Things like groceries, gas/EV, dining, etc. feel pretty easy to maximize in a quarter for a lot of people. I'm not disagreeing with your comment (have two myself), but other than supplies, vet visits are not exactly something you can plan around on Chase's schedule (even regular checkups/vaccines may not be around Q4.) Even then, I don't think everyone would bulk-purchase pet supplies for the entire year...maybe gift cards for Petco/Petsmart/etc.?

I think most people sort of expect gift/shopping/retail-related categories for Q4 and while a lot were grouchy about Discover being more narrow than the past (Target and Amazon) or excluding the digital wallet category all year, the oddly-specific options that Chase went with led to some reactions earlier—my comment was merely gauging what's been said and what my own predictions would've been:
https://old.reddit.com/r/CreditCards...q4_categories/
https://old.reddit.com/r/CreditCards...q4_categories/

The McDonald's one feels strange because $500/month at McDonald's is kind of absurd (presumably McDonald's pushed that promotion as they've run off customers with their pricing?) Then again, it should get 7x (1x base, 4x quarterly bonus category, 3x dining) so someone could really go nuts with the Big Macs! I think some other people thought it was a joke at first, like when Amex Gold got Dunkin' credits. Plus, it's not out of the ordinary for Chase to have a specific merchant in mind for 5x: Lowe's; eBay; Target; Amazon; Bed, Bath, & Beyond; and Starbucks were some other one-offs.

For me, charities have always been hit or miss with coding properly, so I'm wondering how accurate that would be for Chase? Are they doing MCCs or maybe certain overrides? Other than PayPal, this one feels much harder to max out than some other quarters, and I'm wondering how the PayPal category as a whole will fare if PayPal is trying to grow adoption for its debit product with its own 5% categories?

So yeah, not necessarily complaining since the rotating cards are always a crapshoot and keep us on our toes—I'm curious to hear how folks will use these!