Category: Quick Hits

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Mastercard has an all time high sign-up bonus of 60,000 FlyingClub miles and a $100 statement credit after $4,000 spend in 90 days, available on the checkout screen of any booking at virginatlantic.com.

    I checked and couldn’t find any dummy fares to Preston Smith International.
  2. Meijer MPerks has 75,000 MPerks Points with the purchase of $500 in third party gift cards excluding Amazon through August 9, limit one per MPerks account.

    I don’t want to call this the grocery store deal of the year, but it’s likely to be in the top 10 if you’re good at scaling.
  3. The Rove Miles portal has boosted earnings of 4x at giftcards.com through August 5. With Rove’s transfer partners, this is effectively 2.67x Accor or 4x Vietnam Airlines LotusMiles after transfer. There are other partners including Qatar Avios, but you can do better directly on the BA travel portal at 6x for those.

    If you don’t already have a Rove account, find a friend’s referral link and use theirs, you’ll each earn 500 bonus miles. If you don’t have a Rove friend, you can reach out to me and I’ll share someone’s referral.
  4. JPMorgan Chase is apparently nearing a deal to acquire the Apple Card portfolio from Marcus. If you’re shutdown at Chase, getting an Apple Card now may be a way back in (There is old precedent for Chase and bank acquisitions leading to unbanning, but past performance may not predict future results.)
  5. The Barclays Hawaiian card will continue to exist even after the HawaiianMiles program has been sunset on October 1. This is interesting principally because it will be a 2x Alaska miles earner at grocery stores, unlike the Bank of America Alaska lineup.
  6. American Express offers has new targeted offers for:

    – Virgin Atlantic: $250 back after $2,000+ through September 23
    – Delta: $100 back on $500+, up to two times through October 15
    – Wyndham: $100 back after $500+ through October 31
    – Turo: $30 back after $150+ through December 31

    They’re all gameable in some form, but Turo is a bit of a hot-potato in underground circles so toss carefully?

The Turo hot scorched potato.

  1. Our miracle doctor friends at USCardForum shared a link for an online application for the Citi Strata Elite card with 100,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months. Reportedly this may be pulled at the end of the week.

    I think this link won’t cause any murders shutdowns with Citi. If you apply, I hope you’re front row approved. (Thanks to SPX)
  2. The US Bank Altitude Reserve card may be changing on December 15:

    – 3x earning on mobile wallet limited to $5,000 spend monthly
    – Transfer partners may be coming
    – Non-travel real-time rewards won’t be boosted value
    – Annual $325 travel credit only works for travel portal bookings
    – Travel redemptions drop to 1 cent per point

    Yes yes, I said just last week that “I don’t normally report on rumors unless they’re funny or actionable”, and this one definitely isn’t funny, though it is possibly actionable 🚴‍♀️. (Thanks to nutella)
  3. American Express has freshly targeted offers for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months for adding employee cards to Business Platinum cards, limit five cards and 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards. I couldn’t find a listed a POID in the terms and conditions, but the targeting code is WOC15KMR24. (Thanks to George)
  4. JetBlue has 500 free TrueBlue points when opting in to JetBlue / Dunkin donuts emails. There are other games to play to earn up to 7,500 bonus TrueBlue points too, but don’t forget that 7,500 bonus TrueBlue points isn’t worth much more than $80 and that’s only if you ever redeem them.

Happy Tuesday!

Leaked Altitude Reserve home purchase program benefit guide, starting December 15.
(Thanks to nutella)

  1. Citi ThankYou Points added AA as a 1:1 transfer partner for the Citi Prestige, Strata, and Strata Elite cards.

    Don’t worry, I checked so you don’t have to. AA Does fly to Preston Smith International Airport.
  2. The Citi Strata Elite card launched over the weekend with a 100,000 ThankYou Point bonus in branch or an 80,000 ThankYou Point sign-up bonus online after $4,000 spend in three months and a $595 annual fee. The card’s highlights:

    – 6x on restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights (Eastern Time)
    – 3x on restaurants the rest of the time
    – 1.5x elsewhere
    – $300 annual hotel credit through Citi Travel
    – Four AA Admirals Club day passes annually

    There are spend bigger bonuses for booking through the often price-inflated Citi Travel portal, and other, lamer coupons and duplicative features too. Personally, I’d just stick with the $95 annual-fee Strata Premier with better bonus categories and (often) an 80,000 point sign-up bonus.
  3. Existing US Bank Smartly card holders transition to the new Smartly earning scheme on September 15, which only offers boosted cash-back on up to $10,000 spend a month, and excludes categories like education, business, and third party bill payment services from earning.

    This was a smartly move for US Bank and a lamely move for the rest of us. (Sorry, the fruit was just too low hanging, I couldn’t help myself.)
  4. Bilt’s Rent Day promotion for August 1 is a 20%-100% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles depending on your status. Why mention it now? You’ve still got today and maybe tomorrow to earn more Bilt points.

Happy Monday!

The last fire at Preston Smith was Southwest, not AA. So probabilistically speaking …

  1. Citi ThankYou Points currently are transferring to Accor ALL at a 1:1 ratio. With current exchange rates and a fixed value of two eurocents per point, this is a cash out of ~2.32 cents per point. I’m not here to tell you what to do, but if you can use these points you’ll be hard pressed to find many better ThankYou Points cash-outs.

    This hasn’t been announced and I’m guessing it’s not long for the world, much like the relative anonymity of the Astronomer executive team at the start of last week. Things to remember:

    – Accor points expire after 12 months unless you earn more points
    – Accor points transfer at 1:1 or better to some airline programs

    There’s an Accor primer here since there’s not a ton of information about the program on affiliate blogs, presumably because Accor doesn’t pay them. (Thanks to Andy N)
  2. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer bonus to the Leader’s Club hotel program through August 23. This one is definitely intentional.
  3. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction. Use your rizz to try for back-to-back transactions if you have a good liquidation.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Monday!

