0:20 Amex Business Platinum: New $50 Quarterly Hilton Credits
Enrollment required (naturally)
Requires entering your Hilton loyalty number at the time of registration…
…which auto-enrolls your “business” in Hilton for Business with fewer enrollment details than if you register head-on at
How to play this? Online GC purchase for Q4? Use on-property in $50 increments for paid stays? Harder to ignore than s...
2024-12-19 14:43:26 +0000 UTC
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0:20 Citi and AA Exclusive Tie-Up for Next Decade
0:21 Delta to Prepare and Serve Shake Shack on Domestic First Flights
0:30 BofA More Rewards: The Hangover
Late-day transaction posted the next day, didn’t earn rewards
Making matters worse, rumors surfaced that BofA would stop accepting debit card payments over the phone on Tuesday November 12th for accounts that aren’t past due
12:00 Amex Schwab Platinum 125,000
0:21 Happy BofA More Rewards Day
08:33 giftcards.com
0:25 Chase Ink: Success
Got a targeted mailer at the house intended for a prior resident (we’ve lived here almost 20 years, what a list Chase maintains!)
I think the prevailing wisdom is that targeted mailers don’t bypass 5/24, especially since the offer terms show a variable APR which is a negative indicator of pre-approval
Mailer includes 14-digit RSVP code tied to zip code, but the application wasn’t pre-populated ...
2024-10-31 14:46:36 +0000 UTC
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0:45 Hyatt Shutdowns for Chinese Phantom Stays (OMAAT)
5:05 Transfer Bonuses
What We’ve Been Up To
6:40 BofA Business Customized Cash Rewards: Appr...
2024-10-22 16:04:31 +0000 UTC
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0:20 [Targeted] Chase Q4 Bonuses
0:22 Amex: New rounds of 120k + 75k +75k upgrades
0:21 Should our miles be holding seats for us?
Deployed all of my AA miles for LAX_LHR and LAX_FCO next summer
These were around 55-60k pp in business with a connection
They also have a connection (FCO is a must, but LHR could be nonstop)
This got me thinking–I should probably deploy more miles to ‘hold’ seats.
A booking is a clarifying point – it helps clear the schedule and hold a ...
2024-09-11 13:13:22 +0000 UTC
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0:23 Alaska/Hawaiian Merger
Prevailing sentiment seems to be this will go through
Heightened Barclays Hawaiian card offers (70k Personal + Business)
MR -> Hawaiian 20% Bonus (ends Aug 31)
Will Hawaiian miles convert to Alaska 1:1?
Time to speculatively generate Hawaiian miles?
What does the answer to that question depend on?
Alternative Viewpoint: 1MR->Cash out at 1.1...
2024-09-02 22:40:50 +0000 UTC
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0:33 Follow Up: Amex Bonvoy Business
Remember last show I said I’d do the $7k spend for 10k and maybe we’d see whether the welcome bonus might trigger? It did!
I’ve surely had this card before, and I’m almost positive I got the pop-up when applying through referral for 10x dining
Somehow the bonus got attached
Checked whether other cards I’d similarly applied for may have had similar and none did
0:21 Western Union: Back with Lower Fees
An email came announcing this change, touting lower fees on direct to bank account payments.
Payments over $1000 have the lower fee structure.
$2499.99 seems to be a threshold.
Lower than 1% to send p2p in my experience.
Certainly worth poking around with if you had p2p payments set up in the past
How to play this: credit cards wi...
2024-07-31 17:43:06 +0000 UTC
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0:40 Amex Capping 1.1 Cent Schwab Cashouts to 1MM per year (DOC: Link)
.8 cents after that
Per calendar year, which helps initially.
Additional options: Morgan Stanely 1CPP (uncapped?)
Amex Business Checking +Platinum card = 1cpp up to 1MM points per ye...
2024-07-11 00:31:56 +0000 UTC
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0:19 New Card Applications
Denied: Citi Strata Premier
Pending: Amex Schwab Platinum
[Targeted] Business Platinum upgrade link (120k for $10k in 3 months): americanexpress.com/businessplatinum120k
Pending: Leverage
On the heels of last week’s Chase declines, have I run out of cards to apply for?
2024-07-03 20:57:52 +0000 UTC
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0:22 What to do as Smoke Clears on Amex 10x Dining Referrals
Still getting cards reconsidered?
Keep throwaway cards (obtained mostly for the referral) open?
What to do with Fluz capacity?
Schwab (without welcome bonus) for cashout?
08:37 What to do with fluz GC Balance capacity?
0:21 Bank of America Business Cash Rewards +3% offer
Called the “Plus 3 Rewards Bonus Offer”
Came via email. Subject is “Give your Business Advantage credit card a +3% Rewards Bonus”
Basically, +3% on $50k in spend
Cash loads as Computer Services (PCPTech) are earning 3%, so this really is a great way to get paid to do more pay by phone
Just after recording this show cash loads switched to...
