Quick hit: register for additional $50 cash back from Discover

I saw a number of folks on Twitter this week talking about a targeted offer for Discover cardholders to choose one merchant – in addition to the 4th quarter revolving 5% cash back categories – where they would be able to earn 5% cash back on up to $1,000 in spend between the date of registration and November 30, 2014. Unfortunately, I wasn't targeted.

Imagine my glee last night when Twitter user H. Scott shared a working link directly to the registration page for the promotion.

To select your 5% cash back merchant:

1. Log into your Discover credit card account;
2. Click on this link.

And enjoy your $50 in extra cash back (assuming you have a chance to visit Walgreens once or twice before the end of November)!

Update: Support the Site!

I got a lot of great feedback in the comments to my post a few weeks back announcing I was going to be leaving my current lightly-employed position to start writing, blogging, and travel hacking full time.

I even got some friendly advice from Delta Points.

While I'm still thinking about how to implement some of the great suggestions readers made, one change was easy and long overdue: putting all my referral links in one place!

When I write about a specific cash back portal like BeFrugal, or tool like Plink, I usually include a signup link that gives me a dollar or two in referral credit. But I didn't have one site with all those signup links together in the same place.

Now I do!

In the very top-right corner of the website, there's now a link that reads "Support the Site!" That's where you'll find all my signup links, so when you're about to sign up for a new cash back portal, car service like Uber, or anything else, you can pop up there to see if there's a way to support the site while you sign up.

If readers have any suggestions for other sites or services that belong on that page, please let me know!

Also, Amazon!

Since my new home is in a state where the Amazon "Associates" program is allowed, I was finally able to sign up for that, as well. At the top of the sidebar on each page you should now see a little Amazon-y box that will take you straight to Amazon.

My understanding is that you can also just bookmark my Amazon Associates link and use that bookmark whenever you want to go to Amazon.com.

Conclusion and next steps

Today's changes are focused on making it as easy as possible to support the site, for those readers who like it and want to support the work that I do here.

Many readers expressed an interest in a regular, weekly e-mailed update that included all the relevant news and changes in the world of travel hacking, and would be willing to pay more for access to a premium service like that.

That service wouldn't replace this blog, but would supplement it for those who didn't want to wade through all the blogs and forum threads that are necessary to stay on top of this ever-changing hobby. That's something I'm strongly considering, and I may be announcing something along those lines later this summer.

In the meantime, keep reading, commenting, tweeting, and e-mailing! My readers, as always, are the best.

Another trip to New York!

And you know what that means: more Uber signup links!

Thanks to my loyal readers I only spent a few bucks on cab fares on my last trip to New York, so it's time to fill my Uber credit balance back up. Yours too!

Back in January, in order to get $45 in Uber credit you needed to spend $5 on an Uber Groupon code. That deal's no longer available, but there's an even better, free, promo code that will give new users a $25 credit in addition to the $20 signup bonus you get for using my link.

To get the $45 in Uber credit, follow these steps in this order:

1. Sign up for Uber using my referral link (or anyone else's, but come on);
2. While signed into your new Uber account, click on the "Promotions" tab at the top and enter the promo code "Hipmunk".

Unlike the Groupon code, which worked for accounts that were already open, I was not able to apply the "Hipmunk" promo code to my existing Uber account.

Chase United Business Explorer: pentuple threat?

Chase's co-branded United credit cards don't get the same love Citi's American Airlines and Barclaycard's US Airways cards do. At first blush, the reason for this neglect is obvious: Chase's Ultimate Rewards cards have higher earning rates in more lucrative categories, and those points can be transferred instantly to United. If you're going to carry even one flexible Ultimate Rewards-earning card, why would you also carry a United co-branded card?

As sound as that argument is, I want to take the other side and argue that the Chase MileagePlus Explorer Business card is very much worth considering – and indeed, if it weren't for Chase's Ultimate Rewards cards, might be the second-most-valuable co-branded airline credit card (American Express's Delta Platinum and Reserve cards are in a class of their own, in the opinion of your humble blogger).

Great Signup Bonus

For months and months Chase has been offering 50,000 United miles after spending $2,000 on the Explorer Business card within 3 months. To get the offer to show up, open a private browsing window, log into your United account, and open this link (it may not be available for all users, although I've seen tons of reports of success).

Compare that to the Chase Ink Bold and Plus cards, which offer 50,000 flexible Ultimate Rewards points after spending $10,000 on the cards. We can praise flexibility all we want, but how many people end up transferring all 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points to United anyway?

Great Earning Rate

Unlike the non-business MileagePlus Explorer card, the Explorer Business earns 2 MileagePlus miles per dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, and office supply stores. That's one card with all three of the most lucrative Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink bonus categories (although with only 2x at office supply stores rather than the Ink's 5x).

And since the Business Explorer card is a Visa small business credit card, it's eligible for Visa Savings Edge as well.

Great Threshold Spend Bonus

Each calendar year you spend $25,000 or more on the Business Explorer card, you'll earn an additional 10,000 MileagePlus miles.

