Milenomics² Episode 192: Observations from Chicago, Fluz Growing Pains, and a Quick Washington DC Trip Report

0:24 Chicago Pop Up Event Recap

• Great to see everyone there
• Discuss: Observations from in-person discussions. What stood out to you?
• Events going forward
• Discuss: Even with 2 people visiting the same place at the same time, totally different experiences unless you’re standing right next to the other person
• Chicago Athletic Association (breakfast for example)
• Getting to/from there by air
• Chicago trains/Uber/Lyft
• Hyatt in general (GoH issues, entry level suite price compression)

24:59 Fluz Growing Pains

• 1-Time Cards crippled due to funding issues
• New feature Zoom call
• Too bad because for a while they were running pretty reliably
• What can we still do?
• Sign up bonuses are still a great use case
• “Yes, it is per user. Your funds will be held at or transferred to Metropolitan Commercial Bank, an FDIC-insured institution. While there, your funds are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC in the event Metropolitan Commercial Bank fails if specific deposit insurance requirements are met and your card is registered. See fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/prepaid.html for details. FDIC insurance does not protect your funds in the event of Fluz’s failure or from the risk of theft or fraud.”

32:03 Southwest Companion Pass “Lite” update

• This was a severely restricted pass, bookings had to happen in a 3 day window, flights had to take place April/May
• Flights to/from Chicago hit the window
• And the day after I returned, without any interaction on my part they emailed me that I got the companion pass!
• I can apparently reclassify a booking with this so I don’t need to rebook

34:17 Marriott Bonvoy P2P Point Transfers Online (Nick at FM)

• Used to be possible by calling, now can be done online
• Still capped at 100,000 out of an account per year
• Still useful or P2 signing up for Bonvoy cards
• With Hilton allowing this for some time really makes Hyatt look lame here

39:31 Spring Cleaning: Ultimate Rewards Edition

• Taking an inventory: how are we doing with Chase UR?
• I think getting back to zero would help me want more of these.
• What is the best use case? Travel booked with UR through the portal (hotels?) are these bookings inflated at all? (what did we find?)
• Transfer partners: Are they worthwhile? Distractions? Keeping points from being used?
• Hyatt: How many points are we realistically needing a year in the program?

46:55 Chase Sapphire Skirting 5/24?

• This time for sure!
• Robert: Referred P2 for Sapphire Preferred for 15,000 + 80,000. Approved at around 8/24!
• Sam: P2 Referred me for a Preferred. Approved for 15k + 80K at around 7/24
  • Next day applied for a CSR and also approved!

56:23 Upcoming Japan Lodging Review

• Trip is coming up! Time to review how I did with the hotels
• Final Itinerary: 5 nights in Kyoto, 2 Nights in Hiroshima, 5 nights on Ishigaki Island, 2 nights in Tokyo.
• Kyoto: Booked with Agoda, prepaid. $1100
• Hiroshima: Booked with hilton points
• Ishigaki Airbnb, paid cash, prepaid $1800
• Tokyo: Pokemon room, paid with cash through Citi.  $1000-$100
• Did I miss a chance to use some Chase UR?

1:06:01 Dell Price Match Experience

• Bought $649 laptop for family last week using 3 Business Platinum cards
• CapitalOne Shopping notified me of a $100 price drop
• Chat through customer care (not sales) during operating hours, via the link associated with your order
• Rep took the link to the product and order number and confirmed they would price match
• Said they could either refund to "primary payment mode" or provide a $100 coupon towards a future purchase
• I asked if I could select which of the 3 credit cards I used for payment for the refund to go back to - they said "no" so I chose the coupon
• Coupon came later that day, expires end of the year
• Unclear whether the refund would have come back to the first credit card used (in which case I should have used that one for the amount > $200)

All in all not that bad considering it's Dell. Only downside is I have even more money to spend with Dell.

Unclear whether the coupon is considered a payment source or not. Hopefully not so I could potentially buy a $700 item with 3 cards + coupon.

1:11:07 Washington DC Trip Report

Acela First Boston - DC

• What a fantastic way to travel. Took a while (6.5 hour journey) but…
• Reserved a table for 4 and had it to ourselves as a party of 3
• Excellent table service the entire time. Greeted with menus, took our drink order, food was pretty good. Two meal services effectively occur (BOS-NYC, NYC-DC) since 90% of passengers get off/on in NYC.
• ~10,000 Amtrak per person one-way (around $250 pp) booked far in advance. Cost spiked to $500 pp closer in. Can cancel award tickets for 10% of the cost in points deducted. Not too bad of a penalty if you have a good feeling a trip will occur and want to get something speculatively on the books.
• Train was 30 minutes late and got 1,000 points pp automatically refunded as a goodwill gesture.

Park Hyatt Washington DC

• Stayed here 7 years ago. It was pretty tired then, and hasn’t been renovated since.
• Blue Duck Tavern lost its Michelin star in 2020 for “lacking in technique and quality.”
• At check-in around 10:30p, no acknowledgement of Globalist. Desk agent just starts cutting keys. I ask what room we’re assigned to (we used a Suite Upgrade Award) and he says, “Junior Suite.” I know this is a tiny 500 SF suite and we’re going to be in the room quite a bit so I ask about larger suites.
• He says Ambassador and Presidential is all they have. I’m like, “Those will do.” He says he can’t give those out complimentary. Would be $395/nt additional for Ambassador. I counter with $100. He doesn’t budge. I ask whether Junior Suite is large enough for additional bed. He says it is, so off we go to Junior Suite.
• We get to the room. No bed/no bedding of course so I call the same exact guy I just talked to and ask where the bedding is. He says housekeeping will bring it over. Half an hour later they finally show up. Discuss: This is a frequent annoyance for me at Park Hyatts in particular. How can we get hotels to have our rooms ready on arrival?
• Breakfast was pretty good. At this point it’s like a 21,000 point/nt breakfast restaurant capped at $60 pp per day that happens to include lodging.
• Probably the worst Park Hyatt I’ve ever been to at this point. I asked at checkout whether the hotel was being renovated? Guy says, “No. Why? Did you hear construction noise?” I’m like, “No. It just seems like it’s in need of improvement.” Really needs the same level of renovation Park Hyatt Chicago recently went through: Need to move walls.

Delta First Return