Category: Quick Hits

  1. US Bank launched the stupidly named Smartly card yesterday and is now accepting applications, and unfortunately applications for the Altitude Reserve have been taken down.

    The Smartly card is a 2-4% everywhere uncapped cash back card, with the cash back amount determined by the assets held in either a Smartly savings or a self-directed investment account. $100,000 average funds over 90 days in either is enough for 4%, and you have to have a Smartly savings account open even if most of the assets are in an investment account to qualify.
  2. Wells Fargo Deals has new travel-related card linked offers:

    – 5% back on British Airways through November 29, up to $45 back
    – 10% back at Renaissance Hotels through November 18, up to $75 back
    – 10% back at Fairfield Inn through December 1, up to $38 back
    – 10% back at Westin through December 1, up to $68 back

    Gamers gonna blah blah blah gift cards at the front desk or blah blah blah blah something else. (Thanks to Mike at Cheapskate Travel)
  3. The Citi Double Cash has $100 off of $300+ in hotels booked through the Citi travel portal by December 6. I don’t think this is targeted, but double check that you see a banner under the search page advertising the credit after selecting your Double Cash card.
  4. Chase has several targeted offers for $400+ in hotel booked through the Chase portal:

    – 20,000 Ultimate Rewards with $500+ spend
    – 10,000 Ultimate Rewards after $400+ spend
    – $100 statement credit after $400+ spend

    Book by January 31, 2025 for stays through August 31, 2025.

Rejected US Bank Smartly Visa card design.

  1. Do this now: Register for a targeted promotion from AA for flying in premium cabins, found on your promotions page. I got 10,000 bonus miles with two paid flights booked by November 11 in first, business, or premium economy and flown by December 19.

    Without trying very hard, I found round trip fares in premium economy from my airport for about $160, or in first for about $250. I think you could do better if you live in ORD or MCO especially, but probably in lots of other places too. I really could also just try harder and do better.
  2. Virgin Atlantic’s dynamic award chart changes are live for Virgin Atlantic metal awards. The gist:

    – Cancellation fees are increased to $100 per ticket
    – Transatlantic business class redemption cost range: 28,500 – 77,500 miles
    – Transatlantic economy redemption cost range: 6,000 – 25,000 miles
    – Award surcharges are also variable, often lower than before
    – There is last seat availability for award redemptions

    For now this is a positive net change and availability at low levels isn’t too hard to find, but I expect neither will be the case in three years.
  3. United’s elite status requirements are increasing for elite year 2025, in both the number of Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) required to reach different Premier Stupid Levels (PSL). On the plus side though, you can earn more PQPs from credit card spend (CCS) on premium co-brand cards, but the United Club cards are the only ones worth using with 1 PQP per $15 spend (P15S), up to 15,000 PQPs annually each for both the personal and business:

    – Silver: 6,000 PQP, or 5,000 PQP + 15 PQF, or $90,000 card spend
    – Gold: 12,000 PQP, or 10,000 PQP + 30 PQF, or $180,000 card spend
    – Platinum: 18,000 PQP, or 15,000 PQP + 45 PQF, or $270,000 card spend
    – 1K: 28,000 PQP or 22,000 PQP + 60 PQF, or $420,000 card spend

    I don’t want to yuck your yum (YYY), but getting both a personal and business United Club card to earn 1.5x on $420,000 spend with no additional kickers doesn’t feel terribly appealing in light of a litany of other better options (OBOs).
  4. Chase Offers has an offer for 5% back up to $45 on $100 or more in spend at British Airways.
  5. Southwest extended its schedule through August 4, 2025, so now’s the best time to lock in potential schedule changes for Summer travel.

    These flights will still be of the open seating persuasion because apparently seat assignments aren’t coming until early 2026.

MEAB: Airline themed halloween costume idea central.

  1. The Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard has a heightened sign up bonus of 70,000 AAdvantage miles after a single purchase in 90 days. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

    This card is useful beyond the sign-up bonus because it can eventually be product changed into the AAdvantage Silver card, but only after a year thanks to the CARD act.
  2. Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points on Zillions and Zillions Zift cards through Saturday. On Saturday when the “surprise” weekend gift card 4x event is released, you’ll get 12x. (Spoiler alert to Safeway management: Surprises that happen reliably every week with the same offer and same duration cease to be surprises at some point.)
  3. Meijer MPerks has a bonus of 10,000 points with the purchase of a $150+ Visa or Mastercard gift card through November 9, limit one per account.