Official Staples shopping shirt for July 20-27.

  1. The Ramp Business Visa card has a heightened sign-up bonus via referrals of $1,500 after $1,000 spend. You’ll need a business email account, and you’ll have to link a business checking account with Plaid to confirm that your business has $25,000 in funds too.

    What’s a business email account? One that doesn’t end in gmail.com, hotmail.com, emailbarn.com, freeinbox.com, ieatbonvoy.com, or similar. (Thanks to DoC)
  2. There are shopping portal bonuses announced yesterday to celebrate Bastille Day (I guess?):

    – United: 2,500 MileagePlus miles after $600+ in spend by August 11
    – Southwest: 2,000 Rapid Rewards miles after $500 in spend by August 11

    Giftcards.com remains a viable option.
  3. Barclays JetBlue cardholders have a widely targeted offer for 5x on groceries, 4x at gas and drug stores, and 10x for JetBlue ecosystem charges, limited to 10,000 points extra above regular earning. (Thanks to Ok-Anywhere6998)

A churner tried to use [email protected] with Ramp.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hyatt’s promotion for 777 bonus points per night at casino hotels through September 30. (Un)fortunately, the dirty castle is no longer part of Hyatt’s portfolio and the Rio is a poor stand-in.
  2. Do this now: Make backup bookings for any existing Advantage car rental reservations because they may be in the midst of collapse.
  3. Staples has fee-free $200 Mastercards in store through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. US Bank has a $450 checking bonus for new Smartly checking accounts with $8,000+ spread over two direct deposits, or over two “direct deposits”, the first of which has to happen in 30 days. This is mainly interesting for establishing a Smartly account for higher payouts on the related but different US Bank Smartly credit card.

    If you’re not in US Bank’s footprint, opening a brokerage account first will get your foot in the door for other products.
  5. Bilt Blit is losing their relationship with Wells Fargo in favor of Cardless with three tiers of cards in (probably) June 2026. After the transition, it’ll probably switch from the Mastercard network to the American Express network. Is that a net positive or negative? Depends on your game I suppose, but at least Cardless dropped its one card per lifetime rule.
  6. American Express Offers has a targeted offer for $40 off of $200+ at Caesars through October 31.

Happy Monday friends!

From US Bank’s FAQ: Even they understand that direct deposits are often “direct deposits”

  1. The American Express Business Platinum has a new no-lifetime language (NLL) offer for 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months.

    Gamers can often find regular links with 250,000 Membership Rewards and manage to get approved despite lifetime language, but there’s utility in the easy game too. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. American Express offers has an offer for $255 off of $1,250 at ITA Airways through September 7.
  3. Rakuten In-Store has new manufactured spender favorite promotions for July (just make sure you link your credit cards used in store to your Rakuten wallet):

    – 1x at Food Lion
    – 1x at Stop & Shop

    Each promotion is limited to $10 cash back or 1,000 Membership Rewards per transaction, and each must be re-activated an hour after first use. Both stores sell gift cards.
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 15% transfer bonus to Avianca Lifemiles through July 31. These miles are great for Star Alliance awards when the program sees the space, but there’s plenty of Star Alliance space hidden by the program so I guess trust but verify?
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for “up to 50% off” of base fares with promo code BIGDEAL for travel between August 4 and December 17 booked by Thursday night. There are of course blackout dates around when you really want to fly, and the promotion applies only to Basic and Wanna Get Away Plus fares.

    I guess technically “0% off” falls within “up to 50% off”, so blackout dates are only imaginary.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Different cards have different fees

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Happy Tuesday friends!

At least the promo code is fun to type.

  1. Do this now: Register for 8,000 bonus points after two stays at Choice Hotels through September 2. Yes, they sell this as a $50 gift card, but that’s because (1) they’re bad at marketing, and (2) 8,000 points can be cashed out for a gift card.
  2. Meijer stores have $10 off of $150+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, coupon clip required.

    Meijer sells both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Mandatory reporting requirements for financial services are changing:

    – 1099-K reporting limits increased to $20,000 for 2025 and beyond
    – 1099-MISC reporting limits increased to $2,000 for 2026 and beyond

    Manufactured spenders sending money to themselves should be particularly excited about the former. Bank bonus chasers may be happy about the latter, but you’re still required to report bank bonus income even in the absence of a 1099-MISC. As always, I’m not a tax professional and I’m definitely not your tax professional. Don’t take my advice about anything, ever. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card is now available via referrals from other Ink cards. After October 17, in theory referrals will only work to people without existing Chase Business cards. Prior to October 17 though we gucci.
  5. The Chase United card family has an offer for 1,500 MileagePlus miles after five digital wallet purchases, registration required. A couple of notes:

    – You can buy five bananas at self check out, right?
    – Costco cashiers will generally happily oblige to “can I charge $1 to this card”

    There are other games too, be creative (but not too creative, it’s only 1,500 miles).
  6. American Express offers has an offer for $60 off of $300+ at Alaska Airlines. To game it, you could:

    – Book non-basic economy, cancel to your wallet after 24 hours
    – Book non-basic economy, cancel to an emailed wallet code after 24 hours, which is separately useful

    Yes, you can get deeper if you want.
  7. Citi Offers has an offer for a $50 statement credit with $200+ at JetBlue through August 31. Citi usually lets you redeem these on multiple cards too.

Happy Monday!

Digging deeper, ocean style.