Category: Portals

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card has mid-month offers for online spend by December 14. Reported offers, and this stacks with other offers sent at the beginning of the month for spend at utilities:

    – $40 off of $600 in spend
    – $50 off of $750 in spend
    – $80 off of $800 in spend
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Points for $600 in spend
    – 7,500 ThankYou Points for $750 in spend
    – 12,000 ThankYou Points ofr $800 in spend

    (Thanks to irieriley, David 99, Greyo, Dave 37, Fish, Bryan G, and Charlie)
  2. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 25% transfer bonus to JetBlue through January 20, 2024, which for the right redemptions beats booking with a Sapphire Reserve through the Chase travel portal at a fixed 1.5 cents per point, but make sure to run the numbers first.

    Side note: if you’re paying close attention to the arbitrage opportunity for the JetBlue/Spirit anti-trust case and want to collaborate, please reach out to me.
  3. The American Express Business Platinum card has a targeted 190,000 Membership Rewards bonus link that’s been floating around for a few weeks and various ways to pull up that version of the offerhave come and gone and have had limited success. There seems to be a new repeatable way to pull it up: Open the application page from Dallas, TX. Geographic targeting has been more prominent over the last year, and it may be worth getting a VPN with multiple city endpoints as part of your churning toolkit.
  4. American Express offers has a targeted promotion for 17,500 Membership Rewards after $700 or more in spend at Princess Cruise Lines through February 15, 2024. Lately it seems like we might need to say ‘gamers gonna cruise’ instead of ‘gamers gonna game’? (Thanks to Rich)
  5. The Capital One Spark Cash Plus Select business card, which probably is missing at least three words in its title because clearly the marketing team is slacking, has a $750 sign-up bonus with $6,000 spend in three months. The card has no annual fee, but earns only 1.5% cash back on spend, which I guess means those three missing words should be “sock drawer bound”.

The NordVPN Dallas, TX datacenter.

You know how most of you get an extra hour this weekend? Well, there’s plenty to fill it:

  1. Capital One has an interesting bank bonus for a high-yield savings account:

    – $20,000: $300 bonus
    – $50,000: $750 bonus
    – $100,000: $1,500 bonus

    You must fund the account within 15 days, and hold it for 105 days after. The APR is currently 4.30% so the opportunity cost of holding funds is much lower than most recent bank bonuses.
  2. AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue has released discounted promo award cities for travel through April 30, 2024 booked by this month. New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Dallas, San Jose, and Raleigh/Durham are this month’s US cities included in the promotion.
  3. The Gift Card Shop has 100% off of purchase fees for custom designed Visa gift cards through November 8 with code CUSTOMHOLIDAY23.

    These are InComm gift cards. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  4. MasterCardGiftCard.com has 50% off of purchase fees for orders over $150 through November 16 with code SHOPEARLY2023.

    These are InComm gift cards; is there an echo in here? (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  5. Citi ThankYou Points has a couple of has transfer bonuses:

    – 25% to Avianca LifeMiles through tomorrow night
    – 30% to Qatar Avios through November 10, posted by Qatar within 45 days

    Both of these programs have sweet spots, google is your friend for some of them.
  6. The major airline shopping portals have new holiday spend bonuses:

    – AA: 4,000 miles with $1,600 in spend through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 miles with $650 in spend through November 17
    – Delta 2,000 miles with $1,000 in spend through November 17
    – Southwest: 4,000 points with $1,000 in spend through November 22
    – United: 5,000 miles with $1,200 in spend through November 20

    It’s possible to hit all of these bonuses with giftcards.com assuming that you have a good liquidation channel.
  7. Kroger.com has 5% off of physical Visa and Mastercard gift cards ordered online through November 15 using promo code FALLFRENZY23.

