Milenomics² Podcast Episode 202: Amex Personal Platinum Changes, Follow Up, and a visit to the Park Hyatt New York

0:22 Amex Personal Platinum Changes

• Churning language on Vanilla and Schwab card now states you “may not” be eligible for welcome bonus if you have/have had any variants of the card
• Authorized User fee now $195 per, was previously $175 for 3
• Morgan Stanley still gets first AU free
• WSJ added for monthly digital credit, Audible removed effective 10/1/2023
• Schwab/Morgan Stanley welcome bonuses down to 80k
• Morgan Stanley offer terms still don’t seem to contain lifetime language so hopefully still churnable, but this is definitely a downward trend here

7:02 Marriott Bonvoy Business

• Amex Bonvoy Business
• Three (3) 50k free night certificates
• $6,000 min spend in 6 months
• $125 AF not waived first year
• Chase Bonvoy Boundless Personal
• Direct Link
• Five (5) 50k free night certificates
• $5,000 min spend in 3 months
• $95 AF not waived first year

9:56 Follow Up

10:06 Update: Fluz 1 Time Card Refund

• Took a couple weeks but refund finally came through
• How are things going otherwise with Fluz?
  • Wallet issues
  • Visa open loop cards
  • Using for Amex employee cards

19:17 Overturned: CapitalOne Shopping Clawback

• I was at about -$150 after they clawed back some giftcards.com orders when targeted for 18% back
• Seems to me that perhaps giftcards.com didn’t want to pay them for more than $2,000 in orders for one person per month, but CapitalOne’s T&Cs only say that “Orders over $2,000 are not eligible for cash back / rewards, and will be declined”
• Emailed and pestered them several times at: help@capitaloneshopping.com
• They eventually reversed the clawback
• I’ve seen them at 4% for a while which can be useful for racking up spend at around 1.2% if liquidating through say Plastiq at 2.9%
• I’ll keep using their portal when the price is right

23:47 Limited time companion pass arrives

• Earned this back in April
• That was a very, very long time ago
• Now a limited CP good for 1month.
• The pass arrived and….it didn't just work
  • Existing reservations don't allow use of CP for someone already booked
  • Didn't want to just book again and let the computer cancel something
  • Had to call to split the PNR and then cancel my companions ticket
  • Word is you can do this yourself unless there is an minor on the booking (there was)
  • Thanks to Larry and Brian M for the details.

31:42 Applying for a new Barclaycard 7+ years after shutdown

33:51 Bungled: Amex FHR $200 Credit

• Cancelled the FHR the same day as the card
• Clawback of $200 
• Give yourself a week or so before cancelling the FHR credit 

36:04 Bonvoyed: Shortening Stay at Sold Out Hotel

• Booked 2 nights with cash at around $200/nt
• Tried to shorten to 1 night online, can’t do it, had to call
• Rep said new rate was $300 for the first night, and there was nothing that could be done to maintain the prior rate :(

39:47 Gardening and Horse Trading at the Park Hyatt New York

• Booked a 1 King room for 2 nights at 35,000/nt
• Emailed dedicated concierge asking to apply suite upgrade award
• Next day concierge emails back saying there’s no availability to apply the suite upgrade award, but requested an upgrade
• I’ve got a bunch of unused suite upgrade awards and I was wondering why momentarily, but it’s because the hotels I’ve stayed at haven’t had working situations to use them
• Some time goes by and I think, “Hey, let me ask my concierge to contact the hotel to see if there’s some combination of points, suite upgrade award, and cash that would get me into a Carnegie Suite?” that’s going for like $7,000/nt. Kind of like we’ve done with Hilton properties sometimes.
• A couple days go by and concierge emails me back saying that the suite is only bookable with cash, and there’s nothing she can do, won’t contact hotel on my behalf to check
• So a few days later I contact the hotel myself through a generic shared email address of theirs.. And…their response is the same. The high end suite is only available as a cash booking.
• So I canceled my original reservation and booked a Premium Suite for 70,000/nt (was going for $1,700/nt) because I wanted to ensure a great suite for the weekend and I didn’t want the awkwardness of horse trading at the front desk especially on my wife’s Hyatt account
• A few days prior to pre-arrival I got an email from the hotel that suggested I contact them to enquire about upgrades. I did, and the offers weren’t very good. To go from the Premium Suite I was booked into for 70k (City View 1 Bedroom) to a slightly more Premium Suite (Residential 1 Bedroom) it would be $350, roughly the cash price difference between the room I was in and the nicer suite. I passed. But I did confirm a complimentary rollaway, which they say is included in 1 Bedroom Suites or better. For standard rooms and junior suites their site says they charge $75.
• The day before arrival, I noticed that the suite eligible for Suite Upgrade Awards became available. I called the Globalist line and got a great rep who changed the booking from 70k/nt back to 35k/nt and applied the Suite Upgrade Award.
• Upon arrival, the desk agent noted that I’d previously been offered a Residential Suite for $350 by their rooms manager and additionally offered a 1 Bedroom Suite for $150/nt. Since that included a rollaway and is bigger than the “1 King Bed Suite” (a junior suite) that I was in, I went for it.
• But I don’t think I played it so well, and here’s the key takeaway that I’m seeing across multiple attempts to ensure nice suites at Hyatts ahead of time…
• The Residential Suite was going for $2,000/nt. If given the option to upgrade to it for $350 from a 70k booking vs a 35k booking it obviously makes more sense to do it from a 35k booking.
• I don’t know if I accidentally backed into a clever affordable upgrade (book premium suite with points, secure upgrade options, then downgrade to standard room and upgrade for some cash price quoted when booking was premium suite OR if they just have a standard upgrade price in their heads for premium suites regardless of what I’ve previously booked.
• It seems to me that my thinking as a customer is that I’ve injected a certain amount of “value” into a stay (in the form of points, suite upgrade awards, more points, or cash) that the cost of an upgrade should be relative to the amount I’ve injected into the stay. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least not with a lot of Park Hyatts I’ve interacted with.
• Will keep after it, but it really was a nice stay as usual.
• Globalist free parking on award stays (up to $90/nt at this location)
• Generous excellent free breakfast with entrees up to $65 for 2 adults 1 teen all comped
• Late checkout no problem
• There’s just too much goodness here to consider booking elsewhere in NY when we’ve got Globalist

58:47 Tip of the Week: Resy

• Like OpenTable, acquired by Amex a few years back. Worked well in NYC for restaurants that were previously walk-up only (Ippudo ramen, Black Tap burgers & shakes for example)
• For each of these, I was able to make a reservation and then modify it conveniently as our plans changed.
• Ironically I’ve never seen either of these restaurants as empty as they were when arrived and we could have probably been seated immediately anyway.
• There was also an Amex $15 off $60 offer - not sure if the restaurants qualified (quite confusing)
• Overall, a good experience in NYC.