Category: Uncategorized

1. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s promotion for a free night voucher after two nights stayed in the US, Canada, or the Carribean before May 5. The free night voucher is valid through August 25.
   
   If you haven’t stayed in a Best Western in a a while, you’re really not missing anything, but there’s still a good arbitrage opportunity here. A quick search of Best Westerns in Lubbock shows plenty of $45-$55 nights, and after two of those you’ll earn a certificate that could be used at $500+ a night Best Western Properties in a place where people actually want to visit. Pro-tip: you don’t actually have to sleep in the $45 / night hotel.
   
2. Two airline portal shave a promotion for bonus miles after cumulative spend through February 12:
   
   – AA eShopping has 500 bonus miles after $200 or more in cumulative spend
   – United MileagePlus shopping has 500 bonus miles after $150 or more in cumulative spend
   
   In totally random news giftcards.com is back on AA eShopping and on MileagePlus Shopping, albeit at 1x as of this writing.
   
3. There’s a new, relatively low bonus no-lifetime language (NLL) American Express Business Gold link with 70,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 in spend.
   
   Normally this would still be worthwhile thanks to call-in offers for adding up to 99 employees, but those aren’t available on the Business Gold card while they’re updating systems with the increased annual fee. (Thanks to DoC)
   
4. The Target RedCard debit card has a $50 sign-up bonus through May 4, which is enough time to churn this at least once. (Lately you’ve got to wait about eight weeks in-between closing and reopening one of these for auto-approval.)
   
   The double redemption, once online and once in-store, is now dead, but there continues to be no credit impact for churning the debit card.

In other random news, attorneys are still attorneys.

1. Kroger stores are running a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday, February 13.
   
   The resale market for both fuel points and gift cards is traditionally soft in the first couple of months in a new year, and we’ve settled into that funk in 2024 too. I do expect the funk to evaporate in the next month or so, but right now the game will probably involve longer inventory hold times.
   
2. Bilt figured out how to effectively get credit card sites to write a feature post about the Bilt card and program at least monthly with their cringe-worthy “rent day” promotions. I do my best to abstain from the chicanery, but sometimes there’s still something genuinely valuable like today’s tiered Aeroplan transfer bonus:
   
   – Blue: 75% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 1,750 miles)
   – Silver: 100% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,000 miles)
   – Gold: 125% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,250 miles)
   – Platinum: 150% transfer bonus (1,000 points to 2,500 miles)
   
   Aeroplan is one of the best transfer programs for Star Alliance awards because it they’ve got good technology and low-friction booking, though they still have cancelation fees on their lowest awards and their prices are occasionally more expensive than other Star Alliance programs. I’ll be transferring most of my Bilt points to Aeroplan, but don’t do something just because I’m doing it.
   
3. The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card has a heightened sign-up bonus, and the $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year:
   
   – 60,000 miles after $2,000 spend in 90 days
   – 10,000 miles for adding an employee card and making a purchase in 90 days
   
   This card has plenty of other features, but frankly probably none of them are worth using or holding past year one. (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
   
4. Today may be the last day for adding employee cards with spending bonuses online to several American Express cards; they were set expire on February 2 according to the terms and conditions but one of them has already died:
   
   – Business Platinum: Spend $4,000 get 15,000 Membership Rewards, limit five
   – Business Gold: Spend $4,000 get 15,000 Membership Rewards, limit five
   – Blue Business Plus: Spend $4,000 get 15,000 Membership Rewards, limit five
   
   Hopefully new offers replace these, but you know what they say about hopes. Also, could you tell me what they say about hopes? Because I don’t actually know. Anyway, if you have spend capacity to meet these bonuses I’d order the cards right now.

If the gift card and resale market in January and February were a food, it’d be week old ketchup on ramen.

1. Chase Offers has an offer for 15% back at most Hyatt property brands for up to $323 in spend through the end of the month. It even works at the Hyatt Place Lubbock, sorry.
   