That means if you spend $25,000 at office supply stores and gas stations in your first year of card membership, you would earn 110,000 United miles, or 4.4 miles per dollar. If you applied mid-year, you could even get in a second $25,000 in your second calendar year of card membership and earn another 60,000 United miles (and a second year of waived PQD – see below).

Great Premier Qualifying Dollar Waiver

If you actually have to fly United (hub captive?), you might be interested in the Premier Qualifying Dollar waiver you get when you spend $25,000 on any co-branded MileagePlus card. Note that the waiver only allows you to reach up to Premier Platinum without meeting the PQD requirement — there's no PQD waiver for Premier 1K status.

Great Last Seat Availability

I have a confession to make: I love last seat availability. With either a personal or Business Explorer card, you're able to redeem your miles at the "standard" level for any seat on any United-operated flight.

Conclusion

Will I apply for this card? Definitely not this year, probably not next year, but someday? Why not: it's a really solid card, and if you're running out of Chase credit cards to apply for, it's well worth your consideration.

Discover it $150 signup bonus

I have a Discover it card, and I earn a couple hundred bucks a year manufacturing spend on it in the card's rotating 5% cash back categories (quarters 3 and 4 were good for $75 each last year). Plus, having a card gives you access to the Shop Discover portal, which quite frequently has some of the highest cash back payouts, including at relatively "rare" merchants like the Apple Store. Since Chasing the Points killed the Upromise cash back portal, Shop Discover is now perhaps the best place to click through to Staples for all your gift card needs.

In case you're considering applying for a Discover it card, I want to point out that it appears there's a $150 signup bonus available if you apply through certain links. I've had the card forever, and actually signed up for the card when it was the Discover More, so I can't attest to whether those applications actually work for a $150 signup bonus. But at the bottom of the application you can see the text:

"TERMS OF CASHBACK BONUS OFFER: Get a $150 Cashback Bonus after you make $750 in purchases within the 1st three months from account opening. Promotional award will be applied within 8 weeks. The promotional award is in addition to the Cashback Bonus earned on all purchases. Only valid for new applicants that use this offer link."

I've updated the link on my cash back resource page as well.

US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Winter Olympics promotion

One of the very first travel rewards credit cards I signed up for, on a spring night so many years ago, was the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards card, which had a 17,500 Flexpoint signup bonus and no annual fee the first year.

Then I signed up for it again two months later. Why? Because of the 2012 Summer Olympics promotion US Bank ran — and their willingness to issue seemingly unlimited cards as long as you meet their somewhat Byzantine underwriting requirements (read the comments for important info).

Well, the promotion's back just in time for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, with what looks like the exact same bonus structure:

• a base signup bonus of 20,000 Flexpoints after spending $3,500 in the first 3 months of account membership;
• 500 additional bonus Flexpoints for each gold medal won by the US Olympic team;
• 250 additional bonus Flexpoints for each silver medal won;
• and 100 bonus Flexpoints for each bronze medal.

Mommy Points already did the Lord's work and reckons,

"In the 2010 Winter Olympics that would have resulted in 9,550 bonus points, for a total of 29,550 total sign-up points."

My thoughts:

• the Olympics only come along every 2 years;
• this is the best signup bonus offered for this card;
• and the card itself can be extremely lucrative.

More on Flexpoints

On that last point, I've written a lot of posts about Flexpoints, but often as a kind of "afterthought" on posts about fixed-value rewards. Here's more information than you could possibly want to know about the program:

• Maximizing fixed-value travel rewards points

• Three cards worth manufacturing spend on

• The 5 best cards for manufactured spending at 7-11

• US Bank Kiva loans aren't a hack: they're policy

I've also written about a number of promotions US Bank has run which have offered bonus Flexpoints after meeting sometimes quite reasonable spending requirements:

• Pro Tip: Buy 3,500 Flexpoints (worth up to $70) for $7.50
• Neiman Marcus Flexpoints promotion update
• More bonus Flexpoints (2,500 bonus Flexpoints after spending $2,500)

Transferring Points?

When I had two Flexperks Travel accounts it was very easy to transfer points between them (to consolidate my signup bonuses), but I recall reading some weeks ago that that option had been, perhaps temporarily, disabled. The option still appears in my Flexperks account, but since I did a product change of my second card (to a Cash+ card), I can no longer personally verify that it's still possible.

Three Alaska Airlines signup bonuses

By now you may have seen the two Bank of America Alaska Airlines Signature Visa signup offers that have been widely reported:

• 40,000 MileagePlan miles: 25,000 on account approval and 15,000 after spending $10,000 within 6 months of account membership;
• 40,000 MileagePlan miles (personal and business): 25,000 on account approval and 15,000 miles after spending $2,000 in each of the first 12 months of account membership.

Obviously for my regular readers neither $10,000 in 6 months nor $24,000 in 12 months is a huge obstacle.

But that's not really the question.

