Category: Shenanigans

We talked way back in 2021 about loosey goosey language in Citi’s Terms and Conditions that let you double dip sign-up bonuses on some cards. A lot of things have changed since 2021 (duh), and Citi games have changed slightly too. Let’s pick a particular card, like the stupidly named Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard, and dive into its Terms and Conditions:

  • “bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus from a [Citi AA Globe card] in the past 48 months”
  • “bonus miles are not available … if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a bonus in the last 48 months into a [Citi AA Globe card]”

So, you can’t get a bonus if you had one in the past four years from the same card, effectively. With that in mind, let’s go over a couple of Citi’s application rules:

  • Must wait eight days between applications
  • No more than two cards every 65 days.
  • Bonus eligibility is attached at the time of application

With a card like the Globe, you’ve got four months to hit the spend bonus, which gives you time for apply for four cards within the first card’s bonus window. Specifically, you could apply on day 0, day 8, day 65, and day 74, and you’d still meet Citi’s application rules and have another 56 days before the bonus period on the first card is up. Once you’ve been approved for all the cards, which frankly is unlikely in-and-of-itself, you can hit the bonus spend on all four, and get the bonus four times. Wowza.

Now let’s talk about reality. Should you do this? Almost certainly not, because:

  • AA bans users with too many bonuses in a year, and this will probably trigger it
  • You’d have four new Citi accounts on your credit report in a couple of months
  • Citi fraud analysts won’t like what they see if they look
  • Other banks won’t like what they see if they look
  • A single Globe card is generally a bad option, four of them is four times as many bad options

Ok, so the concept is cool in theory and bad in practice, why talk about it? Citi isn’t the only bank out there, and you may find that your local LardLand Credit Union in Lubbock, TX has credit card bonuses that work the same way, but don’t necessarily report to the credit bureaus. Now you’re in business.

Happy Tuesday!

More bad ideas in scale.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If this message put your mail reader on the struggle bus, check the web version.

Introduction

It’s time for MEAB’s annual New Year tradition! Before we jump in to the regular short-form blog posts that litter the ground like losing tickets at the horse races, we’re starting with an annual MEAB tradition: Telling the story of 2025 through the historical lens of the rigorous academia of (checks notes, sighs): Animated GIFs.

Previous versions of the New Year’s special: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

Churning in 2025: Broad Strokes

Churning in 2025: A summary.

Every churning group discussing 2025.

Not everything in 2025, was bad. For example, dining had its moments.

The American Express Business Platinum sign-up bonuses increased to 300,000 miles toward the moon Membership Rewards.

The Pepper (Moocho? Mucho? Moo-choo?) Saga

Pepper Rewards was a big part of churning last year.

We spent January and February conjuring points with increasingly ludicrous Pepper sales. Earning 80,000 Membership Rewards daily was child’s play.

The end of March hits and SideShowBob233 gets ready to redeem his stockpile of Pepper rewards. There’s a hiccup, but it’s probably temporary, right?

Waiting for Pepper points to be able to be redeemed in April.

Actively trying to get Pepper points redeemed in June.

July hits, still working on Pepper.

Finally autumn lands and the Pepper CEO shows us what the company’s real plans have been all along.

The Community

Everyone in travel hacking and churning is a little bit weird, and that’s ok. This year we’ve got a dedicated section to celebrate our churning personalties.

The elusive Danny describes his churning profits for 2025.

Chad at Automated Miles drops his Halloween episode.

Mojo interacts with the community in The Pepperdome™.

Carl trains his next batch of players for 2026.

Connor from Churning Life gets his Sunday morning AirPods delivery.

Vinh gets the wrath of FNBO.

Parts_Unknown- and C-MontgomeryChurns keep Redditors focused on churning.

The Points Guy trains its next intern.

LonelyCat’s team in action.

Riley writes another article at Chasing Cetaceans

Country_Boy expertly finds the punchline in an ocean of targets, and isn’t happy with just a single hit.

Richard Kerr reacts to appearing again on the little known turbo-nerd site run by a reclusive newbie, MEAB.

Woody Allen presents “SideShowBob233: A Churning Documentary”

MEAB’s P2 reacts to the feedback from this year’s guest post.

The Behaviors

A churner misunderstands what we meant by looping.

Churners find out that we’re probably losing our $50 Saks credits. We’ll never have to think about them again.