    Meijer sells both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  4. Giftcards.com has Gift of College gift cards available with no purchase fee. You might earn 2% back in giftcards.com rewards after registering for their program through the end of October, though Gift of College is technically excluded from that program. You will earn portal cash back if you’re sly. Always be probing, Gift of College has been ripe for weirdness in the past but eventually the money does need to end up in a 529 account.
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit 10. For best results:

    – Link your credit cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  6. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a heightened redemption for Apple products at a rate of 1.5 cents per point for the Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 cents per point for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred cards (or less on other, stupider cards). The promotion runs through the end of November.

    These rates beat regular Pay-Yourself-Back rates, especially if you’re in the reselling game.
  7. There are two small business merchant processing sign-up bonuses:

    – Bank of America $1,000 after $100,000 processed in 90 days
    – US Bank $1,000 offer after accepting charges monthly for three months

    Since we’re MEABers around here, let’s caution a few items: (1) running more than a few gift cards will almost certainly get your account shut down and banned from the processor which could have repercussions on future real businesses; (2) running your own credit cards will almost certainly get your credit cards shut down, sometimes even same-day with banks like AmEx; and (3) you’ll get a 1099 for payments processed. So always be probing, but know when a fence is electrified too, and this one is.

    My advice is to keep these accounts completely above board if you’re going for the bonus. If you don’t have a real business for merchant processing, consider selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. Combine with the previous item for extra #flair.

Happy Monday!

Stupider cards, prolly.

  1. The Kroger family has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon, and fixed value Visa and Mastercards purchased in-store through October 1.

    Demand in the fuel points resale market has cooled slightly but there’s still capacity available for sellers. Pepper’s recent changes have stabilized the gift card resale market for BestBuy in particular.
  2. Fun fact: I was banned by Chase in approximately 2001 for non-churning reasons, and then in 2004 Chase bought BankOne, a bank where I had existing credit and deposit accounts. The acquisition got me back with Chase. In related news, the Goldman Sachs Apple credit card portfolio is reportedly close to being acquired by the very same Chase bank.

    Astute readers will note that 2024 is very different than 2004, and in 20 years it turns out there’s been verifiable change in the world even though it still kinda looks like it used to. So will it work that way again? I’d say the chance is small, but you miss all the shots you don’t take, right? (Sportsball taught me that.)
  3. The Alaska Airlines acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines was completed yesterday, and according to the press release you’ll be able to transfer your miles between both programs without fee sometime in September. In yesterday’s recusals post, I said “I wouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards to Hawaiian miles for the conversion yet because there’s no bonus and you won’t win any prizes for transferring early.” But with the finalized acquisition, I’ve changed my tune because:

    – September only has a few weeks left and the waiting time for transfers is minimal
    – We don’t know if the Membership Rewards and Hawaiian contract has an exit clause that could be triggered by the acquisition, which might remove the option all-together a-la Bilt

    Quoting yesterday again because it’s still applicable, “[a]fter this debacle I wouldn’t believe anything you see on this site again personally.”
  4. American Express Offers has an offer for $300 back on $1,200 or more in purchases at Marriott Homes & Villas through December 17.

    In related news, gamers gonna game. (Thanks to DDG)

Redemption, 2004 style.

  1. Do this now: Register for Avis’s promotion for a free rental day after two rentals of two days or longer through February 28, 2025 up to five times. The free rental date window is October 9 – May 18, 2025.
  2. The DoT approved the merger between Hawaiian and Alaska airlines, provided that routes don’t change and that miles transfer between the programs at a 1:1 ratio until the programs merge. That means, assuming the merger completes:

    – Membership Rewards will be able to be converted to Alaska MilagePlan via HawaiianMiles
    – The Hawaiian co-branded Barclays cards are more valuable than they used to be

    I wouldn’t transfer Membership Rewards to Hawaiian miles for the conversion yet because there’s no bonus and you won’t win any prizes for transferring early.
  3. Apparently the Pepper gift card platform’s merchant categorization is now back to normal, and yesterday’s post was all a giant lie. We’re all free to earn 4x Membership Rewards through our gift card games.

    After this debacle I wouldn’t believe anything you see on this site again personally.
  4. Citi’s Flex Pay option, which creates a no-interest loan based on your card’s credit line, is now supported for travel booked through the Citi Travel portal. Why should you care? If you’ve got paid travel and you earn money for paying off your Citi cards, there’s a play here – just avoid cycling.
  5. The Bank of America AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue Mastercard has a heightened sign-up bonus after $3,00 spend in 90 days. You’ve got two options:

    – $150 statement credit + 60,000 Miles + 100 XP (via dummy airfare booking)
    – 70,000 Miles + 100 XP

    Both versions give you annual XP bonuses, and the annual XP bonuses stack with one another too.

