Odds & Ends: 5% Chase Freedom Categories, Club Carlson 25% Discount, Ritz Carlton Credit Card with $395 Fee Waived, Citi American Airlines Reduced Mileage Awards & Free Hertz Points

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Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

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1.  Activate Chase Freedom Categories.  Today’s the last day to activate the 5% quarterly bonus on groceries and movie theaters by using your Chase Freedom credit card.

Activating the quarterly bonus is retrospective retroactive meaning that you will earn 5% (up to $1,500 or 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points) for all grocery store and movie theater purchases made in April, May, and June.

If you’ll be buying groceries in the next few months, it doesn’t hurt to buy grocery store gift cards or gift cards to other stores from your grocery store before June 30 with your Chase Freedom to earn the 5% bonus.

2.   Club Carlson 25% Discount.   Via Deal Seeker, get up to a 25% discount for bookings made by June 15, 2012 and completed by June 30, 2012.  Not all hotels are available with a discount, but it is worth checking especially since you can get 138,000+ points with just 3 Club Carlson hotel stays. Facebook fans know that I checked into a Country Inn & Suites this week, and Emily will be checking into one this week.  These are all stays which we would have to make anyway, so Club Carlson’s promotion successfully got us to switch hotels. 3.  Ritz Carlton Credit Card with $395 fee waived.  Readers wrote in with a link to a 70,000 point Ritz Carlton credit card with the $395 fee waived.  As always, I updated the Hotel Credit Card tab with a link to this offer (doesn’t pay me a commission).

You get 70,000 points as a sign-up bonus, $200 credit towards airline incidentals, lounge access, and Gold status for the 1st year (free internet!).  The offer is for 1st year owners of Ritz Carlton residences, but they don’t ask you if you’re a member on the application form.

4.  Citi American Airlines Reduced Awards.   The new list of reduced mileage awards for Citi American Airline cardholders is out.  There’s more information on reduced mile awards in my earlier post on using American Airlines miles. 5.  Win 3,000 Hertz Points.  Frugal Travel Guy and Points, Miles, & Martinis have Hertz car rental points to give away!

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