    These are US Bank gifts, the purchase won’t code as grocery, and will earn fuel points. (Thanks to GCG)
  8. Citi has been sending personal and business AA card holders offers for additional bonus miles for making at least one purchase in the next three billing periods:

    – 500 miles for the first statement
    – 1,000 miles for the second statement
    – 1,500 miles for the third statement
    – 2,000 miles in addition to the above for all three statements

    (Thanks to Justmeha and MVC)
  9. American Express has increased its business checking account sign-up bonus to 50,000 Membership Rewards, or $550 with the Schwab Platinum cash out. To be eligible, you’ll need to open an account by December 12 and:

    – Deposit $5,000 within 30 days
    – Maintain at least a $5,000 balance for the following 60 days
    – Make five transactions within the first 60 days

    ACHs and debit card activity both count as qualifying transactions. (Thanks to DoC)

Have a nice daylight savings weekend! (Unless you’re in Arizona, then, well, good luck.)

How daylight savings was invented, except for zonies.

Sometimes regular posts
start to feel repetitive
so we “go haiku”

  1. Capital One Shopping has targeted increased cash-back for Giftcards.com of up to 12%. MEAB’s haiku review:

    Twelve percent beats fees
    you won’t earn Loyalty Points
    cashing out is key

    Note that you’ll probably have a different cash back offer for the mobile app, the desktop, and a targeted email, so check all three.
  2. American Express Offers has $150 back on $1,000 or more in airfare at Air Canada for flights originating in the US and ticketed with US Dollars booked by December 31. Now, let’s haiku:

    AmEx offers abound
    breaking correlation helps
    never play it straight

    You can game it, but just don’t game it in Canadian currency. (Thanks to TeddyH)
  3. A quick recap of Delta’s “devaluation rebiggening”:

    – You need slightly fewer MQDs to attain status, but still more than before
    – If you have a Delta Platinum or Reserve card, you get an annual $2,500 MQD credit
    – Million Milers bump up in lifetime status levels
    – You can spend rolled-over MQMs on status extensions, 100,000 MQD per year
    – Better exchange rates on existing MQMs in 2024

    But MEAB, can you let us know how you feel in the form of a haiku?

    Changes beat stick in eye
    SkyMiles are still the worst miles
    too little, too late
  4. American Express has retooled the Hilton Aspire and Surpass cards with:

    – Bigger annual fees (+$100 on Aspire and +$65 on Surpass)
    – Bigger Hilton credits ($200 x 2 at resorts on Aspire, $50 x 4 on Surpass)
    – Loss of Priority Pass
    – $200 annual airline incidental credits switch to $50 quarterly airfare credits

    “Haiku me”, I hear you say:

    Aspire was O.P.,
    was future Unsung Hero,
    now I’m not so sure
  5. Kroger online has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa and Mastercards with promo code OCT2023 through October 25. Let’s jump to the chase:

    U.S. Bank issued,
    won’t code as grocery so
    useful for fuel points

Have a nice weekend friends!

Can someone please rewrite this banger as a haiku, or do I have to do everything myself?

Since today is Prime Day and Amazon is the easiest to deal with when working with buyer’s groups, it’s a good time tocheck those dormant WhatsApp and Telegram notification channels today and tomorrow. Just remember the golden rule with Amazon and buyer’s groups: Never use an Amazon gift card.

With that, it seems like everyone wants to have their own promotions this week which culminated in a few interesting deals:

  1. Capital One has $50 to $200 off of some flights booked through their travel portal this week. The level 201 play: Book in conjunction with a VentureX $300 travel credit and convert to a travel wallet or travel fund with your airline of choice, provided your airline of choice has such a thing. (Thanks to The_Most_Hye)
  2. Meijer MPerks has 10,000 points with $100 or more in Happy, Choice, and One4All gift cards through Saturday, limit one per account. Scale with multiple MPerks accounts.
  3. Chase Offers has $50 off of $250 or more in JW Marriott and W Hotel brands booked by October 31. Yes, you can find a way to use these without actually being #bonvoyed if you try. There are also targeted offers for Sheraton, Renaissance, Springhill Suites, and other Marriott brands, and ditto on the #bonvoyed thing. (Thanks to DoC, FM)
  4. American Express’s “offer week” is a lame attempt at generating buzz, but it has produced a few slightly useful offers (registration required):