Citi responds to a churner’s KYC answers with an adverse action.

A singular churner escapes 2025 unharmed against all odds.

Costco finds its way into dining and other churning games.

A churner realizes he’ll need to reenter the workforce after the US Bank Altitude Reserve devaluation.

The entire information content of a certain cash-back debit card’s WhatsApp group.

The Card Companies and FinTechs

The Mesa Homeowners card in one act.

Synchrony Bank finally learns what the floosies are up to.

Citi finally had its way with the Barclays AA relationship.

PayPal Bill Pay has a nuclear meltdown, our favorite targets crumble.

Hilton enhanced its elite levels, aiming squarely at existing Diamond members.

We unsuccessfully tried to navigate Kasheesh’s terms and conditions, trying to get anything – literally anything – to work.

Citi’s algorithms chased Strata Elite cardholders with 4506-C requests.

Citi reacted to a Wall Street Journal public shaming over Strata Elite applications.

Airlines and Hotels

US airlines and hotels collectively said “we may not have started the race to the bottom, but damnit, we’re going to win it!”

A Concierge Key elite asks an AA gate agent about being added to the standby list.

Marriott Bonvoy recognizes a Gold elite collecting 500 points at check-in.

Southwest prepares for, and executes, its transformation plans for 2025.

Southwest realizes that it’s funner when paid bags get lost.

JetBlue added JAL as a partner, and you could book into JAL business and first paid fare buckets with miles.

Less than a year later, JetBlue and JAL breakup.

Travel hackers react after Blit [Blit]adds JAL as a transfer partner.

Travel hackers then react after Capital One added JAL as a transfer partner too.

Alaska Atmos became particularly useful for ultra short haul.

MEAB

I guess we couldn’t have GIFs without MEAB, so let’s round out the year with the community and MEAB:

Affiliate bloggers react to yet another MEAB post.

Affiliate and non-affiliate bloggers alike react to a MEAB post about nervous ticks.

Professor MEAB presents at a meetup.

Then MEAB isn’t seen in the wild again, though a music video dropped on December 15, 2025.

And finally on January 1, 2026, MEAB makes a grand reappearance to an empty stadium with every single one of the site’s adoring fans.

Happy New Year!

2026: A Preview

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a follow-up bonus guest post from SideShowBob233 thrown together after yet another run-in with a bank.

After my American Express scam a few months ago I’ve been living the dream, no account hacks and a normal, quiet, rake-free life.  That rake-free life came to an abrupt end a few weeks ago when I tried to login to my main AmEx login and found the account was locked and required a password reset.  No worries, this happens from time to time, usually due to external logins like AwardWallet.  I reset the password and login, everything is wonderful.

I then tried to login to a different online login, which was also locked.  I may not be a smart clown, but I know what love suspicious is. I sat back, ran my fingers through my thick red hair and thought about this situation and how it was like a box of chocolates (both involved something brown).  Both logins recently had a new card issued (an upgrade).  One login is NOT connected to AwardWallet.  Both logins were fine the day before (I logged in to both).  

I eventually came to the conclusion that my accounts were locked by someone trying to reset the password a few times and failing due to the two factor authentication that I’d turned on after the scam/hack a few months ago.  Which leads me to the unhappy conclusion that someone has my new card numbers and used them to try to reset my password, access my account, and do the same thing they tried to do in the prior hack.  

The new cards left the house one time and were used at a single store recently.  Now maybe the twenty something girl behind the counter somehow got photos of the cards, but I doubt that.  For one, I used several cards at this store and ONLY the two that were recently replaced had their login locked.  Second, a family member who got a new card around the same time also had their login locked yesterday.  And their card is still sitting in a sealed envelope not activated yet.  

Again I find myself at an unhappy conclusion that the cards were likely compromised at the factory somehow.  The card that was used to hack me months ago also had been recently replaced.   And as I found out this week it was replaced again right before the hack – but I never received the replacement (which I didn’t know I was getting since I hadn’t requested it).  Maybe it’s not the factory, maybe it’s the shipping carrier, but my rake is still pointing to the factory.  

Now maybe it’s just another coincidence but too many coincidences make me think something is up.  Not much we can do if I’m right but turn on two factor authentication, lock your SIMs, etc.  And remember what my uncle used to say until the guys with the nets caught him – just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you. And also you miss 100% of the shots you take.

Stay safe out there!

