Category: Travel Hacking

First, a mini Ventana Big Sur (a Hyatt / Alila property) review:

  • Great food, especially when you consider that it’s all included in the rack rate
  • Excellent value at 30,000 Hyatt points a night (my booked rate)
  • Probably a good value at 45,000 Hyatt points per night (current rate)
  • It’s not easy to get to (you’ll likely spend more time driving than you spent flying to northern California)
  • Three nights is about the perfect length
  • I’d give it four out of five stars, I may come back but it wouldn’t be anytime soon
  • And finally, it seems that most reviews and the hotel’s main web page don’t mention that the resort is partially “clothing optional” so do what you will with that info

Ok, with that out of the way, here are a few things to keep you occupied for the weekend:

  1. Staples is going to have $5 off of the $6.95 activation fee for $200 Visa gift cards. If you wait a few weeks they’ll probably bring back the fee free version so this is really only if your other spending avenues are dry. (Thanks to kawnipi)
  2. I’ve heard from multiple readers in Florida and Georgia that Publix has blocked Metabank Visa and Mastercard gift cards at their customer service desk in the same way that Safeway did last year. I’m guessing that $99 or smaller transactions will continue to work but haven’t heard definitely either way.

    It’s time to look for other regional grocers for a new liquidation channel.

  3. Southwest is rolling out end of June schedule changes this week and will likely start its July changes shortly, so now is the time to travel hack your way to cheap Independence Day travel with the schedule change trick.

    Don’t forget to layer this with 20% off of paid fares through Monday with Point.app, maybe a few times.

Have a nice weekend friends!

A clothing optional Big Sur squirrel.

Introduction

Let’s get something out of the way before we discuss: Return fraud is real, and I’m not suggesting that you do anything like it. That said, there are a number of reasons that you may want to make correlation between a charge and a refund difficult, for example when you’re working with bank sign-up bonuses at a bank that rhymes with “mace”. Here’s an annoying and real issue with this bank. Let’s suppose that you:

  • Apply for a credit card with a sign-up bonus after spending $4,000
  • Spend $3,992 on random things
  • Spend $10 on three bottles of kombucha, which triggers your sign-up bonus posting and makes this transaction special
  • Notice mold in the kombucha, and return it, which gets your $10 back and leads to a clawback of your bonus (again, that transaction was special)
  • Buy something else to push you back over $4,000, but the bonus doesn’t post
  • Open a case with the bank and wait 6-8 weeks for it to resolve

We could fix this in a few ways, for example by returning two bottles in one transaction and a third bottle in another transaction, or by buying a stick of gum in the same transaction as returning three bottles so that the refund amount doesn’t match the original purchase amount. Either way, we’re preventing the bank’s algorithms from matching the original purchase with refund.

Airfare Specific Tricks

Thinking about how to break automatic correlation is a fun mental exercise, can save your sign-up bonus, and is potentially interesting for other reasons too. Now, let’s discuss getting the same effect with airfares. Some angles work in general while others are airline specific. To set you on the right path, consider the following:

  • Buy a refundable airfare, switch it to another slightly more expensive flight, pay the difference
  • Look for an upcharge that refunds automatically with airfare, like:
    • Pet charges
    • Seat selection fees
    • Cabin upgrades
  • Buy a refundable airfare, and call the airline to book into a higher fare bucket
  • Change a refundable ticket to a cheaper flight to get an immediate partial refund

See, mental exercises are fun too!

Only at MEAB can we correlate moldy tea with bank sign-up bonuses. You’re welcome I guess?

It’s the second time this week for a grab bag of topics post. Hooray I guess?

  1. Do this now: Register for Wyndham’s current promotion, which gives you 2x on two night stays, 3x on three night stays, and so on up to 5x on five night stays.

    There is great value in Wyndham outside of the US (and a few properties in the US), and excellent value with Vacasa rentals booked with Wyndham points. As a reminder, Citi ThankYou Points transfer to Wyndham directly at a one-to-one ratio.

  2. If you have a Citizen’s bank account, check your email for a targeted offer of $150 back after two $500 direct deposits. As usual, use a business account that supports setting a memo field and set the memo to “Payroll” if you want to emulate a direct deposit. (Thanks to AbjectRaise)
  3. Kroger started a 4x fuel points on third party gift cards promotion yesterday and is running it through Tuesday, March 22. Fortunately, we’re past the beginning of the year lull in gift card reselling and spot-rates on major bulk gift card brands have crept up to make this a break-even deal or better, not including credit card rewards.
  4. You’ve got until Monday to apply for the $3,500 Capital One Spark offer (no link, you apply through any Capital One business relationship manager), or for the 100,000 point Capital One VentureX card. Believe it or not the first of those is much easier to get than the second.

