| Incognito | Opening a new browser window in "private mode". This allows you to hit a website without any cookies, and thus possibly be targeted for better offers. |
| Interchange Fees | Interchange fees are transaction fees that the merchant's bank account must pay whenever a customer uses a credit/debit card to make a purchase from their store. The fees are paid to the card-issuing bank to cover handling costs, fraud and bad debt costs and the risk involved in approving the payment. |
| Premium Card | Refers to any high annual fee card requiring a high credit score. Usually reserved for clients with a high income that will spend a lot on travel or dining. |
| Stopover | Refers to stops of greater than 24 hours in duration on award tickets |
| *A | Star Alliance | The world's largest airline alliance that counts Air Canada, Lufthansa, ANA, and United as members |
| AA | American Airlines | N/A |
| AAoA | Average Age of Accounts | The average age of all of your credit card accounts opened in the last 10 years. This is used as one factor in determining your credit score. The higher your AAoA, the better. |
| AC | Air Canada | Flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by fleet size and passengers carried. |
| ACH | Automated Clearing House | A bank to bank transfer of funds |
| AF | Annual Fee | The yearly fee associated with having a credit card. |
| AMEX | American Express | N/A |
| AP | Aeroplan | Aeroplan, an airline rewards program which was owned by Air Canada but then not owned by Air Canada and now owned by Air Canada. |
| AS | Alaska Airlines | N/A |
| AU | Authorized User | A secondary user of an account (typically a credit card) |
| AYOR | At Your Own Risk | Taking such advice has its drawbacks, the decision and repercussions are on you. |
| B6 | Jetblue Airways | N/A |
| BGR | Business Gold Rewards | American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card |
| BW | Borrowell | A free credit score provider for Equifax (EQ) in Canada. |
| BW | Best Western | The hotel chain. |
| CB | Cash Back | A cash reward credited back to a customer after meeting some criteria (min spend, age of account, percentage cash back, etc...). |
| CB | Credit Bureau | The major ones are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion (only Equifax and TransUnion in Canada). |
| CK | Credit Karma | A free credit score provider for TransUnion in Canada, and both TU and EQ in the USA. |
| CL | Credit Limit | The total amount that is allowed to be charged on a particular credit card. |
| CLI | Credit Limit Increase | Asking your credit card issuer for an increase in your total spending limits on a particular credit card. |
| CPP/CPM | Cents Per Point / Cents Per Mile | Refers to the monetary value out of reward redemptions. 1cpp is the general minimum offered by all points/miles partners, meaning $0.01 per each point/mile earned. |
| CSR | Customer Service Representative | A representative of a bank/credit institution. |
| CX | Cathay Pacific | N/A |
| DD | Direct Deposit | The act of taking a payment directly from an employer directly into a checking/savings account by an ACH. |
| DL | Delta Airlines | N/A |
| DP | Data Point | People will usually post 'DP' when posting some information to the community that others may find useful/helpful. |
| DYOR | Do Your Own Research | A common phrase popularized by cryptocurrency enthusiasts. It is commonly used throughout the internet due to how fast and easily misinformation can spread. |
| EK | Emirates Airline | N/A |
| EQ | Equifax | One of the two major credit bureaus in Canada (three in the USA). |
| EQN | Elite Qualifying Night / Credit | A stay qualifying towards elite status at a hotel. This can either be in the form of an actual paid stay or a credit earned through promotions or as part of a credit card perk. |
| ESB | Early Spend Bonus | N/A |
| EY | Etihad Airways | N/A |
| F | First Class | N/A |
| F/J | First Class/Business Class | Flying in either first or business class. |
| FF | Frequent Flyer Miles | An airline currency redeemable for flights/goods directly through an airline partner. |
| FR | Financial Review | When a creditor puts an account under financial review, usually for abnormal spending behavior. |
| FTF, FOREX | Foreign Transaction Fee | Fees charged by credit cards when used outside of your own country. Typically fees range between 2-3%. There are many cards that offer 0% fees when used abroad. If you travel abroad, its advisable to have at least one card with 0% foreign transaction fees. |
| FYF | First Year Free | A common credit card offer which rebates the yearly fee for the first year of card membership. |
| GCR | GreatCanadianRebates | A popular cashback rebate website. |
| GE | Global Entry | A trusted traveler program, which also includes TSA Pre Check. |
| HP | Hard Pull | Refers to a check that the bank will perform on your credit profile. This will result in a temporary hit to your credit score. Excessive amounts of hard pulls is detrimental to your churning profile as this appears to the bank that you are a "credit risk" seeking to incur a large debt without hope of repayment (See: Not Worth the Hit) |
