Milenomics² Podcast Episode 197: News, Heightened Offers, and a Quick California Trip Report

0:30 Fluz Updates

• Fees: initially very bad….Not at all what was promised. Almost all cards were between 3.3-3.75%
• After 4 days rates have dropped to better levels. Some have gone back to 3% and many are 3.1%-3.3. 5
• Gift Card prepayment (GC Wallet) loads are bouncing around and are right now below 3% for many cards. Combined with 3% back on MCGC or 1.5% on 1TC this is low cost.
• As Robert thought it appears some cards are being charged higher rates punitively, notably Citi MC.
• Stumbling out the gate: No 1TC as of the launch of Gift card balances
• Gift card balance loads sometimes fail for me randomly.
• ‘Scheduling’ feature seems completely useless. Adds bloat to purchases/delays in processing
• Cash balance on life support until Jul 1. MCC coding still working for these, but rates are as discussed earlier.
• If 1TC don’t come back soon my automation tools need to get more use. $200 cards are painful at scale.
• Not dead, but wounded. What are we using it for?

9:58 [Targeted] Amex Business Platinum 150k + 30k + 20k = 200k Bundle (FM)

• Link to check
• 150k for $15,000 in 3 months on Business Platinum card
• 30k for Business Checking
• 20k for doing both
• Finally time to test the waters on Amex Business Checking if targeted?

13:12 Heightened Amex Delta Offers (DoC)

• Showing through referral
• No MQMs included, even for Reserve cards

14:52  Amex Bonvoy Heightened Credit Card Offers

• Brilliant
• $650 AF
• 150,000 for $6,000 spend in 6 months
• +50,000 for 6 paid nights by Jan 31, 2024
• $25/mo restaurant credits
• Bevy
• $250 AF
• 125,000 for $5,000 spend in 6 months
• +50,000 for 6 paid nights by Jan 31, 2024
• Available through referral

16:50 Transfer Bonuses

• Chase 20% Bonus to Aeroplan (H/T to Trevor)
• Ends July 31, 2023
• Prior promo was 30%
• Citi 15% Bonus to Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles
• Ends July 22, 2023

24:24 New JetBlue Routes (TPG)

• JFK - St Kitts
• JFK - Belize
• BOS - Grenada (Mint, Saturday only)
• LAX - Nassau Bahamas (Mint, Saturday only)

26:55 PayPal Bill Pay

• I don’t think we’ve talked much about this, but some people really seem to enjoy it
• Could fund 529 plans fee-free with a credit card as we discussed some time ago on a Checking In episode, but that seems to have died (debit only now)
• Works with Fluz 1-Time Visas
• Can potentially fund some checking accounts this way if you find the right target
• PayPal shutdown risk looms of course
• What do you think? Is this for us?

32:11 Closing an Amex Card Before Incidentals/Credits Post

• We’ve recently seen cases where airline incidentals, Saks credits, Dell credits, wireless credits, etc take longer than usual to post
• Q: Is it safe to close a card before these credits post?
• Word is: Yes. They should still come back as a statement credit on a closed card similar to how a merchant refund would come back on a closed card.
• Whether you want to take the chance fighting it out with Amex should a credit not post for some reason is another story.
• But what about Hilton free night certificates and Delta MQM boosts for spend thresholds?
• We checked with CF Frost on this and yes: These should post too, but it’s a good practice to see the counter move before closing.
• And what about 35% MR rebates on Business Platinum (25% for Business Gold) for flights booked through the Amex travel portal with points?
• Thought is these won’t post if you close the card, but we’d love to hear otherwise!

36:50 What We’ve Been Up To

38:38 Hyatt Datapoint: 20,000 for Expired Globalist Cat 1 - 7 Cert

• Tried chatting first: Told to pound sand
• Emailed dedicated concierge, 20,000 added to account
• Kinda strange because I think you have to wait for it to expire, but when it expires you can’t see it any more in your account. So you have to remember, but worth trying. And 20,000 you can use anytime makes it worth not forcing a stay - and perhaps not using a cert unless you can get more than 20,000 in value out of it. Though who knows if they’ll stop doing this at some point.

