Milenomics² Podcast Episode 195: The Highs and Lows of Booking Travel...on

News:

0:21 Plastiq Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Press Release)

08:19 [Targeted] Amex Business Platinum NLL 200,000 Offer (FM)

• $15,000 min spend in
• Direct Link to check if you’re targeted
• Have to log in to apply, I’m not targeted

11:15 How to Generate Deep Links for Amex Referrals (FM)

• Primer on Milenomics about Referrals (link)

12:59 Blue Business Plus Additional Employee Offer

• Direct Link
• $50 for $1,000 spend, up to 5x

15:19 Lufthansa to Acquire ITA? (link)

• Could be nice for BOS-FCO direct with Star Alliance rather than quirky SkyTeam situation

17:13 Choice Hotels looks to buy Wyndham (link)

• Concern here about the Wyndham-Vacasa link
• Earning massive amounts of points with one release valve is risky.
• Would things stay the same long enough to book and use up points? Any history here?

What we've been up to:

22:04 Close in booking Kauai trip

• After a particularly long year without a major trip, the family had a conversation and decided to try to add a trip to Hawaii in June
• This will be a short trip, Just 6 days.
• Delta on the outbound 28k pp. with a nice afternoon flight. Tough seating this close in no room for us together. That's something that I wasn't prepared for and I will attempt to leverage some help on chat.
• Southwest on the return with a combination of points for one person and travel bank for the other three
• One interesting note is how Southwest handles pricing when there aren't enough tickets at one price. Initially I thought these tickets were 406 one way. But it turned out there were two seats at 356 and two seats at 406.
• If I searched for four seats I was returning all four at that higher price. By peeling off two seats. I was able to book two at 356 to at 406 for savings of $100

30:11 Far Out Booking: BOS-Hawaii Trip

• Provisional April break 2024
• Hawaiian really defends the First cabin nonstop: Super-expensive ($3,940 pp on-way) and zero award availability angles
• The return is more important to me than the outbound because long overnight flight
• For some reason United schedule is opening 337 days out
• Google Flights/Amex Travel only look 330 days out
• Drained those United miles I talked about last week!
• Booked return with 135,000 pp HNL-EWR-BOS one-way in Business for $2,575 flight (1.9 cpp)
• Still working on the outbound. Novel observation: Not only is Amex Travel more expensive than what I see when searching direct with AA, but Google Flights and Kayak find cheaper fares than an AA-direct search finds. If I click through I see the lower fare on AA.com. So what am I left to do? Pay cash? Never!

36:57 Vacasa with Wyndham: max rate per night

• A number we've thrown around a bit on slack is $500 per bedroom per night for vacasa with Wyndham.
• Close in I had only a handful of options and really just 2 (both at properties I've stayed at before actually)
• The best option priced out at $500.03 per night after taxes on a 1 bedroom plus loft (sleeps 6).
• This would be 13,500 Wyndham if you have diamond or 15,000 otherwise
• Called and…. available for points booking!
• This is a new high for me booking with these points.

40:09 Closed: Lowes 4Pros (from +5x referral)

• When looking for a card to get +5 on a personal gold I applied for this
• Popup said I would not get the bonus
• I’m at max CC slots and this was the most likely to be closed.
• Chatted and rep was able to close right away
• Benefit of going for a card without any SUB–could I have done another +5 with another gold card and the Lowe's card for approval again?

41:32 Gold Delta Business Churnability Testing

• I wanted to test the churnability of this card (and had hoped I would be approved in time for a 15% rebate on my DL booking).
• Current offers are not at their peak, but $0 fee in the first year means there’s really no harm in trying here.
• I went to delta’s CC site directly and applied for the card and…. Popup.
• Then I went through booking my Delta fares and applied right along with booking. Popup again.
• Last I went with as bare metal as possible: Incognito, navigated to www.americanexpress.com and went through the links there to find the card (business Credit cards, all cards).
• Applied and….. Pending. It was denied but when I called reconsideration they mentioned I had 5 CC already. I mentioned that I closed the Lowe’s 4Pros and they put the Delta in For Reconsideration.
• Quoted 3-5 business days for a decision.
• After three days: approved! Need to hold for a year so might want to consider waiting for higher offers.
• Already showing 15% discount. Seems to be near instant.
• 
  

45:51 More Difficulties Booking Travel for Friends and Family

• Couldn’t link Delta SkyMiles account with Membership Rewards account
• Couldn’t pay taxes + fees on Delta award booking with Amex Delta card
• Couldn’t buy AA ticket through BofA travel portal (flanked to Wells Fargo)
• Discuss: It’s particularly difficult to patch this up for someone else’s accounts

Follow up:

49:41 Japan Transit Challenges

• Fast approaching Japan trip and I’ve started nailing down final plans.
• Unsure about the JR Rail pass (I’ll really only be in the Osaka/Hiroshima region 7 days)
• One sticking point was our 2 day trip to Hirshima from Osaka.
• Staying in Hiroshima I wanted to fly direct form there to Ishigaki
• Except when I looked at the end of last year I didn’t see any options on ANA or JAL
• Currently on an ANA flight for 8,800 United ITM-OKA-ISG and wasn’t looking forward to leaving Hiroshima in the morning for a 12:45 flight out of Osaka.
• Fortunately things have improved now that JAL has loaded their domestic flights.
• 12,500 Alaska or 15,000 AA for HIJ-HND-ISG. More flying than the ANA option but way less stress and baggage issues.  Ends up getting us into ISG at exactly the same time (so my water cooler car rental guy doesn’t need to be adjusted!).
• A little worried about just a 45 minute connection in HND.
• With cash these were $700 per person
• Discuss: Domestic and short flights in Asia seem like the last great use of Miles.

56:01 Hilton paid upgrades thinning out

• Cape Ray stay coming up.
• Called months ago and was told to call a week ahead of time
• Suites still open for booking along with other room types
• Called and…..told no paid upgrades until the day before because it is a holiday weekend and they still think they might sell rooms.
• So….I'll call again the day before.
• This is a negative change. I think the fact that Hilton specifically allows paid upgrades at check in means even less incentive to sell them far out. I don't like the development
• Counterpoint: XLR Santa Monica instant upgrade!
• Yeah - potential short-notice family trip to LA for 4th of July week
• Now I just need to figure out airfare. It never ends!