1. Do this now: Register for Radisson Americas’ current promotion, which is a free night certificate for each two nights you stay on points between now and December 31. The free night certificate is valid between January 17 and May 23 of next year and you can earn up to 5 free certificates. The certificate you earn is based on the award category:

  • Stay in a category 1, 2, or 3 hotel and receive a category free night 1-3 certificate
  • Stay in a category 4 or 5 hotel and receive a free night certificate for any hotel

2. Simon has another promotion for 40% off of fees with code SEP21FS40, and this applies to their $1,000 Visa Gift Cards. These are great for ginning up spend on your Citi cards for other shenanigans, just make sure you have a liquidation path fleshed out before you spend a bunch, and don’t use an AmEx because you won’t earn points.

3. Capital One has a new travel portal. Normally, I’d say something like: “Who cares? Booking through a third party travel portal is almost always a terrible idea. With hotels, you won’t get benefits from the rewards program and you’re likely to get one of the crappiest rooms at the property, and with flights when something changes you’re going to have to deal with the portal’s terrible customer service to make something happen.”

My response? “That’s all true, self, and great points too I might add.” However there’s a minor reason to book a flight with this portal: they say that they’ll automatically refund the fare difference if the price of the flight drops. If true, that’s pretty cool. They do use weird language “Did you book a flight to visit loved ones based on Capital One Travel recommendations? If the flight price drops, no problem.” I have no idea if that means there are only certain “recommended” flights to which this applies. If so, they’re a bunch of louses and they should feel bad about themselves. If not, this could be a nice feature. (Thanks to DDG via reddit)

A grey squirrel.
I was talking to myself about third party travel booking and then… squirrel.

1. Southwest has a new Companion Pass promotion(*) that’s very easy to attain: You have to purchase a paid round-trip or two one-way flights by tomorrow and travel by November 18. Register just in case you book something and qualify (yes, you have to book by tomorrow so I admit the likelihood of a booking you don’t know about coming up in the next day is small).

The companion pass will be valid from January 6, 2022 through February 28, 2022. And, you can change the companion three times over that period, which is a great way to scale this to multiple free tickets for multiple companions if it suits your travel style.

2. My Xfinity rewards program $100 Visa Gift Card showed up in the mail today. It’s issued by Metabank and has a 424030 BIN. Unfortunately that BIN is one of the harder to work with, but liquidation is still easily possible. Now, let me say something I think I’ve never said before and I’ll never say again: Thanks Xfinity!

3. There’s a widely targeted offer for 3x spend at grocery, drug stores, and restaurants for Barclay’s JetBlue cards for up to $1,000 spend. Look for an email with the subject “Fly off with 3X additional points on everyday purchases this fall.” Combine with two $500 BestBuy gift cards at Kroger for a nice win.

The top-tier elite Southwest experience summed up in a single picture.

* Unfortunately, you do have to fly on Southwest. However as I always say, they do get you where you’re going.

Today is your day-off between Kroger’s promotions for 4x fuel points on gift cards. I hope you’re taking advantage of it, I know I’m excited to not step foot in a Kroger for the next 24 hours. In case that’s not exciting enough, here are a couple of items that will hopefully make up for it:

1. American Express has a 15% transfer bonus to LifeMiles, as I’m sure you already knew. Well, LifeMiles also as its own 15% incoming transfer bonus for Membership Rewards transfers until September 30, which gives you a total bonus of 32% (EDIT: Thanks to Vince for pointing out that a 15% bonus on a 15% bonus is effectively a 32% bonus, not a 30% bonus as previously written) . This is huge, it means:

  • 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

There are other great redemptions too. You’ve probably read on this site multiple times that one of Avianca LifeMiles’ sweet-spots is its loose definition of a region. That US-Caribbean deal is a prime example. (Thanks to TheSultan1 for digging up the LifeMiles bonus link)

2. American Express Platinum card retention offers in September have finally caught up with the new, increased annual fee. There are reports of 60,000 Membership Rewards or $650 statement credits being offered. Whenever I call for a retention offer, I say something like: “I’m thinking of closing this card because its annual fee is huge. Before I make a decision though, I was wondering if there are any spend bonuses or retention offers available?” It’s worth a shot with all of your AmEx cards at these offer levels, so don’t put this one off.