    When I applied for the $3,500 Spark offer, the business relationship said to me: “We’re not like Citi, we don’t care if you spend, pay, spend, pay, spend, pay. We want you to spend as much as possible, then you make money and we make money.” I wouldn’t take that as gospel, but it’s definitely an interesting data point.

    Thanks to Allen and nutella via Slack for the reminders.

  5. Southwest has been rolling out schedule changes for June the last couple of weeks which means their schedule changes for July are likely to start next week. If you have a trip you want to book in July, you can pull the following stunt to try and get it for cheap:

    – Find the cheapest fare between your city pairs +- 2 weeks of your date of travel
    – Book the cheapest fare, and watch next week for a schedule change
    – Switch to the flight you actually want for no additional charge

    For a better shot at making this work, look for flight times that don’t exist in May or June but are still on the schedule for July.

Have a nice Thursday!

A Capital One business relationship manager coaches us on credit line cycling before going to jail.

The DOT item in Friday’s post turned into a hot item for some of you, especially with regard to positioning flights (and to a lesser extent, with a term that reader Jason invented, “Allegiant math”). So, let’s talk positioning flights and go a little deeper with the DOT airline statistics report.

Positioning Flights

The dictionary defines a positioning flight (sorry) as booking a separate flight from your origin to another city, and then flying a new itinerary from that other city. They’re very useful to the travel-hacker because certain big-ticket international redemptions often have availability only from a few cities.

My typical positioning flights take me to LAX, DEN, DFW, PHX, or ORD, though sometimes you end up in a small city like RNO because AA will only release global first class availability to Tokyo if your origin in some small city. sigh

Guidelines for Positioning Flights

Because positioning flights are ticketed separately from your main trip, you’ll almost never be protected if the positioning flight gets delayed or cancelled and you miss your second itinerary. (That said, you can usually sweet talk your way into having an airline fix it for you if both tickets are on the same carrier, or to a lesser extent if they’re in the same airline alliance.) As a result, the DOT report helps with a few guidelines:

  • Don’t book a regional jet unless it’s operated by Endeavor or Skywest (see page 7)
  • Book a morning flight (they’re less likely to cancel, see page 21)
  • Choose Delta or Hawaiian for ticketing if possible (best on-time marketing carriers, see page 30)
  • Build extra buffer in June, July, and August (most delayed months, page 8)
  • Book a backup on Southwest since you can cancel for free (don’t use them as your primary positioning flight, see page 9)
  • Leave time for an extra long-layover for delays into LAX, EWR, JFK, LAS, and SEA (lower percentages of on-time arrivals, see pages 15-18)

Of course I have a few of my own guidelines too:

  • Make sure there’s another scheduled flight on the same carrier and same route for getting to your intermediate airport
  • Book a cancelable backup on another carrier to the intermediate airport if possible
  • If you’re positioning to the midwest in the Summer, leave a minimum of 12 hour buffer
  • For positioning to SFO, have a minimum of a 6 hour buffer
  • If you absolutely don’t want to miss a flight starting in another city, plan on arriving to your intermediate city at least 24 hours before the second ticket’s departure
  • Try and stay on the same carrier or at least within the same alliance when possible

Wrap-up

By following a few data-driven guidelines you can avoid most mishaps with positioning flights. Things could still go pear-shaped (like that positioning flights dictionary definition) though, so there’s that I guess.

Pictured: when your positioning flight goes pear-shaped.

Wha?

This site has a laser-focus on manufactured spend and travel hacking, and while today’s post may seem like neither, it enables both and is very much a key part of the game, especially when scaling a deal (in other words, still on-brand for MEAB). I’ve also had a few of you ask about getting a new burner phone recently, so there’s that motivation too.

In case you’re still unconvinced about today’s post, an extra phone number is useful because it:

  • Enables new accounts
  • Gives another referral vector
  • Can be a route out of a shutdown
  • Can be parlayed into another google voice account
  • Is another source of 2FA

And of course owning a new cell phone instead of a nearly dead iPhone 3G helps you in other ways too (e.x. for running FinTech apps are activating a Boost SIM).

Nowlet’s tie that into Visible, a low cost cell phone service provider and creepy advertiser owned by Verizon.

