Category: Quick Hits

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s Q2 promotion for 777 bonus points per night on up to 20 nights between April 10 and June 9 at casino properties.

    We may not have The Dirty Castle™ any more for phantom spotting, but at least we have The Sad Samba™.
  2. Do this now: Register for National Emerald’s Q2 promotion for a free day with every two midsize or larger rentals of two days or longer between April 1 and June 22.
  3. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. This is your last weekend to figure out what to do with your Q1 American Express Business Platinum and Surpass Hilton credits. There are often local angles, but if you can’t find them or don’t want to deal with them, brunch at a corporate Hilton or Hilton Resort will almost always work in a pinch.

And let’s end today with a timely bit of weekend wisdom: In churning and manufactured spend the main goal is usually to take advantage of the spread between profit and loss, generally with very little risk, and turn that into a machine. Well, occasionally there’s a time where you know the spread is going to change for the worse at some point in the near future. When that happens, consider swinging for the fences taking to the extent that your risk tolerance allows.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Hilton Garden Inn breakfasts can be paid with AmEx credits (delicious breakfast not pictured).

Before we dive in, let me answer a few frequently asked questions about yesterday’s post:

  • No, I’m not building an alternative gift card marketplace
  • I think the opportunity for someone who successfully builds one is huge though
  • Yes, there are probably a bunch of mid-tier gift card resellers that you don’t know
  • You can find a recent-ish list of reputable gift card buyers here
  • No, I wouldn’t recommend starting new with Pepper any more, if you’re still there, float what you’re willing to lose based on your risk tolerance
  • No, I haven’t tried the Campbell’s ghost pepper soup, but yes, I do have a reader review ready

And now, today’s news:

  1. Chase has been accidentally reporting open business credit cards to TransUnion for a relatively small set of churners, but seemingly only if cards were opened with a social security number as the primary tax ID (versus an EIN).

    This seems to be an error on Chase’s part, and they’re fixing it within 10 business days if you call and ask. In theory . So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check your TransUnion credit report and put a ticket in with Chase if necessary.
  2. FlyingBlue Promo Rewards for March have been released for travel booked in march and flown through August 31. The promotional US cities are Detroit, Seattle, Washington DC, Boston, and Austin.
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios through the end of March. As usual, this is effectively a transfer bonus to all carriers that use Avios as their currency.
  4. Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. VanillaGift.com has fee free Vanilla Visa gift cards with promo code VGWOMEN through Saturday. Purchase limits for Incomm sites are $10,000 per account per rolling 24 hours.

    These are Incomm gift cards. Incomm sites won’t earn points or count toward a sign-up bonus on American Express first party cards.
  6. The Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cards have two bonus 5x categories in March: Insurance and tax preparation services, no registration necessary.

    The original $1,500 spend across all 5x categories for the quarter remains.

Happy Tuesday!

Your next mission: Fly for 12 hours in this.

  1. Do this now: Register for AA’s widely targeted promotion for 500 Loyalty Points for each AA flight in March, up to 5,000 bonus points total. Flights need to be booked (or rebooked) after registration to be eligible. (Thanks to VFTW)
  2. Capital One has a widely targeted offer for 5,000 bonus miles with a 1,000+ mile transfer to JetBlue TrueBlue. The transfer ratio is awful other than the bonus, so your best bet is to transfer 1,000 miles exactly and earn 5,600 TrueBlue miles. On the plus (?) side, 5,600 miles is enough for some short-haul basic economy tickets.
  3. The American Express Hilton cards have an increased sign-up bonus:

    – Honors: 70,000 points and a free night certificate after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 130,000 points and a free night certificate after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months

    In case you’re in pop-up jail on those and don’t know how to get out, you can find smaller bonuses that are mostly popup immune for the same cards here.
  4. Staples.com now sells virtual Visa gift cards with gargantuan fees, topping out at $9.95 for a $300 virtual Visa. I guess maybe you can make this make sense if you’re good at alt portals.

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. The Chase United Quest’s $125 annual United credits are changing to TravelBank credits in March, which makes one of my least favorite cards slightly more attractive.
  6. Breeze Airways 45% off of base fares with promo code ESCAPE for travel from March 5 through September 9, and it must be booked by tomorrow.

Happy Thursday friends!

JetBlue basic economy still includes a circa 2012 screen with at least one burnt out color channel and complimentary screen covering.

  1. Do this now: Register for double points at Choice hotels through April 7, but the offer is only good on up to four stays because how dare Choice encourage you to stay more than 4 times?
  2. Mastercardgiftcard.com has fee-free gift Mastercard cards with promo code MCGIFT.

    You can buy up to $10,000 of these per account per rolling 24 hours. Don’t use an American Express because it won’t earn points, and make sure you have an air-tight liquidation plan because these InComm issued cards have gotten difficult.
  3. The CFPB has effectively been shut down. Expect more on this later, but for now assume that no government agency will take action on your CFPB feedback from this time forward, and explore other options when you demand satisfaction.
  4. You’ve got until February 28 to finish earning AA Loyalty Points for the current elite year, and right now PointsYeah is offering 25 miles per dollar through the AA eShopping portal in case another 2,500 miles will make the difference for you. It didn’t for the CFPB though so there’s that.