    – $50 off of $100 at Dell through October 18, so you can have a pricier order canceled
    – $80 off of $200 at Hilton through October 13 for stays through the end of the year
    – $50 off of $200 at Lowes through October 13 for a store that sells gift cards, but not well
    – $60 off of $200 at Hertz through November 8 as a new target for correlation breaking

    Each requires enrollment either directly through the American Express offer week page or via your AmEx Dashboard.
  5. Rakuten has 10% cash back at popular merchants like Dell and Sam’s Club this week, and remember that 10% should actually be at least 11% cash back with Rakuten via the Membership Rewards backdoor.
  6. Do this now if you hold a Delta credit card: Register for a $100 Delta eCredit for booking a non-basic economy paid international flight by Friday for travel by March 24, 2024 with some black out dates around Christmas and New Years.

Good luck, and remember that if you don’t buy something, you saved 100%, or maybe 0%. It can be hard to tell, but either way you still have your cash.

Amazon sent this to the last guy that used a gift card to send a Kindle Fire to a buyer’s group.

  1. American Express has a few nice card-linked offers:

    – Thompson Hotels: $60 statement credit after $300 in spend by December 15
    – Park Hyatt Hotels: $150 statement credit after $750 in spend by December 15
    – Kimpton and Intercontinental Hotels: $75 statement credit after $300 in spend by December 31
    – Small and Luxury Hotels: $100 statement credit after $300 in spend by December 31

    The holidays tend to make these slightly easier to game than normal. (Thanks to berkstud14)
  2. Capital One Shopping has targeted increased cash-back bonuses at GiftCards.com. We’ve seen 4%, 6% and 9%, and I suspect there are other offers too. The website and mobile apps usually don’t have the same offer, so check both.

    Also, note that terms and conditions now specify that “orders over $2,000” are not eligible for cash back, and it’s currently unclear as to whether that number is inclusive of fees. (Thanks to Brian M and Joshua)

Happy Tuesday friends!

Want another Tuesday double? This, erm “life-hack” has your back.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, a MEAB Unsung Hero, sent out targeted spending offers for Q4. Each of these offers is good once per month for October, November, and December:

    – $70 after $600 or more in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend
    – 10% back on between $600 and $700 or more in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend
    – 10% back on between $700 and $800 or more in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend
    – 15x ThankYou Points on $1,200 or more in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend
    – $200 after $1,200 or more in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend
    – $200 after $2,000 or mroe in gas, grocery, and restaurant spend

    For those who suck at math, the best of these offers is $600 over three months or 48,000 ThankYou Points over three months. This spend will stack with any other Shop Your Way offers linked to the card, because sometimes Citi’s IT isn’t completely broken and does something right. (Thanks to DC Domer, Ben, BB_Pcola, birt, FlashStash, and Adam)
  2. There are two deals conspiring to make Virgin Atlantic booking really cheap, and a Delta or ANA award slightly cheaper:

    – Chase Ultimate Rewards has 30% transfer bonus from to Virgin Atlantic through November 15
    – Virgin Atlantic has 25% off of award flights on their metal for travel through the end of the year booked by tomorrow

    Virgin Atlantic has high fuel surcharges on their own flights to London-Heathrow, so I think of these as cash with a mileage surcharge tickets (“pay regular premium economy ticket prices, use a few miles, and get business upper class”) as opposed to the traditional milage with a cash surcharge ticket.
  3. The United MileagePlus shopping portal has a 500 bonus miles promotion after $150 or more in spend through October 8. Yes, giftcards.com is on the United MileagePlus portal, why would you ask?
  4. Chase’s Pay Yourself Back categories have been extended through December 31. If you’re not sure why anyone would ever do this, then perhaps you have more runway to earn points than you’ve previously considered. Yes, transferring to some programs or booking travel through the Chase portal can net you a higher return, but also there are only 365 hotel nights a year and a few dozen or so business class flights that you can reasonably fit into the same time period.
  5. The Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red card has a 75,000 AA miles sign-up bonus split into two parts:

    – 60,000 points for making a single purchase in 90 days
    – 15,000 additional points for adding and authorized user and making a single purchase in 90 days

    The $99 annual fee is not waived the first year. This card is also interesting because after you’ve put some decent spend on it, Barclays will typically let you product change to the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card which offers a credit for $25 per day in AA in-flight purchases and a companion pass that’s good for two companions.
  6. Meijer has $10 off of $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards purchased in-store through Saturday. As usual, scale with multiple MPerks accounts, and consider travel to Meijer land if you’ve got the liquidation bandwidth to scale this deal.

