Do this now: Register for double points at Choice hotels through April 7, but the offer is only good on up to four stays because how dare Choice encourage you to stay more than 4 times?
You can buy up to $10,000 of these per account per rolling 24 hours. Don’t use an American Express because it won’t earn points, and make sure you have an air-tight liquidation plan because these InComm issued cards have gotten difficult.
The CFPB has effectively been shut down. Expect more on this later, but for now assume that no government agency will take action on your CFPB feedback from this time forward, and explore other options when you demand satisfaction.
Status is most useful for free checked bags, economy plus seating, and lounge access on international itineraries. In theory you can only match every five years, but also in theory: (1) communism works, and (2) the colors of gummy bears are evenly distributed. (Thanks to FM)
The Chase Marriott cards have increased sign up bonuses:
– Boundless: $150 statement credit + 100,000 Bonvoy points after $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee – Bold: A free night certificate for up to 50,000 points plus 60,000 Bonvoy points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee
They’ve also introduced Pay Yourself Back on the cards at a rate of 0.8 cents per point, which is more than the market value of a Bonvoy point so actually pretty good. The bad news though? You’re limited to $750 in total redemptions annually. But at $750 + $150, you could turn the Boundless into a $900 sign-up bonus and convert it to a Ritz Carlton card after a year (a move we call the reverse Bonvoy).
– Premier: 170,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee – Rewards: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee
I prefer points offers to capped free-night certificates approximately 122% of the time, but not everyone thinks like I do.
– $50 back on $250+ at Grand Hyatt through April 15 – $250 back on $1,000+ at Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13 – $150 back on $750+ at Hiltons in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America through March 31 – $30 back on $150+ at Turo
There are games everywhere with these, starting with being able to use a single offer multiple times by thinking differently about saving offers. (Thanks to Tom)
In case you’re not seeing the heightened referral, there are also two modified, unintentional links for the same offer with no-lifetime language (NLL). There’s (probably minimal) risk in using modified links that American Express didn’t build, so do your own risk / value judgement. The first link is here, and the second is here. (Thanks to DDG)
More helpful notes for people that think differently.
– $250 off of $1,800+ with Virgin Atlantic through March 30 – $100 off of $500+ with Marriott through March 31 – $250 off of $1,000+ with Marriott Homes & Villas through April 13
Gamers gonna game, but family Virgin Atlantic Business redemptions gonna tax.
– 1x at Food Lion through February 28 for a single purchase, the cap is variable – 1x at Staples through January 31 for two purchases, the cap is variable
SimplyMiles works with any Mastercard, not just AA cards.
Each has economy tickets at 15,000 miles each way between the US and Europe, and I was able to find a few 50,000 mile Business class redemptions between those cities and secondary European cities, but the availability is about as rare as recovering stolen meat in Cupertino, CA.
Pictured without further comment: Police recover stolen meat.
MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.
– Transcons at 9,000 miles each way – Mainland to Hawaii 9,000 miles each way – Mexico at 15,000 miles each way
These continue to be the best award sales for medium-haul flights that no-one talks about because something something, apathy is real, something something.
Costco has $100 in Uber Gift Cards for $75 through tonight. There are multiple reports that Uber charges more when you have credits on your account, so apply them retroactively to a ride instead of adding them to your account ahead of time, or just use Uber Eats to order a private taxi for your burrito.
The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, the card that would probably be driving the private taxi for your burrito if it was human, has new beginning of month offers that reset monthly for December, January, and February:
– $50 statement credit for 5 purchases of $75 or more each, up to $150 for all three months – $60 statement credit for $450+ spend, up to $180 for all three months
If you’re not going for a Companion Pass, which you probably shouldn’t chase if you don’t fly Southwest more than 3-4x annually, then this might be a better option than a pure points bonus.
These are (obviously) Incomm gift cards. None of these earn points on first party American Express cards.
Typically Citi offers 20% off of many ThankYou point gift card redemptions on Cyber Monday and today is (maybe? I dunno, I’m not getting up that early in the morning to verify #sorrynotsorry) traditional. With Apple cards reselling at about 91% of face value, you can use this promotion to cash out ThankYou points indirectly at ~1.1 cents each, or even better if you have the Rewards+ card.
The Smartly card is a 2-4% everywhere uncapped cash back card, with the cash back amount determined by the assets held in either a Smartly savings or a self-directed investment account. $100,000 average funds over 90 days in either is enough for 4%, and you have to have a Smartly savings account open even if most of the assets are in an investment account to qualify.
– 5% back on British Airways through November 29, up to $45 back – 10% back at Renaissance Hotels through November 18, up to $75 back – 10% back at Fairfield Inn through December 1, up to $38 back – 10% back at Westin through December 1, up to $68 back
Gamers gonna blah blah blah gift cards at the front desk or blah blah blah blah something else. (Thanks to Mike at Cheapskate Travel)
Without trying very hard, I found round trip fares in premium economy from my airport for about $160, or in first for about $250. I think you could do better if you live in ORD or MCO especially, but probably in lots of other places too. I really could also just try harder and do better.
– Cancellation fees are increased to $100 per ticket – Transatlantic business class redemption cost range: 28,500 – 77,500 miles – Transatlantic economy redemption cost range: 6,000 – 25,000 miles – Award surcharges are also variable, often lower than before – There is last seat availability for award redemptions
For now this is a positive net change and availability at low levels isn’t too hard to find, but I expect neither will be the case in three years.
United’s elite status requirements are increasing for elite year 2025, in both the number of Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) required to reach different Premier Stupid Levels (PSL). On the plus side though, you can earn more PQPs from credit card spend (CCS) on premium co-brand cards, but the United Club cards are the only ones worth using with 1 PQP per $15 spend (P15S), up to 15,000 PQPs annually each for both the personal and business:
– Silver: 6,000 PQP, or 5,000 PQP + 15 PQF, or $90,000 card spend – Gold: 12,000 PQP, or 10,000 PQP + 30 PQF, or $180,000 card spend – Platinum: 18,000 PQP, or 15,000 PQP + 45 PQF, or $270,000 card spend – 1K: 28,000 PQP or 22,000 PQP + 60 PQF, or $420,000 card spend
I don’t want to yuck your yum (YYY), but getting both a personal and business United Club card to earn 1.5x on $420,000 spend with no additional kickers doesn’t feel terribly appealing in light of a litany of other better options (OBOs).
This card is useful beyond the sign-up bonus because it can eventually be product changed into the AAdvantage Silver card, but only after a year thanks to the CARD act.
– Link your credit cards to Dosh – Buy in even multiples of $300 – Look for lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them
These are Pathward gift cards.
Chase Ultimate Rewards has a heightened redemption for Apple products at a rate of 1.5 cents per point for the Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 cents per point for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred cards (or less on other, stupider cards). The promotion runs through the end of November.
These rates beat regular Pay-Yourself-Back rates, especially if you’re in the reselling game.
There are two small business merchant processing sign-up bonuses:
Since we’re MEABers around here, let’s caution a few items: (1) running more than a few gift cards will almost certainly get your account shut down and banned from the processor which could have repercussions on future real businesses; (2) running your own credit cards will almost certainly get your credit cards shut down, sometimes even same-day with banks like AmEx; and (3) you’ll get a 1099 for payments processed. So always be probing, but know when a fence is electrified too, and this one is.
My advice is to keep these accounts completely above board if you’re going for the bonus. If you don’t have a real business for merchant processing, consider selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. Combine with the previous item for extra #flair.
