Milenomics² Episode 184: More Credit Cards, Transcontinental Lie Flats an "We Could do a Whole Show on This"

0:27 Fungibility: 5x Spend on Fluz with Daily Caps

• Last week we mentioned loading up Fluz daily cards
• I started doing this but then I realized I don't think it matters if I do cash out or not
• As long as I make sure I'm buying every single $200 card that they put up, the source of those funds does not matter
• So I'm cashing out the 5x to not slow myself on cash loads. Meanwhile, I'm doing a daily load on wherever I need to do minimum spend and then buying the $200 master cards.
• The alternative is cashing out the daily load on The card I'm doing minimum spend on. Either way, the end result is the same so there's no need to float 5x and Wait.

4:55 Follow Up: United Compensation

• Reply to my personal complaint met with….the same united cares website and $150 offer
• Not going to try for anything else. Moving on.
• I still need $700 in refunds for the fare drop.
• These trips never end!

8:02 Applied: Morgan Stanley Platinum

• Was at 10 charge cards but it has been > 90 days since last approved for Morgan Stanley so I lobbed in an application
• It was declined
• Closed a Business Green that I opened < 1 year ago w/o a welcome bonus

11:22 Applied: Barclay Wyndham Business Card

• Applied in September after a recent move
• Pending, letter came asking for 4506
• Delayed and didn't send it in
• Applied here again, same info
• Pending
• Phone call from robotic rep verified info
• Approved.
• 45,000 point sign up bonus. Killer feature 8x on Fuel.
• These are TYP equivalents for me
• I bought 210,000 of these last points last year.
• High value for me because I have a use. Zero value for someone else.

17:45 Amex Purchase Protection Claim

• Claim started at https://claims-center.americanexpress.com/home
• Wildly, this link shows EVERY card you’ve got, including all 100+ employee cards.
• Claim was for a chair that was bought and accidentally damaged
• $250 or so. They clearly say tax is covered but shipping isn’t.
• One week from claim to money refunded to my card.
• 90 days from the time of purchase
• Did not seem to want pictures of the damage
• Did not mention shipping the chair back to them.
• Only the part of the charge landing on the card is covered (Gift card issues)
• Closed cards consideration.

21:37 Disneyland Trip Report

22:50 Premise: Quick 4-day weekend, 2 days in the parks. 100% Disneyland. No time for anything else.

23:29 Outbound Flight: AA 3-Cabin A321 BOS-LAX in Business Class

• Absolutely fantastic, on par with JetBlue Mint or perhaps even better
• Cabin felt more spacious than Mint
• Half the customers, twice the flight attendants compared to a typical domestic flight
• It’s like ⅓ First, ⅓ Business, ⅓ Economy - fantastic
• The low customer density made the entire flight more comfortable
• Somehow paid only 19,500 AA right at schedule open on a web saver special
• More info and routes that AA flies 3-cabin domestically
• Puzzler: About 10 minutes prior to boarding the gate agent announced a mechanical issue with the plane. They were going to have to “do an engine run up” which would take a minimum of an hour. “The flight isn’t cancelled at this point but we’ll let you know.”
• Think fast: What do you do?

35:04 Disney Bits

• Stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian, booked through Joe. 3rd time staying here, great place. More important to me to stay at Disney hotel in CA than FL because of interest in “staying in the Disney bubble” the entire time, 3rd party hotel options aren’t as compelling, and the proximity allows for easily going back to the hotel (from all parks) as needed - even young teenagers on their own.
• Trader Sam’s outdoors: Great
• Black Tap burgers, shakes, and salads: Good
• Morning coffee: Challenging
• Uber Eats for bottled water, yogurt, and snacks early morning worked great
• Blue Bayou: Has really stepped up their game post-Covid
• Carthay Circle Lounge: Nice spot for a drink for adults/older kids, limited menu, famous Disney inflexibility
• Lamplight Lounge Brunch: Very nice. Not incredibly themed but a high quality serviceable full service restaurant.The Lounge designation is sure confusing at Disney.
• Late 2nd day did Rise of the Resistance standby with a posted 50 minute wait, actually 10 minutes. Fantastic when they wanted $25 pp for Individual Lightning Lane.
• Bottom Line: Battled two days of steady rain but still managed to have a great time.

48:42 Return Flight: JetBlue Mint

• Great as usual. Totally fantastic way to get across the country.
• $690 pp one-way
• Paid with Amex MRs with 35% Business Platinum rebate (1.5 cpp)
• Bought one ticket with JetBlue travel bank (builds up as I occasionally need to liquidate Amex credits to travel bank to avoid clawback)
• They try to get a little too clever with the food sometimes. They poach an egg perfectly in-flight then put it on a plate with puffed/fried rice that looks like insects?
• Got more sleep on the way home than I usually do on a redeye to Europe. Magical.