– $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)
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.
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.
– 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.
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.
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
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.
These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
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.
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.
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
– 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)
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].
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.
– 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.
What could possibly go wrong here? It’s not like there’s a way to uninstall extensions without the extension knowing, and it’s also not like there’s a way to have multiple browser profiles, right?
These points are worth 2-3 cents each for travel on Amtrak. If you’re lucky maybe they’ll combine a hard pull for this card with a hard pull for a new JAL card, though I wouldn’t count on it.
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.
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.
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)
Marriott has a similar deal with AirCanada Aeroplan with a smaller bonus that works out to 28,000 miles, which frankly is worth about the same as 36,000 MileagePlus miles. Frankly I’m impressed at some marketing person’s mileage valuation prowess.
