1. Do this now: Enroll in the new American Express Platinum and Business Platinum credits and hotel status boosts, and use quarterly benefits like Lululemon and Resy credits before September 30.
  2. The Chase Southwest Performance Business Visa card has an increased sign-up bonus of 120,000 Rapid Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months with a scheduled end date of October 22, and will probably be available via referrals by Monday. As long as you apply next month and wait until January to finish your minimum spend, this will be a Companion Pass valid for the lesser of:

    – 24 months
    – When Elliott management decides to kill the Companion Pass

    What’s the downside? Well, not only will you be flying Southwest, you’ll be flying the new Southwest.
  3. Meijer MPerks has a promotion for 50,000 points with the purchase of most third party gift cards including Best Buy through September 30. There’s a limit of 50,000 points per MPerks account, but you don’t let that nuance stop you, do you?

    Best Buy gift card resale rates are currently hovering at around 94%.
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fuel services cards, through September 30. There’s a similar promotion for fixed value Visas and Mastercards, but I’d stick to the online version of those for 5% back through Saturday.

    Something something Best Buy something something.
  5. American Express changed a couple of additional items with yesterday’s refresh:

    – There’s a mostly worthless Oura ring coupon: $200 off
    – The digital entertainment credit is now $25 monthly
    – The Business Platinum has an offer of up to 300,000 Membership Rewards with the right gyrations (vpn/incognito/mobile/clown), including via referral – this link might work too but you won’t get a referral bonus
    – The Morgan Stanley Platinum and Charles Schwab Platinum cards have increased bonuses of 125,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend

    You can get the old generation of the Oura for $200, but I’ve got great odds that it’ll end up in the trash or a junk drawer in a couple of months. (Thanks to Holly)
  6. Chase tweaked its Sapphire Reserve cards’ hotel benefits, but neither starts until 2026:

    – One time $250 credit on two night stays at some hotels booked through the Chase portal
    – Each $250 “The Edit” credit, which isn’t the same as the previous credit, can be used any time through the year

Have a nice weekend!

The new Southwest.

A credit union account that you opened years ago can often be your best friend when new techniques are discovered. For example, one of my favorite credit union accounts has been useful as:

  • a money order dump
  • a bill payment target
  • a CD funded with credit card target
  • a debit load target
  • a basis for a credit card with the same credit union
  • other games

There are often dry spells between plays though, and if you’re not careful, an account primarily useful for gaming might be closed for inactivity during your dry spell, with any remaining funds being sent to your state’s unclaimed property division. To avoid that, I do the following:

Set up a recurring $1 (or whatever the minimum) monthly ACH to the account from a central checking account, or from another credit union target account.

If you’re worried about the monthly drain on your central account, there’s no reason you can’t set the transaction up in reverse a few days later.

Good luck, and happy Thursday!

Sadly, not all games keep credit union accounts active.

Let’s take today to tl;dr the American Express Platinum changes that go live tonight so you can ignore the hundreds of articles about them headed your way this week.

Personal

Vitals:

  • Annual fee: $895 (increase of $200)
  • Earn:
    • 5x on airfare
    • 5x on AmEx Travel hotels
    • 1x otherwise

Value coupons:

  • Air Incidental coupon: $200 credit annually
  • FHR coupon: $600 credit, $300 January – June and $300 July – December
  • Resy coupon: $400 credit, $100 per quarter
  • Lululemon coupon: $300 credit, $75 per quarter
  • Uber One coupon: $120 credit, $10 per month
  • Uber coupon: $200 credit, $15 per month January – November, $20 in December
  • Walmart+ Membership coupon: $155.40 credit, $12.95 per month
  • Saks coupon: $100 credit, $50 January – June and $50 July – December
  • Digital entertainment coupon: $300 credit, $25 per month on select services

Mostly worthless coupons:

  • Clear.me coupon: $209 credit annually
  • Soulcycle coupon: $300 off an in-home bike
  • Equinox coupon: $300 off of gym membership
  • Oura coupon: $200 off of a ring purchase
  • Priority pass membership

Yes you can get more than $895 out of these, but let’s be honest: You’re working for AmEx, they’re not working for you.

Business

Vitals:

  • Annual fee: $895 (increase of $200)
  • Earn:
    • 5x on FHR and Hotel Collection hotels booked through AmEx 5ravel
    • 5x on flights booked through AmEx Travel
    • 2x on construction, hardware, electronic goods, software, shipping, and cloud on up to $2 Million spend
    • 2x on $5,000+ transactions (limited to $2 Million with the above categories)
    • 1x otherwise

Value coupons:

  • Air Incidental coupon: $200 credit annually
  • FHR coupon: $600 credit, $300 January – June and $300 July – December
  • Hotel status coupon: Leaders Club Sterling, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
  • Hilton coupon: $200 credit, $50 per quarter
  • Dell coupon: $150 (+$1,000) credit annually, $1,000 after $5,000+ Dell spend
  • Wireless coupon: $120 credit, $10 monthly
  • AmEx Travel coupon (requires $250,000 spend): $1,200 annually

Mostly worthless coupons:

  • Adobe coupon: $250 credit after $600+
  • Clear.me coupon: $209 credit annually
  • Indeed coupon: $270 credit, $90 quarterly
  • American Express One AP coupon (requires $250,000 spend): $2,400 credit annually
  • Priority pass membership

If all of your transactions are 2x, then there’s a realistic path to holding this card and wiping the annual fee. You’re still working for AmEx, but at least it’s not under duress.

Happy Wednesday!

Leaked: Another monthly personal Platinum credit that was ultimately scrapped.