| Hub Captive | | Term designating that you're a flyer that's locked into to a certain airline. Most of your travel is through this airline's hub and thus they control the majority of your travel destinations. |
| HUCA | Hang Up and Call Again | Giving up on a phone call with a representative of a banking institution and calling back in. The hope being that you may have better luck with a different representative. |
| J | Business Class | N/A |
| JL, JAL | Japan Airlines | N/A |
| KE | Korean Air | N/A |
| MR | Membership Rewards | American Express in-house rewards currency |
| MR-S | Membership Rewards Select | Lower tier of Membership Rewards, earned by the Cobalt and Business Edge cards. |
| mRTW | Mini-RTW, a.k.a Aeroplan Mini-Round-the-World | A type of trip redemption, typically with Aeroplan, where one uses stopover and open-jaw allowances to visit 3+ destinations on a single award ticket. |
| MS | Manufactured Spending | Using your credit card to purchase items considered cash equivalents in order to meet spending requirements. This includes gift cards, money orders, and the loading of prepaid debit cards. MS'ing has many benefits and detriments. Usage of MS is AYOR. |
| MSR | Minimum Spend Requirement | The minimum amount that must be spent on a credit card in order to qualify for a sign up bonus. |
| NWTH | Not Worth The Hit | The reward given as the sign up bonus is not worth the credit inquiry and decreased average age of accounts that will temporarily hurt your credit score. |
| OP | Original Post/Poster | The person (who created) or post (that was created) for the initial thread/discussion on reddit. |
| OV | OneVanilla Card | A reloadable debit card. |
| P2 | Player Two | A common phrase used by churning communities to refer to their significant other, family member, or less commonly a friend who they partner with for churning. Churning with a P2 allows for better strategy with referral bonuses and cost-sharing. |
| PC | Product Conversion | Converting one credit card to a different one. Banks will generally allow you to upgrade/downgrade to similar cards in the same product category. It's often used by churners to signup for a card with an AF waived for the first year, earn the bonus, and PC down to a $0 AF. Doing this doesn't affect your AAoA. PC is also known as Product Switch (PS) |
| PO | Post Office | |
| PoT | Prince of Travel | A prominent Canadian points blogger |
| PP | Priority Pass | Airport lounge pass program |
| PS | Product Switch | Converting an existing credit card you hold with a bank to another one of their products. Most commonly done with CIBC, TD, and RBC. |
| RC | Ritz-Carlton | |
| RECON | Reconsideration | The telephone line for a credit card company to call to get your application reconsidered. This is usually as a result of an online application being put on hold. |
| RFD | RedFlagDeals | A Canadian forum for deals, including travel and credit card related subforums. |
| RT | Round Trip | A flight to and from a particular destination booked during the same checkout process. |
| RTW | Round-the-world Tickets | Flight packages that let you visit a number of destinations around the world for one price, are offered by airline alliances like SkyTeam, Oneworld, and Star Alliance. Also possible to book RTW using third parties, and certain airline mileage programs. |
| SAR | Suspicious Activity Report | A financial tool filed by a financial institution that observes suspicious activity in an account. |
| SM | Secure Message | Messaging your bank using its secure messaging system. |
| SP | Soft Pull/Soft Inquiry | A credit check that does not show up on your credit score. Usually performed by banks for checking accounts or by free credit score estimate services like Quizzle, CreditKarma or CreditSesame. |
| SPG | Starwood Preferred Guest | |
| SW | Southwest | N/A |
| T&C | Terms & Conditions | A legal contract you abide yourself to while signing up for a particular service. |
| TATL | TransAtlantic | Travelling overseas. |
| TPG | The Points Guy | A prominent points blogger in the USA |
| TU | TransUnion | One of the two major credit bureaus in Canada (one of three in the USA). |
| UA | United Airlines | N/A |
| VGC | Visa Gift Cards | Visa Gift Cards purchasable in many retail locations. Fixed face value from $25 - $500, usually charges an activation fee between $3.95 - $6.95. |
| VR | Vanilla Reload Card | One of many reloadable prepaid cards which is frequently used to engage in manufactured spending. |
| WJ | WestJet | N/A |
| WJD | WestJet Dollars | The rewards currency of the WestJet loyalty program. |
| WM | Wal-Mart | |
| WN | Southwest Airlines | |
| WU | Western Union | A US based company used to transfer money throughout the world. Similar to MoneyGram. |
| Y | Economy Class | |
| YMMV | Your Mileage May Vary | A saying meaning "I had these results, but you may not actually have the same outcome as I did." |
| YQ | Fuel surcharge | Also known as carrier-imposed surcharges, these are additional fees that make up a ticket price. They are tacked on to award tickets, and don't actually represent fuel, but rather are a practical way for airlines to quickly change flight pricing without re-filing fares. |