Taking a break between Kroger 4x fuel points promotions.

1. Meijer MPerks has a new gift card offer, $10 off of $150 or more in Visa Gift Cards through Saturday. Meijer stores carry either or both of Sunrise and Metabank gift cards. The former are easier to deal with in person but there are options for liquidation of both. How many MPerks accounts do you have?

2. Southwest has a double tier points promotion available to everyone, register here before November 30, and book your travel before then too. This will fast track you to status on Southwest, which can be valuable. The downside though? You have to fly Southwest to get the status and unfortunately you’ll never get a first class upgrade, it turns out those seats are always sold out.

3. Chase wasn’t satisfied to let AmEx have all the fun, so they’ve added a 30% bonus for transferring Ultimate Rewards to British Airways and Iberia Avios. The Lazy Traveler has an interesting tip: Iberia is currently pricing as off-peak for the whole year of 2022, so take advantage. (And remember that the AmEx transfer bonus is 40%.)

4. It’s been circulating in several private groups that Kroger has another 4x fuel points promotion for buying gift cards running between Wednesday and the following Tuesday, September 21. No link yet, but watch for the ad in your mailbox this week. The longer running promotions like this are better than the short weekend ones (They’re not better just because they last longer, get out and try some things!)

On a semi-related note, the March American Express Platinum upgrade 10x at gas and grocery has started posting for everyone I know and for me too. You’ve still got a few days left to max out the $15,000 spend from that deal if you haven’t already.

The old school Southwest first class upgrade. IYKYK.

Keep the following on your radar for the holiday weekend, but make sure you take some time to relax too (don’t forget that we’re starting busy season for reselling, gift cards or otherwise so save some energy for the points treadmill):

1. On Wednesday I wrote about how the Point.app debit card was a nice vector from Venture Capitalist investment funds to your wallet. Well, it looks like that’s going to be going on for a long time: They just raised $46.5 Million dollars from two major venture capital funds.

On a likely related note, Point has a new streak going for $30 back after making a purchase a day for five days in a row, provided those purchases add up to $200 or more. This is easily combined with the Target 10x or Nike 15x offer running at Point right now, so if you procrastinated on those you’re in luck! Max them out with a gift card for resale to bump you well over $200 in spend, then set up Debbit to make four more transactions of $1.00 at Amazon for the following four days.

If you don’t have Point.app, use a referral link because the normal sign-up bonus is $10, but with a referral it’s $100. There’s no credit check since it’s a debit card. If you need a referral ask a friend and make their day, but if you don’t know anyone with Point reach out to me and I’ll share mine.

2. TravelBloggerBuzz’s post for yesterday had two more hotel promotions in addition to Wednesday’s Marriott promotion. So, do the following now in case you end up staying at one of these hotels:

If you do end up at a Best Western, my condolences. At least you’re not at a Marriott Courtyard.

3. When will the madness end? Starting Sunday, Staples will have fee-free $200 Visa Gift Cards, limit 5 per transaction. I may sit this one out, I’m very much running out of bonused office supply spend capacity and there isn’t a Staples near me. (thanks to kawnipi)

4. Kroger’s 4x fuel points when purchasing gift cards promotion starts today and runs through Monday evening. Rates on everything related to this promotion have crept up from the last round, so it’s a great time to knock out some grocery store spend and potentially earn money doing it.

An old, green, monochrome air traffic control radar screen centered on an airport
Radar screen showing my local Kroger parking lot and gift card rack.

