Vacation notice
Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone. This is a short post just to let you know that I’m now officially on vacation. My family of three is headed out to Europe to spend time...
The MileMadness DO is back with a new name and new location
UPDATE: SOLD OUT This past May, a group of about 120 “manufactured spend” enthusiasts gathered in Charlotte for the MileMadness DO. I wrote about this event here and said that “this was the best...
Transfer partner list updates and 403 routes
Transfer Partner Master List updates Thanks to reader suggestions and an hour or two of available time, I’ve made a few enhancements to the Transfer Partner Master List that I wrote about recently: ...
Bluebird increases daily load limit to $2500 per day
Note: On January 8, 2016 American Express sent out a notice to a large number of Bluebird & Serve cardholders informing them that loading capabilities on their accounts had been terminated. For more information,...
Citi Prestige may end companion ticket benefit. Maybe flight points too?
MileCards reports that the website that handles companion tickets for the Citi Prestige card, Spirit Incentives, had the following text on their site (now removed): These benefits will no longer be available effective...
Opportunistic hoarding vs. earning and burning
Conventional wisdom in the points and miles game is to “earn and burn”. The idea is to earn enough points for your next trip, spend the points, travel for nearly free, and repeat. There...
100K AA offer undead; and Club Carlson ponders credit card changes
Zombie Links
In yesterday’s post I reported that the 100K Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard offer was dead. Then, in the comments of that post, a couple of readers mentioned that “zombie links” were...
100K AA no more, Singapore’s portal error, Amex gift cards, and the new Chime...
Bye bye 100K offer For the past several months, the Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard has offered 100,000 miles plus a $200 statement credit after $10K spend in 3 months. This morning the...
Lowering the bar and raising returns
Shopping through online portals is often a great way to increase points earned (or to get cash back) for things you would have bought anyway. Once you know where you want to shop online,...
Vanilla devalues, large denomination MasterCards, and Amex Gift Cards still a deal
Less useful Vanilla
Update: Many people have reported that Vanilla Visa gift cards do still work at Walmart when loading in denominations of $49.99 or less.
In the last day or two, reports have poured in from...
The weird math of buying points
What’s better, buying points for .5 cents each or for .7 cents each? Obviously .5 is better because it’s cheaper. What if the points in question were Ultimate Rewards points? Same answer, of course. ...
No more portal payouts for gift cards at Staples
I realize that for many readers this is old news, but I continue to get questions about this every day. People ask if they can still earn points, miles, or cash back from buying...
The ultimate free shipping code
One of the best current deals for buying American Express gift cards is to shop through BeFrugal for 4% 3% cash back. This can be a great way to save money on everything you...
Practice makes points
This past weekend, Sears ran a promotion in which they offered 9 points per dollar through the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal. 9X is very good, but the deal was particularly interesting because the...
