Category: Status

EDITOR’S NOTE: I still have several guest posts from the holiday break that will go live on Fridays or Saturdays in the coming weeks. If you’d like to contribute a guest post, please reach out!

Also if you wrote to me over the holiday and I haven’t responded, it’s not you, it’s me. I’m still catching up.

  1. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  2. Hyatt elites can now buy “AA elite status for a day”, up to a whopping two times a year in the Hyatt mobile app. The prices:

    – Gold status for 5,000 Hyatt points
    – Platinum status for 8,000 Hyatt points
    – Platinum Pro status for 12,000 Hyatt points

    The best use cases are probably for checked bag benefits, main cabin extra seating for the account holder and maybe companions, and for international lounge access on economy tickets. You’ll earn bonus miles and you’ll end up on the upgrade list too, but your changes of an upgrade clearing are approximately the same as your chances of being involved in a plane-crash while you’re on a sail-boat moored in a bunker. (Thanks to blinyellow)
  3. American Express has a targeted offer 10,000 Membership Rewards for adding a no-fee Gold card to an existing personal Platinum account and spending $2,000 within six months on the new card. There’s an alternative link too which has different targeting.

    The authorized user card will show up on the user’s credit report, which is great if you’re trying to build credit for a minor, but less great for everyone else. (Thanks to DDG)

AA bag tag for when your status for a day is in transit.

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.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s Q1 promotion for double points for stays between January 1, 2025 and April 30, 2025.
  2. The Barclays Frontier Mastercard has a sign-up bonus of 100,000 miles after $3,000 spend, Gold elite status, and a $100 flight voucher. You have to have another airline’s co-branded card to be eligible, and you have to spend in either 90 or 180 days, depending on how you interpret the terms and conditions, or more accurately how Barclays interprets the terms and conditions. You can verify your reading comprehension and that your other airline co-branded card is eligible here.

    Make sure to put a reminder in your phone to go verify the other airline co-branded card in Barclays’ systems after you receive the Frontier card. (Thanks to FM)
  3. American Express’s referral bonuses are currently at a relative maximum, and in the last week or so more people have been able to generate the heightened offers. The referrer will get between 15,000 and 30,000 Membership Rewards, and the referred offers are:

    – Business Gold: 200,000 Membership Rewards after $20,000 spend in three months
    – Business Platinum: 250,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months

    It’s ok for P1 to use P2’s referral and vice-versa, and if you don’t have one of those, ask around for a heightened referral offer and make a new churning friend; it’s a great way to network too.
  4. The Daily Churn podcast’s most recent episode discusses two interesting plays combined together that are below surface level but sort-of out in the open, starting at 28:00 minutes in:

    – Gift of College Cards at giftcards.com
    – The Kudos quasi-portal card-linked bonus program (use a friend’s referral code)

    The quick summary is that they’re working well together.
  5. American Express has a new Membership Rewards to JetBlue 25% transfer bonus through December 31, which makes the transfer ratio 1:1. You’ll often do better booking with a Business Platinum though.
  6. A PSA and warning: American Express links that were put together artificially by combining multiple offer components in an unintended way keep finding their way onto public blogs, which is ok, but they’re not labeled or explained as manufactured artificial links. My suggestion: Always know the provenance of no-lifetime language links that you’re using. DDG has appropriately labeled this recently, but not all bloggers are doing so. What’s the link? This time it’s a 100,000 Membership Rewards personal Gold link with a $6,000 spend in six months requirement, but others have surfaced over the last couple of months for Business Golds and Business Platinums too.

    How risky are these links? It’s been over 6 years since there were reports of adverse action for using unintended links, so the risk is probably low, but I don’t like when you’re not told that you’re taking a risk with a manufactured link, even if it’s low. One day of course American Express may decide that it doesn’t like people making links themselves in ways never intended to work. Since no one asked my opinion: The risk isn’t worth it at 100,000 points, but if it were 80*270,000 points we’d be having a serious conversation.
  7. Spirit Airlines has a status match to either Silver or Gold that lasts 90 days, and a there’s a fast-track challenge to hold it for longer (I imagine the challenge won’t make sense for any of you unless your name starts with an “S” and ends with a “hay”). Status doesn’t let you pick a big front seat for free, but it does waive plenty of other fees.

Breakage from failed reading comprehension illustrated.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard card sent new mid-month spend offers that stack with existing offers. We’ve seen:

    – $50 off of $750+ in online spend
    – $70 off of $1,000+ in online spend
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $750+ in online spend
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards points with $1,000+ in online spend

    (Thanks to BrandonV, SPX, Y, and Charlie)
  2. The Cardless Qatar cards have both increased sign-up bonuses and increased on-going spend bonuses through the end of the 2024.