40:30 Late +5x Referrals: How We Played It

• Thought is that so long as you have an application submitted by the date a referral promo expires, the offer will stick even if the approval comes after the promo end date
• Sam: Lost P2’s gold card (Referral PB) about 10 minutes later I could refer
• Initially went with a BBP also (and no popup!)
• But the app was cancelled because of too many recent cards.
• Flanked to a Business green, pop up (no bonus), but approved!
• Will likely cancel this card to make a slot.
• Robert: Also lost P2’s Personal Gold card
• Initially went with Everyday Preferred for 30,000 but got penalty box popup
• Thought about getting another Delta Platinum card even without the welcome bonus for MQM boosts (Vince pointed out that you can only get an MQM boost for each type of Amex Delta card each year, so be careful here) but decided I could requalify for Platinum Medallion status again without more cards
• Flanked to Blue Business Plus for 15,000
• Even though I’ve had the card before, I didn’t get a popup
• But I was declined for having 5 credit cards
• Will call for reconsideration after I close Hilton Business after spending $15,000 for free night cert
• I like the +5x for spending $25,000 at grocery, but I’m not looking forward to going in-store so much
• And I’m definitely not looking forward to being saddled with a BBP for a year! Half-joking but I seriously think I should have gone for a card without a welcome bonus so I could close it within a year.
• Now we’ve got 6 months from approval to spend $25,000 at grocery (on top of prior similar referrals) and Fluz isn’t cooperating.

51:08 US Open Golf Tournament at the LA Country Club

• Cool opportunity to attend this event in a great urban location with nearby hotels (rather than fighting to find a decent place near/far from say Augusta or Pinehurst)
• What did you think of the experience overall?

54:52 Quick Hit: Chase Sapphire Lounge in Boston

• Quite nice!
• Right between Terminal C (JetBlue) and Terminal B (United, and further away AA) which are now connected behind security
• Nice build out, well-staffed, good drinks (full-service bar and separate craft beer stand), good-looking food options on demand + self-serve
• Yes, some confusion on getting in but they were giving people grace on not having their Priority Pass in order
• Got in with Ritz-Carlton card and they gave me a bag tag for being a Sapphire Reserve cardholder (I only have a Sapphire Preferred, which makes me think they just see that you have “good” access with guests maybe?)
• Overall nice addition for Boston fliers

56:55 Flanked from Andaz West Hollywood to Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

• Waldorf is closer to the US Open venue so when I saw standard award availability pop up, I jumped on it
• Booked an accessible room for 3 nights, 1 with a free night certificate and 2x 120,000/nt
• Rooms were going for $2,000+
• Contacted hotel via in-app chat and let them know I didn’t require an accessible room
• Another free night certificate posted to my account the day of arrival but since rooms spiked back to 1M points/nt I didn’t want to touch it
• How did it go?

