“If your JAL Mileage Bank account is less than 60 days old, there will be up to a 7 day hold before you can use JAL miles to book travel.”
It turns out that Bilt is inadvertently teaching us another lesson, which is that unseasoned accounts can often cause you to be unable to use your miles until your account is old enough or until you jump through hoops like:
Having older accounts with some activity mitigates these problems, so when you do your churning spring cleaning, consider seasoning mileage accounts that you may use in the future.
– Buy in even multiples of $300 – Look for the lower-fee “Everywhere” cards if you have a good liquidation channel – Be approximately 1.2% sad that Dosh isn’t around anymore
These are Pathward gift cards.
Two Incomm sites have gift card promotions running through the end of May:
– VanillaGift: Fee-free $200+ Visas using VGGRAD100 – TheGiftCardShop.com: Bonus $10 Mastercard with $200+ using GRADBONUS35
Floosies that accidentally or purposefully took advantage of bonus multipliers to the tune of at least a few thousand dollars
Churners who found their own ways to trigger bonus categories and did so with medium to heavy volume this year
People with large suspicious money flows in our out of their deposit accounts
The first two groups saw only credit cards close while deposit accounts were untouched. The last group saw everything closed. There are enough questions swirling around the churnosphere that probably the subject probably deserves answers beneficial to the whole commnity:
[Q]: What happens to your points when Chase shuts you down? [A]: They stick around for 30 days unless you’re in New York, in which case it’s 90 days. In rare cases your points vanish immediately, but this is only when Chase suspects fraud or money laundering.
[Q]: Can I get back into Chase if I was shutdown? [A]: It very much depends on the reason, and how you were shut down. Depending on the circumstance, it’ll be one of: you’ll never see another card again, you’ll be back in after five years, you’ll be approved for cards but they’ll be shut down in a month or two, or you’ll be back in 60-90 days
[Q]: Is there anything I can do to reverse the shutdown? [A]: There are certain types of shutdowns like bust-out risk that can be overturned by the Chase Executive office. Unfortunately, this round doesn’t seem to be related to any of those types of shutdown, so for those affected in April and May the answer is probably no
[Q]: If Chase shuts me down, can I link new transfer partners in the Ultimate Rewards portal post-shutdown? [A]: Yes
[Q]: Will pending points post after I’m shutdown? [A]: Yes
[Q]: Do I need to worry about another round? [A]: Probably if you know the details of what happened to trigger bonus categories and you had significant volume; otherwise probably not
[Q]: Should I self-shutdown preemptively? [A]: I would if you were part of the bonus category shenanigans and you haven’t been axed yet
[Q]: Do I need to worry that I’ve maxed spend on my Chase Ink Cash cards at office supply stores? [A]: No
Good luck, and happy Monday!
Next time: The story of how boomer-era Chase Manhattan Bank helped propel National Christina Day into the worldwide spotlight.
– Round two of floosies missed in the the first American Express Big Axe, even if they cut out their floosie lifestyle in February – Accounts with big spend at international merchants and or with charges in multiple states simultaneously – Holders with multiple large, missed payments
It feels to me like American Express is trying to de-risk its accountholder portfolio and extraneous, abnormal behaviors aren’t as safe as they have been historically. I know nothing about anything, but assuming that’s true, lowering your balances with American Express every single day probably can’t hurt.
The American Express Platinum brokerage cards have increased sign-up bonuses, and you can have both provided you have the right underlying brokerage accounts:
– Schwab: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months – Morgan Stanley: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months
The Schwab’s best use is cashing out Membership Rewards at 1.1 cents per point, and Morgan Stanley’s is cashing out at 1.0 cents per point and giving the cardholder a free Platinum authorized user card with lounge access.
– JetBlue Mosaic 1 matches to AA Platinum – JetBlue Mosaic 2 matches to AA Platinum Pro – JetBlue Mosaic 3 and 4 match to AA Executive Platinum
These are instant matches that last four months, and you can retain the matches with flight activity. How much activity? In the most AA way possible, you won’t know until they email details on the successful match 🙄.
Have a nice weekend!
Lowering your American Express risk profile comes in many forms.
– 2,000 bonus points for every two nights – 8,000 bonus points for every four nights
This is valid for stays through the end of August. If you’re going to stay at least four nights, the second option will always earn more than the first.
Each of these is probably worth burning through your $20,000 annual giftcards.com capacity. Now is that per portal or per giftcards.com account? If you’re not sure like me, vary both simultaneously.
The validity period for this promo is really long, suggesting all is not well at the airline presently being haunted by the ghost of Herb Kelleher past.
The promotion has to be re-aded to your account an hour after its first use, though it’s still valid for all transactions within that hour because why not be complex when you can?
Whether or not you do this deal, consider closing any SoFi Checking and Savings accounts when you’re able because this deal will probably be back in some form again and a literal reading of the terms and conditions doesn’t preclude you from churning.
On the other hand, a literal reading didn’t go so well for another churner over the weekend.
The Rakuten shopping portal is offering $150-$300 or 15,000-30,000 Membership Rewards for credit card approvals with some Chase cards, and you’ll get it automatically with the Rakuten shopping extension installed in your browser:
This absolutely beats any two player mode referral bonus as is and also makes the Sapphire Preferred slightly more attractive than an Ink. If they drop back to their apparently regular bonuses of $50, then you can do better with a referral from P1 to P2 or buy selling a referral click on a marketplace.
Register for Hilton’s Q2 promotion for 1,000 bonus points per stay between June 1 and August 15. Normally I’d take the time to click and register for a promotion at any hotel that I may end up at, but this one is almost not worth the clicks unless you’re staying at multiple Hilton properties over that timeframe.