2024-06-13 16:52:02 +0000 UTC
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0:19 Amex
10x Referrals: Do we have clarity now that the smoke has cleared?
Intentionally waiting to overturn throwaway declines vs. getting spend done now
Upgrading: Are points lost for mid-cycle earning? (still unclear)
What happens if something malfunctions?
As Spend increases incremental liquidation cost increases as well.
6:05 Fluz
Episode Patreon 2: Show Notes.
Traveling can be extremely expensive unless you know the tips and tricks to make it more affordable! On this Patreon episode of Travel Stories, we are joined by the founder of Traveling Well For Less, Debra Schroeder to discuss how she plays the game of miles and points. In this episode, you’ll hear all about her miles and points strategy, how she makes use of her gold status with British Airways, her experience with sh...
2024-05-29 01:25:06 +0000 UTC
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0:20 Down to the Wire: Amex 10x Referrals
Working links should be applied to before the close of business 5/22
Declines can be reconsidered later and the 10x should stick
What is a good card to force a decline on? (Anything?)
How we’ve played it so far
Liquidation constraints and how pushing these back a few months can help with that
2024-05-22 14:47:40 +0000 UTC
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Episode 1: Show Notes
Ever wondered if your Amazon business could earn you more than just profits? Can Amazon sellers earn miles for flights? Welcome to the first episode of Travel Stories Patreon Edition. In this episode, we welcome back Joey Redmond to talk about everything Amazon reselling and how to build up those travel points you are desperately craving. In our conversation, we discuss the ins and outs of reselling, retail arbitrage, and ...
2024-05-14 13:07:31 +0000 UTC
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0:22 Again: Amex 10x Dining Referrals. How are we doing?
Ends 5/22/2024
What cards are we referring from?
What cards are we going for?
Are 10x referrals better than a head-on 150k bonus? Better than a 250k head-on bonus?
Review Amex churning restrictions:
You can be approved for 2 credit cards within a 90 day period
You can’t be approved for the same card...
2024-05-12 15:25:14 +0000 UTC
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0:42 Amex 10x and New Apps: How’s it Going?
5:36 Fluz Phantom Transactions Piling Up
Main Topics
0:38 Just Get Over the Pond?
FlightConnections.com can list all the flights to get you over the pond. The questions become:
Do we want to be in nonstop destinations?
If not, does the carrier we cross the pond with fly to our final destination?
Is there danger in piecing together trips that normal...
2024-04-17 23:30:05 +0000 UTC
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News
0:27 Q2 2024 5x Categories
Chase Freedom: Restaurants, Hotels, Amazon, Whole Foods
Discover: Gas Stations & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Home Improvement Stores, and Public Transit
Citi Dividend: Grocery, Drugstores
Discuss: How are we doing on 5x across all cards lately?
Today we’re doing things a little differently with a 16 team bracket broken up into 4 different regions: Banks, Airlines, Lodging and “Strange Entities”
0:35 Format / Overview
- This is a single e...
2024-03-25 20:35:19 +0000 UTC
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0:21 Amex 10x Referrals: How’s It Going?
So many questions…
Are referrals that require reconsideration reliably attaching?
How long does it generally take for the base bonus to post?
How long does it generally take for 10x spend to post?
Is email confirmation (or not) reliable indicator of success or failure?
Can chat reps reliably determine if a referral is attached? If so, ...
2024-03-21 13:12:12 +0000 UTC
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0:16 Amex Shutdowns
- Reports coming in all week about no notice shutdown emails sent out in waves.
- Common thread seems to be high spend, but unsure if that is the cause or if something else is
- Loss of all accounts but phone reps might be able to transfer out to programs already linked
- Terrible news, condolences to anyone affected.
- A good reminder to keep balances low
- Consider listening to our 2024-03-09 20:19:14 +0000 UTC
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Family and Group Travel Optimization - Strategies, Tips, Thoughts, and Discussion
0:20 INTRODUCTION
- Discussion of strategies, tips, tools, considerations, and thoughts for family and other multi-passenger group travel.
- Strategy is to GTFO! Garden the Flexible Options!
- Utilize Gardening, Flexibility, and Optionality to mitigate uncertainty and uncontrollable factors impacting travel and to adapt.
...
2024-03-03 23:19:22 +0000 UTC
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News:
0:21 Amex +10x at Restaurants for Referrals
- We have a long history with these +X offers from american express
- Some basics: you earn 10x on the card you refer from
- Your referrer doesn’t need to apply for the same card–they just need to be approved for a card.
- For someone in popup purgatory this could be a nice ‘start’ to a 90 day decline
- Lowes4Pros is what I went with initially. This is a CC, ...
2024-02-24 21:54:11 +0000 UTC
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