1. American Express has a transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to all of its airline partners, something unheard of until this point. You’ve probably heard this reported elsewhere already, so let’s add to the conversation with a few particular sweet spots:

  • 40% bonus to Avios with Aer Lingus, British Airways, or Iberia
    • Use Iberia for great award space from the US to Europe and avoid fuel surcharges with BA with the same flight access. Look for Madrid trips for extra value.
  • 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic, Hilton, Marriott
    • Use Virgin Atlantic for really low redemption round-trip tickets in Business or First to Japan and Eastern Asia
  • 25% bonus to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue, Aeromexico, Hawaiian
  • 20% bonus to Air Canada’s Aeroplan or Qantas
    • Use Aeroplan for short haul economy flights in the US
    • Use Aeroplan for business or first class flights from the Central or Eastern US to Europe
  • 15% bonus to LifeMiles
    • Use LifeMiles for loose definitions of what a region is
    • Use LifeMiles for economy bookings from the Central or Eastern US to Europe

2. United has a 30% bonus when transferring from hotel points to United MileagePlus miles. You have to register here first though.

  • Transfer Marriott Bonvoy points. With the transfer bonus, you’re looking at approximately 1.85 Bonvoy points to 1 MileagePlus mile. I’d say that’s about the best general use case of Bonvoy points I’ve seen in a long time. (This is a terrible idea with most other programs, especially Hyatt.)

Happy Thursday!

Bonus: Neptune’s sweet spot

1. Another week, another Point debit card offer: 15x at Nike between now and Monday September 6, limit 5000 points (or $333 in spend). I’ll buy a $330 gift card for resale at 93.5% and a net cost of 85%.

Point has been a great middle-man for transferring money from venture capitalist bank accounts into our wallets. I have to wonder when these offers will die, but it could be a while because VC money is plentiful right now — especially for FinTech companies.

As usual with Point, sign up for a new account using a referral link for the best bonus (currently $100 after spending $1,000). Make a friend’s day by using theirs, but if you don’t know anyone with a link you can reach out to me and I’ll share mine.

2. Marriott Bonvoy has its fall promotion out for stays between September 14 and December 12. Register here right now in case you end up at a Marriott property in the next several months. Also, my condolences if you do.

What’s the offer you ask? Answer: A slap in the face, but also 1,500 bonus points added to your Bonvoy account for each stay at a Marriott (or 4,500 if the property is all inclusive). Ok, ok i kid: a slap in the face is complimentary with every Marriott stay.

My welcome gift as a Bonvoy elite at my last Marriott Courtyard stay.

Well friends, the day is unfortunately here: As of tonight at 11:59PM Eastern (or perhaps even earlier), you can no longer cash-out American Express Membership Rewards at 1.25 cents each with the Schwab Platinum card. That makes it a great time to remind you about the often forgotten no-annual fee Morgan Stanley Card from American Express which I first learned about from the mostly defunct Windbag Miles, and then forgot about completely until the Schwab cash-out changes were confirmed. As of today now, it’s officially a member of the Miles Earn and Burn Unsung Heroes club.

Let’s talk about this card:

  • It earns Membership Rewards
  • It bonuses at 2x on department stores, restaurants, car rentals, and airfare
  • It has no annual fee
  • You can transfer to airline partners
  • You can cash out Membership Rewards to your Morgan Stanley account at one cent per point

The last bullet is the kicker, though the others are noteworthy too. This card may now be the best option for converting Membership Rewards to cash in an above-the-board sort of way. Yes, the Schwab Platinum gives you an extra 10% uplift on cash-out, but you also have to have a Schwab Platinum card and pay its $695 annual fee, which I guess you can offset slightly with Clear and a stupid gym membership.

Running the numbers quickly by moving the decimal, you’d have to cash-out more than 695,000 points with the Schwab Platinum at 1.1 cents per point to offset the annual fee of the Platinum card versus just cashing out at 1.0 cents per per point with the no fee Morgan Stanley Card; if you’re cashing out any number less than that over the period of a year, you should really be using the Morgan Stanley card and not the Schwab Platinum. As a really, really small incentive for getting the card, you’ll get 10,000 Membership Rewards as a sign up bonus after spending $1,000 within three months, and I’m guessing you’ve never gotten that signup bonus before. Right? It’s not exactly been high on my list.

As promised, the Morgan Stanley Card is no where to be found on my top credit cards list, but it will be in my wallet soon anyway.