– SideShowBob233

SideShowBob233’s key chain holder’s security definitely had nothing to do with the hack.

Background

The Wyndham Rewards program when tied with the Barclays Wyndham Business Earner Visa credit card used to be a heavyweight in terms of both earn and burn, but that’s changed due to:

– Continual Vacasa devaluations
– The loss of many Vacasa properties for points bookings
– The dwindling Vacasa footprint
– The loss of Caesar’s Diamond status matches

It doesn’t help that Wyndham points have a hard expiration of four years after earning regardless of account activity, so stuck points will eventually become forfeited points if you’re not careful.

The Way Out

United currently has a 25% bonus for incoming hotel points up to 25,000 total bonus miles, and Wyndham has a 100% transfer bonus for points transfers to United (registration required) through October 31. The regular transfer ratio is 5:1, and when you stack everything, it comes out to:

5 / 2 / 1.25 : 1 = 2 : 1
(or)
30,000 Wyndham → 15,000 United

Those United miles aren’t worth what they used to be, but they don’t expire and you’d probably rather not stay in an old Ramada next to a European airport anyway. Watch out on the Wyndham side though, based on the terms and conditions you may need to do each batch of transfers in a single transaction.

The Tweaks

The Wyndham Business Visa card still earns 8x at gas stations, so you’ve got an opportunity to earn 4x United miles (after conversion) at gas stations if you have the card. But, Wyndham to United transfers take a couple of weeks [UPDATE: Transfers are happening next day currently], so unless your Wyndham Business card statement closes in the next week or so, you may not be able to slide into the narrow window for United’s incoming transfer bonus, which would mean the you’d only get 12,000 miles for 30,000 Wyndham points, or 3.2x at gas stations.

My Action

Just because I’m doing something doesn’t mean you should to, in fact it probably means you shouldn’t. Anyhoodles, I’m sending all of my Wyndham points to United now, and I’m going to try and move my Wyndham statement closing date to next week and send everything new over before the deadline (Indiana Jones sliding under the concrete door style, but without all the leather). (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)

Happy Wednesday!

The way out is easy, just follow the signs.

  1. The Citi AA Business card has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in five months, and the $99 annual fee is waived for the first year.

    Churners not scared of cycling Citi business cards can use this card to earn earn Executive Platinum for two or more people this year.
  2. AirCanada Aeroplan has devalued US domestic United partner awards, doubling or tripling prices in some cases.
  3. Bask Bank, once useful for earning AA miles in a ZiRP economy but not in our current environment, is reducing the earning rate on money held in their AAdvantage savings account to 1.75 miles per dollar held annually.

    With high-yield interest rates savings accounts paying ~ 4.35%, you’re effectively paying ~2.5 cents per AA mile under the new regime. In other words, it’s probably time to get out if you’ve got money there.
  4. MasterCardGiftCard.com has a bonus $10 gift card with purchases of $200+ through October 14 with promo code BONUS10. Notes:

    – First party American Express cards won’t earn points
    – Order limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours
    – These cards can be added to ApplePay

    These are Incomm cards.
  5. Costco via Groupon has an offer for new executive memberships that includes a promo code for $100 off of $200+ at costco.com. These accounts can be useful for manufactured spenders for lots of reasons.

    Gamers occasionally find ways around the one-membership per household rule. If you’re one of those gamers, you might as well take another $100 voucher.

Happy Wednesday!

More Costco hacks.

  1. The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card, the pop-tart costume version of a credit card, has a heightened, in-branch only offer For Wells Fargo Premier clients of 100,000 points after $4,000 spend in ninety days. The card earns 5x transferrable points at hotels and “hotels”.

    Wells Fargo Premier technically requires $250,000 held at Wells Fargo in either a bank or a brokerage account, but paying $35 a month (obviously for only one month before you downgrade) gets you the status too.
  2. The American Express Business Platinum has a new link for employee cards with a bonus of 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend in six months, up to five per primary account.

    The fozzie wocka wocka is alive and well too.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Last week’s Mastercard offer was spotty, working only on some days and only in some stores, so I’d exercise caution with this week’s offer. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for back-to-back transactions

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Publix stores have a digital coupon for $10 off of $25 worth of groceries with a $100 Visa gift card through Saturday. Is the juice worth the squeeze on this one? I guess depends on the type of juice.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey mascot costume, new for Halloween 2025.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a special guest post from irieriley, a churner who went from crawling to marathon long sprints in a short time.