  1. Do this now: Register for 5x rotating categories for Q4, 2025:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Old Navy, Chase Travel, Department Stores, (and PayPal in December)
    – Discover IT: Amazon.com and drug stores
    – Citi Dividend: Citi Travel and restaurants
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics because reasons

    If Citi’s site is erroring for you, I mean (1) #citigonnaciti, and (2) try again in a few hours.
  2. Qatar Avios has a tiered incoming transfer bonus for Citi ThankYou points for up to a 40% bonus on 50,000+ points through October 15. Other programs are included too, but they’re either obscure or poor value.

    Avios transfer freely between partners, so this is effectively a 40% bonus on the other major Avios airline currencies too.
  3. The Primis Visa rewards debit card is transitioning to a 1% flat cash back rewards structure on October 17. And before you ask, yes that’s not how Primus is normally spelled.

Happy Tuesday!

Primis probably took over this credit onion’s parking lot.

  1. Today is the last day to pay Q3 2025 estimated taxes, a manufactured spend level 102 move. A quick reminder about fees:

    – Pay 1040: 1.75% most credit cards, $2.15 most debit cards
    – ACI Payments: 1.85% personal cards, 2.95% business cards, $2.10 personal debit card

    Wrapping a card with higher fees in something like PayPal will often lower them.
  2. The American Express Business Platinum card has increased targeting on at its public upgrade link 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months for existing Business Gold or Green cardholders.
  3. You’ve got until Thursday to:

    – Apply for new American Express Platinum or Business Platinum cards before the annual fee jumps by $200
    – Book any remaining Fine Hotels and Resorts bookings to capture the annual $200 credit before the credit changes to $300 semi-annually and (presumably) resets
    – Use the above upgrade link before the annual fee jumps
    – Finalize preparations for National Cheeseburger Day

    I’d suggest you take 10 minutes and knock these out now so you don’t forget, but you do you.
  4. Staples stores have fee free $200 Visa cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawkNetwork cards.

Happy Monday!

Flying Spirit on National Cheeseburger Day? There’s a burger for that.

Apparently it’s promo dump weekend:

  1. Celtic Bank’s Mesa Visa card has a storied past with sign-up bonuses, and they’re continuing that legacy with another harebrained scheme:

    – 5,000 bonus points for one Mesa referral
    – 5,000 additional bonus points for another referral
    – 50,000 bonus points after two referrals and spending $10,000 in 90 days

    The card recently became a churning classic because: (1) you earn points for your, err *cough* mortgage, even if you don’t use the card to pay it, and (2) they have interesting transfer partners like SAS EuroBonus and Air Canada Aeroplan.
  2. The Chase Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited Visa cards have heightened sign-up bonuses of 90,000 Ultimate Rewards after $6,000 spend in three months. Both cards are no-annual fee cards.

    These are available via referrals and you’ve still got a few weeks left before October 7, when Chase’s referral rules mean there’s no referral bonus if the card applicant already holds a Chase business card.
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue through September 30.
  4. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer bonus to Wyndham Rewards through September 20.
  5. Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, and Martins stores have 2x points earning on Mastercard gift cards through Thursday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. Kroger stores have 4x fuel points earning on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards.

    Since for some reason we don’t talk about Kroger 4x without talking about Pepper: They’re still quasi-dead, which is to say they’ve been a few days away from relaunch for months.
  7. Kroger online has 5% off of Visa and Mastercard e-gift cards with promo code BDAY2025 through September 21. Mastercards had been absent from Kroger since they switched issuers from US Bank, but they’re now back.

    These are generally interesting because they earn Kroger fuel points, not because it codes as grocery (it doesn’t). These are Pathward / Incomm gift cards.
  8. Marriott Bonvoy, the loyalty program that takes inspiration from Delta SkyMiles, has removed Asiana Club as a transfer partner.
  9. Several banks have emailed targeted spend bonuses:

    – Discover: $10 off $100+ spend with a virtual card number
    – Bank of America: $75 or 7,500 points with $2,500 spend
    – Chase Freedom: Extra earn with spend thresholds

    (Thanks to Dave and T)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Marriott had to drop support for Asiana transfers to implement this correctly.

One of my favorite ways to think about relationships with banks and FinTechs is “how much would you have to pay me to never use [institution] again?” (The severed relationship question)

My answer varies greatly depending on the institution, ranging from probably $500 (let’s say RobinHood), to $1 Million.

When a shutdown from a bank or a FinTech happens, I like to reframe the shutdown in terms of the severed relationship question and look back on my earnings. For example, if RobinHood gives me the almighty 🪓 and I earned over $500 from games with their app, then I got at least the value of the severed relationship question, so I can frame the shutdown as a success rather than as a blow.

As a bonus, I may find my way back into an institution that shut me down, which lets the game start over; sometimes when you’re shutdown, it’s just another opportunity to answer the severed relationship question for a second (or third) time.

Have a nice day friends!

There are benefits to severing too maybe?

  1. Accor has registration open for a Q3 promotion for 500-1,000 bonus points on two night or longer stays including a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday through October 26, but the bonus can only be earned one time. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Hilton silently devalued many of its high-end properties, in some cases award redemption prices went up by more than a third.

    Valuations are notoriously hard and opinionated, but I’d suggest that you drop your own Hilton valuation by at least 25-30% unless you have your own private unicorn. Personally, I’m treating them as worth 0.3 cents each.
  3. Southwest has a 50% off of base fares sale for both paid and award tickets with promo code MILLIONS.

    It’s worth checking existing travel plans that were booked after May 27 because you’ll be operating under the same fare and checked bags scheme. For travel plans booked before, ymmv.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, and Martins stores have 8x points on both Amazon and Zift Zillions gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 spend per account.

Have a nice Wednesday!

New perk: This Hilton Garden Inn’s 30% award rate increase comes with complimentary fire (included with resort fee)