Category: Uncategorized

  1. Accor ALL has 2x earning (or 3x for co-brand card holders) on European hotels booked by Sunday for two-night or longer stays Between September 7 and December 27, registration required.

    Accor’s fixed point value means a non-elite regularly earns 5% back in rewards, and last I checked 3*5% = 15% which is pretty good.
  2. Giftcards.com has two deals on $100 Visa gift cards:

    – Fee free with code FEEFREE, limit three
    – Free $10 Giftcards.com gift certificate with code HOTPERK

    These aren’t supposed to track on shopping portals, but often do anyway if you avoid the Cartera white labeled ones.
  3. Kroger stores have fee-free $150+ variable load Visas and Mastercards through Tuesday, limit one per Kroger account.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Air France / KLM FlyingBlue has a promotion for 10,000 bonus miles with any US originating economy fare booked in August for travel through January 31, 2027.

    In case you’re wondering, this isn’t enough to make up for yesterday’s devaluation.
  5. Alaska Airlines is launching seasonal service between Seattle and Paris, and between Seattle and Athens. Award availability will likely be great to start.
  6. Starlux started selling its COSMILE frequent flyer miles at four cents per mile, but only up to 150,000 miles annually per account. This is notable for discount access to Starlux First primarily.
  7. United has a status match for MileagePlus members in the “Chicago metro area” with reduced qualification requirements, specifically you have to one activating flight out of ORD which gives you 120 days of status, and then you qualify for the membership year with two more flights and earn sufficient PQP (pretty quirky points) from flying or credit card spend. (Thanks to FM)

Have a nice weekend!

Alaska’s 787-9 long-haul business class cabin, prolly.

One of the most surprising aspects of manufactured spend is the sheer number of people that send six-plus figures worth of goods, gift cards, precious metals, or other consideration to someone on the internet that they know only by a handle, and if they’re lucky, a first name. This works for two reasons:

  • Broker reputation
  • Effective communications in the community about reputation

In other words, you may only know a guy as “Michael“, but if a hundred other contacts that you trust have successfully done big business with Michael, then doing business with that guy is probably slightly less risky than a random Michael you met in downtown Portland.

Of course past performance doesn’t guarantee future gains and Michael may choose your shipment as his ticket to a new life in Argentina, a risk we’ll call counterparty risk. That’s not the only kind of risk though, in manufactured spend, we’re subject to:

  • counterparty risk
  • shutdown risk
  • credit risk
  • tax and audit risk
  • fraud risk
  • cybersecurity risk
  • clawback risk
  • operational risk
  • concentration risk
  • automation risk
  • MCC coding risk

… amongst other risks. A quick treatise on each will make you a better and safer manufactured spender, and we’ll have a semi-irregular post here about each in the upcoming (I have no idea how many) months. Stay tuned friends.

Oh, and so you don’t walk away feeling like you didn’t get anything out of today’s post:

Happy Tuesday!

Pictured: Michael

  1. American Express Membership Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Qatar Avios through September 27.
  2. Southwest has a promotion for a Companion Pass valid between January 5 and March 3, 2027. To qualify, register, book two one-ways or a round-trip by Thursday, and fly by November 18. (Thanks to JacobS)
  3. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard has new offers for monthly statement credits in August, September, and October for most transactions. In the past these were usually emailed to cardholders, but this round has offers appearing on the ThankYou Offers dashboard, activation required. The offers:

    – 8% back on $900+ in spend, maximum $90 back per month
    – 12% back on $1,500+ in spend, maximum $195 back per month
    – 1,500 bonus ThankYou points with $750+ in spend per month

    Yes, these offers stack with your other Citi offers. Long live the most prominent (Un)sung Hero. (Thanks to birt, Michael, and Kzn)
  4. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard Gift Cards through Saturday.

    These are Pathward / Blackhawk Network gift cards.
  5. The Citi AA Executive Mastercard was retooled. Major changes:

    – Annual fee increases from $595 to $695
    – $250 AA vacations coupons, once every six months
    – Yearly $100 credits for inflight and Admirals club purchases
    – 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points when reaching 165,000 and 240,000

    There are also effectively worthless Lyft credits and a buy two Omni stays, get one free night credit. Other coupons like Grubhub credits are going away.
  6. The Boeing 737-MAX7 aircraft was certified by the FAA yesterday, expect to find those littering the Southwest route network soon.

    Want to know what else the FAA has been up to? I’m sure it’s fine.

Happy Tuesday!

Another Citi AA Executive coupon being workshopped.