In the world of manufactured spend and churning, it’s implied that there is a rigid structure of clearly defined rules that govern what you can and can’t do. Chase 5/24. Amex pop up jail. Don’t cycle Citi. Don’t cycle Synchrony*, etc. etc. etc.

A lot of this collective knowledge is sourced from smart folks that were willing to be the guinea pigs and push limits to understand exactly what those limits are.

But in the spirit of probing, you shouldn’t consider any of these rules as completely impossible to circumvent. I once cycled a Citi Double Cash 9 times back when I didn’t know it was an issue, and a large Citi balance was a prerequisite for a long, tedious afternoon of liquidation. I’m still alive years later, continued shenanigans and all. 

Now, I’m not saying to go throw in an application for the absolutely incredible Chase Sapphire Reserve Business™® if you’re way over 5/24, because it will be a waste of a hard pull. I’m just saying that historically, there’s been ways to get around these obstacles.

CoD streamers credit card bloggers ready to share the incredible CSR Biz news

Here are some common “rules” I’ve seen over the years that I wouldn’t hesitate to spend 5 seconds testing if I came across them:

  • No business cards
  • No Amex
  • Debit cards only
  • One deposit per day
  • Max $ deposit

Best case scenario, the rule doesn’t apply, and you make more money. Worst case scenario, the transaction doesn’t go through, and you proceed with your day. Medium case scenario, the rule doesn’t apply, but you get a terse email and need to get creative to keep your account open. The underlying systems and platforms that power our favorite banks, CUs and fintechs are just so finicky that you’ll never know until you try. 

While we’re on the subject of things not being what they seem, here’s some advice: In a lot of online communities, getting zero answers to a question you pose is likely a sign you asked a dumb question. But in this one, if your question is thoughtful and researched and nobody responds (or in my case, you are DMed to delete the question), you may be on to something. In this case, silence is deafening. 

– irieriley

*Ok, I will concede that not cycling Synchrony does seem to be sound advice.

A MSer continuing to enjoy the spoils of breaking the rules after realizing “debit cards only” did not apply in practice at his latest target

Last Friday was best known because it was National Christina Day, but something a little less overt happened Friday, hidden in the noise of the National Christina Day parades: Chase shutdown some of its biggest manufactured spend abusers in a second round of purging about a month after the first round. This round of shutdowns appears to be for:

  • Floosies that accidentally or purposefully took advantage of bonus multipliers to the tune of at least a few thousand dollars
  • Churners who found their own ways to trigger bonus categories and did so with medium to heavy volume this year
  • People with large suspicious money flows in our out of their deposit accounts

The first two groups saw only credit cards close while deposit accounts were untouched. The last group saw everything closed. There are enough questions swirling around the churnosphere that probably the subject probably deserves answers beneficial to the whole commnity:

[Q]: What happens to your points when Chase shuts you down?
[A]: They stick around for 30 days unless you’re in New York, in which case it’s 90 days. In rare cases your points vanish immediately, but this is only when Chase suspects fraud or money laundering.

[Q]: Can I get back into Chase if I was shutdown?
[A]: It very much depends on the reason, and how you were shut down. Depending on the circumstance, it’ll be one of: you’ll never see another card again, you’ll be back in after five years, you’ll be approved for cards but they’ll be shut down in a month or two, or you’ll be back in 60-90 days

[Q]: Is there anything I can do to reverse the shutdown?
[A]: There are certain types of shutdowns like bust-out risk that can be overturned by the Chase Executive office. Unfortunately, this round doesn’t seem to be related to any of those types of shutdown, so for those affected in April and May the answer is probably no

[Q]: If Chase shuts me down, can I link new transfer partners in the Ultimate Rewards portal post-shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Will pending points post after I’m shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Do I need to worry about another round?
[A]: Probably if you know the details of what happened to trigger bonus categories and you had significant volume; otherwise probably not

[Q]: Should I self-shutdown preemptively?
[A]: I would if you were part of the bonus category shenanigans and you haven’t been axed yet

[Q]: Do I need to worry that I’ve maxed spend on my Chase Ink Cash cards at office supply stores?
[A]: No

Good luck, and happy Monday!

Next time: The story of how boomer-era Chase Manhattan Bank helped propel National Christina Day into the worldwide spotlight.