Which is hotter? Sizzling or smoking? That is why you need to go to a flame or plane system.
Food usually smokes before it sizzles. Put oil in a pan and it begins to smoke in about a minute. Sizzling usually occurs a few minutes later.
I judge hotness by cash value.
The most valuable deal in DD history was arguably the Toys R Us price mistake where people got 4-5 $1000 strollers delivered for free. Only a lucky few got it. I would put that in the “scalding” category.
Second place is probably the SBS credits for people who stocked up on hundreds of Amex cards. People who were targeted for at&t offers should also have made pretty nice bank. There were other notable offers such as Sams club and Amazon.
There was a time when you could just call Amex and ask for points nicely and they would give. Got a 10k offer and ask to match 100k points? No problem. Then close card, reopen, ask again... those were the days. Chase was also quite generous.
Travel related deals have only relative value. If the travel dates don’t work for you then the deal has no value. The most notable that I can remember would be the Delta price mistake, the 4 mile United mistake and the Elal price mistake.