Follow Up
0:21 Stockpile Sputtering
- Big wave of BINs now blocked for stock purchases this past week
- Heartbreaking really, as it was previously so terrific
- Fast developing situation, may still be some angles
- Are there other Stockpiles out there? The combination of fractional shares, acceptance of “debit” cards and prior tolerance for sales and transfer to checking were hard to beat.
15:04 Pir...
2021-11-10 05:38:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:20 Bravo 2% Dies
- Starting 10/20/2021 < $500 transactions went from 2% to 3.5% + $0.30
- Even on old versions of the app
- Still “emergency” utility here at 3.5%? Non-emergency?
- Opportunity is there if the numbers work.
- The number one thing bravo has going for them is that they will take any card and as many cards as you throw it then and not say a peep and there is utility in at any rate.
07:12 Fluz Time...
2021-11-03 06:00:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and I’m joined today by long-time reader, German. German, welcome to the Manifesto.
[0:20] Plugs
- Twitter: @xgerman
- Milenomics slack: @xgerman
[0:44] Background
- What were your expectations for childcare before/during/after pregnancy? Nannies/babysitters/au pairs? Did you have friends or family you ...
2021-10-25 10:35:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:20 Amex Shutdowns Follow-On
- Community is still on edge
- Most (but not all) shutdown reports seem tied to applying through one rep over the phone, but there are some hearsay reports of mailers and targeted offers being triggers
- Seems bananas, but here we are
- Discuss: How is this informing our actions with Amex (and other banks) in the near term?
- We’re not partners, don’t fool ourselves into thinking that ...
2021-10-21 11:11:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and I’m joined today by returning guest, from the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast, Justin Vacula. Justin, welcome back to the Manifesto.
[0:24] Plugs
With all of the news coming out this week Robert and I sit down to discuss the Amex Shutdowns, our thoughts and what to take away from the situation on this special edition of the Milenomics² Podcast.
0:24 Amex Shutdowns
- Probably the most widespread wave of Amex shutdowns we’ve heard of, and it has affected a lot of community members unfortunately.
- Thought to be related to related to phone-in applications for business cards that ...
2021-10-08 05:30:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:27 Amex “October Surprise”: Revamped Referral Program (4-for-us)
- Referrals have been extensively covered on this show, as recently as last week we said to be sure to refer for the Business Bonvoy card.
- Readers found the referral language change on Americanexpress.com on Sep 30th,
- Referring now earns +4x anywhere for the person referring, up to $25k in spend (100kMR).
- Business Platinum 15k AND +4x
- Thinking is this goes beyo...
2021-10-05 07:11:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
News
0:36 Amex Bonvoy Business 125,000 + Two 50k Certs
- $5,000 min spend in 3 months
- $125 AF (not waived first year)
- 35k cert on renewal
- Available through referral
1:40 Amex Bonvoy Brilliant 150,000 + One 85k Cert
- $5,000 min spend in 3 months
- $450 AF (not waived first year)
- $300 Marriott credit each cardmember year
- 50k cert on renewal
- Not y...
2021-09-29 06:02:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
6:30 Outbound Flights
- Emirates business: EWR to ATH to MLE (stopover in DXB)
- 117.5k miles + $275 fee pp
- Just before the trip, I read an article on OMAAT about upgrading at the ticket counter and/or after boarding. We had an opportunity to upgrade EWR to ATH but declined.
Inbound Flights
- Emirates Business: MLE to DXB
- Emirates First: DXB to JFK (Upgraded at 54k miles pp)
13:00 Gr...
2021-09-17 16:24:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:22 Amex Pays Out on Old 25k/10x Upgrades!
- Sept 3, 2021 they seemed to pay out on both the 25k and the +9x at grocery and dining for early adopters of this upgrade
- Doesn’t seem to have anything to do with when a statement cuts
- It runs for 6 months so there still may be time to get more bonused spend in
- It’s the Perfect System. Never has a point gone missing.
06:23 Amex Continues to be Relentless with Tar...
2021-09-15 13:25:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
Today I chat with Garth Grawburg about his anniversary trip with his wife to Mallorca, the Amalfi Coast, and Rome.
4:00 How I booked flights✈
Outbound
MSP -> ORD: United Travel Bank
ORD -> PMI (via MAD): 60k Iberia Avois pp (from 40% MR transfer bonus in Q3 2019)
We could talk about how this was my first time using a positioning flight. We folks with home tier-2 airports may do more of this. It really gave me an appreciation for ...
2021-09-10 12:26:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and I’m joined today for a reunion show by three of the podcasting greats, Joe Cheung, Robert Dwyer, and Dan Podheiser. Fellas, welcome to the Manifesto.
0:54 Plugs
We invite over Garth (of the Milenomics Second Podcast) and Gideon (from the Manifesto Podcast) to talk 2020 year in review. To keep the show exciting we'll refrain from detailed show notes, but the topics we covered were:
Favorite Trip of 2020
Deal of the Year
Most Overrated Deal of the Year
Most Underrated Deal of the Year (that's still going on)
Trip We're Hopeful to Take i...
2020-12-24 19:26:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
We sit down one day after Robert receives news of his American Express Financial Review to discuss all the hard decisions moving forward and more.
0:21 “Wave” (?) of Amex Financial Reviews
- Hearing of a half dozen or so people who concurrently got a FR from Amex
- You notice by either logging in and seeing red letters saying your spending privileges are suspending and/or concurrently get a call
- They ask you to su...