Trading Up

If you have android or iPhone in a drawer that still turns on, it’s probably eligible for Visible’s swap program. In fact, the older and weirder it is, the better. (If you don’t have one, you can find an old phone on ebay that fits the bill for under $20. Just make sure it turns on and isn’t severely damaged.) With the trade up program, you’ll get a new Moto G Pure for effectively free by:

  • Shopping through a portal like Rakuten for $30 back
  • Using anyone’s Visible referral code for the first month at $5
  • Joining literally any party in Party Pay for the second month at $25

After 60 days, Visible unlocks all phones which leaves you at a net cost of $0 to trade an old phone for a Moto G Pure, and you’ll get a new cell phone number for games in the mean time. Of course when the phone is unlocked it can be used for games with just about any service out there.

For more on burners, see Cell Phone Burners and Travel Hacking or Cell Phone Burner Followup.

Showing off a Visible cell phone magic swap trick to a baboon for some reason.

There’s inexplicably a lot of noise out there in the travel-hacking community this week. Can I offer a suggestion? Before you decide to spend five or so minutes reading an article, read the headline and ask yourself about the author’s motivation. For me it’s become a very effective filter for what’s worth my attention and what isn’t.

With that out of the way:

1. American Express has partnered with Delta to offer targeted status matches to regular American Express Platinum cardholders. You can sign up at this link, and see your matched status tiers at this link. A few notes:

  • You need to have United, American, Alaska, JetBlue, or Southwest status to match
  • You’ll be matched to a higher tier at Delta than your existing tier
  • The terms and conditions say the offer is targeted, but my guess is that it’ll work for anyone
  • You’ll have Delta status through August 31 (or through January 2023 by meeting these requirements)

Don’t forget, you can get AA status through spend on a co-branded card.

2. The Point debit card has 10x back at Target up to $500 in spend. If you have a Target Redcard credit card, perhaps the best play is to make a payment in-store. If not, Visa gift cards are your best bet, and make sure you go through a shopping portal in case the purchase tracks.

As usual, if you want the Point card use a referral link for a better sign-up offer than is publicly available. As of yesterday, the sign-up offer is $100 back after spending $1,000.

3. Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Aeromexico and Avianca. The latter has a few nice sweet-spots, like:

  • First Class (Lufthansa) US-Europe or vice-versa for 66,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Economy US-Africa or vice-versa for 31,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Business Class US-Europe or vice-versa for 49,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges
  • Economy continental US-Caribbean for 10,000 Membership Rewards, no fuel surcharges

Hint: There are others too, and they often involve a misunderstanding of basic world geography.

4. Check for email from Citi for a targeted offer of 5x at electronics stores and game stores (and a few categories that aren’t interesting) on both Premier and Prestige cards. Reportedly the subject is: “[Firstname], Use Your Citi Card to Earn Bonus ThankYou® Points on Eligible Purchases. It’s So Simple to Activate!” (Thanks to TheSultan1 and FearTheZ)

UPDATE: Oliver let me know of a similar offer on the Citi AA Business card. His offer was for 5x at electronics stores up to $500 in spend by May 31.

Sometimes you need to go with your gut.

Foreward

In 2021, the simplest way to cash out travel incidental credits on American Express cards, PenFed Pathfinder cards, Bank of America Premium Rewards, and UnionBank Rewards cards was to buy United TravelBank credit directly because it can be banked, combined, and used for airfare on any United flight and it didn’t require any weird gift cards or other “one weird trick” style hacking but was still reimbursed by credit card issuers. TravelBank credit also has a long expiration at 5 years so you’ve got time to figure out how best to use it.

Well a few short hours into December 31, reports came in that United TravelBank had been taken offline. There was an ensuing panic in just about every forum that I’m affiliated with. Fortunately the panic was short-lived, TravelBank came back yesterday afternoon and hundreds of hackers rushed to cash out credits within minutes.

Was rushing to cash-out a mistake? Honestly I think so even though it’ll probably work out just fine.

Being Level-Headed

I have a compulsive urge to knock out all of my yearly credit card annual credits as early as possible at the start of a new year so that I don’t have to think about them all the way until December 31, and I have zero doubt that many of you are exactly the same. That said, I’ve learned to hold back and wait for data-points to come in regarding what works in the new year and what doesn’t, and I hope you’ll do the same. There are legion travel hackers out there who have already all tried to cash out their 2022 credits in non-perscribed ways for:

  • Airline incidentals
  • Travel credits
  • Saks
  • Clear
  • Global Entry / Nexus / Precheck

But, there isn’t yet a datapoint that any of the opportunities that worked last year continue to work now, simply because not enough time has passed for a credit to post. In fact, many things change when the calendar does, like, I don’t know, United TravelBank going offline.

