Author: michael

Asking for an upgrade to business class… and getting it!

August 3, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Okay it wasn’t as brazen as the post title suggests. But yes, it’s a real life datapoint of asking for an upgrade (that was probably deserved) and getting it!

Back at the end of January, when AA opened up premium award space to Europe pretty widely, I jumped on it to book a business class class ticket to Ibiza, SFO-JFK-LHR, LCY-IBZ as part of a summer Europe trip. My friends were going on the same trip, so I encouraged them to do so as well. Except for the first statement on their Citi AA cards hadn’t closed yet so they didn’t quite have the miles! Continue reading →

An update to the Discover egiftcard codes trick

July 29, 2016 / / 1 Comment

A reader notified me that the script to grab all egiftcard codes from Discover could be cleaned up and simplified a bit. Also I noticed that WordPress was mangling the code making it error out when pasting it into your console. I’ve fixed the original post but just posting an update as well. Here are updated instructions:

  1. Open up your Javascript console. You can access the Javascript console on Chrome with the following methods:
    • Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + J (Mac) or Control+ Shift + J (Windows/Linux).
    • Select > More Tools > JavaScript Console.
  2. Go to this site and paste the displayed code into the Javascript console:

You will then see the e-gift card codes and PINs printed out to your Javascript console. Continue reading →

new UI

United is testing out some new award availability calendar UI

July 29, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Just a small detail, but I’ve been playing around with the United award search tool for the last couple of days and have been noticing that they have been playing around with some UI changes with the award availability calendar.

The new UI that they rolled out sometime last year looks like this:

Days with only Economy availability were yellow, days with only Premium economy were Blue, and days with both were green. Continue reading →

GiftCards.com now charging if your shipping and billing addresses are different

July 27, 2016 / / 0 Comments

GiftCards.com has been one of my favorite ways to meet minimum spend on my credit card due to how easy it is and the low cost if you factor in portal cashback. It looks like there has been a recent change to charge a $4.75 fee if your billing and shipping addresses are different, if you select USPS Priority Mail or above as your shipping option.

I tend to have different shipping and billing addresses as I rent but my parents live nearby. I don’t like giving my rental address as my billing address, and I don’t know when I will move, but I know my parents will be still at their address and not too far away. Continue reading →

Grab all e-gift card codes from Discover with this trick!

July 8, 2016 / / 4 Comments

Now that the Discover Double Cashback is finally coming in, you may be looking into redeeming your Discover cashback in various ways, such as gift cards. But say you’ve just redeemed for a bunch of gift cards, and you want to easily grab the codes off the redemption page. Normally this would involve a lot of copy and pasting while switching back and forth between windows, but I’ve wrote a simple script so you can grab ALL the e-gift codes and PINs straight from the page. Continue reading →

BBVA update: the party is on!

June 23, 2016 / / 4 Comments

During the last two BBVA promo periods before the current one, it was discovered that BBVA gives 5x for ALL purchases, not just physical swipes. However, BBVA was very inconsistent about when you would get the 5x rewards. Often, purchases would post at 1x rewards then some indeterminate time later, would post at 5x rewards.

This lead to some fears and confusion during this current BBVA NBA finals promo period of what actually would post at 5x versus 1x. As of Monday/Tuesday, I had a bunch of purchases post in my account, but only some of them posted as 5x, and it was very inconsistent which ones received the extra bonus or not. My Target.com VGCs, Giftcards.com didn’t post, but somehow my tax payment and Giftcardmall purchases did. And funnily enough, some *actual* physical swipes didn’t either. Continue reading →

Enter to win a roundtrip flight from Alaska Airlines with Uber for Pride Week

June 21, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I’m sure if you have an Uber account you’ve seen this promo already, but you can enter to win a free roundtrip flight anywhere Alaska Airlines flies with a sweepstakes from Uber. All you have to do is live in certain West Coast cities + Honolulu, enter the appropriate promo code, and take rides on Uber during the sweepstakes period, which aligns with Pride Week in the various cities.

The sweepstakes periods and promo codes are (Los Angeles and Portland are already over, but San Francisco is on right now!) Continue reading →

Is 5x Ultimate Rewards at CardCash dead?

June 20, 2016 / / 1 Comment

I’ve been using CardCash over the last year or so to buy discounted gift cards while also getting 5x Ultimate Rewards through my Chase Ink card. CardCash, whether paid through PayPal or paid directly, would code as Utilities and earn 5x Ultimate Rewards with Chase Ink.

From recent datapoints from people I know, as well as my own personal datapoints, it seems like on 6/16, CardCash has started to code as Recreation instead and only earn 1x Ultimate Rewards points. Continue reading →

Recovering a long lost Total Rewards account

June 14, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the Total Rewards program, which is the loyalty program of a number of casinos and hotels around the United States, notably Harrah’s, Caesar’s Palace, the LINQ, the Cromwell, Rio, Paris, and more. Specifically, I heard that Diamond status, which you can get through a match with FoundersCard had a lot of great benefits, like waived resort fees, buffet privileges and more (possibly even a free stay in the Bahamas!) So I wanted to create a Total Rewards account to take advantage of the benefits. Great, right? Continue reading →

Applied for the PayPal Extras MasterCard from the wrong account? It can be fixed!

June 10, 2016 / / 1 Comment

A month or two ago, I wanted to add my PayPal Extras MasterCard as a backup method for my PayPal Business Debit card for that sweet, sweet extra cashback. I had an existing PayPal Business Debit card, so I went to apply for the PayPal Extras MasterCard. You are allowed to have 2 PayPal accounts, so I went to make sure which account had the Business Debit card on it first before applying, or so I thought. Continue reading →

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