Monthly Archives: April 2016

Increased Offers for American Express Mercedes-Benz Platinum and Chase Ink Plus Cards

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platinum mercedes benz

American Express has increased the signup bonus for the Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card to 75,000 MR points after $3,000 spend in 3 months. This card comes with a $475 annual fee. For this card to make sense, you’ll probably want to be a heavy user of Centurion lounges and also see this post on how to best use the airline incidental fee credit (if you aren’t spending $200 on airline incidental fees each year).

ink

Chase has also increased the signup bonus for the Ink Plus Card to 70,000 UR after $5,000 spend in 3 months; however, the increased bonus is not available online, and you must apply in-branch.

[Miles Briefs] $100 Southwest Gift Card for $80 & More (Samsung Pay)

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samsung pay

Samsung Pay is having a Mother’s Day 20% off gift card promotion from 4/25/16 to 5/8/16. To purchase, open the app and click Add and then Buy Gift Cards under the Gift Cards tab.

The terms say no more than two gift cards per day up to $500 total, but I was able to purchase two $100 Southwest gift cards and one $50 Overstock.com gift card.

The best available options are:

$100 Southwest gift card for $80
$50 Overstock.com gift card for $40
$50 Whole Foods gift card for $40
$50 Gap gift card for $40

Both Southwest and Overstock.com are good targets for reselling. If you don’t need the gift cards, this is still a great way to help meet spending requirements.

[Miles Briefs] Seattle/Atlanta/Detroit/Minneapolis/Salt Lake City to Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane for $560-600 Roundtrip (United)

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sydney2

Via The Flight Deal, even more discounted trips to Australia! This time, flights originate in Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, or Salt Lake City, and the carrier is United instead of Delta. Use Google Flights to search for dates. Here is a sample trip from SEA-MEL for $568.

Check Where to Credit to find the best place to credit your miles. Again, you probably won’t want to credit them to United.

Dates: Valid until November 30, 2016.
Requirements: Purchase at least 14 days in advance, 10 day minimum stay.
Stopovers: N/A (allowed, but doesn’t actually seem possible)

[Miles Briefs] San Francisco to Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane for $580 Roundtrip (Delta)

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sydney

Use Google Flights to search for dates. Here is a sample trip from SFO-SYD for $581.

Flights will be purchased from Delta. Check Where to Credit to find the best place to credit your miles. Chances are, it’s not Delta.

Dates: Valid until November 30, 2016.
Requirements: Purchase at least 14 days in advance, 10 day minimum stay.
Stopovers: One free. Options are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, or Los Angeles.

Citi Increases Churning Wait Period to 24 Months

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citi

Via Doctor of Credit/Reddit, Citi has changed the language on their credit card applications such that you cannot receive a signup bonus again until it has been 24 months since you last opened or closed the same card. Previously, they only required an 18-month wait.

As a reminder, American Express recently ended all churning of their cards, and there has been a unconfirmed rumor floating around that Chase will be limiting all of their credit cards to the 5/24 rule, which denies any credit card application if you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards in the past 24 months.