{"id":12978,"date":"2026-01-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=12978"},"modified":"2026-01-01T10:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:05:07","slug":"2025-travel-hacking-as-told-by-gifs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/01\/2025-travel-hacking-as-told-by-gifs\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Travel Hacking As Told By GIFs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EDITOR’S NOTE: If this message put your mail reader on the struggle bus, check the web version<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for MEAB\u2019s annual New Year tradition! Before we jump in to the regular short-form blog posts that litter the ground like losing tickets at the horse races, we’re starting with an annual MEAB tradition: Telling the story of 2025 through the historical lens of the rigorous academia of (checks notes, sighs<\/em>): Animated GIFs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous versions of the New Year’s special: 2024<\/a>, 2023<\/a>, 2022<\/a>, 2021<\/a>, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Churning in 2025: Broad Strokes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Churning in 2025: A summary.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Every churning group discussing 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Not everything in 2025, was bad. For example, dining had its moments.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The American Express Business Platinum sign-up bonuses increased to 300,000 miles toward the moon<\/s> Membership Rewards.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Pepper (Moocho? Mucho? Moo-choo?) Saga<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pepper Rewards was a big part of churning last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We spent January and February conjuring points with increasingly ludicrous Pepper sales. Earning 80,000 Membership Rewards daily was child’s play.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The end of March hits and SideShowBob233 gets ready to redeem his stockpile of Pepper rewards. There’s a hiccup, but it’s probably temporary, right?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Waiting for Pepper points to be able to be redeemed in April.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Actively trying to get Pepper points redeemed in June.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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July hits, still working on Pepper.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Finally autumn lands and the Pepper CEO shows us what the company’s real plans have been all along.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Community<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Everyone in travel hacking and churning is a little bit weird, and that’s ok. This year we’ve got a dedicated section to celebrate our churning personalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The elusive Danny describes his churning profits for 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chad at Automated Miles drops his Halloween episode.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mojo interacts with the community in The Pepperdome\u2122.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Carl trains his next batch of players for 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Connor from Churning Life<\/a> gets his Sunday morning AirPods delivery.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Vinh gets the wrath of FNBO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Parts_Unknown-<\/a> and C-MontgomeryChurns<\/a> keep Redditors focused on churning.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Points Guy trains its next intern.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LonelyCat’s team in action.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Riley writes another article at Chasing Cetaceans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Country_Boy expertly finds the punchline in an ocean of targets, and isn’t happy with just a single hit.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Richard Kerr reacts to appearing again on the little known turbo-nerd site run by a reclusive newbie, MEAB.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Woody Allen presents “SideShowBob233: A Churning Documentary”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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MEAB’s P2 reacts to the feedback from this year’s guest post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Behaviors<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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A churner misunderstands what we meant by looping.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Churners find out that we’re probably losing our $50 Saks credits<\/a>. We’ll never have to think about them again.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Citi responds to a churner’s KYC answers with an adverse action.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A singular churner escapes 2025 unharmed against all odds.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Costco finds its way into dining and other churning games.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A churner realizes he’ll need to reenter the workforce after the US Bank Altitude Reserve devaluation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The entire information content of a certain cash-back debit card’s WhatsApp group.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Card Companies and FinTechs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The Mesa Homeowners card<\/a> in one act.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Synchrony Bank finally learns<\/a> what the floosies are up to.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Citi finally had its way with the Barclays AA relationship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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PayPal Bill Pay has a nuclear meltdown<\/a>, our favorite targets crumble.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hilton enhanced its elite levels, aiming squarely at existing Diamond members.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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We unsuccessfully tried to navigate Kasheesh’s terms and conditions, trying to get anything – literally anything<\/em> – to work.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Citi’s algorithms chased Strata Elite cardholders with 4506-C requests.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Citi reacted to a Wall Street Journal public shaming<\/a> over Strata Elite applications.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Airlines and Hotels<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

US airlines and hotels collectively said “we may not have started the race to the bottom, but damnit, we’re going to win it!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Concierge Key elite asks an AA gate agent about being added to the standby list.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Marriott Bonvoy recognizes a Gold elite collecting 500 points at check-in.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Southwest prepares for, and executes, its transformation plans for 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Southwest realizes that it’s funner when paid bags get lost.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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JetBlue added JAL as a partner<\/a>, and you could book into JAL business and first paid<\/em> fare buckets with miles.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Less than a year later, JetBlue and JAL breakup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Travel hackers react after Blit [Blit]adds JAL as a transfer partner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Travel hackers then react after Capital One added JAL as a transfer partner<\/a> too.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Alaska Atmos became particularly useful for ultra short haul.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

MEAB<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I guess we couldn’t have GIFs without MEAB, so let’s round out the year with the community and MEAB:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Affiliate bloggers react to yet another MEAB post.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Affiliate and non-affiliate bloggers alike react to a MEAB post about nervous ticks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Professor MEAB presents at a meetup.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Then MEAB isn’t seen in the wild again, though a music video dropped on December 15, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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And finally on January 1, 2026, MEAB makes a grand reappearance to an empty stadium with every single one of the site’s adoring fans.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year!<\/p>\n\n\n

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2026: A Preview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR’S NOTE: If this message put your mail reader on the struggle bus, check the web version. Introduction It\u2019s time for MEAB\u2019s annual New Year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenanigans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12978"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13068,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978\/revisions\/13068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}