Category: Quick Hits

  1. Do this now (for Marriott Bonvoy Ambassadors and Titaniums): Register for United and Marriott’s reciprocal earning:

    – 1,500 Bonvoy points and 1,000 United MileagePlus miles for a stay after August 31
    – 500 United MileagePlus miles per stay at Marriott properties
    – 750 Bonvoy points per United flight

    Afterward for masochists, consider how many United flights you’d have to take to earn a free night at a Marriott Courtyard.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the Paris train system of credit cards, has new beginning of the month spend offers:

    – $125 statement credit with $750+ spend or $200 statement credit with $1,500+ spend monthly in gas, grocery, or restaurants through December
    – $100 statement credit with $500+ spend or $150 statement credit with $1,000+ spend in monthly in gas, grocery, or restaurants through December

    Those who didn’t have that type of offer seem to already have a prior monthly version. (Thanks to Peter, bktran, TeddyH, and K).
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve personal card has updated its Pay Yourself Back categories for Q3. Grocery, gas, home improvement, and annual fees will be reimbursed at 1.25 cents per point, and select charities at 1.5 cents per point.

    The Sapphire Reserve business card only has charities as an option, and only at 1.25 cents per point. At least you still can buy a $50 Lululemon gift card for free twice a year I guess, which works out approximately 0.63 pants per year.
  4. American Express offers has a new offer for 20,000 Membership Rewards or a $200 statement credit after $1,000+ spend with AirFrance / KLM.

    Yes, it’s not hard to hit this offer with a family traveling to Europe. But also, it’s possible to hit it in less obvious ways.
  5. The American Express Delta Business cards have no-lifetime language (NLL) links that match their recent normal link heightened sign-up bonus:

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, waived annual fee
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve : 110,000 SkyMiles after $12,000 spend in six months

    The personal cards still have regular lifetime language in their offer terms.
  6. American Express Membership Rewards will reduce the transfer ratio to Emirates Skywards on September 18 from 5:5 to 5:4. Or if you prefer, from 225:255 to 225:180, because math is fun (or at least it’s “fun”, idk).
  7. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has released its July promo rewards for travel through December 31. US cities in this month’s promotion are: Portland OR, Austin TX, Atlanta GA, and Dallas TX.

    Economy flights are 18,750 miles and business class are 60,000 miles each way.

Happy Wednesday!

Math is just as “fun” for computers as it is for us.

  1. I’m sure the rebooted Sapphire Reserve launch will be the noisiest in churning history, and I’m sure you can find a few dozen articles in literally less than a minute about why 200,000 points is the new black. The bonuses seem to be:

    – Personal: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards + $500 Chase Travel after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Business: 200,000 Ultimate Rewards after $30,000 spend in six months

    Let’s emphasize four points to help you wade through the impending onslaught of never-ending Sapphire Reserve crap:

    – Offers are probably available via referral from another player, no need to use a blog link
    – 100,000 Ultimate Rewards is nice, but 250,000 Membership Rewards is probably nicer
    – $30,000 spend for 200,000 in Ultimate Rewards isn’t actually a great return
    – Newly launched business cards often bypass 5/24

    Don’t let forced pseudo-urgency drive your decisions, be deliberate.
  2. Accor Live has registration open for double points on reservations booked by July 31 for stays through September 12, but only in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Panama, and Brazil.
  3. Staples has fee-free Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. American Express offers has an offer for $100-$140 back on $350-$375+ spend at Marriott properties in North America through August 20.
  5. Gift of College cards are now sold at both Stop & Shop and Hannaford. Obviously this is useful if for college tuition expenses, but there are nuggets to be found in old school blogs too.

Have a nice Monday friends!

A 1920s vintage advertising blogger gets affiliate links.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus points at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and Hyatt Studios through September 7. Bonus tiers are at three, five, and eight nights.
  2. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s promotion for stays through August 30. You’ll earn 7,500 bonus nights for two night stays, 12,500 bonus points for three night stays, and 15,000 points for longer stays. The promotion is capped at 15,000 points.
  3. US Bank has “Double Bonus Days” running today through Friday. During this promotion, all portal purchases and all card linked purchases from the US Bank site will have doubled rewards.

