Category: Quick Hits

  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.

  1. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer to Wyndham Rewards through June 21.
  2. Uber One Member Days has two travel related promotions for Uber One subscribers:

    – 3,000 SkyMiles for 10 Uber rides or 10 Uber Eats orders by June 8
    – $25 Marriott Bonvoy gift card with $100 in Premium Uber rides by June 8

    If you have a 7-eleven in your neighborhood, I imagine you’ll find an easy way to earn 3,000 SkyMiles. (Thanks to Tom R)
  3. The Citi Strata Premier’s 1 cent per point cash out option will be reduced to 0.75 cents per point on August 23, though other cash outs aren’t affected.

    It’s unclear how accounts pooled with a Rewards+, Double Cash, or other cards that have a one cent per point value will be affected, but there are other methods.

Happy Tuesday!

Drivers love getting jobs like this, especially 10 of them.

  1. Three airline shopping portals have spend bonuses through May 12:

    – AA eShopping: 2,000 bonus miles with $800+
    – Alaska MileagePlan Shopping: 2,000 bonus miles with $400+
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 bonus miles with $400+

    Each of these is probably worth burning through your $20,000 annual giftcards.com capacity. Now is that per portal or per giftcards.com account? If you’re not sure like me, vary both simultaneously.
  2. Southwest has a promotion for 30% off of base fares for both award and paid tickets with promo code SUNNY30, which is valid for travel booked by tomorrow night and flights between May 27 and November 19.

    The validity period for this promo is really long, suggesting all is not well at the airline presently being haunted by the ghost of Herb Kelleher past.
  3. Chase’s tool for viewing pre-qualified credit cards is back online. If you’re preapproved though, don’t apply through the tool. Instead use a referral link from another player or a friend, or use Rakuten.
  4. Citi Offers has a card linked offer for $50 off of $200+ in JetBlue flights through June 30. Also, Citi sucks at correlation, and you can often find the same offer on multiple cards.
  5. Chase Offers has a card linked offer for 10% off of Southwest fares with up to $40 cash back, and a card linked offer for $30 off of $150+ at Turo. Chase’s offer system is exactly like Citi’s offer system.

When you feel a knot in your stomach on a Southwest flight, don’t stress; it’s just the ghost of Herb haunting management.

  1. Meijer stores have a digital coupon for $10 off of $150+ Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. This is probably the type of coupon that can be reclipped after each use, but multiple MPerks accounts are an alternate way out.

    These are Pathward or Sunrise gift cards, and if you have a good liquidation channel this is the kind of deal that can make sense to travel from out of state too. (Thanks to Jonathan)
  2. Meijer stores have $50,000 points with a $500 third party gift card purchase through May 10 (excluding Amazon and phone cards), limit one per MPerks account.

    BestBuy, Home Depot, and Lululemon are great candidates for scaling this one as the market recovers from being high in a Pepper induced coma. This deal can also make sense for out of state travel, but Pepper makes it slightly less so than typical.
  3. Bilt has a tiered transfer bonus of 25%-100% to Southwest Rapid Rewards on Thursday. I can’t find any limit, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t one and it’ll probably be 100,000 points or less.

    Apropos of, let’s say, nothing: What’s better than one mediocre company? Two mediocre companies working together!
  4. Brian M notes that Southwest has new targeted promotions for bonus mileage earned on paid tickets. Brian’s example bonus was +60% earning for A-List members (that’s +35% over normal).

    You can check your promotions at this link.
  5. Speaking of Pepper, I’m still waiting for things to stabilize for at least a couple of days before the next full update. There’s enough for another short-form cluster hug though:

    – Coin redemptions were down for the weekend and continue to be offline, but apparently will come back (?)
    – Buying gift cards was down part of the weekend
    – Coin rebate rates on most brands have dropped to the uninteresting range
    – You can’t buy Amazon or Sams Club gift cards at all
    – Coin rebates now come in four days instead of two weeks

    So, you know; typical Pepper.

Coming out of a Pepper induced coma looks fun, right kids?

  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.