA eShopping portal currently has giftcards.com at 2.5x earning. You may be surprised to learn that giftcards.com sells things like gift cards.

    AA in particular is interesting because you’ll also earn Loyalty Points toward status through the shopping portal.
  3. Discount airlines are running sales:

    – Frontier: Sale on paid and award bookings made today, travel through December 18
    – American Express Offers for Frontier: $50 off of $200+ by December 31
    – Southwest: Sale on paid and award bookings made today, travel 21 days out

    The Frontier deals will be specifically great for churning legend Alan, but have utility outside of Alan too.
  4. Blit Rewards (sp) added Etihad Guest as a 1:1 transfer partner. I’m glad to see new partners, but this one adds about as much incremental value as mayonnaise does to pizza.

Happy Thursday!

Bilt adds Etihad, but as a pizza.

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points earning on all Zift cards through Saturday, digital coupon clip required. On Saturday, the typical 4x coupon may stack to make these 12x instead of 10x too. Some Just4U brands also have a stackable offer for $10 off of $50+ for third party gift cards (no coupon clip required) including Zift.

    Why is this a headliner? Some Zifts convert to high value brands like Amazon.
  2. Staples in-store has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. A link for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card with 80,000 miles after $1,000 spend showed up over the weekend from a new in-flight offer. You’ll need a flight attendant code to finish the application but pretty much any six digit number starting with ’00’ will work. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Rakuten’s $50 or 5,000 Membership Rewards referral offer for both the referral and referred is now running through December 31.

    Dormant Rakuten accounts aren’t valuable in the same way that Capital One Shopping accounts are, but they’re not un-useful.

Happy Monday!

The banana slicer: also not un-useful.