Their intelligence is generally higher than average
Their social-skills tend to be focused on the short term, except for the next item
Their memory about being wronged lasts a long time
Taken together, there are a conclusions we can draw that seem to be accurate based on lots of observation in the space:
Friendly relationships need active work, or they fade somewhat quickly
The memory of when someone feels wronged lasts forever
Like a good credit union, working to maintain a relationship boosts profitability and longevity. Also like a good credit union, nuking the thing isn’t going to help you at all. Instead, you end up blacklisted by your target, their inner circles, and probably by plenty of casual observers too. Is there a time and place for that sort of thing? I’m not sure, but if you’re going to do it be deliberate about the time and the place, like the Bikini Atoll I guess.
Have a nice weekend friends!
*This is a lie. I don’t play one on TV. Once I pretended to though. No, that’s a lie too.
These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
The Incomm sites have Valentine’s Day fee-free gift cards:
– TheGiftCardShop 100% off of purchase fees through February 15 with promo code LOVE26 – MasterCardGiftCard 100% off of purchase fees through February 14 with promo code VDAY26 – VanillaGift 100% off of purchase fees through February 14 with promo code VGVDAY26
VanillaGift chose to use the tagline “For the Love of Gifting”, which I hope makes the floosies laugh.
In case you’re wondering, which I’m sure you weren’t, I think you’ll get a bigger discount than the odds I’d give that Spirit hasn’t ceased operations by March 11. (Thanks to FM)
Let’s call out the square for the next round of Breeze Route Bingo: Brownsville (BRO) to Orlando (MCO)! Today only, you get a bonus middle square if you already knew where BRO was – I sure didn’t.
Let’s discuss a few quasi-private / quasi-public news items today:
Air Astana Nomad Club
I hadn’t known much of anything about Kazakhstan based Air Astana or its Nomad Club frequent flyer program until yesterday, but I’ve now investigated it because reasons. The interesting parts:
Want more? Seek your favorite feline friend coded chat room for more information. At the very least, you’ll get a cat picture out of it. They’ll also be happy to tell you about Qatar Avios, but I think that one’s slightly less obscure.
The Robot Lady
In the 2010s there were two “robot ladies” that manufactured spenders befriended. We lost one of them, Kate, in 2016, and the other slightly less famous but more prolific one continued service unabated until a couple of days ago. The signs had been there, the robot lady overlords had been threatening to cut us off since mid December, but we were unsure what the deathbed would look like.
Now that we know though, I can confidently say that there’s a difference between life support and complete robot-death, you haven’t yet found the penultimate all set. Always be probing.
Happy “one of those obscure posts that nobody can understand”-day to all those who celebrate!
Two Bank of America Atmos Visas have increased sign-up bonuses:
– Personal Ascent: 85,000 miles after $4,500 spend in 120 days – Business: 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 90 days
If one is good, three is better right? Also, side note, aren’t you glad I don’t have to write “The Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature®” like everyone else? No, that’s just me? Hmm.
Just like with Bank of America, why have just one? The Triple-Cash card comes with a free monthly subscription to seats.aero, at least sort-of.
There are February shopping portal bonues at major airline portals:
– AA Advantage: 500 miles with $200+ through February 11 – Alaska Atmos: 500 miles with $150+ through February 11 – United MileagePlus: 500 miles with $150+ through February 11
Watch for the Southwest portal bonus to arrive late in the next couple of days as winter weather spreads through their technology stack.
– Your balance will transfer to Citi – Barclay cards will work after the transition until you activate your Citi card – Citi card will have a new account number – The Barlcay variants will be converted to the Citi lineup, sorry Silver card holders* – Authorized user cards will be reissued too
If you’re Citi shut, will this transition get you back in? We’ll see, but #citigonnaciti.
Let’s ask a rhetorical or philosophical question, whichever you prefer: What do you get when you turn an awful transfer ratio into a really bad transfer ratio?
– $500 after $5,000 spend in 90 days – $1,500 after $50,000 spend in 180 days
The cards carry no annual fee. If you haven’t figured out how to join banks or credit unions in another state, it’s probably time to experiment. (Thanks to DoC)
The American Express Delta cards have heightened sign-up bonuses, all of which are available via referrals too so go that route instead of using a blog link, P2 will thank you:
– Business Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived – Business Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $8,000 spend in six months – Business Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $15,000 spend in six months – Personal Gold: 90,000 SkyMiles after $5,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived – Personal Platinum: 100,000 SkyMiles after $6,000 spend in six months – Personal Reserve: 125,000 SkyMiles after $9,000 spend in six months
Four of the Chase United family of cards also has increased sign-up bonuses, and these are available for referrals too, so it’s either your best churning buddy or P2’s time to shine!
