I didn’t go for too many bonuses over the summer and fall though I did complete some. After six months of working on it, the bonus for the American Express Blue Business (referral link) posted in June which added 75,000 Membership Rewards. I put some additional spend on other AmEx cards for another 11,907 points. I also went for the US Bank Business Leverage card when it had an elevated bonus of $900. Between the bonus and the points I earned from spending on the card, I redeemed $1,042.55 in a statement credit. Another card bonus I completed was the Citi Business AAdvantage card. That was 65,000 American Airlines miles for the bonus and another 4,598 miles from the spend. I also had some offers on my Chase cards (Chewy.com offered some good deals through Chase) so I now have 2,755 in Ultimate Rewards.
With all my points, I took a few short trips for the Something Corporate reunion tour. First up was Portland in July. I lucked out and just avoided the Crowdstrike debacle! I flew Alaska on the way there and American on the way back (using one of my seat upgrades that I earned earlier this year) to maximize my redemptions. For the hotel, I went with The Duniway as it qualified for the $200 American Express Platinum hotel benefit. The card also gave me a $100 general dining credit at the hotel plus $30/day for breakfast.
Next up was Denver where I stayed at the Cambria RiNo. At the hotel restaurant before the concert, I met a bunch of others who came to Denver for the concert which was fun. I flew Southwest to use up some of my American Express airline credit. The next month I had the Something Corporate show in Tempe (local for me) followed the next night by one at the Hollywood Palladium. I was able to use my free night Marriott certificates at the W Hollywood. The hotel charges a $29 destination fee but they give that back as a discount at the restaurant. They also have a free wine happy hour. I again flew Southwest to finish off my airline credits for the year.
With all those trips, I prioritized redeeming for Uber gift cards for my non-credit card earnings like Swagbucks (referral link). Each month I got a $25 Uber card from Swagbucks. I got another $43 in Uber from Microsoft Rewards. Checkpoints got me $30 in Amazon gift cards. Unfortunately Amazon Shopper Panel made a significant downgrade to the program. No longer is it $10 for 10 receipts; the receipts are now mostly worth just 15 cents. If I wasn’t already scanning receipts for other programs, I wouldn’t bother as I now tend to get $3 each month. One of the other receipt scanning apps I use is ReceiptHog, which got me $15 (PayPal) this summer.
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