    – Infinite: 80,000 Avios after $5,000 spend in 90 days, plus uncapped 6x at restaurants and 2x everywhere else
    – Signature: 60,000 Avios after $3,000 spend in 90 days, plus uncapped 4x at restaurants and 2x everywhere else

    There’s a status play with the Infinite card that’s even better with the increased spending bonuses, and so is the Infinite’s rebate on award taxes and fees after $15,000 spend.
  3. The Wyndham Business Earner credit card gives Diamond status with Wyndham, which can be matched to Caesars Rewards Diamond status. The match for elites that earned status through the card only is going away on January 31, 2025 though, reducing the value of the card and the value of any trademarks paid for based on the process.

    You might want to care because Caesars Diamond gives an annual, free four-night stay at Atlantis provided you gamble for four hours during your stay, but there are smaller benefits like show tickets, no resort fees, and free parking at Caesars properties too.
  4. Citi added an extended warranty benefit to its no-annual fee Mastercards, doubling the warranty for up to 24 months after the factory warranty expires. The Citi warranty exclusions list is smaller than is typical too. (Thanks to Country Boy)
  5. Giftcards.com has $6 off of $100 Visa gift cards with promo code EARLYJOY through November 28. Shopping portals usually don’t combine with promotion codes at giftcards.com, but if something goes wrong, sometimes they do. There’s a Chase offer for 5% back on up to $1,000 spend too.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Always buy in even multiples of $300 for best results.

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Watch out, filing a complaint with Caesars may not be successful, I guess?

  1. The major airline shopping portals have a big holiday bonus promotion before black Friday, all of which are more lucrative than typical:

    – AA: 4,000 extra AAdvantage miles with $1,600+ through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 extra MileagePlan miles with $650+ through November 18
    – Delta: 2,000 extra SkyMiles with $1000+ through November 18
    – Southwest: 4,000 extra Rapid Rewards with $1,000+ through November 24
    – United: 5,000 extra MileagePlus miles with $1,200+ through November 22

    Giftcards.com is present on all of these portals.
  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the Detlef Schrempf of credit cards, sent out beginning of the month offers:

    – 150,000 Shop Your Way points with $1,500 spend through December 31
    – 10% statement credit with $350-$400 spend in utilities each month through January (total $120)
    – $125 statement credit $600 spend in utilities, each month through January (total $375)

    My offer was stolen out of my glove by rabid baseball fans this month, or at least I assume that’s what happened. (Thanks to GoBolts, SPX, BrandonV, IAD_Flyer, and birt)
  3. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has renewed its paid status match for non-SkyTeam airlines through October 2025. Notable in this iteration is that it’s possible for to match to a full 12 months of Platinum status in Canada for $499 CAD.

    I suppose an American with status in Air Canada could match too with a sleight of hand, and for the right use case Platinum is absolutely worth $499 CAD. I mean, what could that possibly be in US dollars? $20? $25? Yes I could look it up, but [insert excuse here].
  4. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue has released its November promo awards. North American cities include Boston, New York, Vancouver, Denver, Seattle, and Ottawa, with tickets at 15,000 miles to and from Europe each way in economy for travel through April 2025.

    I’m also seeing limited availability promotional business class awards from Seattle and Denver, the only two cities I bothered to check, for 50,000 FlyingBlue miles each direction.
  5. American Express Offers has new offers valid through December 31 for:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards with $2,000 at ANA
    – $100 statement credit after $500+ with Delta
    – $250 statement credit after $1,000+ with Delta
    – $75 statement credit after $300+ at US and Europe Destination by Hyatt properties

    The easiest hotel play is to buy a gift card at the front desk. For airlines, it’s figuring out how to refund to a travel bank or travel wallet for future use. Gamers may find more lucrative options too.

Happy Monday!

More outsized value: Multi-country soda arbitrage.

Let’s focus on news from a few banks today:

  1. Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards status was removed from many business accounts on September 6, and it seems related to early enrollment during new account setup. If you’re affected, there are two action items:

    – Consider whether you want to pause spending on Bank of America cards until it’s fixed
    – Consider contacting Bank of America and opening a case

    Generally speaking, calling a bank as a manufactured spender about missing rewards isn’t the best idea, it’s kind of up there with betting in Vegas on John McCain winning the 2024 Presidential Election; but in this case I think the team you’ll be working with (Preferred Rewards) is sufficiently distant from the rest of banking that the risk is low and reward is potentially high. You’re all adults, so make your own judgement call.
  2. If you’ve given full, non-Bank of America card numbers to Bank of America representatives recently, consider locking or replacing those cards; there are multiple correlated reports of fraudulent charges that surfaced yesterday stemming from Bank of America.
  3. Bloomberg reports that Barclays is nearing completion of a deal to purchase the Marcus GM portfolio of credit cards in a few months. If you’re banned from Barlcays, getting a GM card now could be a way back in. UPDATE: This didn’t work for people banned by Barclays when they acquired the Banana Republic card, so adjust your calculus as necessary.

Have a nice Thursday!

Bank of America’s vault mirrors the rest of their technology stack.

  1. American Express widened its targeting for adding employee cards to business charge cards, with a 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus after $4,000 spend in 90 days for up to five employees online. These links appear in your AmEx Offers tab, and reader Jim notes that they’re not necessarily on top but may be buried much lower.

