I realize this post is way late, but as you may have been aware, the site was down most of the week. You can thank GoDaddy for that. Their motto? “When your website goes down, so does our call center.” I finally made the switch to Bluehost, so hopefully there will be less downtime going … Read more
Most people in this hobby have seen Up in the Air and fantasized about being Ryan Bingham. I didn’t care how the movie ended and what the moral of the story was. When I saw it eight years ago, my thought was, “He was living the dream. There’s NO reason he couldn’t be happy continuing … Read more
This is going to be a short one. After a pretty great start two weeks ago, my manufactured spending progress took a nosedive. Last week was insanely busy and I just didn’t get around to placing many gift card orders. I plan on doing better going forward. These reports are definitely motivation for me to keep … Read more
I recently met the Amex Hilton Aspire spending requirement, which was quite a feat without manufactured spending. But what surprised me were two 20,000 point bonuses and a free “annual weekend night” I received. It all came out of left field and upon sharing my experience on Twitter, I found out these bonuses have been … Read more
I picked up an Amex Hilton Aspire Card back on January 7 and finally met the spending requirement on March 9. This has got to be the longest it’s ever taken me to complete a spending requirement. It was only $4,000 in three months, but I was determined not to utilize manufactured spending to complete … Read more
Reader @AeroLance recently asked me which credit cards are safe for manufactured spending and I thought that question was worth addressing in a post. Over the last eight years, I’ve earned points and miles with lots of different rewards credit cards. Most of those points were earned via manufactured spending, mainly by churning merchant and … Read more
That’s not just an annoying rhyme – it’s an actual question I got from a reader recently. A year ago, iBotta was a great way to offset manufactured spending fees. The app paid out $0.50 per day for an “Any Item” receipt at Walmart and elsewhere. A lot of folks would upload their Walmart money order … Read more
Last week, a blogger leaked an email from Marriott Bonvoy about an upcoming “Influencer” press trip to Hong Kong. After the disastrous transition to Marriott Bonvoy, the company appears to be trying to buy some good press. Is there anything wrong with that? After all, in the last year JetBlue, Barclays, Hyatt, and American Express … Read more
It’s been a while since I’ve written a monthly summary of my manufactured spending activities. In the past, I’ve waited until the end of the month before reviewing all my notes and summarizing how many points I earned and what I spent. It wasn’t the best approach because I basically waited until the very last … Read more
Uber finally has a loyalty program…Uber Rewards. It comes as no surprise that after launching an unremarkable Uber Credit Card, the rideshare app would launch an in-app loyalty program. This is great news for all Uber users – whether you utilize the rideshare service or Uber Eats (eats-uberpointchaser) frequently or during occasional travel, you’ll get rewarded … Read more