Category: Quick Hits

You never know quite what’s inside the PenFed enigma of a bank, but they can be an manufactured spender’s dream. If that weren’t enough, now they have a rather compelling credit card offer for $425 worth of points and $100 in travel credits, which can be double-dipped in 2020 and 2021 if you hurry (so, $625 total). There’s no annual fee for this card if you have an “Access America” checking account, which anyone can sign up for by paying $5 to join.

If you know someone who has a PenFed account of any type already, they can refer you to this credit card and earn $50. This works really well with a player two. If you don’t have a P2 with a PenFed account, find a friend who has one and ask them for a referral. They’ll appreciate the referral bonus I’m sure.

News headline with a pictured bottle of chocolate milk and headline: "Man goes to hospital after drinking unknown liquid from McDonald's chocolate milk container"
Just like with McDonald’s, you never know what’s inside with PenFed.

American Express periodically gives you discounts on Amazon for using Membership Rewards points and now they’ve expanded the ongoing Christmas offer, so check here to see if you’re eligible even if you weren’t before.

Discover jumped on the bandwagon too with more people targeted for a rebate for using at least $0.01 in your cash back balance. Check here to see if you’re eligible. This one was only $10 back for me, so I’ll still do it, but I’ll be frustrated the whole time that it’s only $10.

My recommendation? Buy a $125 BestBuy gift card and resell it at 98% of face, and get $50 off during your purchase by using one Membership Reward point. (Or if you got a lower offer than $50, do what’s right for you.) Scale down as appropriate for Discover.

blurry picture of an everyday young couple on a pile of money.
Actual picture of FlyerTalker ‘AmazonBestBuyCashPileATL’

If you have a Hilton Honors or a Hilton Surpass AmEx, check for an upgrade offer to a Hilton Aspire Card that waives the annual fee for the first year. If you do it quickly, you can get the $250 airline credit in 2020 and 2021, a $250 resort credit, and a free night certificate for nothing out of pocket. Breaking: This may now be dead, but check anyway as nothing is certain with AmEx.

Vince shared that there’s a no lifetime language 100,000 bonus point American Express Business Platinum offer now available (use private mode or a different browser if you don’t see the offer). Of course, don’t forget about the Unicorn AmEx Personal Platinum with 10x at Gas and Grocery.

You can now get $500 Metabank gift cards with no purchase fees and no shipping fees. I don’t expect this to last long, and it doesn’t work in Florida. (Ok, ok, it does work there too.)

Three late teenagers doing a jump kick simultaneously in a line at the camera.
The AmEx-AmEx-Metabank triple threat, personified.

HSBC is a weird bank; they’ve been talking about leaving the US completely for a long time because they keep losing money. They are also paying handsomely for new US customers for some reason. Honestly, they’re a lot like that crazy person you dated right after school. There’s a bonus of $600 for signing up for a new Premier checking account between now and December 31. This is the easiest big bank bonus I know about.

Caveats:

  • There’s a fee of $50 per month that starts after 6 months (can be waived with direct deposit or a big balance, or just by closing the account before then).
  • You have to apply for this account over the phone, or in branch.
  • You have to get a referral code.
  • You have to ACH transfer (“direct deposit”) $5,000 per month into the account up to three times to qualify. I don’t see any reason you can’t just transfer it right back out after.
  • You’ll get a 1099 for the bonus

How do you get a referral code? Find a friend who already has an HSBC Premier checking account and ask. I’m not here to monetize you and I’d rather you find a friend, but if that doesn’t work reach out to me and I can share one.

Young adult girl with huge eyes and a menacing, big-smiled stare.
HSBC, if HSBC was your ex girlfriend.

AA is gifting all AAdvantage members something as long as you log in to your frequent flyer account between today and 12/16. (Shouldn’t that be an AAcount?) One day passes, upgrades, or extra miles are all possible. To get it, login, navigate to your account, then click promotions.

If you used referral offers for Citi AA cards that weren’t targeted for you, AA may have already given you your present. You’ll know if you can’t log in to your account to claim it, or because they sent you a nice “gift letter” earlier this year. Condolences if this description fits you.

A horse with a white and plaid face covering, covering the eyes, ears, and snout.
A gift-wrapped gift horse, or something.

The Amex Platinum Unicorn deal is back, but this time it left behind a double rainbow. What does it mean? As a reminder, the card gives 100,000 points + 10x at gas and grocery up to $15,000 spend, which makes it a 250,000 points offer. But that’s just the first rainbow.

The second rainbow? The offer is available by referral from a P2 or from a friend, and that’s worth 25,000 or so additional points (YMMV on the number of points on the referring side). This one involves the “AmEx random number generator” too. If you don’t see the 100,000 points version show up on the referral link, try loading the offer incognito, in another browser, or while connected to a VPN.

Two rainbows hang above a field with a tree line amongst a cloudy sky.
Two rainbows can only mean one thing.

Register your Citi credit cards for 5% off of online spend, up to $25.00 per card through Monday, November 30. Yes, this works using a few online MS methods, be creative with it; if you’re not part of that game though, it’ll work on an Amazon gift card to reload your balance. Don’t forget your sock-drawer cards too, like my stupid AT&T Access [Less] card.

Southwest is offering a nationwide fare sale, and it doesn’t exclude Hawaii. Book by Thursday night, and use any schedule change hacks you may know of to goose the deal.

Virgin Atlantic is offering some excellent fares on round-trip business tickets originating in Europe (half off in many cases). This applies to both cash and award tickets, but don’t bother on the award tickets because the surcharges (YQ) are kinda ridic. If you’re US based like me, sandwich one of these fares in between two award tickets and turn it into two different trips.

A man and a seal passed out on the beach.
Recovering from a Southwest flight to Hawaii