The offers desk
Offers are where issuers hide the real value — and where they quietly remove it. A transfer bonus can double what a point is worth for eight weeks; a welcome offer can be gutted on a T&C page nobody reads. So we track them like everything else on this desk: dated, sourced, and counted down to the day they die. If it isn't here, it either doesn't exist or it doesn't have a date — and an offer without a date is just marketing.
Every deadline here is a dated event — subscribe to these dates as a calendar →
1:2 instead of 2:1 while the intro window runs — 4x the BluChips per EDGE Mile versus the permanent ratio. Lifetime-valid BluChips on India's biggest airline; after 17 Aug the route drops to standard new-partner terms.
5:2 instead of 5:1 during the intro window (Magnus for Burgundy: 5:4 instead of 5:2). Same 18 Jun launch as the Miles route; the maths only works at the intro ratio — after 17 Aug, run the numbers before moving anything.
New primary HSBC Premier cardholders earn 20,000 reward points on their first transaction within 30 days of issuance — ₹20,000 at our ₹1 house value via the 1:1 transfers to Avios/KrisFlyer/Maharaja (far less if cashed on the HSBC portal), already double the ₹12,000 joining fee. Updated KYC required; can't be stacked with any other welcome offer. The offer T&C pins the window to 9 Oct 2025 – 31 Dec 2026, so this is a genuinely dated introductory window, not a rolling sweetener.
₹1,000 cashback + ₹3,000 The Postcard Hotel voucher + 3 months EazyDiner Prime on ₹25,000 spend within 30 days of card opening. App-based applications; video KYC only, offer period through 31 Oct 2026 — and this is already the gutted 1-Jul-2026 construct (₹10k spend used to unlock it, plus a since-scrapped 3,000-point milestone).
Cards issued 1 Jul – 31 Aug 2026 get the welcome bonus doubled: 10,000 miles on ₹25,000 spend in 60 days (plus the joining fee paid), and another 5,000 at ₹50,000 — 15,000 miles total on a ₹5,000-fee card. The non-Premium sibling doubles to 5,000 (7,500 max). At the ₹1/mile anchor that's the fee back three times over before you've earned a single spend mile.
Book Air India direct (site or app) on the Platinum Charge and earn 1 + 9 bonus MR per ₹40 — 25 points per ₹100, roughly ₹12.5/₹100 at our house value. Platinum Reserve earns 5X (1 + 4 per ₹50); Centurion matches the 10X. Runs 21 Aug 2025 through 31 Jul 2026, so this is the final month to load up.
New-to-BOBCARD applicants get Eterna lifetime free through 31 Jul 2026 — a deadline that has already rolled 31 Mar → 30 Apr → 30 Jun → 31 Jul, while BOBCARD's own page commits only to "limited period". Unlimited domestic lounges on a zero-fee card is the pitch; a clock the issuer won't print is the catch. Treat the date as real and apply accordingly.
Expired offers never leave the data file — that history is how you tell a generous program from one that runs a flash sale once a year and calls it a relationship.
Every corridor worth using has a rap sheet, and the rap sheet is the strategy. Below is each corridor's full bonus record — how often it fires, what the median bonus is, and when it last showed up. The verdicts are computed from those rows, not vibes: if a corridor pays 30% every few months, transferring flat isn't loyalty, it's a donation.
A 30%-median bonus lands about every 15 months — 3 on record, last Apr 2025. Transferring flat hands 30% back to the program — wait for the window.
Route deleted on 2 Apr 2026 — 3 bonuses on the record (median 25%) and none of them matter any more. Corridors die faster than points expire; that is the real lesson of this archive.
One sighting: 10% in Aug 2023. Once is not a cadence — but a corridor that flashed once flashes again. Don't move a big balance flat the week before it does.
One sighting: 75% in May 2025. Once is not a cadence — but a corridor that flashed once flashes again. Don't move a big balance flat the week before it does.
A 27.5%-median bonus lands about every 11 months — 8 on record, last Jun 2026. Transferring flat hands 27.5% back to the program — wait for the window.
A window is open right now and closes 31 Jul 2026. This corridor pays a median 25% about every 7 months — moving points outside a window is a 25% tip to the program.
A 55%-median sale fires about every 3 months — 4 on record, last May 2026. Never buy at list price; the next sale is already scheduled in everything but name.
Frequency, median and every verdict above are recomputed at build time from the sourced rows in data/bonus-history.yaml — promos we couldn't pin to a date and a source didn't make the file.