You’ll have to excuse me for the annoying click bait title, but currently the MERRILL+ credit card is offering a sign up bonus of 50,000 points and I don’t think this card and bonus is getting as much attention as it deserves. You don’t need an existing relationship with Merrill Lynch to get approved (as evidenced by all the comments here).
The points themselves are quite useful, you can redeem them for 1¢ per point towards statement credit (giving you a minimum bonus of $500 cash). Or you can redeem them for airfare. When redeeming for airfare you have to redeem a minimum of 25,000 points, here’s how that works:
American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Airlines & United Airlines allow you to redeem 25,000 points for up to $500 in flights (2¢ in value)All other airlines allow you to redeem 30,000 points for up to $500 in flights (1.67¢ in value)
No longer true, basically all airlines get you 2¢ per point now. We discuss this in more detail here.
If your flight is over $500 then you pay 1¢ in addition (in increments of 2,500). These flights also earn miles & elite qualifying miles. The card doesn’t have an annual fee either. So basically you’re getting a minimum of $500 in value for $3,000 in spend and up to $1,000 if you can get flights to work for you. Card is issued through Bank of America, so all the usual rules apply. I’d recommend reading through this linked post and also the comments section.