The question is whether earning 2.5 or 1.625 MileagePlan miles per dollar (with the first and second offers, respectively) is the best use of that $10,000 or $24,000 in spend. There's no question that for many people it will be: I consider Alaska Airlines miles among the most valuable thanks to the ability to redeem them on both American Airlines and Delta Airlines, as well as Alaska itself. They also have a lot of premium international partner airlines which can give you enormous value per mile.

On the other hand, if you're earning 5% cash back at drug stores, you might be hard-pressed to decide between the cash and the speculative value of the airline miles.

That's why I'm happy to remind my readers that the 30,000 mile offer with no minimum spending requirement is still available.

Personally, I'll be holding out for another 50,000 mile signup bonus (plus I'm waiting for my credit report to cool off after my January application cycle). But if you're interested in MileagePlan miles and don't want to use your manufactured spending bandwidth on them, 30,000 miles is a very strong offer for this card.

Reminder: sign up for Uber (and use your damn Uber credit!)

If you haven't yet signed up for Uber under the temporarily higher $20 signup bonus (normally $10), my understanding is that offer is ending today. There's no doubt it'll be back, so there's no rush, but you may as well hop on it while the hopping is good. Your $20 credit will just sit in your account until you get around to using it.

And for those of you who were kind enough to sign up using my referral link, don't forget to use your $20 credit!

To get $45 worth of Uber credit for $5, just follow the instructions I posted earlier this month.

Just to contrast my Squarespace review, here's my Uber review in one sentence:

Uber works exactly like they say it does.

It's expensive (if you're actually paying for it!), but it's pretty cool watching your car's GPS move through the streets until it gets to where you are. And my Uber charges have all been within $1-2 of the "estimated" cost you can pull up on the app when requesting a ride.

On a funny note, my last Uber ride was $0.40 more than the credit balance I had in my account. I remember thinking to myself at the time, "there's no way they'll actually charge me $0.40, since the transaction will cost them at least $1 to process." But I'll be damned if I didn't get a $0.40 charge to my Chase Sapphire Preferred. Now that's standing on principle!

Uber promotions are stackable – but what's a "new client?"

[update #1: in addition to all of the below, use promotion code UBERTPG20 for 20% off the first ride you take before January 13, 2014. More information at The Points Guy.]

[update #2 8:33 pm EST: I can now personally confirm that Groupon Uber codes are redeemable on accounts that were opened at least as early as December 21, 2013, since that's when I opened my Uber account – and I was able to redeem a Groupon code for a $25 credit into my account today. Sorry Timothy (see below for context).]  

You still haven't signed up for Uber using my invitation link? That's ok, because the offer is just about to get even better.

I'm happy to be able to confirm personally that the $25 Uber credit available for $5 through Groupon (heck, why not use my referral link for Groupon, too?) is stackable with the $20 credit you get using my (or anyone else's, but let's be honest, you should use mine) invitation to sign up. Here's the process:

1. Sign up for Uber using my referral link;
2. Sign up for Groupon using my referral link;
3. Pay $5 for the $25 Uber Groupon;
4. Sign into your new Uber account and click on "Promotions" at the top of the page;
5. Enter the "Redemption Code" found at the top of your Groupon voucher;
6. Your account will now show $45 in UberCredit available.

It's very important that you follow these steps in this order. If instead you buy the Groupon first and enter the "Redemption Code" on the Uber signup screen, then you won't be able to later enter a referral code and receive $20 in free Uber credit. The only way to receive $45 in Uber credit for $5 is to sign up using a referral code, then enter the Groupon "Redemption Code" on your account's "Promotions" page.

[see update #2 above] There's one additional question I'm working on and will update this post with later tonight: what's a "new client?" Per the terms of the Groupon, it's available to "New clients only." My account is only a few weeks old, so later tonight I'm going to buy another Groupon using a different account (there's a limit of 1 Groupon per account) and attempt to add it to my Uber account. If it doesn't work, I'll update this post with the Groupon "Redemption Code" and let one of my readers have it (Timothy, send me your e-mail and you can have first dibs for being the first to use my Uber invitation today).

Sign up for Uber using my invitation

I'm headed to New York on Thursday for a long weekend to enjoy some quality time with my brother (and drink as many Bloody Mary's as we can find on the Lower East Side), and if there's one thing I've learned about visiting New York, it's that people take car services everywhere.

Rather than mooching off my wealthy and powerful brother all weekend, I thought it'd be nice to show up with a nice stockpile of Uber credit to ferry us around town with. That's where my readers come in!

If you sign up for Uber using my invitation link, then you'll get $20 in Uber credit to use starting with your first ride.

Even better, after you take that first ride, I'll get $20 in Uber credit as well.

I signed up back in December (and received just $10 in Uber credit, using my brother's referral link), but can attest that the credit really works and is automatically applied to your account. My first Uber ride was for $12, the credit was used first, and my credit card was charged just $2. If I'd signed up with this link, it would have been free!

So, sign up for Uber, take a ride, and help me get to the theatre this weekend (and get home from drunch)!