It’s been a good week in general. Here are the highlights.

$2,000 BofA Business Banking Bonus

This Chasing the Points write up is the most interesting deal I’ve read about last week. Because no matter how we are enamored with miles and points, cash is still the king.

Open Bank Of America Small Business Accounts And Receive Up To $2000 Cash Bonus

Basically, you can get up to $2,000 sign up bonus if you sign for three BofA business banking products.

Of course, one of these products also has a high monthly fee (or you have to park $15,000, which is probably not a good deal since we don’t know how long we have to keep the account open). But the main issue I’ve encountered when I tried to call a couple of branches on Saturday was that they had no idea what I was talking about and asked me to call on Monday, so I could talk to the manager. This makes me think the offer might be targeted or regional, but I’ll try to get to the bottom of this tomorrow.

If you buy gift cards, you need to read this!

Miles to Memory wrote an excellent post on Gift Card Wiki and a new plugin that helps you see when buying a gift cards is better than buying something straight away.

Free Money: AMEX Checkout $10 Statement Credits

Deals Miles Points Credit Cards: Free $10 Per AMEX Card

Multiple bloggers and online communities have confirmed that the new AMEX Checkout $10 statement credit is per card and not per merchant. AMEX checkout is a new AMEX payment system that’s supposed to compete with Visa and MasterCard Checkout systems. That’s great news as you can buy stuff at the following merchants:

• Ticketmaster
• Barkbox
• Ledbury
• Warby Parker
• Burberry
• Newegg
• Sabon
• The Wall Street Journal
• WSJ Wine

Most folks opt for gift cards on Newegg or some small-ticket items, and according to this mammoth SD thread, AMEX is giving us a great leeway.

1. You can use each of your AMEX cards to buy stuff at any of the retailers.
2. You don’t have to spend $10.
3. You don’t have to log out and log in again to place another order (but read the last few pages as to what causes Newegg to cancel orders sometimes).
4. Your authorized users can use their cards, but they need to have their own log in.

Free money! Me likey.

Incredible Vacation Rental Deal

Travel Is Free reports about an incredible vacation rental deal—so incredible in fact that I have doubts about its validity. However, having searched for any complaints and negative remarks on the web, I haven’t found anything. If this deal is a real MccCoy, then… Oh My God!

There is this relatively new vacation rental website that allows you to book vacation properties for points, not cash. When you sign up and list your apartment (you don’t have to actually rent it our), you will get enough points for 3 free nights, and you can also buy points for peanuts. I will test it and see how it works (or doesn’t).

New Spirit Airlines Business Credit Card Offer

Spirit has re-launched a business credit card (issued by Bank of America) with the same 15,000 miles sign up bonus, and it will waive the 1st year $59 annual fee for the company. It will not, however, waive the $20 fee for the card, so the way I read it, you will still have to pay $20 per individual card.

Citi Banking Bonuses: 30,000 AA miles or 40,000 ThankYou points

Doctor of Credit has a couple of excellent posts about the return of Citi AA (30K) and ThankYou (40K) banking bonuses. We have to use “up to”, of course, since in order to get the maximum amount of miles we’d have to open a Citigold account ($30 a month or $50,000 on the account). You will need to keep your account open for at least 5 months (2 months to fulfill easy spending and banking requirements and 3 months to get the miles posted). But, since they give you two months for free, your will actually be paying $90 for 30,000 AA miles.

However, if you are going to apply for the Citi Prestige card, then your Citigold account will give you $100 discount. Not a bad deal, after all.

Chase IHG 80,000 Points and $50 Credit Card Offer

If you go for the 40,000 ThankYou points option instead, remember not to redeem it for a purchase equal or over $600 unless you want to receive a 1099-K form. And no, unfortunately you can’t transfer these bonus TU points into a partner airline account.

Frequent Miler outlines how an elite IHG member can apply for a 80,000-point and $50 credit offer. What you need to do is to log in and start a booking process for any hotel in the world. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see this little banner. I cancelled the card a few months ago, but I’m still Platinym, so I’ve tried that, and it worked.

Deals Miles Points Credit Cards: How to trigger the 80,000 IHG Offer

AMEX Hilton HHonors Surpass 85,000-Point Offer Expires 7/31

If you want to get it, hurry up. You can apply for it even if you have had a regular Amex HHonors card. An upgrade will only land you 50,000 points.

AMEX Hilton Surpass 85,000 Points Offer 

Free Miles and Points Sign Up Bonuses Still Working

• Free 1,000 Malaysia Airlines Enrich Miles
• 1, 500 Spirit Airlines miles when you complete 3 short, fun quizzes
• 8,000 Spirit Airlines miles when you tell them why you hate airlines
• Get 1,000 Tudo Azul miles for subscribing to exclusive offers
• Get 500 Lufthansa Miles for subscribing to a newsletter
• Get 500 La Quinta points for watching a video (until 6/30, but the link is still working)
• Earn 250 Voila Hotels Points for Referring A Friend (until 10/31 get points for every referral who joins the program)
• Earn 1,000 Aeroflot Bonus miles for signing up
• Earn up to 2,250 Aeroflot Bonus Miles for Hotel Reviews on tripadvisor (the 750 extra miles bonus expires on July 31)
• Earn 500 airberlin miles by choosing “contact by email
• Get 1,000 miles for becoming a Garuda member

United Awards 1,000,000 for Finding Bugs

United makes good on its promise to award 1 million miles to anyone who finds bugs on their website or mobile app. Apparently, it’s paying off to both parties. Frequent Flyer reports:

United last week awarded the aforementioned mileage award, 1 million MileagePlus miles, to a Florida-based online security professional. According to Threatpost, a website published by the Kaspersky Lab security service, Jordan Wiens, founder of Vector 35, discovered a remote code-execution vulnerability on United’s site, and brought it to the airline’s attention under the bug-bounty program.

Oh, almost forgot

Barcalycard Arrival+ that has successfully gutted some of their most important benefits, is back in business and accepts new applications. Good for them. As for you, just remember that you can cancel or downgrade it at any time and still get the prorated refund. Like I’ve said many times before: don’t get mad when a loyalty company slights you. Get even.

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