So, maybe wait a few days so we know that what worked last year will continue to work so that you’re not stuck with an unreimbursed $200 charge? If you’ve already become the data point, I sincerely appreciate it and I understand it at my core, but that’s not how I’m playing it (anymore). We’ll all learn from your hard work and we’ll all be grateful for your data-point.

Happy travel credit hacking!

Level headed travel credits.

Introduction

In what has become an annual MEAB tradition for an unbelievable streak of two years in a row (if you include this year), it’s time for another installment of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs. The 2020 version was, naturally, a rousing success. Time for another one of those, or something.

Let’s Go!

Virgin Atlantic Devalues its Award Charts and Expects us to Book Anyway

Partner flights on Delta tripled in price in many cases. You know that you’ve gone way too far when Delta SkyMiles award prices to Europe are cheaper than yours.

PayPal Key Blocks AmEx on January 4

Remember how merchant coding didn’t pass properly to AmEx via PayPal and everything was a “global restaurant” when you bought with PPK? I do. sniff

Citi Pay-By-Phone Accepts New Cards

When the new year ticked over, a new year’s worth of expiration dates started to sail through, and we celebrate.

American Express Master Value Injection 2.0

Personal Platinums get $30 at PayPal. Co-brand business cards got $10-$20 off of wireless services. Co-brand personal cards get $10-$25 off of dining. It all resets every month! Also, business Platinums get +4x in four categories. We’re happy at first…

American Express with Master Value Injection Redux

By March, we realize we’re working for American Express to cash out a dozen small monthly credits, and it feels like we’re getting nowhere fast while we try and twirl through our credits.

Bank of America Launches a Spirit Airlines Co-Brand Card

Someone really thinks we’ll go for this? Also, 40,000 miles is stingy, even for Spirit.

Fluz Launches power.fluz.app

If you know, you know.

Breeze Airways Takes Flight

We have a new US based air carrier and we got to see its inaugural takeoff roll.

Citi Launches the Custom Cash Card

It’s a no-annual fee card that earns 5x per month on $500 spend in whatever category you spent the most on. Bad? Not at all. Amazing? Not really, but we’ll take it. Unfortunately for me I got a $20,000 credit line on a card that will never see more than $500 in monthly spend.

Visible Sends Us Giant Piles of Mastercard Gift Cards

The Ting to Visible+Rakuten deal landed some over 30 $100 gift cards in their inbox. Now if I just knew where my Creedence was.

The American Express “Three for All” Deal Dies

American Express gave us a bonus three points per dollar, uncapped, for referring someone (like P2) to a new card. Obviously this was abused and became a goldmine.

The American Express “4 for Us” Deal Surfaces

Maybe the “4 for us deal” isn’t quite as lucrative as “3 for all” for heavy hitters, but it’s a great consolation prize to close out 2021. I got one for me and one for P2, but wish I had tried even harder.

American Airline’s SimplyMiles Roller Coaster

We’re all going to get 240 miles per dollar. No wait, we’re not. No, it’s going to post! Then it posts! Then it unposts! Then it posts! Then it unposts!

The Dust Settles and 240 Miles Per Dollar Actually Shows Up

Former US Airways management proves that it can still make a deal that puts other deals to shame, even though they can’t make a sandwich.

Fee-Free MS with Point Dies

You could load cash onto the Point debit card with a credit card using Apple Pay, fee-free, up to $12,500 per month, and then spend the money and earn another 1% on top. It even worked with American Express.

We watch the Marriott Program go from Bad to Worse

After years of devaluation, Marriott gave us something different another devaluation.

Getting Creative with Rental Cars During Carmageddon

Bob at the local mechanics shop will let you rent a fixer-upper for only $150 per day, unlimited miles. What a steal!

Running to Meijer for the Sale of the Year

Meijer announced that they were giving 10% off of third party gift cards for two days, and MSers ran to the Midwest for a feeding frenzy.

Flight Attendants Get Trained on Unruly Passenger Handling

Smh, smh, welcome to flying in 2021.

Debauchery With Reddit Mods and Chase Links

Links were allegedly stolen from source code, reddit /r/churning mods had massive infighting, links were released to the public to hide serious abusers in a crowd, inevitably a bunch of shutdowns occur, and one of the perpetrators walks away unscathed. This could honestly be an HBO mini-series.