The official “Membership Rewards → HawaiianMiles” travel hacker shirt.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus JetBlue TrueBlue miles with IHG hotel says through November 30. You’ll earn 1,000 miles for one or two night stays, or 3,000 miles for three night and longer stays. The maximum bonus earned for this promotion is 15,000 TrueBlue miles.
  2. Do this now (if you have a Chase Southwest Business card): Register for 6,000 bonus points after $6,000 in spend through November 30.

    For the math challenged, that works out to be an extra 1x on $6,000 spend. In fact, it works out that way even if you’re not math challenged. (Thanks to Brian M)
  3. The Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More personal card has an increased sign-up bonus of 80,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days. The $89 annual fee is not waived the first year. This is the highest bonus seen on this card since last year, when it was 100,000 miles for a short period.

    The main use case for this card is for good access Swiss First Class award space for Miles & More members which costs 182,000 miles between the US and Europe, after a status match. You can also pair the bonus with 150,000 additional miles for $1,960 through September 30 . Or skip it, Swiss F is great but at a cost of $1,960+$89, so are plenty of other things.
  4. The Korean Skypass Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 Skypass miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days. The $450 annual fee is not waived the first year. I believe this is an all-time high bonus.

    The main use case here is good access to Korean Business (Prestige) and First award space, which cost 80,000 miles and 120,000 miles between Asia and the US, respectively.
  5. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Because Staples likes messing with churners, this time the limit is nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Staples messes with non-churners too, as Portsmouth discovered after contracting sign design.

  1. Clear has an offer for a $75 Uber voucher with a new membership, using the same promo code as in August, BETTERTRAVEL75 through September 6.

    This remains one of the best ways to cash out AmEx Clear credits, especially because you don’t need to show up in airport to validate anything.
  2. Rakuten In-Store has:

    – 4% or 4x back on Lowes purchases
    – 1% or 1x back on Food Lion purchases

    Both offers are good for 75 days after adding, and have to be re-added to your account one hour after purchase, and both stores sell open loop gift cards too.
  3. Publix stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit one per transaction, and you must clip the digital coupon.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Hilton Honors points through September 30, making the transfer ratio 1:2.6. Note that you’ve got to login to see the transfer bonus.

    If we value Honors points at 0.5 cents each, then, since America Loves Math™, value = 2.6 * 0.5 = 1.3 cents per Membership Reward. It’s pretty big I guess.
  5. American Express Membership Rewards also has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Ibera, and Aer Lingus Avios through September 30.
  6. Thirteen Star Alliance airlines have a status match for SAS Eurobonus elite members, which may or may not work with matched status from last week.

    Star Gold is a sweet spot for elite status, since it gives access to United Clubs even when flying domestically, provided the status isn’t from United. (Thanks to Connor)

How is E.T. like today’s post, asked no-one?

  1. Do this now: Try and register for Hyatt’s targeted promotion for 5,000 bonus points for each 5 nights stayed in the next 90 days, up to 45,000 total bonus points.
  2. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s fall promotions:

    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay (+2,000 if it’s an MGM property)
    – 2,000 bonus points per 2+ night paid stay for Marriott credit card holders

    These stack, but honestly 4,000 bonus Marriott points is probably worth $20 at best so don’t go nuts.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Remember that the variable loads work too

    Just don’t be like me last week and try and load $500 on a $200 card. The register will take it, but I promise nothing good happens.
  4. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the most sung of Unsung Heroes, has released new beginning of month offers, each is slightly complex because #extra. Each is good monthly for September, October, and November, and each will stack with other offers as applicable. We’ve seen:

    – $60 statement credit for a purchase $450+, good twice per month
    – $60 statement credit after six $75+ purchases
    – $50 statement credit for a purchase $375+, good twice per month

    I’ll be knocking this out with two $1,000 purchases at a grocery store to combine with outher outstanding credits. (Thanks to Brooke and birt)
  5. Rakuten has 15% back or 15x Membership Rewards on purchases at Dell, likely ending today. Use a friends referral if you don’t already have a Rakuten account, or use George at TBB’s otherwise.
  6. Avelo has $50 off of round-trip fares booked by Tuesday, for travel between September 17 and February 11, 2025 using promo code LABORDAY.

Pictured: The source of my instructions to load $500 onto a $15-200 variable load card.
(Thanks to IAD_Flyer for the picture)