Milenomics² Episode 181: Fraud, Follow-Up and We Play Think Fast

0:21 BofA Premium Rewards Elite App

• After Robert had such a positive result I wanted to go for this (for the triple dip)
• Applied and approved.
• Value: Annual fee covered by sign up bonus, $900 in incidentals. Thanks to Robert for digging this up and nudging me into doing this. Fantastic.

07:28 Fraud Followup

• Back in Episode 173 we talked about widespread fraud from MCGC bought on Fluz
• The Issue was with the wallet provider Blackhawk Network.
• The process to claim the fraud was a single phone call and filling out a PDF and emailing
• And then you waited
• They kept emailing to remind me that they had up to 90 days to resolve the issue
• And they took nearly all 90 of them, just reversing the charges and putting all $600 of my funds back.
• They did not extend the Expiry of the cards–so they ate up 3 months worth of the clock on these.
• A 3 month interest free loan, but at least we were made whole.
• Changed how we buy these? Liquidate them?

10:44 Hyatt Concierge

• Wife qualified for 60 night Globalist through spend since she got the Chase Hyatt card before it was subject to 5/24 (I don’t have the card, won’t requalify for Globalist in 2023)
• Got an email a few days later from her new concierge and…it’s the same concierge I asked to be assigned away from when they were my concierge l
• ast year. Awkward.
• I think I’ll just let it be, and reset my expectation of what a concierge can do.
• As Warren Buffet said the key thing to look for in a potential spouse? “It's not looks, nor intelligence, nor money — it's low expectations.”

14:43 Fluz Update

• No change on 1-Time card access or reliability
• So useful for category bonuses
• Establishing Citi balances w/Plastiq

21:55 Capital One Tiger Rory Golf

• Blog Post on Event - absolutely terrific
• Flew Delta both ways, used regional upgrade certificates to upgrade to First on way back
• Stayed at Hilton Clearwater Beach on wife’s free night certificates that were expiring 12/31
• Hilton Twitter DM didn’t want to take the booking. Called Diamond Desk and made the booking and added myself as a guest (rep didn’t seem to want to make the booking fully under just me, but no biggie, could be a slight issue when booking for an acquaintance)
• Logging into the Hilton app w/her credentials seemed helpful for this)
• Out Friday night, back Sunday morning. Fun trip!

38:05 Main Show Topic: Think Fast

38:21 A good friend calls you and tells you that they want to get into this game.

• They hear about all the travel you're taking. Maybe on this show even and they want to do the same thing.
• What do you tell them if you have 5 minutes to talk to them?

41:35 If you could go on any vacation and anyone in your immediate family would joyfully go along with whatever you wanted to do where would you go? What would you do?

46:35 Defend the indefensible: There is no reason to keep an old blue cash right now.

50:28 If you had access to $100,000 in free spend on a single card which card would you put it on and why?

55:31 If you had to get rid of one of your current best ways of generating miles right now which one would you be the least upset to lose and why

59:16 If you had access to 1-time use fluz cards would you do 3x spend on the citi PremierI card with a 1.5% cost?

Sam: “Thanks for joining us for this week, and thanks for your support. It really means a lot to us, and to everyone on the Milenomics Podcast Network. If you’ve got any suggestions for future shows we’d love to hear from you. Until then we’ll see you on the site...”