1:01:59 Booking, Canceling, and Rebooking Flights

• So much to discuss here, will try to generalize each of these…
• Same Day Changes (especially w/AA)
• Saw 9p flight BOS-LAX in Business for 39.5k (later than I’d like)
• 5:30p flight was 100k so I wondered whether I could book 9p for 39.5k and same day change to 5:30p flight for a fee?
• Researched this a bunch and it seems the net of it is that AA applies some unknown criteria to say what’s eligible for a same-day confirmed change for a fee (without status) or standby
• Being an award booking (rather than cash) further complicates things. Ultimately didn’t converge on this.
• Leveraging Status (and walking way when no upgrade materializes)
• Have Delta Platinum status so booked early morning Main Cabin flight as a safety net, hoping for upgrade
• When that didn’t pan out the day before I canceled and flanked to another option
• Close-in AA Premium Cabin Awards
• The day before travel, AA dropped the price of the desirable 5:30p departure to to 39.5k so I booked that
• The cash price always remained high (over $1,000 pp one-way) only the award price dropped, further reinforcing the idea that AA still hasn’t pegged the miles required to the cash price (this is a good thing!)
• Close-in AA First Partner Awards
• Along the way, I noticed that AA was opening partner awards in First (this is a 3-cabin plane) 1-3 days out
• Along the way I noticed some ridiculous inability to book partner awards…
• JetBlue: Doesn’t show AA flights for booking with points online, and even if they did they probably wouldn’t be a good value
• Alaska: Doesn’t show these AA flight options at all, instead only shows 125,000 pp one-way with connections. Could calling help? Unclear.
• Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles: Should be 40,000 pp one-way but can’t book online, and can’t submit form for bookings within 2 weeks. Would calling help? Maybe.
• Qantas: Does show availability but it’s distance based so 81,000 miles
• BA: Does show availability for 51,000. Not bad.
• What’s up with these “one way” partnerships? So strange. Ultimately didn’t book any of these because…
• Reacting to Unforeseen Complications
• The day before travel I got a notice that the peach 5:30p flight was delayed 3 hours. How did they know this already? Crazy.
• And how crazy is it that there was such a price premium for the good scheduled departure time and it completely evaporates with a delay.
• Noticed that Google Flights will show a flight is delayed before you book it when even AA direct doesn’t show that info.
• AA online showed ability to change to some (though not all) of the other AA flights, either early in the morning or late at night
• Noticed there was a similarly timed evening JetBlue Mint flight. Tried calling but 1 hour hold. Pinged them on Twitter DM and they re-accommodated me in 20 minutes no problem!
• Return Flight Changes
• I was originally booked on JetBlue Mint on the return, funded with Travel Bank converted from Amex incidentals
• A couple days out I spotted 1 seat in AA First, which I thought I could book with 32,500 Etihad
• I’d already provisionally transferred out 33,000 CapOne miles to position myself for this booking, so I called Etihad
• In my experience Etihad reps are actually really good. The agent saw the space, and went to book it but noticed that…my Etihad account was suspended, “Probably for transferring points in.” Gah! Why on earth would they suspend an account for transferring points in?! Isn’t that like the most normal thing a person could do?
• She gave me an email address to send a copy of my passport in, and indeed that unsuspended the account. BUT she quoted me 80,000 for the seat in First rather than 32,500. Turns out that some time in the past couple months Etihad moved to a distance based award chart for AA and now it’s not a good value for transcon flights. Maybe better for short domestic flights.
• So I flanked to booking it with 51,000 BA miles.
• Tip: To get an AA record locator from a BA award booking go to manage the flight and attempt to select a seat. At the bottom of that page it will reveal the AA record locator. Then you can add known traveler number and select seats on AA’s site.
• The Flights Have to Exist
• This may very well be the best route to tinker with in the domestic US. Lie flats from AA, JetBlue, Delta, and United. Tons of frequency. So many options to play off one another, especially for a single traveler with flexibility.
• Fascinating to see what airlines do with spoiled inventory and how complementary elite upgrades (or not) play into this.
• But the flights have to exist. The market has to be strong enough to support them profitably or they’ll reduce frequency and/or abandon the route.
• Overall, great example of booking something safe (and cancellable) then chipping away at it to continue to improve the quality:price ratio until departure.
• Bottom Line
• Ended up flying JetBlue Mint booked with AA miles after a re-accomodation, and AA First booked with British Airway Avios. I guess there are still arbitrate opportunities of sorts in this game?
• JetBlue Mint was as good as usual. I’d just say that the seats feel a little cramped compared to AA First or even Business. And JetBlue always seems a little less competent than even AA (refueling a plane that’s sat there all day delayed takeoff for example).
• AA First was only better than AA Business because of the 1-1 configuration rather than 2-2. The breakfast was borderline inedible. I’d expect better for lunch/dinner.