2020-12-20 06:08:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hilton Aspire No Fee Upgrade and All Things Amex w/CF Frost
Robert chats with Milenomics community member CF Frost about the recent Amex Hilton Aspire No Annual Fee upgrade offer, and all things Amex.
0:10 Amex Hilton Aspire No AF Upgrade
0:30 Amex Shutdowns
- We were talking about PPK->Plastiq
- Seems to be related to PPK payments to Amex?
- Gets back to the alchemy discussion. Fusing things together that aren’t meant to be fused together.
- Also reminds me of “you can do all kinds of things and not get shutdown but you never know the one thing that might really bother a bank.” Or an airline for that matter.
- Condolences to all affected. Hopefully you w...
2020-12-14 20:23:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Garth and Larry sit down for a chat, and along the way discuss:
0:39 Reactions to Amex shutdowns
5:31 With some liquidation avenues drying up, what’s next?
7:48 Simon Mall VGC -> Plastiq
13:20 End of year techniques
17:48 WMBP with PPK
21:42 BBY 3rd party GCs
27:13 Where Larry’s at with Kroger Fuel points
30:10 Redemption angles
36:35 Target Redcard Updates
42:19 Liquidating Amex travel credits
2020-12-12 06:34:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
News
0:25 PayPal Key
- Plastiq Dead
- Died for many 11/25 sometime after around 3:30pm eastern
- Debrief?
- What is still working with PPK?
- Lots of things coding as 4x on Amex Personal Gold as “Global Restaurants” (Plastiq HELOC, BMW Financial Services, everything?)
07:13 Bravo 2% Deathwatch
- Reports of nastygrams sent for using old version of a...
2020-12-05 17:53:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and due to some intercontinental scheduling conflicts I’m on my own for today’s podcast, so I thought I’d share three tips and tricks that have been on my mind lately.
Alaska Companion Fares
- “For companion fares issued on or after October 1, 2019, both the primary fare and the companion fare must be purchased using your Alask...
2020-12-04 16:59:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
Organizing your game with Raymond
1:44 Keys to a good record keeping system
6:20 Starting a new system
9:15 Tracking transactions
12:29 How Raymond breaks out his tracking
19:11 Tying acquisition and liquidation
25:35 Planning actions using Trello
29:31 Recording personal finance transactions vs. “others”
38:01 Tracking offers
42:58 How Raymond measures deal value
44:38 Key takeaways
2020-11-27 23:37:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Follow Up
0:23 Amex Personal Platinum 100k + 10x Update
- Regular direct link randomly showing 100k +10x at gas/grocery for 6 months (last week it was just Resy doing this)
- Some seeing 125k through pre-approved offers
- Referrals oscillating between 60k and 75k, but [sometimes] do include the 10x at gas/grocery for 6 months
2020-11-24 03:12:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
Editor's note (Sam): The audio of this episode has been removed. My apologies to Stefan, Joe and Gideon for this issue. I also want to say thank you to them for the opportunity to turn this into a learning experience.
If you'd still like to hear this chat please visit The original YouTube source (https://youtu.be/AXgqI0N...
2020-11-20 14:53:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
We break format to cover some late breaking news, update on what we've been up to and take a Listener Question. Be sure to share your take on these topics on slack!
0:23 Bad News: “Worst” of Slack
Mason swings by to discuss Buyer's clubs. If you haven't heard his appearance on the Milenomics² podcast earlier this year be sure to check it out here.
Topics covered in today's episode:
0:38 How is Q4 going for Mason so far
5:11 Tracking buying group items and staying organized
12:24 Staying on top of buyers club orders
15:50 Challenges of buyers clubs at scale
1...
2020-11-11 21:55:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:24 Amex +3x Referrals
- How did we do?
- What is our spend plan going forward?
- Wishful thinking/baseless theory: The reason Amex clawed back on earlier Hilton promo is that it exceeded their marketing budget for the program, and they had to go looking. The interest in +3x seemed relatively muted (because people don’t like the idea of using their social capital referring friends/don’t realize you can refer in-house?). And since many are...
2020-11-07 07:06:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
We're celebrating 100 episodes with a special episode about all things Milenomics, and more about us personally.
1:00 Milenomics The Blog
- Founded August 2013 (right)
- How long were you playing the game in earnest before starting the blog?
- Where did the Milenomics viewpoint come from?
- Blog networks vs independent
- Robert joins January 2018
16:04 Shop Talk (2020-11-07 07:05:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and I am joined today from the Windbag Miles blog, the Windbag Mails substack, and Chance Press, Jordan Hurder. Jordan, welcome to the Manifesto.
Editor's note: there is some language in this episode to be aware of.
0:37 Plugs
- Windbagmiles.com
- Twitter (@windbagmiles)
- Wind...
2020-11-05 22:04:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
0:23 Last Call for Amex +3x Referrals
- Last day to refer is 10/28
- Unclear when exactly the cut-off is, so save the links for winter if they continue to work (idea being to extend the life of the +3x into next year)
- How are we playing it?
- Late month referral (from a 2nd card?) to extend the life of this into late January 2021?
- Refer for a card that you know will be “held up” for approval perhaps due to having ...
2020-10-28 14:01:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
A double trip report and a look at the current MS landscape with Robert Dwyer
1:22 The most wonderful time of the MS year? What’s the MS favorability index?
10:40 Trip report #1 - Sedona
- Hyatt Residence Club Pinon Pointe
- Central location, great kids club (COVID closed), pool with a view, a patio/balcony in every room
- As a time share property, there’s a time share presentation angle
- The comfort and ease of traveling to a fam...
2020-10-26 22:24:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