2. Do this now: Register for 5x bonus miles up to 50,000 miles total on flights to and from London LHR, Amsterdam AMS, or Paris CDG airports. It’s a great offer of sort, but United found away to “put the Lubbock” into this offer as it is wont to do:
   
   – Only valid for economy flights
   – Not valid for basic economy
   – Not valid for travel on non-United operated flights
   
   Travel must complete by December 13. (Thanks to FM)
   
3. DoC notes that as of Monday, Chase business bankers have increased bonuses available to targeted clients:
   
   – Ink Premier: 150,000 Ultimate Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months
   – Ink Business Unlimited: $1,200 cash back after $6,000 spend in three months
   
   Note that in two player mode with a 40,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus, you can still do better on the Ink Business Unlimited from home. Also, note that I haven’t been able to independently confirm that these offers exist, even in Lubbock.
   
4. Southwest has a deep-discount fare sale for flights departing before 8:00 AM or after 7:00 PM local time for travel between November 7 and March 6 booked by tomorrow night. They’ve Lubbocked it up a bit too:
   
   – Several blackout days around the holidays
   – Not valid for flights on Fridays and Sundays, the two busiest travel days
   
   It’s worth re-pricing any existing reservations assuming you like to depart when the Sun’s not up.

United will include this shirt in its next MileagePlay promotion, obviously.

There was an isolated group of shutdowns on a relatively lucrative play yesterday, the details don’t matter much for the sake of today’s post but the mechanics matter a lot. The gist is that there was a rash of\ shutdowns that all could be explained as guilt by association, and we saw non-shutdowns where there was no clear association. (Yes, we’re dealing with another obtuse MEAB post, sorry.)

There’s a natural dichotomy in miles and points where one side tugs toward sharing and scaling as a group, and another side pulls at isolation and keeping something in your own pocket. Of course sharing is key for scale and trust is paramount to sharing; but when a bank can link you and someone else on the internet, you’ve got a decent shot at becoming collateral damage when the ban-hammer drops.

The takeaway? Isolate your financial transactions to maximize a play’s longevity (to the extent that such a thing is possible), but trust and share details in your inner circle as long as a bank can’t link you.

Have a nice weekend!

That’s one way to maintain plausible deniability.

Introduction

There are multiple grey markets for frequent flyer miles and bank points, and just like any other market, you’ll find that different items have different prices (shocker, I know).

Obviously you can use this to your advantage in myriad ways, but let’s talk about what I’d call the travel hacker equivalent of the bull call spread in the derivates market:

The Goal

Let’s say you need to book an AA flight with 7,500 British Airways Avios and you’ve got Ultimate Rewards points ready to go. Of course you could transfer Ultimate Rewards to Avios directly, but that’s not always the best option.

Running the Spread

To illustrate, let’s assume a few spot prices for miles:

• Ultimate Rewards: 1.27 cents per point
• ThankYou Points: 1.15 cents per point
• Membership Rewards: 1.18 cents per point

With those prices in mind, here’s the play:

• Sell 7,500 Ultimate Rewards at 1.27 cents per point (earn: $95.25)
• Buy 7,500 Membership Rewards at 1.18 cents per point (pay: $88.50)
• Transfer the Membership Rewards to British Airways and keep the spread ($6.75)

Is this with your time and the risk for earning enough to buy a decked out Starbucks latte? Almost certainly not. But if you’re talking the number of points needed for La Premier tickets for a couple or JAL F tickets for a family instead of a measly 7,500 Avios, the difference can be significant and may be enough to move the needle.

Caveats

There are potential pitfalls here: banks don’t want you buying and selling points, markets aren’t always fully liquid, and you have counterparty risk. You’re all adults though right? Just make sure those risks are priced-in should you decide to run the spread.

Happy Wednesday!

A guide to a modestly priced Starbucks latte, pre-inflation.

1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original MEAB Unsung Hero, now allows for points redemption to Visa e-gift cards at the same redemption rate as other gift cards, making this the new best points cash-out option and making the card even more valuable.
   
2. Lowe’s has an in-store promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Mastercard gift card. The Mastercards are Pathward and have an activation fee of $5.95 to $7.95 depending on the variety, and the resale rates on the Lowe’s card are between 82% and 84% making this a profitable deal without considering credit card rewards.
   
   There’s a limit of two per $15 Lowe’s cards per email address, but someone told me it’s possible to get more than one email address. I know, sounds weird right?
   
