Milenomics² Podcast Episode 239: New Approvals, Application Stunts, and “Think Fast”

0:45 Hyatt Shutdowns for Chinese Phantom Stays (OMAAT)

5:05 Transfer Bonuses

• Amex 20% to AirFrance FlyingBlue

• Chase 40% to Virgin Atlantic

What We’ve Been Up To

6:40 BofA Business Customized Cash Rewards: Approved

• Both of us said we’d go in on this and we did

• Instant approvals

• Great win, now can I spend $50k before the end of the year on these?

11:20 Amex Application Stunts

• Referred for Delta Business Gold (for 30k)

• Got a have/had pop-up, left application “hanging,” opened new tab and again applied through referral link

• Application went pending. A couple days later…approved without further intervention!? That’s bonkers.

• Tried again on my wife’s side. Didn’t work. A few days later she was denied. Didn’t call to see why.

• Hearing reports of people flat out getting approved for Amex business cards they’ve had before without any pop-up, I tried applying head-on for a 250k Business Platinum.

• Got the have/had pop-up, opened a new tab, applied again. Pending.

• Called. Was told in no uncertain terms that they couldn’t send an application like this for review because I got the pop-up and skirted it. If I want the card without a welcome bonus I need to accept the pop-up.

• Talk about results varying - even for the same person pushing the buttons.

19:40 Amex Hilton Aspire

• Closed, but I should have downgraded to Surpass

• Why? I noticed on another Aspire that I’d spent $60k on for two free night certificates that shortly after downgrading it, I earned a Surpass free night certificate.

• It seems Amex is counting spend when the card is an Aspire additionally as qualifying spend on the Surpass.

• Oh well - I’m not having a great time with FNCs any way.

23:55 Weekend trip to SFO: Alaska Close-in Low Mileage Awards 

• Planned a trip up to san Francisco in a few weekends  (inspired by Robert!) 

• Alaska charges less for AA awards (4500/9000) than their own metal in most cases

• Cheaper than AA even

• Hawaiian -> Alaska -> AA is a wild combo. 

• Long beach and Southwest are pretty much frozen out.  Nothing great and I don’t have confidence this close in about a schedule change

• LAX it is.  Going to park since it is a short trip. 

• Hilton Certs pose a problem: I’ve stayed at most of the hiltons here. I don’t like them much

34:45 Hilton Free Night Cert Slog (cont)

• Noticed that I still had one night booked with an FNC after my poor experience on the phone. Cancelled that.

• Saw that space opened again, so I chatted this time. Rep came up with a wild excuse why they couldn’t book it initially saying they needed to use certs earned at the 60k Aspire hurdle rather than the 30K Aspire hurdle which is nuts and effectively used later-expiring certs undesirably.

• Got desired 2 night booked, but get this: I booked for the wrong nights! Gah!

38:25 Fluz

• Slack reports are that Fluz is reselling 3PGC. 

• This seems to just be for cards with fixed values

• Makes these ‘2nd party’ cards and subject to fraud issues.

  • To be clear I’m sure fluz can fix fraud issues

• More concerning is that it makes these cards not eligible for resale to 3PGC resale marketplace potentitally. 

• The more you know…

40:50 Think Fast: BOS - PHL - State College on AA

• Had a 45 minute layover schedule in PHL

• Plane in BOS is on time, but about 5 minutes into boarding the pilot called off boarding, sent everybody back to the gate are and said the flight would be delayed by at least an hour

• This means that, unless our flight in PHL were also delayed that we’d miss our connection and spend the night in PHL

• Think fast: What do you do?

• Goal is to get to Altoona, which is about 45 minutes from State College

47:40 Think Fast: How to stream live sports at AirBnB?

• House has WiFi, and two TVs, but no cable

• The apps for the networks the sports are on are not installed on the TV

• You can’t install apps on the TV (because you don’t know the PIN)

52:15 State College - PHL - BOS on AA

• Arrived at PHL in time to catch an earlier flight

• Couldn’t change in app. Why? Unclear.

• AA on Twitter couldn’t touch flight. Why? Because it was booked with Qantas miles. Gah!

• Went to the gate as they were finishing boarding. Guy in front of me was also trying for a same-day change and was denied.

• We tried and were also initially denied: If you can’t make the change in the app, I can’t do it for you either.

• “What if she’s Platinum Pro?” Well then, step right up! Here are two tickets in a delightfully empty exit row! Enjoy your flight. 

• Thought it was a strange-behaving gate agent but look at these AA same day change rules. It’s truly wild.

• OMMAT: AAmazing Same Day Change Policies

Discuss: Don’t wrongly assume that just because airlines have “free changes” that it includes easy free same day changes without fare differences. That’s just not the case.