– Personal Explorer: 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in three months, annual fee waived – Personal Quest: 80,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months – Business MileagePlus: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months – Business Club: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in three months
What’s the difference between the last two? A few things, but also an extra $495 for unlimited cheese cubes at any United Club location. I hope you like cheese!
Obviously you should sign up for Rove with either P2 or a churner buddy’s referral.
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 10x points on Home Depot cards through Thursday, and Giant Food earns 6x during the same period. You’re limited to $2,000 or $1,500 per loyalty account depending on the brand.
– Pay 1,149 Euros for a one year subscription – Earn 1,500 Euros worth of Accor ALL points (75,000 annually / 6,250 monthly) – Earn 12,000 status points (1,000 monthly)
Gold status requires 7,000 points and Platinum requires 14,000, so earning Platinum becomes almost trivial. Effectively, if you were going to spend 2,000 Euros on Accor hotels in 2026 you’ll come out ahead by about 350 Euros and have Platinum status when you’re done. (Thanks to LL)
Have a nice weekend friends!
Gearing up for Player 2 referral shenanigans. (Thanks to smirley)
There are more articles about how to optimize your daily organic spend with the right credit card portfolios then there are people on the planet (citation needed). I think you should ignore all of them. Why? Since you’re here, I’m going to assume you fall into one of two buckets, each with its own reason.
Bucket 1: The Players
As a churning player, you’ve got at least an intermediate understanding of manufactured spend and its execution. You probably know how to spend many thousands of dollars a week, a day, an hour, or maybe even more frequently, and those thousands of dollars mean at least many thousands of points earned in the same time frame.
On the other hand, your regular spend just doesn’t matter much in comparison. Even if you had a magical 10x card, your $15 lunch would earn you 150 points, which isn’t worth thinking about unless it’s purely for entertainment value. Those 150 points probably represent much less than a tenth of a percent of your earning, so don’t stress it. Any card will do.
Bucket 2: The Dreamers
If you’re not yet a churning player, you’re probably dreaming of becoming one (again, otherwise I don’t think you’d be reading this). If so, I’m sure it’s tempting to analyze which of the major bank cards are best for your lunch dining spend. Maybe it’s the American Express Personal Gold that earns 4x on dining, the Citi Strata Premier that earns 3x, the Chase Sapphire Preferred that earns 3x, or the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey that earns 3x? Well, maybe it’s one of those, but:
they have different annual fees
they have different transfer partners
they have different cash-out values
they have different ancillary benefits
So, which is best given that they’re all different? Maybe you need to build a spreadsheet, list your common expenses, the current point valuations from BigBankBlogger™, the coupon credits each card offers, the sign-up bonuses, when you can cancel the cards and still get an annual-fee refund, whether the card makes sense next to your quarterly 5x earning card capped at $1,500, and a dozen other factors. That’ll be a cool spreadsheet! But, you’ll sink hours into that sheet, it’ll go stale in months, and you’ll find that you’re still a dreamer.
So instead of optimizing your small organic spend, consider spending your would-be spreadsheet time figuring out how to move from dreamer to player. I guarantee you’ll make more points by doing so than the incremental bump you’ll get from an extra 2x when you go out to lunch.
The Big Picture
Optimizing your organic spend is almost certainly a poor investment on your time, unless it’s done purely for entertainment purposes, or because it makes people like MEAB annoyed, or maybe both.
Happy Thursday!
From the page where I got the statistic about the number of point optimization articles on the internet.
– Accor ALL points are worth a fixed 2 eurocents, or approximately 2.4 cents – You can transfer Accor ALL to Qantas at a 1:1.25 ratio – For more on the program, see the MEAB FAQette.
Honestly, if you’ve decided to get out of the Bilt ecosystem this is probably the best case cash-out you could hope for, at least assuming you travel outside of the US.
I wouldn’t normally write about content monster fodder like this, but I’m too happy to see it gone to help myself. So:
