Do this now: IHG 3rd third promotion

[updated 7:57 pm: thanks to commenter Adrian for pointing out that Mommy Points is not earning IHG Rewards points, but airline miles. Her haul is still somewhat lower than the other bloggers (e.g. 4,000 airline miles versus 25,000 IHG Rewards points for "Win big"), but not by nearly as much as this post suggested]

Some hotel loyalty programs run seasonal promotions, some run quarterly promotions, but this year IHG Rewards (the Club formerly known as Priority) is running a thirdly promotion: you can earn bonus points for reaching certain milestones between September 1 and December 31, 2013.

You need to register for the promotion here  to find out which milestones you've been targeted for. A number of bloggers have posted their targeted milestones, including: One Mile at a Time, the Points Guy, Mommy Points, View From the Wing.

Here's a quick chart I threw together to compare the various reports (including my own), so you can see how your targeted promotion compares:

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As you can see, Mommy Points needs to work harder to get on IHG's good side, while View from the Wing is the "big winner" here. [see correction above]

To the best of my knowledge, I've never stayed at an IHG/Priority Club property, but I have been a member forever. It's hard to imagine what else I have in common with the Points Guy!

Register now, before you forget. 

Now I've seen everything: PayPal accounts restored

Somebody smarter than me is going to have to explain this one.

I reported earlier this week  that one of my favorite hacks had been abruptly shut down when PayPal closed both my business account (which had a linked 1% cash back debit MasterCard) and my personal account (which I was using to funnel PayPal Cash cards to my business account). By calling into PayPal I was able to withdraw my remaining funds to a linked checking account, and I moved on.

That is, until Thursday afternoon, when I received the most remarkable e-mail: 

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And then just one minute later:

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I immediately checked, and the first e-mail was sent to my personal account's linked address as well. Having been given this reprieve, what do I plan on doing with it? What do you think?

But this time, I'm taking some simple steps to minimize my risk going forward:

• I immediately applied for an additional 1% cash back debit MasterCard for my second, personal account. No more sending money back and forth between my PayPal accounts.
• I'm going to empty my account exclusively with my debit MasterCard, primarily by buying Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at CVS. This will reduce my cost per dollar of manufactured spend to 0.57 cents (0.07 cents after taking Plink rewards into account).
• And obviously, I'm going to empty my account as quickly as possible after loading it. 

Besides the possibility of buying PayPal Cash cards at 7-11 store locations, what I'm most excited about is renewed access to Kiva. Now that I have a US Bank Cash+ card, I'll be happy to earn $100 in cash on the first day of every quarter, plus as many Flexpoints as I have short-term liquidity.

Remember to check in on Monday and all next week, when I'll be describing a new technique that will radically accelerate the points-earning potential of even the most casual travel hacker, and giving detailed analyses of the possibilities unlocked by that new technique. You don't want to miss it.

The curious case of USPS money orders

Before I get to today's post, I want to say that I am back from Europe, and there is a LOT of travel hacking to catch up on. There's a fair amount of hacking that can be done wherever you are in the world (a post that is in the works), but many techniques require being physically present in the States: CVS hasn't expanded to Europe yet!

Most excitingly, there's a new, game-changing hack that I have now confirmed works and which will double or triple the amount of manufactured spend that even a casual travel hacker is able to generate each month. On Monday I'm going to lay out the basic details of the hack, then provide more information and analysis throughout the week leading up to the long weekend. I hope that all my readers and especially my always very spirited commenters will weigh in with their thoughts on the pros and cons of this new technique. So that new technique is coming Monday.

Today I thought I would share the results of my research into a question that has interested me for almost as long as I've been travel hacking: what's the deal with USPS money orders?

Rewards-Earning Debit Cards

The disappearance of rewards-earning debit cards is a well known and much-observed phenomenon. The story goes that back in the days of the finance bubble, before banks came under stricter regulatory and legislative scrutiny, banks partnered with airlines to issue co-branded debit cards, much as they issue co-branded credit cards today. Merchants were forced to enter into agreements with the credit card networks that required them to accept credit cards and debit cards on equal terms, while paying wildly different amounts depending on the card used by their customers. In other words, while it made a big difference to the merchant whether you were paying with a high-cost, premium card like a Chase Sapphire Preferred or a low-cost non-rewards card, the merchant had to accept them on equal terms. Debit cards were just another piece of that ecosystem.

After the 2007-2008 financial crisis, when there was renewed interest in financial regulation, retailers brought the following problem to the attention of Senator Dick Durbin: while credit cards involve a credit risk to the card issuer (the risk that the customer will default on his debt), debit cards don't have that credit risk, since the money is instantly debited from the customer's bank account. But merchants still had to pay the card issuers not just for the cost of running the card network, but also for the (non-existent) default risk! So Senator Durbin introduced his amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, which set debit card swipe fees at a low, fixed level. That's the law of the land today.

USPS Money Orders

Like lottery tickets, USPS money orders have always been for sale only by cash or debit card: you have to use cash to buy cash equivalents.  In other words, you can't walk into a post office and buy $1,000 in money orders for $1.60 using a rewards-earning credit card (not that people haven't tried).

However, the existence of rewards-earning debit cards created a problem, which persists today: should a bank award miles for buying a money order, when the cost per mile may even be lower (for example, 0.32 cents per hyper-valuable Alaska Airlines mile using the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card) than the price the bank itself pays when it buys those miles from the airline?

This old Ron Lieber article in the Wall Street Journal takes the view that basically, it's the bank's problem. Which it certainly is – until the customer gets caught. Buying and depositing money orders on the scale required to make this technique worth your time is certain to be detected by your debit card issuer. That means you'll need to open additional bank accounts, and diligently make sure that you meet the requirements of each of those accounts to waive monthly account maintenance fees. Moreover, one of my banks takes over a week to clear money order deposits, which makes it almost impossible to turn around the money quickly enough to show a clear profit. I've got better things to do.

PIN-based prepaid debit cards

Naturally, the next solution to this puzzle is to use, instead of using a rewards-earning debit card, a PIN-based prepaid debit card which you've loaded using a rewards-earning credit card. Take the US Bank Visa Buxx card: you can load it with $1,000 at a cost of $5. If you could then unload that $1,000 balance at a cost of $1.60, you'd pay a total of 0.66 cents per dollar of manufactured spend – not bad at all.

Likewise, unloading a MyVanilla Debit card at a cost of $2.10 ($1.60 money order fee, $0.50 transaction fee), would give you a total cost of 0.99 cents per dollar in manufactured spend. A bit on the high side, but terrific if it increases your volume substantially.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. 

When you buy a USPS money order, not only are you required to use a PIN-based debit card, but the transaction is processed differently than when you buy a box or envelop. The card issuers know what you're doing. The US Bank Visa Buxx card flatly doesn't work: I have never had any success buying USPS money orders in any amount (any commenters with a different experience are of course welcome to chime in on this point).

MyVanilla Debit cards do work, in the sense that they allow you to complete the money order purchase transaction. But when you check your online statement, you'll find that instead of a $0.50 transaction fee, you've been charged the $1.95 cash advance fee, bringing your cost per dollar of manufactured spend from 0.99 cents to 1.13 cents.

And that's everything I know about USPS money orders: they're more expensive than Walmart money orders, you're radically restricted in the kinds of cards you can use, and they arouse suspicion with your card issuer. That isn't to say there's no room for them in anyone's point-earning strategy; that's a decision you obviously have to make for yourself. But I don't bother using them in my own.

Do this now: Starwood's fall promotion

Registration for Starwood Preferred Guest's Fall promotion is now open.  You'll earn double Starpoints on paid stays between September 1 and December 15, 2013, and 2,500 Starpoints for every 5 paid nights during the same period, up to 10,000 Starpoints after staying 20 paid nights (award nights and Cash & Point nights do not count). Unfortunately, once again there's a long list of non-participating properties.

Register now, before you forget. 

Has affiliate blogging gotten worse?

I might just be jet-lagged, sleep-deprived and cranky, but I've grown increasingly annoyed over the last few weeks by many of the travel hacking blogs I subscribe to, and I'm curious whether the situation has actually gotten worse, or whether I'm just becoming more sensitive in my old age. One thing is clear: affiliate link-driven blogging is bad blogging.

Back on the 11th I saw this headline on Gary's View from the Wing:  You Really Don't Have an American Express Bluebird Yet? Bluebird is pretty much the simplest product out there: you load it, either with Vanilla Reload Network reload cards or a miles-earning debit card (like Bank of America's Alaska Airlines debit card). Then you unload it using an ATM, bill pay, or a bank transfer. So why was Gary posting 776 words (yes, I checked) on this product, and why was he using that obnoxious tone? Of course: they've started offering referral credit. How do I know? Because on the 13th and 14th, the Points Guy posted his referral links as well.

For me, the worst offender lately has been Frugal Travel Guy's August countdown of what they're calling the Top 30 Credit Cards. Take a look at that page and you'll see what I'm talking about. While they claim to have "scrutinized and judged" on the basis of "initial signup bonus, category payouts, card perks, and point values," they don't actually provide any of that analysis. Instead, you get a one paragraph summary and an affiliate link. That's bad blogging.

For me, good blogging means first and foremost ideas, analysis, and experiences.

Ideas

For a long time, Frequent Miler was the thought leader in this space. He sought to understand the nuances of various products and find new ways to exploit them. Not all of his experiments are successful, but his site is a great resource for outside-the-box thinking. Examples from my own blog are my PayPal Debit MasterCard hack and possible uses of Plink.

The problem with affiliate-driven blogging is that if you're getting referral credit for everyone who signs up for the America Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card, you can't tell people,

You should be using this card to buy $500 gift cards at grocery stores, earning 3036 HHonors points at a cost of $5.95, or 0.195 cents each, then unloading the gift cards for free onto a Bluebird or Gobank card at Walmart.

In other words, you can't say the one thing that people getting the card actually need to know. 

Analysis

Analysis means understanding that not every card is right for everyone, and taking seriously a framework that helps people decide which cards are right for them. This is where Frugal Travel Guy's list of top 30 credit cards becomes really egregious. Take a look at the top 5:

1. Ink Bold Business Charge Card

2. Ink Plus Business Card

3. Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

4. Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card

5. Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express

No one could seriously suggest that a single person should carry all three of the "top 3" cards: the Ink Bold and Ink Plus have the same category bonuses, so unless you actually spend $100,000 at office supply stores every year, you'd be crazy to carry both. 98% of hackers would be better off with either a no-annual-fee Chase Sapphire and one of Ink Bold or Ink Plus, or a Chase Sapphire Preferred and a no-annual-fee Ink Cash.

With my point density charts, I try to provide actionable analysis on which hotel programs you should be using to maximize the rebate value of the points you earn on paid stays.

Experiences

This is the area where travel hacking blogs may have degraded the least. A good blog should provide actual experiences with each technique so readers know what works, what doesn't, and what to expect when they try the same techniques.

Jason Steele got a lot of people into trouble over at the Points Guy by recommending AccountNow for manufactured spend. Of course it turned out that AccountNow was a disaster waiting to happen, and that left a lot of people with a lot of money tied up in what was essentially an elaborate scam. It should be no surprise that AccountNow offers referral credit.

Most travel hacking bloggers post trip reports, and while I normally skip them, I'm glad they're there as a resource I can go back to and check later, when planning my own trips.

On my blog, I share the actual nuts and bolts of various travel hacking tools, which too often are shrouded in mystery and superstition. For example, to the best of my knowledge I'm still the only person to report that US Bank doesn't verify the "teen" identity information provided when registering for a Visa Buxx card. That's actionable information that can help you manufacture an additional $2,000 per month in spend at a cost of $10. Likewise, I reported that American Express doesn't bonus spending at 7-11 store locations, even ones that are recorded as gas stations.

Conclusion

This post isn't intended to be a self-satisfied claim that I'm doing everything right and all other bloggers are doing everything wrong (even if it feels that way sometimes). 

Instead, I'm genuinely curious: have travel hacking blogs recently become even more focused on generating credit card signups, and less focused on providing ideas, analysis, and experiences, or have I just become more sensitive to these ridiculous posts that serve as vehicles for affiliate links?

My PayPal shutdown story

One of my favorite travel hacking techniques, and one which I've written about repeatedly in the past, relies on a unique feature of the online payments processor PayPal: it's the only product I'm aware of that allows you to earn miles and points when loading your account (by purchasing a PayPal Cash reload card using a rewards-earning credit card), and also when unloading your account (by earning 1% cash back using a PayPal Debit MasterCard).

Now that there are broad reports of Vanilla Reload Network reload cards no longer being sold via credit card at 7-11 store locations, this technique has become even more valuable. By purchasing PayPal Cash cards at a 7-11 location that posts as bonused "gas station" spend, you can earn double Chase Ultimate Rewards points or US Bank Flexpoints, then earn an additional 1% cash back by using a PayPal Debit MasterCard to load a Visa Buxx card or simply purchase Vanilla Reload Network reload cards at a CVS or other unbonused store location that continues to allow them to be sold. Using this simple technique, I've earned $189 in cash back just since March – and that's in addition to the miles and points I earn from purchasing the PayPal Cash cards.

Unfortunately, the single most important ingredient in this technique is an open PayPal account...and I don't have one anymore. That's right, last week I was completely shut down by PayPal. I want to share some of the things I was doing that did or could have contributed to my shutdown, so you can avoid repeating my mistakes.

1. I used PayPal overseas. This is a weird one, since PayPal has users all over the world. However, this is the very first thing I did that raised red flags with PayPal. They closely track where you typically log into your account from, and if they detect an unusual login they will freeze your account until you prove your identity.
2. I logged into PayPal using Tor. Tor is a web service that allows you to surf the web anonymously.  Since Tor routes your internet traffic all over the world, it's a turbo-charged corollary of the point above: it looks very suspicious to PayPal.
3. I had multiple PayPal accounts.  I've had a PayPal business account for years, since I use to do a fair amount of buying and selling on Ebay. Towards the beginning of this year, when I started using PayPal to travel hack, I decided to see if I could open a new account, which would allow me to double my rolling 30-day PayPal Cash load limit from $4,000 to $8,000. I was able to do so easily, and I "verified" the account by adding a bank account and providing my Social Security number. Once I'd done that, I loaded PayPal Cash cards to my new, personal account and send the money to my business account to be liquidated.
4. I got greedy.  Sometimes, I didn't bother spending the money I'd loaded to my account through PayPal Cash – instead, I withdrew it immediately to my bank account. Now, there's a minor distinction here: I always spent the money I loaded directly to my business account; however when I sent money over from my new, personal account I assumed that the money had been cleared into the system so it was safe for immediate withdrawal.

In retrospect these are all obvious mistakes with simple solutions: when overseas, use a VPN so you always appear to be located in the US; never login to PayPal while using Tor; stick to one PayPal account; and always spend your PayPal Cash loads – never withdraw them directly to your bank account.

Daraius at Million Mile Secrets had a somewhat similar experience, which you can read about here, and the Points Guy got a warning from PayPal after loading and unloading funds using Green Dot MoneyPaks.

I still think this is a great strategy to bring down your cost per dollar of manufactured spend. However, it does take some care to make sure you don't trip over any of PayPal's red lines when it come to fraud and money laundering controls.

Delta devalued their award chart, Alaska didn't

I consider Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to be among the most valuable rewards currencies, since in addition to Alaska's own flights, they can be redeemed on a range of airline partners, including both American Airlines and Delta Airlines. Alaska has access to American's MileSAAver award space and "low-level" Delta award space. You can view all their airline partners here.

Alaska miles just got even more valuable.  On August 14th, Delta announced they were increasing the cost of low-level BusinessElite awards from the United States to Europe, Australia, Asia, South Africa and South America for awards beginning on or after June 1, 2014. Here, Frequent Miler shares his thoughts on "tricking" the devaluation by adding a domestic one-way before June 1.

Alaska's award chart hasn't changed.  It's long been a curious fact about the Mileage Plan program that BusinessElite redemptions on Delta to Europe cost just 90,000 Mileage Plan miles, while the same ticket would cost 100,000 Skymiles. Here's a chart showing the Delta devaluation and the cost of the same flights in Alaska miles:

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Here's a sample flight I found on Delta from Los Angeles to Sydney on June 5, 2014, after the devaluation has gone into effect. You can see the price is showing correctly at 160,000 Skymiles:

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And here's the same flight, on the same day, but booked using Alaska Mileage Plan miles. It costs just 105,000 Mileage Plan miles:

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What does this mean for you? I've long said that if you don't have or want elite status on Delta or American, you should be crediting your flights on those airlines to Alaska. That's now even more true if you plan on using your miles for premium international awards. Additionally, if your paid flights are primarily international, so you don't have to worry about missing domestic upgrades, you may want to think about getting elite status with Alaska, which comes with 50% and 100% bonus miles on paid flights, free checked bags, and other benefits.

Besides flying, you can earn unlimited Alaska miles using the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card (I do this – it works), or the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature.

Additionally, Mileage Plan is a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest, and you'll earn 25% bonus miles when you transfer 20,000, 40,000, or 60,00 Starpoints into your Mileage Plan account. The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card currently has a signup bonus of 30,000 Starpoints.

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

It's long been an open secret in the travel hacking community that US Bank credit cards which have "charity" as a bonus category also bonus loans make through the micro-lending site Kiva.org. This is one of the first hacks that I took advantage of, since if you're using a US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards credit card you can earn 3% cash back or 6% back in paid airfare by making Kiva loans. Many of those loans have repayment periods between 4 and 6 months, so if you have cash that you're willing to tie up in these loans, you can earn a decent annualized return, even if you're just redeeming your Flexpoints for cash back, instead of airline tickets.