The manufactured spend points earning runway is long, but not infinite.

  1. Kroger is selling Marianos, QFC, and Carrs brandnames (and stores) to C&S, the parent company of Piggly Wiggly subject to regulatory approval, and they’re also selling rights to Albertsons branded stores in California, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. This is a double edged sword, but all things being equal as a manufactured spender, I’d rather have:

    – A Kroger instead of Piggly Wiggly
    – A Piggly Wiggly instead of an Albertsons, at least in recent history

    Markets like California and Arizona with both Safeway stores and Albertsons stores will probably get the best of all worlds.
  2. Some airline shopping portals have a sweepstakes running for 25,000 – 100,000 bonus miles, and all that’s required is logging in and clicking a button to enter:

    – Alaska MileagePlan shopping
    – AA AAdvantage eShopping
    – United MileagePlus shopping

    Last round there were two separate winners in the MEAB community, and if someone’s going to win it might as well be one of you who probably won’t redeem 73,500 miles for a one-way to Lubbock a United Express First seat in a CRJ-700.
  3. First class tickets on China Eastern are now bookable with AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue in addition to the normally available business class award tickets. To find them, you’ll need to choose La Premier class on the award search tool.
  4. The Bank of America Alaska Airlines personal card has a heightened sign-up bonus for 70,000 MileagePlan miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days. The annual fee is $95 and isn’t waived the first year. As with any Bank of America card, if you’re going to go for this offer probably grab some other cards at the same time.

    If you’re an value maximizer absolutist, you may want to wait a few weeks to see if an in-flight offer surfaces for 72,000 miles. I’d give that offer a 50% chance of surfacing; just keep in mind that my crystal ball broke in “The Great Christmas tree debacle of 2018”.
  5. The no annual-fee Chase Ink Unlimited and Ink Cash cards’ 90,000 Ultimate Rewards sign-up bonus is back:

    – Ink Unlimited
    – Ink Cash

    Referrals still pay 40,000 Ultimate Rewards to the referrer and have a sign-up bonus of 75,000 Ultimate Rewards, so if you’re running in two-player mode you’ll probably do better to refer P1 to P2. I’d also wait a week or two before doing so because it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that the referral bonus will also jump to 90,000 Ultimate Rewards (however, see prior crystal ball reference).

The Great Christmas tree debacle of 2018 shatters the near perfect MEAB crystal ball, or something.

Let’s keep it short and sweet for Labor Day.

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 back on $300 or more in Visa gift card purchases through Saturday. As usual, link your cards to Dosh, check for Chase Offers at Office Depot and then try and scale this slightly differently than normal.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place.
  2. American Express has a 25% Membership Rewards transfer bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue running through September 25. I don’t currently have an Unusng Heroes series for mileage programs, but frankly this one at least deserves an article in the future. In the mean time, a few sweet spots:

    – Delta short haul Economy and First
    – Business class to and from Europe (assuming date flexibility)
    – Europe short haul Business and Economy

    KLM is also an underappreciated airline in Business class. Fortunately, in a move that will surprise only someone with Alzheimers, it turns out that it’s possible to book KLM flights with the AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue program.
  3. American Express has an offer for $50 back after $200 in airfare at JetBlue. As usual, gamers can game.
  4. Do this now: Register for Discover IT’s 5x merchants for October through December for up to $1,500 in spend. Amazon.com and Target are the, err, targets this year.
  5. Dell is 15x at Rakuten for the Labor Day holiday which means that now is a great time to place several orders that will be cancelled later this week.

Have a nice holiday!

The Dell Verification team cheerfully works the Labor Day holiday.