Milenomics² Podcast Episode 259: News, Mesa Card Follow-Up and More…

0:20 Amex Membership Rewards 30% Transfer Bonus to Avios

• British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia

• Can transfer to other Avios partners from there

• Ends 7/15/2025

02:59 PayPal Bill Pay: No Longer Useful?

• Still exists, but all useful targets seem to be removed

• Surprised it ran as long as it did

• Online bill pay seems to be a hard business to sustain

05:29 Mesa Homeowners Card

• Both of us applied last week and….

• With approval comes a host of benefits that need to be enrolled. 

• Sam: Will likely only use the Lowes and Costco benefits.

• Robert:  Used the Costco Benefit, worked really well. Considering one for P2.

• Mortgage payment isn’t made on the card but the points are paid out still (odd)

• A really strong negative annual fee card that seems great right now. 

13:13 Approved: BofA Alaska Business 75k

• Got a call from BofA fraud, confirmed I indeed applied for the card

• Logged in shortly after and saw the new card there

15:18 Fungibility discussion

• Cash is Fungible but sometimes we need a ‘Goal’

• Points can be fungible. 

• Should we use points to pay our mortgage, etc? 

 22:09 US Bank: Call to remove Central Billing account (Or maybe dont?)

• Too frustrated with this stupid central billing account I called just to ask “do I owe you anything?” 

• The Rep confirmed that he fields numerous calls about the Centra Billing account, which he claimed was “standard practice in the 1990s” and is a feature. 

• But he was able to remove the Central billing from my accounts. Takes a statement cycle to be switched. 

• Except: Do not remove Central billing during a statement you’ve done any spend on. The points you earn before conversion will likely be forfeit and spend might not count towards Minimum spend during the switch over. In worst case scenarios SUB have been lost! Louses!

• The best thing to do is when setting new cards up try to not add central billing. Ever. 

• The real issue for me was one of available credit.  It doesn’t update seemingly anywhere correctly. 

• While on the phone I asked for a refund of an annual fee and a closure of an old Leverage. 

• This card still shows open but reps confirmed it is closed. Likely due to… central billing?

• Which means…. More leverage! 

26:55 Confirmed: Amex Business Platinum $500 Travel Credit Works w/Air Travel Booked with MRs

• Prevailing sentiment was that this works

• Just wanted to confirm this indeed worked for me

• Posted about 2 days after flight purchase that put me over $2,500

• Also: 35% rebate now posting in around 2 days (took a month previously)

• All together: Quite nice

32:30 CapOne Shopping Redemption Options Getting Truly Rotten

• Unless you like things like Chubbies and Tractor Supply

• Did you know? The Expedia Group Global Hotel Card that purports to “include private homes and vacation rentals” cannot be used on Expedia.com? What an operation!

• Note: Global Hotel Cards are Powered by Expedia and can only be used and redeemed for hotel reservations made online at globalhotelcard.com website (in currency of gift card issued), and not redeemable at Expedia.com.

• To be fair, there are some decent brands still there, but they’re notorious for being GCs that can be bought at 20% off like Gap and Adidas

• Discuss: Is the CapOne Shopping Portal cooked?

39:45 Late show updates: Application Results

• Through the magic of editing I’ve applied for the cards discussed above. 

• Tried for the Wells Autograph Journey. No luck. Denied instantly. Letter coming

• The business alaska card link from last show wasn’t working for me (60k was showing), and in my haste I applied at http://alaska75k.com/ and ended up with a 75k personal offer. 

• I last applied for a personal Alaska card in October 2022, which is a good thing because this says it has 24 month anti-churning language. 

• I did hold that card through late 2023–so is the approval enough to do the spend? 

• Pivoted to an Autograph Journey for my P2. She’s not had a wells card in a long time. Holds a Checking account. Is under 5/24. Denied, letter coming as well. 

• In my depression I lobbed in a US Bank $750 leverage app. Hopeful it will be approved, went pending, will update.