Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals, 2026

By
Nick Reyes
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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us, and as always we are seeing some deals worthy of attention. Keep in mind that the best possible deals often involve stacking, particularly with shopping portal offers. This post contains a host of tips for shopping holiday deals and a curated list of deals that we have included because they caught our eye for one reason or another. Please share your finds in the comments and check back often as we intend to update this list throughout the coming days.

a man typing on a laptop

Post structure

Immediately following this section are several general resource sections regarding high-level stacking techniques and opportunities to keep in mind when looking at deals and then after that are the main deal sections that will see constant updates over the coming days.

There are five main types of deals we intend to post in the “Deals” section this week:

  1. Deals that would appeal to travelers. This might be hotel or flight related or travel-related products like noise-canceling headphones or luggage. We may also include discounted gift cards for restaurants, etc.
  2. Deals that involve extra stackery. This would include things like a chance to stack an unusually high portal payout with a card-linked offer or two and/or with a credit card benefit like an annual credit at Dell or Saks, etc.
  3. Deals that may be good for resale. Some readers generate points through the purchase and resale of products, so we’ll include some deals that may not seem directly relevant to readers but could be good ways to generate points if you have resale avenues. Keep in mind stacking opportunities like discounted gift cards, portal rewards, etc.
  4. Gift card deals. Whether for personal use or resale, many of the retailer gift card deals at this time of year can be appealing and we’ll post a selection of them here.
  5. Deals that are so strong they can’t be ignored for one reason or another. Speaks for itself.

We’ll divide deals into categories below and let you decide for yourself whether they are things you want/need or want to resell. Note that there will likely be some cross-pollination in terms of deals that aren’t strictly Black Friday deals but will work in tandem with sales. For instance, if eBay lists a gift card sale for Lowe’s, we’ll include it here this week since you can likely stack that with Lowe’s Black Friday deals.

Best shopping practices

a silhouette of a woman pushing a cart full of coins

As always, keep in mind some basic shopping best practices. We recently published a full post with tips and tricks for stacking holiday purchases and we published a podcast where we discussed our own techniques for stacking deals. Both are worth checking out. In summary:

  • Shop in one browser, buy in another. When using shopping portals and coupon sites, it’s pretty easy to inadvertently click in the wrong place and have your click “stolen” by a portal you didn’t intend to use (i.e. you clicked through an airline portal to Macy’s, but then you clicked a button to reveal a coupon code from some other site that also led to Macy’s and it caused the airline portal to lose the tracking of your purchase). For this reason, I do my shopping around and coupon testing in one browser (for example, Firefox). When it’s time to buy, I open a brand new window in a different browser (Chrome) to make my purchase. I start at my chosen portal, click through to the site from which I’m buying, fill my cart, apply any coupons, and check out in one fluid sequence. I rarely ever have a purchase fail to track this way. Listen to us discuss this in more depth on our most recent podcast.
  • Consider singing up for a new shopping portal. Many shopping portals offer bonuses for new members. Sometimes, they offer increased bonuses around the holiday shopping period. The right new member bonus can stack nicely on top of the ordinary payout. See Shopping Portal Signup Bonuses for more.
  • Use the right credit card. We’ll always try to make a suggestion when one seems relevant — for example, we’ll probably mention the Chase Ink Cash card if the deal is at an office supply store. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind what you have in your wallet and which of those cards would be most advantageous for you from a points-earning perspective. See our Best Category Bonuses page for a reminder as to the best cards to use.
  • Keep credit card purchase benefits in mind. One component in the decision as to which credit card to use may be purchase protections. Keep in mind that many rewards credit cards have purchase benefits like extended warranty. Some offer purchase protections against damage or theft, or they may guarantee a minimum return period (that may be longer than the store would accept). Price protection is gone from most (but not quite all) credit cards. While paying with discounted gift cards might yield more savings, you would forgo protections like these, so consider each when making those decisions. See Best Credit Card Purchase Protections for more detail.
  • Buy first, think later? A popular mantra on deal sites like Slickdeals is “Buy first, think later”. That is to say that the hottest deals will be gone so quickly that you don’t really have time to consider them. Thanks to return policies, 24-hour free cancellation periods, etc, it can be pretty easy to live by that mantra in many cases. Just be sure to check the fine print — is there a restocking fee? Does this travel agency charge a fee for refunds? Do I really want/need this and/or am I going to take the effort to sell it? It might be a great deal, but that doesn’t make it great for you. You’re not saving when you’re spending, you’re just spending less than you would have if you would have bought the item at full price. Still, I recommend agonizing over your buyer’s remorse during the return period rather than dragging your heels if you see a deal that’s too-good-to-be-true.

Finally, don’t forget any current shopping portal bonuses that can add to the deal.

Extreme stacking to keep in mind

Extreme Stacking

Extreme stacking savings on holiday purchases can help increase savings and rewards for spend.

There are many ways to stack deals and we will highlight key opportunities where applicable, but these are key opportunities and links to consider for maximizing return:

General Discounts at Amazon, Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s Club

A couple of key general discounts / stacks come to mind in addition to those seen above:

Looking for gift inspiration for the traveler in your life?

On the Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode #323, we discussed our favorite travel gear. See this post for a full list of links to our favorite gear. I have included some below that are currently on sale.

The Deals

With all that out of the way, here are some currently-available deals that might be of interest as per my reasons outlined above. As noted at the outset, I will add to this post throughout the rest of this weekend and into Cyber Monday, with the most recently-added deals to be added at the top of the list.

Our affiliate links below where relevant.

Travel Deals

Amazon.com

Gift Card Deals

Merchandise

Digital Services

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

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