Category: Quick Hits

  1. Do this now: Register for 5x card Q4 categories:

    – Chase Freedom (Flex): Grocery, dining, and the Red Cross
    – Discover IT*: Restaurants, entertainment, utilities
    – Citi Dividend: Restaurants and Citi Travel Bookings
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics

    Grocery excludes Walmart and Target, and entertainment is possibly more interesting than you think.
    *capitalone.com manages most Discover cards now, and they made 5% registration super easy to find in the same way that passing a kidney stone is super easy. To find it, login to your dashboard, click “Rewards & benefits”, then click “View rewards” and scroll down.
  2. The Incomm sites are running new promotions:

    – MasterCardGiftCard: $10 Mastercard free with $200+
    – VanillaGift: $10 Visa free with $200+
    – AmExGiftCard: Fee-free with promo code FALL26

    These are each valid through Sunday. Don’t buy with an AmEx, you won’t earn points or credit toward minimum spend. (Thanks to GCA)
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through October 15. This brings the transfer ratio to 1,000:1,700. There’s some non-zero value here on the high end of the award chart.
  4. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard recently converted to a World Mastercard, in case you were wondering why you got a replacement card with the same number, expiration, and CVV in the mail recently. They also sent new targeted mid-month offers for:

    – $50 back on $750+ in online purchases through October 14
    – $75 back on $1,000+ in online purchases through October 14

    There’s some speculation that the conversion to a World Mastercard means it’s going to again be available for applications, but it’s Citi so I wouldn’t count on anything. (Thanks to David, Rocky, and Birt)

Happy Wednesday!

More entertainment: Pre-dried paint, no more watching paint dry here.

  1. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points sale on dining gift cards through Tuesday.

    The latest quick-hit Kroger status: (1) Best Buy still is intrusive, (2) working when Kroger isn’t is better, (3) fuel points command a premium in high-cost oil markets, (4) sometimes new stock is great, (5) sometimes old stock is great, (6) making things harder to correlate makes things hard to correlate, and (7) dining doesn’t always mean what you probably think it does.
  2. Giftcards.com has more promotions and heightened bonuses across lots of portals, like 3x at AA, 6x at Radisson, and 4% with USAA. Check your favorite portals here. LDV10 for 10% off of $100 Visas and DAILYDEAL for 10% off of other brands are widely listed.

    And the latest quick-hit Giftcards.com status: (1) Portals don’t usually work with promo codes that aren’t on their site, (2) lots of these promo codes found their way to portals, (3) Mastercards are broken up with portals again, and (4) old limits are no longer accurate, things have gotten better.
  3. Safeway’s 5x on Zift cards isn’t working well this week; many cards are earning 0x or 2x despite the promotion, and Safeway customer support has been reluctant to help. It’s probably best to skip this one unless you’re a masochist, in which case, have at it.

Happy Thursday!

Next time on information density theater: Quick analysis of Zift conversion methods.

  1. Do this now: Register for double points at Hyatt’s Thompson hotels via the Hyatt mobile app through November 10.
  2. The Capital One Venture Rewards Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles and a $300 hotel credit when booked through the Capital One Travel portal after $4,000 spend in three months.

    This offer is widely available via referrals too, so use another churner’s referral and make their day. If you refer someone else to the card, apologize for the stupid Capital One Travel portal in advance.
  3. Giftcards.com has 10% off of gift cards including Visas with promo code SAVE10, limit $20 back per account. This one should stack with a shopping portal.
  4. American Express Offers has an offer for $200 off of $450+ at North American Marriott properties through November 30.
  5. Breeze Airways has 25% off of roundtrip base fares with promo code POSTCARD for travel between September 21 and February 10, 2027 with carveouts around the holidays.

    And I know you know what this means: it’s time for the next callout on Breeze Route Bingo™. Today’s route is VRB-PVU (Vero Beach, FL and Provo, UT)! If you got a bingo, reach out for validation and your prize.

Happy Wednesday friends!

The Breeze route planner’s previous delivery job was … weird.

Keeping it short and sweet today:

  1. Staples in-store has fee-free Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax, wanting to throw off the balance in the universe, also has $15 off of $300 in Visa gift cards. Buy even multiples of $300 for arithmetic reasons.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, but I guess in stereo.
  3. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 5x Just4U points on Zillions Zift gift cards through Saturday.
  4. American Express Offers has a targeted offer for $200 off of $1,000+ in airfare booked by October 31 through American Express Travel on “select airlines”, which includes many major world airlines other than United and Southwest; presumably a slight dig on Chase.

Happy Tuesday friends!

Pictured with dog for scale: The depth of the American Express dig.

  1. The Chase British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus credit cards have heightened bonuses for 90,000 Avios after $5,000 spend in three months, and their $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year. Each card has different ongoing benefits after the sign-up bonus so if you’re going to hold the card, it’s worth investigating each. Generally the favorite is the British Airways flavor for its three award ticket fee reimbursements and companion ticket available after $30,000 spend.