While I mention this trick in my ebook, The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto, it's never been entirely clear whether this was an oversight on US Bank's part, a side-effect of their payments being processed by PayPal, or was in fact an intentional policy decision.

I've discovered that rather than an oversight, bonused Kiva loans are an advertised benefit of at least one US Bank credit card program.

As I mentioned last month in my post on product changes, I recently changed one of my two US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards cards into a US Bank Cash+ card (apply in-branch only, or ask for a product change), which has no annual fee and offers 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in spending per quarter in two categories of your choosing (and 2% cash back in your choice of gas stations, grocery stores, or drug stores).

My US Bank online rewards center has now updated with the Cash+ rewards program, so I decided to check out what the 5% categories were this quarter. "Charity" was among them, as it has been since the card first became available. Unlike with the Flexperks Travel Rewards card, however, the Cash+ rewards center provides a lengthy list of organizations where spending is eligible for 5% cash back. And sure enough, there in the second column is Kiva: 

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Of course, the fact that US Bank advertises Kiva as one eligible merchant that's eligible for the "Charity" category bonus right now doesn't mean they will do so forever, or even that "Charity" will return as a bonus category next quarter, since these categories are regularly changed and reshuffled. However, at this point I think this is the low-hanging fruit of the travel hacking game, and I do strongly recommend at least thinking about getting in on the Charity category bonus with one of those two cards.

Things to keep in mind

Of course, this isn't a risk-free play and it isn't for everybody. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Kiva loans are not risk-free. I've never had a default among the approximately $10,000 I've loaned through Kiva, but it certainly happens. The average default rate appears to be about 0.98%.
2. You can minimize, but not eliminate, the risk of default by selecting loans that are offered by partners with a 0% delinquency and default rate, and that have a risk rating of 5 out of 5 stars. This will reduce the number of loans you can consider, however.
3. Kiva deposits and withdrawals are processed by PayPal . That means you need an open PayPal account in order to make Kiva loans. This may not be an option if you've have your accounts closed or if you've been blacklisted by PayPal (more on this coming soon).
4. Deposits to Kiva are instantaneous, withdrawals take 1-2 weeks. This has actually improved considerably: formerly withdrawals could take up to a month to process.
5. US Bank credit cards can be difficult to be approved for. I've always received immediate online approval, but that's not the case for everybody, especially those with lots of recent credit inquiries. One of my most popular blog posts was my step-by-step instructions for one trick you can use to increase your chances of approval for US Bank cards.

Let me know in the comments if you have any more questions on making Kiva loans with US Bank credit cards. 

Should you care about the 30,000 Starpoint signup bonus?

 It's no surprise that the travel-hacking blogosphere has lit up this week with links to the Starwood American Express personal and business cards, which through September 3, 2013 offer 10,000 Starpoints after first purchase and 20,000 additional Starpoints after spending $5,000 within 6 months. The card usually has a signup bonus of 25,000 Starpoints, so this is a 20% increase over the standard signup bonus.

I've never had a Starwood American Express, so I'm eligible for both signup bonuses, but I'll probably take a pass this year (the increased signup bonus is typically offered once a year). Since this promotion is getting so much play on other blogs, this is a good time to breakdown who this card might be right for. For more detail on all the information below, check out all the Starwood redemption options I explain here.

Hotel Stays

There's no question that Starwood, along with Hyatt and Club Carlson, has devalued their award chart least among the major chains, although the changes to Cash & Points rates did not win them any new fans.

Category 4 properties can cost many hundreds of dollars per night, but cost just 10,000 Starpoints, which could make this signup bonus worth well over $1,000 if used solely for Starwood reservations you were going to make anyway.

Elite Status

Indeed, if you regularly book paid stays with your own money at Starwood properties, then this card is a no brainer, because you probably value elite status highly. Starwood is exceptional among major hotel programs for awarding elite stay and night credit for award stays, so with the 35,000 Starpoints you'll have after meeting the minimum spending requirement, you could make 8 one-night reservations at Category 1 or Category 2 hotels. Those 8 stays, plus the 2 elite stay and 5 elite night credits you are credited with just for having the card, would already get you to Gold elite status (10 stays or 25 nights).