3. Fake Points Travel Blogger notes that the Bilt credit card company (Bilt Technologies, Inc) is suing another company also named Bilt (technically BILT, Inc) over trademark infringement for a mobile app that’s existed longer than credit card company, and that lawsuit spawned a counter-suit. Also revealed in court filings is that since its inception, the credit card Bilt has made a total of $41.4 million in revenue through January of this year.
   
   The action item on this one? Start thinking up new names for the Bilt rewards program and share them around your circles. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
   
4. Reader Kevin was the first to let me know that there’s good (?) news to go along with yesterday’s bad news that Walmart has $3.74 load fees BlueBird cards: You can now load BlueBird cards at Family Dollar fee-free, just like with Serve cards.
   
5. You’d better sit down for this, because I think you’re going to be blown away, err, wait. The opposite actually:
   
   Staples will be selling fee free $200 Visa gift cards in-store starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for multiple transactions back-to-back to minimize the time spent in a 12,000 square foot store manned by two employees, one of whom is in the back room watching TikTok.
   
6. American Express’s Delta co-brand cards have increased sign up bonuses:
   
   – Personal Gold: 75,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 spend in six months
   – Personal Platinum: 75,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
   – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
   
   AmEx used their random number generator with these offers so if you don’t see them, switch browsers, go incognito, connect to a VPN, try mobile, yell at Richard Kerr between lawsuits, or something similar until you do see them. (Thanks to rep-swe)

Have a nice weekend!

The real surprise isn’t Staples, it’s what’s at the bottom of the slide.

1. IHG has 15% off of award bookings for card holders and for Platinum and Diamond elites through tomorrow for stays through December 16. Yes, this has been around for a few days, but today is the first day that elites are also eligible for the discount.

   Be sure to reprice any existing IHG reservations in addition to looking at new bookings.

2. Southwest has a fare sale through tomorrow evening for travel from:

   – November 29 through December 15 of this year
   – January 10 through March 8 of next year

   Reprice existing reservations too, and note that if your spring break dates fall within two weeks of March 8, you might consider a refundable points booking on near the end of the promotion and hope for a schedule change that lets you switch to your desired dates for no additional fee.

3. American Express employee card offers have now been reported for the Plum card, Delta Reserve Business card, Delta Business Gold card, and the Business Platinum card, which gives us the updated list of offers for up to 99 employee cards per primary card:

   – Plum card: $50 statement credit for $2,000 in spend per card [new]
   – Delta Business Gold: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card [new]
   – Delta Business Reserve: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card [new]
   – Blue Business Plus: 5,000 Membership Rewards for $1,000 in spend per card [new] UPDATE: There are multiple reports of $1,000 in spend required and $2,000 in spend required, it seems variable on this card
   – Blue Business Cash: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card [new] UPDATE: There are multiple reports of $1,000 in spend required and $2,000 in spend required, it seems variable on this card
   – Business Platinum: 5,000 Membership Rewards for $2,000 in spend per card [new]
   – Hilton Business: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card
   – Marriott Business: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card
   – Lowe’s Business: $50 statement credit for $1,000 in spend per card
   – Green Business: $50 statement credit for $2,000 in spend per card

   Don’t sleep on these, each one is an additional 495,000 points or $4,950. (Thanks to Sebastian, Marrisa94, and Jim for new data points, and thanks to everyone who reached out to me yesterday noting that 99 * 5,000 ≠ 49,500 🤦‍♀️)

4. Check for a targeted email from Discover for an extra 4% cash back on up to $2,000 in purchases by December 31. The subject: “Congrats [name], enjoy up to $80 extra cash back” (Thanks to an anonymous contributor)
5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards starting today and running through Tuesday after clipping the digital coupon. If you’re using fuel points to subsidize gift card reselling, you should be able to do so profitably with a little care. My current guidance on avoiding fuel account locks:

   – Create a new fuel points account with a new incognito session on the browser on your mobile device when not connected to wifi
   – Buy everything in one or two transactions total, ideally in off-hours (customer service counters let you scale this a bit)
   – Do your best to work with a fuel points end-user that can use the points within an hour or two of loading

   Good luck!

Showing my work from the math in yesterday’s post.