How to recognize a churner in the post-CFPB world.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus British Airways Executive Club tier points for paid flights booked by February 14 for travel any time after March.

    British Airways Gold status traditionally was somewhat easy to game and had great value, but after March, the games are largely gone.
  2. United has a status match to Silver, Gold, or Platinum, and an accompanying challenge running through June 30. The match is good for 120 days once it’s activated; but to activate it you have to take a United flight within 90 days of the match approval. You can retain status through the program year (through January 2027) with some Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) earning.

    Status is most useful for free checked bags, economy plus seating, and lounge access on international itineraries. In theory you can only match every five years, but also in theory: (1) communism works, and (2) the colors of gummy bears are evenly distributed. (Thanks to FM)
  3. The Chase Marriott cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Boundless: $150 statement credit + 100,000 Bonvoy points after $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee
    – Bold: A free night certificate for up to 50,000 points plus 60,000 Bonvoy points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee

    They’ve also introduced Pay Yourself Back on the cards at a rate of 0.8 cents per point, which is more than the market value of a Bonvoy point so actually pretty good. The bad news though? You’re limited to $750 in total redemptions annually. But at $750 + $150, you could turn the Boundless into a $900 sign-up bonus and convert it to a Ritz Carlton card after a year (a move we call the reverse Bonvoy).
  4. Yesterday we talked about a Chase IHG Premier sign-up bonus with five free night certificates, but David let me know that there’s a different version of the sign-up bonus:

    – Premier: 170,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee
    – Rewards: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee

    I prefer points offers to capped free-night certificates approximately 122% of the time, but not everyone thinks like I do.

Theory doesn’t always predict the real world.

  1. UPromise has a $230 sign-up bonus that stacks with a SoFi $300 bonus for opening checking and savings account and direct depositing $5,000+ within 45 days. There’s no requirement to keep money in the account after your direct deposit.

    For anyone that doesn’t think in terms of math, that’s $530 total. (Thanks to Vince)
  2. American Express offers has new offers for:

    – $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)
  3. The American Express Gold personal card has increased targeted via referrals for 100,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in six months.

    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.

  1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercards starting tomorrow and running for two weeks. (Thanks to Will)
  2. American Express offers has several new travel offers:

    – $250 off of $1,800+ with Virgin Atlantic through March 30
    – $100 off of $500+ with Marriott through March 31
    – $250 off of $1,000+ with Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13

    Gamers gonna game, but family Virgin Atlantic Business redemptions gonna tax.
  3. American Express has a new Hilton Aspire 175,000 Honors sign-up bonus after $6,000 spend in six months. This is a no-lifetime language (NLL) link, and so far it’s been relatively pop-up immune. It’s especially useful if you can’t, or don’t want to, break out of pop-up jail in another way. (Thanks to cdeffenb)
  4. United has a daily fare sale to several European cities from the US for credit card holders this week for economy travel flown between January 12 and April 3:

    – Today: Amsterdam
    – Tomorrow: Frankfurt
    – Thursday: Munich
    – Friday: London

    Pricing is 25,000 miles one way, or 50,000 miles round trip. (Thanks to DansDeals)
  5. AA SimplyMiles card linked offers two interesting offers for earning AA miles and Loyalty points:

    – 1x at Food Lion through February 28 for a single purchase, the cap is variable
    – 1x at Staples through January 31 for two purchases, the cap is variable

    SimplyMiles works with any Mastercard, not just AA cards.
  6. FlyingBlue’s promo awards have several US Cities included with tickets booked January for travel through June 30:

    – Phoenix
    – Atlanta
    – Miami
    – Chicago
    – New York

    Each has economy tickets at 15,000 miles each way between the US and Europe, and I was able to find a few 50,000 mile Business class redemptions between those cities and secondary European cities, but the availability is about as rare as recovering stolen meat in Cupertino, CA.

Pictured without further comment: Police recover stolen meat.

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.

  1. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card, including bulk brands like Apple and BestBuy, through December 14. There’s a limit of 50,000 points per account, but what’s the limit on accounts? The limit does not exist.
  2. Meijer stores also have $10 off of $100 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through December 21. This one requires that you clip a digital coupon, but seems to be the variety that you can reclip after each purchase, meaning again, the limit does not exist but different.
  3. Alaska Airlines has a paid and award fare sale through this evening. I’m seeing:

    – 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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

    (Thanks to Dave M and birt)
  6. The Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card has an increased sign-up bonus of 40,000 Rapid Rewards points and a $400 statement credit with $3,000 in purchases in four months for applications through December 16.

    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.
  7. Preferred Hotels has a promotion for 35,000 bonus points for paid three night stays booked by Wednesday night for travel through March 31, 2025.
  8. Giftcards.com is currently 3x at most airline shopping portals and 4x at Chase portals. AA and Southwest points earned through portals count toward status too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  9. The Incomm gift card sites have new deals:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: No fees through December 31, code NOFEES24
    – VanillaGift.com: No fees through tonight, code VGCYBER24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: $10 Zillions with $100+ in Visa cards through tonight, code BF24

    These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
  10. 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.

Have a nice Monday!

Seatbelts are required in private taxis too.