If you direct a majority of your paid stays towards Starwood properties, then elite status could make these cards worth carrying, thanks to the 50% earning bonus elites earn: 3 Starpoints per dollar spent on paid stays, instead of 2 Starpoints per dollar. Plus you'll earn 2 Starpoints per dollar spent on the card at Starwood properties, bringing your haul to around 5 Starpoints per dollar (slightly less, since you won't earn base Starpoints on taxes charged by the hotel), plus any promotions.

Airline Transfers

Like flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards points, Starpoints can be transferred to many airlines at a 1 : 1 ratio, with a 5,000 Starpoint bonus at the 20,000, 40,000, and 60,000 Starpoint levels. This naturally creates the temptation to use this card to manufacture spend in order to secure award tickets. Even better, the Starwood American Express has an annual fee of just $65, compared to the $95 annual fee of Chase's flexible Ultimate Rewards cards, or $175 annual fee of the flexible American Express Membership Rewards cards.

You can find Starwood's airline transfer partners here.  The most important programs to note are Alaska MileagePlan, American AAdvantage, Delta Skymiles, and US Airways Dividend Miles. That gives you coverage in all four major alliances and partnerships, at least until US Airways leaves the Star Alliance for oneworld.

Flight Redemptions

Many Starwood loyalists prefer to transfer their Starpoints to frequent flyer programs to redeem for premium cabin tickets. However, Starpoints do have value beyond Starwood stays and airline transfers, so I always try to mention Starwood Flight Redemptions awards, which allow you to redeem Starpoints for paid airline tickets. 35,000 Starpoints can translate into one paid ticket costing up to $215 (15,000 Starpoints) and another ticket up to $280 (20,000 Starpoints), making this signup bonus worth up to $495 in paid tickets, plus the value of the frequent flyer miles you'll earn for those flights.

That's why even if you don't ever intend to stay at a Starwood hotel or book a premium international flight using frequent flyer miles, you may still want to consider this card since the points are between $315 and $495 in paid airfare. 

Drawbacks and Alternatives

Unfortunately, there's a drawback to this card: the Starwood American Express doesn't have any category bonuses except Starwood hotels, which would also be bonused by the Chase Sapphire Preferred (travel bonus) and Chase Ink (hotel bonus) cards. That makes it difficult to justify abandoning a flexible Chase card in favor of a Starwood American Express purely for the sake of manufacturing spend, since the bonus categories of those Chase cards (especially when combined with a Chase Freedom) can be so much more lucrative.

For example, if you have access to PayPal Cash or Vanilla Reload Network cards at a 7-11 that is coded as a "gas station," a Chase Ink card would allow you to purchase Ultimate Rewards points at a cost of 0.39 cents each, compared to 0.78 cents each with the Starwood American Express. That difference means you can pay for the $30 difference in annual fees after just $3,000 in manufactured gas station spending annually.

I consider Alaska MileagePlan miles to be wildly lucrative, since they can be used for Delta or American award tickets (among many other partners). But if you're interested primarily in earning Alaska miles, you can do so with the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card (with its annual companion ticket) or with a Bank of America debit card which gives you virtually unlimited free miles earning potential.

Conclusion

Of the three flexible awards currencies, Starpoints are probably the most valuable – each – because of the redemption options outlined above. However, that doesn't mean that the Starwood American Express is the most valuable credit credit to manufacture spend on: depending on your spend pattern, that distinction probably belongs to the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold/Plus. Still, "second most valuable" is a strong endorsement, and this is the right card for a lot of people, especially with the current, higher signup bonus.

Right now I'm happily manufacturing spend at 5% cash back with the now-expired Citi ThankYou Preferred offer; 2.22% cash back with the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, during my first, fee-free year; up to 4% cash back with my US Bank Flexperks Travel card; and 1.4 Skymiles and 0.4 Medallion Qualification Miles per dollar with the Delta Platinum Business American Express card. And frankly, that's about all I can fit into my current schedule. In January and April, respectively, I'll lose the first two opportunities and move that manufactured spending onto other cards. At that point I'll definitely consider making the Starwood American Express one of my workhorse cards for manufactured spend.

10% discount on American Airlines

I've mentioned occasionally that I haven't flown American Airlines in well over a decade: they've always been more expensive and less convenient than Delta or United. But I don't judge (except United), so if you're an American Airlines flyer, be sure to use a 10% off promo code for your next flight. Just play their game, enter your e-mail address, and they'll send you a code. It looks like you can request one code per e-mail address.

I just checked to make sure it's still working, and got this code, which any reader is welcome to use:

BRBPT4X488RS

Note that the code is apparently only good for flights operated by American and American Eagle.