    Any cards that already earned five bonuses of 15,000 Membership Rewards using online links from Spring will not get the online bonus again; calling in for offers still works for those and gives a higher capacity of 99 total bonuses per card though.
  2. Canada’s ultra-low cost carrier Flair Airlines has a promotion for $1 base fare (+ tax) tickets between many major Canadian cities and Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Nashville, New York JFK, and several Mexico airports.

    Surprisingly, I’m seeing limited availability around US winter holidays. I was able to price out a complete bare-bones ticket at ~$15 each way including taxes. That said, “you get what you pay for” very much applies here, and Flair makes Southwest look like luxury.
  3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through September 29. Availability out of Canada is often better than out of the US, which I guess pairs nicely with the prior item. (Thanks to virginiarph)
  4. If it was a Cruel Summer and now you’re Down Bad waiting to be Bejeweled to reset your Karma with a Blank Space and Shake it Off, Hilton is giving you a chance to bid Honors points to meet Travis Kelce. You probably won’t meet his girlfriend, but statistically speaking it’s likely your best opportunity on Earth to do so. (This news item was just for Shay at TCB)
  5. The Barclays Hawaiian card has an increased bonus of 70,000 HawaiianMiles after a single purchase using a link from an in-flight mailer. The $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year. For a promotional code, you can try a random number or email me for the promo code that reader Dean shared. (Thanks to Dean)
  6. Gary at VFTW notes that SkyTeam member SAS’s elite status match program doesn’t actually seem to be validating anything and is just awarding status when the form is filled out. So that’s a thing I guess.

Have a nice holiday weekend!

The SAS elite status match validation desk.

  1. Kroger has 4x fuel points promotion running tomorrow through Sunday on fixed value Visa and Mastercards and third party gift cards other than Amazon.
  2. Bilt’s rent day falls on a Sunday in September. This is also the last rent day for double points on up to $10,000 spend; in October the maximum double point spend will be $1,000. There are two main transfer bonuses on Sunday:

    – 50% bonus to Avianca LifeMiles
    – 25-100% bonus to Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub, based on Bilt status

    What’s the maximum transfer for bonus miles, especially Virgin Atlantic with its tiered bonus? They haven’t announced it so double check the terms and conditions on Sunday. (Cynical MEAB thinks that they haven’t announced the maximums because they’re really low, but go ahead and prove me wrong Kerr, please.) UPDATE: Gary at VFTW let me know that these bonuses are unlimited.
  3. Do this now: Register for Southwest’s promotion for increased elite status earning through November 30. (The promotion mainly gives 2x-3x tier qualifying points on flights, and 2,000 tier qualifying points for every $5,000 in co-branded credit card spend). (Thanks to Brian M)
  4. Do this now (if you live in Washington, or move into a closet there during the NFL season): Register for Delta’s 12Status program and you’ll get:

    – One SkyMile for each passing yard earned by the Seahawks
    – Priority boarding on Delta flights at SEA airport during the NFL season

    According to a random ESPN page, last year there were 4,167 passing miles.
  5. Vietnam Airlines has a paid, year long status match for non-SkyTeam elites. The price is $99 for low tier, $159 for mid tier, or $299 for high tier status. Vietnam Airlines has five status lines, these are the middle three. The lowest matched status SkyTeam elite, which gets lounge access on international SkyTeam flights including Delta. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Thursday!

A notorious churner’s Seattle NFL season rented “condo”, which houses a family of 4.

  1. Clear has a promotion for a $75 Uber voucher with a new membership and also some existing expired memberships. In the past, these have been an ok-ish way to cash out American Express Clear credits. Note the following from prior promotions:

    – The voucher doesn’t does work outside of the US, but ymmv
    – The voucher can be used on multiple orders
    – The voucher works for Uber and Uber Eats
    – You’ve only been able to apply one voucher per Uber account per promotion

    The vouchers typically come about a month after the end of the promo. (Thanks to nutella)
  2. Radisson Rewards has a promotion for a one year upgrade to its highest level of status, VIP. The main benefits of VIP status are free breakfast for two and access to suites for complimentary upgrades.

    Remember that Radisson Rewards covers properties outside of the Americas, and Choice covers properties inside the Americas.
  3. Staples has fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. For best results:

    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Look for lower fee versions of the card

    These are Pathward gift cards. (Thanks to GCG)
  4. American Express offers released new offers for:

    – $90 off of $450 or more in airfare at Delta
    – $20 off of $200 at Viator

    The first one is easily gameable. The second one might be if you’re creative and have a penchant for shenanigans.
  5. Southwest has a code for 25% off of award bookings booked today for travel between September 4 and December 18 with promo code SAVE25NOW. The blackout days and cities paragraph is too lame to summarize, so just assume that the sale only applies on days that you don’t want to travel from cities that you don’t want to visit.

    I repriced ten upcoming reservations and only one was eligible for the discount.

Happy Monday!

The answer to the question: What happens if you combine bad Monday jokes with Uber Eats?