Category: Status

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 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

One of the common refrains in manufactured spending and churning circles over the last six months goes something like:

“2025 was the worst year of churning since Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914.”

In my opinion the reference is rather oddly specific and a tad on the nose, but churners are a special breed so I’ll let it slide. Anyway, in 2025 we saw:

  • The birth of Chase pop-ups
  • The floosie adjacent deaths of Community, Synchrony, and some American Express
  • Citi 6x dining comas
  • Numerous airline and hotel devaluations
  • A gutting of the value of some bank points
  • Capacity controls on bonus categories at many major issuers
  • Other unmentionable control tightening
  • A preview of January 2026 Citi badness

Look, that all sucks for sure, but it brings me to my general feelings about churning in the last decade. Specifically:

  • Plays that aren’t “where the masses are” bring better results on average
  • Volume eventually kills everything, but this is especially true in aggregate
  • When the unwashed masses punch-out, new opportunities arise
  • Pivoting to new angles makes changes profitable again
  • Always be probing

2025 brought plenty of bad changes, but it also opened new opportunities to be sure. If you feel like you haven’t seen those new opportunities, get out there and pound the pavement! Also because I want you to learn something in this post, platypuses do indeed have stomachs, take that 1989!

Have a nice holiday season friends, and send guest posts over, please!

Alec finally delivers the next line after “Always be probing“, but in onomatopoeia form.

  1. Swagbucks and SoFi have a $505+$300 new account sign-up bonus, requiring $400 in direct deposits within 40 days.

    SoFi accounts are churnable and Swagbucks has a referral bonus so use another player or a friend’s referral link.
  2. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, the card issued to replace Citi Shop Your Way Mastercards, sent out targeted offers over the weekend, continuing in its predecessor’s path:

    – $75 off of $750+ in online spend through December 14
    – $100 off of $1,000+ in online spend through December 14

    You can’t currently apply for this card as far as I can tell, but there is hidden code on the dashboard with an application link. It’s probably vestigial, but there’s a 🤏 chance that you’ll be able to apply in the future.
  3. Chase Offers has approximately a dozen new card linked offers for Marriott brands, they’re all some variation of 10%-15% back on on up to $270-$750 in spend through December 31.
  4. United devalued the redemption cost of saver rewards within T-14 days, it’s unclear how wide spread the devaluation is, but redemptions in the continental United States seem uniformly worse.
  5. American Express now requires social security numbers at application time for personal authorized user cards. I confirmed the news on my accounts, but I can tell you that they’re still not once in a lifetime. Also, business employee cards are still “same as it ever was, same as it ever was, … water dissolving, and water removing” though (sorry about the ear-worm).
  6. Articles were everywhere because it was great content-monster food, but I’ll try and keep it as short as possible here so you don’t waste your time elsewhere:

    Hilton added a new Diamond Reserve tier that requires $18,000 of qualifying spend at Hilton properties with 40 stays or 80 nights, there’s currently no other way into it. They also lowered the requirements for other tiers slightly, but credit card jockeys need not care. The benefits for the Diamond Reserve tier are lukewarm at best (automatic 4PM late checkout, a suite upgrade certificate, a concierge, and premium club access at the ~10 properties that offer it.)

Happy Wednesday!

A different kind of credit card jockey.

  1. The Capital One VentureX business card has a better offer than we discussed yesterday when working through a business relationship manager (a small business banker). The offer is still tiered:

    – 150,000 miles with $30,000 spend three months
    – 250,000 miles with $300,000 spend in six months

    Putting the two together with the base spend of 2x means 3.33 miles per dollar on $300,000 spend which is honestly great for people in their “$300k spend? 🤏!” era. If you don’t have a business relationship manager, call your closest Capital One branch and ask to be connected to one. (Thanks to urgetopurge)
  2. Frontier Airlines, the airline that left their cookie era more than a decade ago, has a Gold status match for any Southwest Rapid Rewards member with or without Southwest elite status. The match costs, $40 and lasts through the end of 2025; and is probably cheaper than a single carry-on bag fee with Frontier; so call it bag fee arbitrage.

Churning eras in concert.

Major US Airlines are all targeting Southwest elites with extremely generous “twist-the-knife while they’re dying” style status matches, and that means you’ve got a unique opportunity for manufacturing a ton of airline status with a single swing. Let’s start with earning A-List Preferred using a Chase Southwest credit card:

  • $5,000 spent = 1,500 tier points
  • 35,000 tier points = A-List
  • 70,000 tier points = A-List Preferred

In post-mathematics words, $230,000 in real or manufactured spend takes you from zero to A-List Preferred, or if you’re an underachiever $115,000 spend takes you from zero to A-List. Now, once you’ve got that status, combine with:

So, for $230,000 in manufactured spend you can hold status with all of the top five US airlines and also status in every major airline alliance in the world, MEAB style.

Happy hunting!

Next time: taking it to the next level.

The Pepper gift card reselling platform, the current mass market frontrunner in the race to move funds from venture capitalist bank accounts to your wallet, has a few newsworthy updates:

  • They got a loan last week, and they did the most Pepper thing possible when filing: The CEO’s name is spelled wrong. (This is probably a bridge loan, VC funding definitely doesn’t look like this)
  • Yesterday, they offered (with most of the cash back coming in a couple of weeks):
    • Unlimited Amazon gift cards at 25% off
    • Walmart gift cards at 24% off, up to $1,500 per account
    • HomeDepot gift cards at 22% off, up to $3,000 per account

I think it’s clear that Pepper is eating most of the cost on these offerings, which could lead you to a few conclusions:

  • They might be trying to pump sales in anticipation of funding hurdles and are fiscally fine
  • They might be trying to make payroll and are fiscally almost dead
  • They’re just benevolent and like giving away money, but they have plenty of it

One of those three is probably right. Make your risk/reward calculations accordingly. Since no one asked: I’ve been bringing down my Pepper float to smaller numbers gradually over the last couple of months, and I’m approaching zero but not there yet.

Finally, I want to add something to a common argument I hear about Pepper, which is “Who cares if I lose the $20,000 I have floated to Pepper right now? I made way more than that.” It’s a good point, but I’d like to offer that if you can catch the falling knife, you can make “way more than that” and still not lose $20,000.

Happy Thursday!

Live view of Pepper manufactured spenders.

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus British Airways Executive Club tier points for paid flights booked by February 14 for travel any time after March.

    British Airways Gold status traditionally was somewhat easy to game and had great value, but after March, the games are largely gone.
  2. United has a status match to Silver, Gold, or Platinum, and an accompanying challenge running through June 30. The match is good for 120 days once it’s activated; but to activate it you have to take a United flight within 90 days of the match approval. You can retain status through the program year (through January 2027) with some Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) earning.

    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)
  3. 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).
  4. Yesterday we talked about a Chase IHG Premier sign-up bonus with five free night certificates, but David let me know that there’s a different version of the sign-up bonus:

    – 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.

Theory doesn’t always predict the real world.

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.