{"id":13505,"date":"2026-04-08T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=13505"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:39:12","slug":"wednesday-splash-some-big-offers-and-some-that-barely-graduated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/wednesday-splash-some-big-offers-and-some-that-barely-graduated\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Splash: Some Big Offers and some that Barely Graduated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Let&#8217;s dive in with the more important stuff:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Do this now<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chase.com\/mybonus\">Check for spend offers on existing Chase cards<\/a>. Most are 5x-7x or 5%-7% back on up to $1,000 spend at grocery, restaurants, and gas stations, the higher bonuses are when paying with Apple Pay. Sorry Androidians.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In a move that should surprise no one, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delta.com\/us\/en\/baggage\/overview\">Delta increased its checked bags fees <\/a>after <a href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/friday-mileage-play-be-your-own-bofa-affiliate-airlines-collude-before-your-eyes-and-a-big-bonus\/\">JetBlue and United did last week<\/a>. That leaves American, Southwest, and Alaska to stagger their fee increases enough that it doesn&#8217;t look like anything to do with collusion or an oligopoly. (I&#8217;m not salty, you&#8217;re salty!)<br><br>Now for my degens, where&#8217;s the Kalshi line for the other airlines increasing checked bag fees by next week? Prediction markets aren&#8217;t always just arbitragey fun and games.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Melio bill payment service has two new user bonuses through the end of April, though I think you can only get one or the other. Some existing accounts are also targeted for the international version on the Melio dashboard <em>after<\/em> clicking the first link and then logging in from that page:<br><br>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/go.meliopayments.com\/card-fx?utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=melio_search_us_en_des_pay_phrase_brand&amp;campaignid=23380181665&amp;adgroup=melio-card&amp;adgroupid=190389593957&amp;utm_term=melio%20card&amp;utm_content=788947889459&amp;matchtype=p&amp;feeditemid=&amp;loc_interest_ms=&amp;loc_physical_ms=9031274&amp;network=g&amp;utm_device=c&amp;devicemodel=&amp;adposition=&amp;cq_cmp=23380181665&amp;cq_med=&amp;cq_plac=&amp;cq_net=g&amp;cq_term=melio%20card&amp;cq_plt=gp&amp;wpsrc=Google%20AdWords&amp;wpcid=23380181665&amp;wpsnetn=g&amp;wpkwn=melio%20card&amp;wpkmatch=p&amp;wpcrid=788947889459&amp;wpscid=190389593957&amp;wpkwid=kwd-1360861652794&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23380181665&amp;gbraid=0AAAABCNYXOwFCN8UiIXABQ3cBmoTGE1Ns&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw1tLOBhAMEiwAiPkRHp42aeNNvOya6m7Srr_nby3xtsJ8_iK8eZyjnGdMh0KpUIHyKeatyRoC738QAvD_BwE\">$500 gift card with a $1,000 international payment<\/a><br>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/go.meliopayments.com\/affiliates-cashback\">$200 cash back with a $500 domestic payment<\/a><br><br>The second one is available via affiliate links too, so find your favorite affiliate blogger and use their link if you want to support them. I&#8217;ll give the MEAB Gold Seal of Approval\u2122 to any affiliates that list the $500 gift card version of the sign-up bonus even though it doesn&#8217;t pay them.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/en-us\/benefits\/offers\/\">American Express offers<\/a> has an April version of $200 off of $1,000 spent with Delta Vacations through June 30.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rovemiles.com\">The Rove travel booking platform and shopping portal added Virgin Red<\/a> as a 1:1 transfer partner, which is (I guess) something. Accor, Lufthansa, and SAS are typically much better options, the latter of which has a 20% transfer bonus that expires today.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cards.barclaycardus.com\/banking\/cards\/jetblue-premier-card\/\">The Barclays JetBlue&#8217;s Premier Mastercard<\/a> added new bengifts:<br><br>&#8211; A companion pass worth either $500 with $15,000 spend or $1,500 with $75,000 spend<br>&#8211; A 25 Tile annual status credit<br>&#8211; 15% off of TrueBlue award flights<br><br>The three taken in sum make this a compelling card for New England or SoCal residents that have a penchant for Mint.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&#8217;ve avoided covering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.executivetraveller.com\/news\/united-elevated-787-delivery-polaris-studio-launch#:~:text=United's%20Elevated%20Boeing%20787%2D9,for%20added%20comfort%20and%20features.\">last week&#8217;s United&#8217;s media blitz<\/a> until the dust settled, and I guess here we are. Some of the most interesting announcements included bad news buried by updates:<br><br>&#8211; Polaris business class tickets will soon have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/04\/03\/united-base-polaris-business-class.html\">a Basic option<\/a> with no-seat assignments, lounge access, and no free ticket changes, talk about elevated<br>&#8211; CRJ-200s are being converted to premium heavy &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/crankyflier.com\/2026\/03\/26\/the-crj450-shows-off-uniteds-aggressive-creativity\/\">CRJ-450s<\/a>&#8220;<br>&#8211; 787-9s will have an upgraded interior called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.united.com\/en\/us\/newsroom\/announcements\/cision-125446\">Elevated<\/a>&#8220;<br>&#8211; The front row of some international flights will have bigger suites called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.united.com\/en\/us\/fly\/travel\/inflight\/united-polaris-studio.html\">Polaris Studio<\/a>&#8220;<br><br>Currently award tickets are exempt from Polaris Basic, just like how AA, Southwest, and Alaska is currently exempt from increased checked bag fees.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>And a couple of items that are barely worth mentioning, but like they say &#8220;Cs get degrees&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are two hotel promotions of limited utility:<br><br>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ihg.com\/content\/us\/en\/deals\/member-offers\/earn3xbonuspoints\">IHG<\/a>: 3x points in some non-Americas countries, book by Saturday, stay by May 22, registration required<br>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyndhamhotels.com\/caesars-rewards\/hotel-deals\/get-25-off\">Wyndham<\/a>: 5,000 points on two night stays at Caesars Rewards properties booked by the end of the month for stays through September 1<br><br>Neither works for award stays.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jetblue.com\/sale?airPromo=SPRING20\">JetBlue has 20% off of Tuesday and Wednesday domestic economy fares<\/a> booked by today for travel through May 20 using promo code <em>SPRING20<\/em>.<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy Wednesday!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"728\" height=\"884\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13506\" style=\"width:420px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png 728w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-247x300.png 247w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:14px\">The creation that won its maker the previous MEAB Gold Seal of Approval\u2122. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s dive in with the more important stuff: And a couple of items that are barely worth mentioning, but like they say &#8220;Cs get degrees&#8221;:<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505","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=13505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13510,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13505\/revisions\/13510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}