    Side note: What is British Airways flavor? Don’t ask.
  2. USAA launched its Eagle Navigator Visa card. The vitals:

    – 50,000 points after $3,000 spend by January 31, 2027
    – $95 annual fee, not waived the first year
    – 3x points on travel and transit
    – 2x points everywhere else
    – Points worth 1.0 cents each for travel, or 0.7 cents for a statement credit
    – Points can be pooled with other USAA cards

    With the right plays and payments there’s probably room for another 2x Visa card in lots of manufactured spending wallets, but my compel-o-meter measurement gives this card a solid 5.5 out of 10.
  3. Bank of America has a new personal checking account bonus of $500 with $10,000+ in direct deposits within 90 days. This account is also eligible for a fast-track to Honors status in branch.
  4. Giftcards.com has 10% off of Virtual Visa gift cards with promo code LD10, which I can only assume stands for “Lucifer’s Dog, 10”. What a weird thing to have a promo code for but cool cool.

    Go through a portal, this deal reportedly stacks properly with the promo code.
  5. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and flexible fuel cards running today through Monday evening.
  6. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 2x points earning on Mastercard gift cards through Wednesday, limit $1,500-$2,000 per week. Meanwhile Giant Food has 8x earning on Zift cards which, if you’ve done anything recently with Zift cards, frankly feels like a punk rather than a perk to its customers.

Happy weekend friends!

The forefather of the USAA Eagle Navigator Visa.

  1. US Bank added Avianca Lifemiles as another 1:1 transfer partner, bringing the total to five. Don’t worry though, five will probably be walked back to three later this week, only to jump back to five again next week.

    Based on their transfer partner loadout, I imagine the next partner will be something that (1) every other major bank has, (2) no other bottom-tier bank can transfer to, and (3) no one really wants, like Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub.
  2. Giftcards.com has a promotion for a free $10 Kroger gift card with the purchase of a $100 Virtual Visa gift card with promo code KROGER10. Kroger gift cards can be used in store to buy other gift cards, just don’t choose Best Buy unless you like your social security number living in Kroger systems.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results, buy in even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Accor ALL has a 4x points promotion at “new” hotels, registration required. Book by September 27 for stays through January 24, and cry because this is only valid for a single stay.
  5. Best Western Rewards has a promotion for double points at all Best Western hotels worldwide between September 8 and December 31, 2026, registration required.

Have a nice Monday!

Kroger’s data lake for social security number storage.

  1. The American Express Delta cards have new, highest ever offers through November 4, but caveat emptor because those marked with “*” are “as-high-as” offers, which means without some sleuthing you won’t know what your bonus is until you’re approved (it feels like that sort of offer ought to be addressed by law, but I’m just a guy who writes stuff on the internet, what do I know?)

    – Gold: 80,000* SkyMiles + $250 credit after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Platinum: 90,000* SkyMiles + $300 credit after $4,000 in six months
    – Reserve: 50,000 SkyMiles + two free round-trip flights in Main Cabin or Comfort Plus after $10,000 spend in six months

    – Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Business Reserve: 200,000 SkyMiles after $20,000 spend in six months

    The personal Reserve free-flight certificates have a value of well over $3,000 for the right use cases, and there aren’t restrictions on fares either. Eligible destinations are the continental 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands on Delta branded metal with a 21 day advance purchase requirement. These are all available via referral, do that or remember this gem.
  2. The Rove shopping and travel portal launched a few new features today:

    – Third-party gift card sales, which earn miles on purchase
    – A new mobile app
    – In-store earning with card-linked offers

    They’ve also added card-linked dining rewards and revamped their hotel portal. Rove has the potential to be Pepper 3.0 with these changes, hopefully without the unredeemable loyalty currency a few years later.
  3. Google Travel’s AI companion now has access to award pricing and availability for Alaska, AA, Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Wyndham. “In the coming weeks” they’re adding Accor, Flying Blue, Hyatt, LATAM, and Lufthansa group airlines.

    It hallucinates award space that doesn’t really exist, though that is likely a temporary phenomenon. (Thanks to isaacides)
  4. American Express offers has an offer on Hilton cards for 13,500 bonus Hilton points with $4,500 spend, up to three times through December 31.
  5. Stop & Shop stores have 10x points on Delta gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per week. Giant and Martins have 8x, and Giant Food has 6x.

Happy Friday!

Watch out for evaporating award space on, *checks notes*, ZephyrJet?

  1. The AA World Elite Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 125,000 miles after $15,000 spend in five months, and it’s bringing along an increased $695 annual fee.

    Don’t worry though, there’s still bad news to go with the good news: AA devalued award prices recently so your increased sign-up bonus doesn’t go as far as it would have a few months ago. It’s not quite “heads I win, tails you lose” situation, but there are better ways to get at least 160,000 AA miles, unless you want lots of AA lounge cheese cubes I guess.
  2. Walmart and Sams Club started accepting Apple Pay today, at least at “select locations”. The non-select locations will have support by the end of the year.

    Always be probing.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

More good news mixed with bad news.