    For more on the mostly unknown US Bank shopping portal and card-linked program, see last year’s postards. There’s a browser extension available too which is often easier than trying to hunt for the portal.
  4. JetBlue has a special status match to Mosaic for AA and Delta elites running through June 30 which gives Platinum Pro or higher on AA and Platinum or higher on Delta immediate access to Mosaic 2 status and a fast track to top-tier Mosaic 4 status with 50 tiles required to maintain until 2027.

    With the Barclays JetBlue card, $50,000 spend will earn those 50 tiles which makes this deal potentially great. (Thanks to Tom R)
  5. A trustworthy anonymous source corrected me yesterday regarding Sapphire Reserve changes: The changes will be officially announced with details on June 17, and the program will switch on June 21 which gives you a few days to decide whether to exist under the old or the new program. Apparently significant parts the old program will be grandfathered for a significant amount of time for existing card holders.
  6. The United Mileage Plus Shopping portal has a promotion for 1,000 bonus miles with $400 spend through June 15.

MEAB status check.

  1. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card has rumored upcoming changes for months, and now it’ confirmed that they’re happening on July 20 June 21. What we know:

    – You’ve got until July 19 June 20 to get in under the old structure
    – Annual fees will increase
    – Monthly and annual credits will change
    – There will be a business version of the card

    Hopefully you’ve already got a Sapphire Reserve or you’ll be under 5/24 by July 19 to apply under the older, almost certainly better terms. If you’re a “let’s ride the vibes” kind of person, you can read the rumors here.
  2. American Express offers has new travel related offers:

    – $75 off of $300 at Avis through September 7
    – $100 off of $500 at some Hyatts through September 15
    – $50-$80 off of $250 at Hilton through December 9

    Yes, gamers gonna game, but also Apire resort credit stack, amirite?
  3. You can move credit lines between Chase cards when eligible using both the app and the Chase website. In honor of the recent trend for major blogs to make videos about “how to click around to do something mundane and intuitive in an app (video)”, you can see how at at SideShowBob233.com (video).
  4. The American Express personal Delta Gold card has a new sign-up bonus for 50,000 SkyMiles and a $500 statement credit after spending $3,000 and making a purchase with Delta in six months. The annual fee is waived the first year, and this one is available when making a flight booking at delta.com on the checkout page (you don’t actually need to purchase the flight).

    In general this is a better offer than the public 80,000 offer, unless you’re getting outsized value for SkyMiles which is technically still possible, the same way that it’s technically possible for a Razor scooter to out-pace a Volkswagen Beetle.
  5. Rakuten In-Store has 1% or 1x Membership Rewards on its card linked site for purchases at Giant stores (not to be confused with Giant Foods, owned by the same people) on purchases of up to $1,000 per transaction.

    You’ve got 75 days after adding the offer to use it, and once you use it the offer remains valid for another hour. After that hour, you can add it again and start over. If this seems like deja-vu, that’s because we had the same discussion yesterday about Food Lion.
  6. Unsolicited advice: When you’re part of a private group that helps you spend on cards in special ways, consider making sure you understand how the group owners make money or fund the operation. If you can’t answer how, maybe consider your position and exposure.

Happy Tuesday!

The churning blogosphere’s new official uniform.

  1. Do this now (if you hold a Chase Southwest card): Register for Southwest’s promotion for 10x points on up to $500 spend at Southwest through Sunday.

    In the post-Elliot Southwest universe, award ticket fees are your best gamer bet. (Thanks to Dave)
  2. Bank of America’s Spirit card has an increased sign-up bonus of 65,000 points and a $100 companion flight voucher after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and the annual fee is waived for the first year. Redemptions on Spirit are often in the 2,500 – 7,500 point range.

    Note that you’ll need a promo code, and reportedly 110662 works, though generally with these any six digit number starting with a ‘1’ also works. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points sale on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through Tuesday, June 17. Amazon gift cards continue to be excluded.
  4. The Incomm sites are playing their Incomm tricks:

    – MasterCardGiftCard: Fee-free cards with promo DAD2025
    – VanillaGift: Fee-free cards with promo VGDAD25
    – TheGiftCardShop: *crickets*

    Science is still trying to determine what the reason for this promotion is. We may never know. We do however know that these cards work better than others for certain big box retailers, in certain circumstances with certain velocity limits.
  5. Citi ThankYou has Apple gift card redemptions at 10% off, and with $100 Apple gift cards reselling at 90%+ you’ve got a slight edge over a one cent per point cash-out.
  6. Chase Offers has an offer for 10% back on $250+ at Southwest up to $400 through July 2. Obviously this pairs nicely with today’s lead.