Flight Attendants on British Airways Celebrate the Reopening of US Borders

BA1 marked the return of leisure travel to the United States, or at least that was the plan before Virgin Atlantic stole the crown. Fortunately, Miles Earn and Burn has obtained exclusive footage from the safety briefing so we can all take part in the early celebration.

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways Orchestrate Simultaneous Takeoff

After the safety briefings, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic organized a coordinated takeoff at London Heathrow. Later VS decided that it didn’t want a synchronized landing, it wanted to win; so, yay teamwork?

American Express Shuts Down Some Cardholders

It’s always the ball you don’t see coming, right? American Express shut down accounts for cardholders that had opened one or more business cards with the help of a particular employee, and without regard to literally anything else. Imagine opening a single Business Platinum card in 2018 and then having this happen in 2021…

American Express Reinstates Shutdown Cardholders

It turns out that if you’re persistent and if you ask enough times, you’ve got a great shot of AmEx reinstating your accounts. Just make sure you wear your Sunday best.

Screenshotting Offer Terms and Conditions

Sometimes we need to have a picture of what we’re offered to keep a company honest. I prefer using a phone or computer’s built-in tool, but if you’re part of any Slack or WhatsApp groups, you’ll know that not everyone feels the same way.

Your Friend Asks You What It’s Like to Fly Eleven Hours in Coach

Uh, we literally have no idea. If it’s not a lie flat, then we haven’t done it. We might look rugged and experienced, but honestly we haven’t been past row 16 or so on a widebody aircraft since, I don’t know, ever.

GoBank Discontinues Its Card

When notice came in mid-August that GoBank was shutting down in favor of Go2Bank, MSers swiped repeatedly at Walmart to offload gift cards (including Metabank) while they still could.

Brex Gives us Hundreds of Thousands of Points for Very Little Effort

It took me under five minutes on the phone to link PayPal to Brex for 100,000 points. And then there was the 110,000 point sign-up bonus in early February. Oh, and you could do it multiple times with multiple business. In my state, you can register a business for only $70, so there’s that too. (It’s not quite as good, but you can keep the party going in 2022 with the TravelBank 75,000 points after spending $1,000 offer.)

BestBuy Disables Auto-Checkout Bots During Black Friday

BestBuy knows that auto-checkout bots exist, and has countermeasures to disable them. Why does it turn them on for only a week or two a year? I have no idea.

American Express’s Secret 1,900,000 Membership Rewards Offer

Employees that shared your name but with roman numerals were never more exciting! This deal is still scheduled to run well into 2022 on many business cards by the way; you just have to call and ask, because I guess you’re just supposed to know that AmEx has phone only offers and to check periodically?

BravoPay Tries to Fix the 2% Liquidation Loophole

I literally think every day about how badly BravoPay’s programmers built the app and how they tried several times to repair it but kept failing. “It’ll buff out, right?”

Airline Customer Service Teams Try and Keep-up

Apropos of nothing, do you remember how the CARES act was supposed to keep everyone employed at airlines? Anyway, I’m sure that worked out well and nine-hour hold times are how it’s always been, right?.

Pre-check and Clear Make Us Complacent About Timing

Leaving your house 26 minutes before your airline’s schedule departure is prolly fine right?

Getting excited for the Capital One Venture X Card

… and then getting denied.

Staples Runs Another $200 Fee Free Gift Card Sale

It only comes around for two to three weeks a month, so the excitement is hard to summon.

The GivingAssistant Portal Falls Apart

A few probers out there knew that GivingAssistant was really good at awarding cash back even when other portals wouldn’t, like buying Apple Products on BestBuy.com. Did our experimenting cause it to fall apart?

Miles Earn and Burn Celebrates a One Year Anniversary

You may have figured out by now that I’m not big on ceremony for the sake of ceremony, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I spared you all from another “WE JUST TURNED ONE YEARS YOUNG!!” blog post. But, the anniversary technically did occur.

The Worst Credit Card Takes a New Tact

I don’t yet have a formal Unsung Villains series to match the Unsung Heroes series, but if and when I do the Mastercard Black Card card will be at the top of the villains list. The thing is, they know that their card is bad so their marketing department has to stretch. Recently they’ve started advertising that their card is heavier than the competition. Wow, you mean my wallet can get even thicker?!? Sold!

Thank You!

I don’t say it enough, but I appreciate everyone’s support over 2021. Thanks for your emails, your Telegram messages, your Slack and Discord groups, and your Patreon memberships. I’m really here because of you.

Until next year, friends!