Milenomics² Podcast Episode 244: Are Things Improving?
Added 2024-12-11 07:14:19 +0000 UTC0:20 Citi and AA Exclusive Tie-Up for Next Decade
“creates an innovative alignment between the Citi ThankYou and AAdvantage® card programs and is designed to drive incremental value for both companies and produce a significantly expanded loyalty and rewards offering”
Citi acquired Barclays portfolio, cards said to be transitioned in 2026
Where does Bilt fit into this mix?
11:15 Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards: Now Bookable Online
Can apply at time of booking (but not to existing booking)
Quite nice because it’s always been confusing which rooms qualified for use of these certificates
Trial booking at Aviara: Quirky ADA room was available, but I could tell straight away that I could book right into a suite for the standard rate w/the upgrade cert
Bottom Line: I think this is a really nice enhancement
18:03 Ways to Screw Up Incidental Liquidation
Book and cancel United airfare same day. Charge never comes out of pending state, so it never triggers credit.
Book legit JetBlue seat upgrade w/BofA: Never seems to trigger without manual intervention
Book too-expensive ticket in hopes it will be considered an incidental. How much is too much? Unclear. Depends on airline and credit card.
Accidentally land charge on Amex Platinum card with wrong airline selected (usually because you were trying to get 35% rebate for Economy seat on multiple airlines of choice).
Cancel within the same calendar year on Amex: Usually results in a clawback
Trying to use incidental on Amex Platinum twice in the same calendar year, after downgrading to a lower fee card mid-year. An Amex card retains a memory of whether that card was a Platinum card before and you can only get $200 per calendar year even when product changing during the year.
Good news is, you can recover from most of these. Unless it’s right at the end of the year and you miss the window.
What we've up
31:07 Amex Cell Phone Protection Claim
Cracked the screen on my Pixel phone
Paid with an Amex Business Platinum
Called in, AIG is the administrator
Need a written estimate, paid that amount less $50.
Difficult to get a written estimate.
Max 2 claims per year, unsure if that’s per person or per card
$800 max if repair unable to be done
Consumer plans only (no business plans)
Lookback is 1 calendar month Call in Nov, they want October payment proof
Secondary after any other insurance
36:45 Amex Platinum Resy 15x
Approved a little over a week after submitting 4506-C
I see the offer coming up regularly lately if I search “amex resy platinum” incognito and click the first non-sponsored link
Just a tremendous offer at 100k + (15 x $25,000) = 475,000 MRs
41:58 giftcards.com Update
After many, many failed orders Customer service finally agreed to a solution: Refund the purchase of the GC.com gc.
They’re awful (Still)..
Unsure if all the failed payments fried my GC account or not. Will test during another promo period.
43:55 BofA Travel Center B28374 Update
I’ve gotten a couple callbacks, but no resolution. Issue persists.
Had a $475 AA Economy ticket I wanted to buy, so bit the bullet and called Concierge to book it
Agent quickly suggested I just book it directly with the airline while on the phone w/her and she’d put in a request for the statement credit and 20% point rebate
I really like this solution - it’s so refreshing to just book a cash ticket directly with the airline, and it can pay dividends downstream for ease of same-day change (compared to booking a partner award ticket) and refund to travel credit if cancellation is needed (no bank intermediary involved)
48:05 Cardless Qatar Visa Infinite Update
Still frozen
Probably not scalable.
48:46 Breaking: Hotels Back on Fluz
Finishing on a high note?
Instant Access up to $10k as well
But longer settlement times