Have a nice Thursday!

If gaming Southwest was a fridge, it’d be like a bachelor fridge.

  1. Do this now: Register for Marriott’s promotion for double points at Marriott Homes & Villas booked by June 5 for stays through September 4.

    Why do this now? Previously unplanned bookings happen all the time, and sometimes promotions apply differently than you’d expect.
  2. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards excluding Amazon running tomorrow only.

    BestBuy is generally the best choice for resale rates for manufactured spenders, but lately there are activation issues with certain BestBuy cards (those with serial numbers starting with FD seem fine, those in the 1124 batch are bad news bears). Other brands may be better choices for rookies.
  3. Kroger has fee-free variable load $150+ Visa and Mastercard gift cards with coupon through Tuesday. Unfortunately, this coupon is single use per Kroger account, but gamers gonna game.

    These are Pathward gift cards, Kroger’s US Bank stock is long gone.
  4. Simon Mall is shutting down its bulk Visa gift card buying platform on July 11. As long as you had a seasoned account, this was a five-figures a day program for more Old School Cool people than you’d probably guess. Let’s call them the Old School Coolers!

    The part that worries me the most about the shutdown is where all the volume is going to go, and what it’ll do to the next thing when it goes. (Thanks to Anthony, Sam, and mpohl)
  5. American Express Offers has quite a few new hotel promotions:

    – $50 back on $250+ at IHG properties in North America through August 26
    – $100 back on $500+ at Opal properties in Florida by September 30
    – $100 back on $500+ at Omni Hotels through September 12
    – $100 back on $500+ at Wyndham properties through October 31

    Don’t forget faux-cardpointers amex-load-offer.js.

The Old School Coolers’ mascot is now filled only with tears.

  1. The Wyndham Rewards personal and business credit cards have a promotion for 10x rewards at Sunoco gas stations through August 31. There are Sunocos that sell Swedish Fish monster packs for $506.95 too. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Blit’s 200% transfer bonus for Gold and Platinum members to Accor ALL on Sunday is a backdoor transfer bonus to other programs that integrate with Accor too. For example, with Sunday’s 1:2 transfer ratio:

    – 1,000 Bilt → 2,000 Accor → 2,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 2,000 AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 1,250 ITA Airways Volare

    Honestly, some of those rates are so fetch, or at least Chad says they are. (Thanks to Alec for letting me know about the Qantas angle)
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for a $250 statement credit with $1,250+ at Qantas Airways for flights booked by July 4 originating in the US.
  4. Breeze Airways has a promotion for 44% off of base fares with code BIRTHDAY for travel booked by Friday and flown between June 11 and January 6, 2026. There are blackout dates around when you’d expect them.

    It’s been a while since we’ve played a round of the Breeze Route Dartboard Bingo™, so let’s call another route: Wilkes-Barre, PA – Fort Meyers, FL, or AVP-RSW for the ICAO geeks out there! If you’ve made a bingo, reach out for a 44% off of base fares promotional code on any Breeze route, including this one.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Spending $506.95 for a Swedish Fish shows that inflation’s already hit Big Gummy.

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice Hotels’ Summer promotion for 5,000 points – 8,000 points after two stays through September 2, with the variance being based on the hotel you stay in.
  2. Barclays launched its version of the GM Mastercard with a 30,000 point after $1,000 spend in 90 days sign-up bonus and 3x everywhere earning.

    The Marcus version of this card had a better bonus and earns 4x everywhere. The Marcus cards will convert to Barclays cards soon, but the earning structure for conversions is unclear.
  3. American Express offers has an offer for $100 back on $500+ at participating Wyndham properties through October 31. Gamers gonna (spooky) game.
  4. Virgin Atlantic has 20% off of award tickets on its own metal for travel between the US and the UK through September 30 booked by May 27.
  5. Alaska has a paid fare sale for flights to and from Mexico, Central America, Hawaii, and Florida for travel between August 12 and November 19 using promo code GETAWAY25 and booked by tomorrow night.

    Although the terms and conditions don’t mention a cabin restriction, I was only able to make the promo work on economy tickets.

Happy Wednesday!

GM points cover up to $750 on used GM vehicles, which means this beauty might be within reach.