Milenomics² Episode 175: Morgan Stanley Updates, Travel Planning Follow-Ups & a Newport Trip Report

0:21 Opening Morgan Stanley Robo Investing Accounts

• After last week this became important (really important given the discussion in #episode-discussion)
• MS seemed to try to limit applications by hiding the link
• The process was smooth, but took a few days
• Updates to come

5:02 125,000 Amex Morgan Stanley Platinum (Direct Link)

• Try opening Incognito if you get a “request headers field too large”
• $6,000 min spend in 6 months
• $695 AF not waived the first year
• Better than 100,000, just in time
• Discuss: Triple dip timing

11:18 Update on 20k “glitch” Amex Employee Links

• Not Happening for me or Nutella
• He did some great sleuthing and confirmed with a rep that nothing is attached
• Probably need to use the 5k links

13:54 Hilton Free Night Certificates Any Night Permanently

• Started during Covid, set to remain that way going forward
• Appeared in credit card statement wording
• Very nice to see this change stick

16:21 Closed a Bunch of Platinum Cards

• Took like 20-30 minutes per - got the same rep with the slow computer back to back
• Opens up a bunch of slots
• Discuss Morgan Stanley churnability, Business Green referrals and other options to fill those slots

18:50 Knock-on Effects of Japan Reopening

• Very thin air availability even in economy next summer.
• Are prices spiking? Or is it currency exchange rate fluctuations? What are we seeing?
• Is there anything that would stop us from going now?
• Kicking the tires on lodging options. Conrad “cash mega upgrade” attempt. Park Hyatt tightens occupancy limits. Struggles with guaranteeing connecting rooms.
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37:03 Kauai Zombie Trip Update

• I shared last week this trip might be canceled
• And in my mind it was all but as good as dead.
• I knew that I had another month before some of my cancellation windows started so I took a shot at seeing if my wife would work from Kauai
• And she will! She might end up with some days off in between that allow us to turn it into a full-fledged trip
• This is definitely new for us. We've never done a working vacation and I know we've talked on the show that this is a way to make your happy place a terrible place, so we'll see what happens

41:05 Newport Vacation Rental

• Booked on holiday weekend in October, so lots of competition with weddings and Newport marathon as well
• Place we stayed last time (and enjoyed) was $1,599/nt and didn’t even accommodate 8 people on the update and up (6 only)
• Recall that this was through an agency that prices weekends ~2.5x more than weekdays, and we needed weekends
• Ended up finding a historical house on AirBnB then renting it directly through the owner
• https://www.elmhyrst.com
• Very cool “little mansion” that paired well with a visit to The Breakers. Exactly what a vacation rental should be.
• Renting directly, the owner gives 10% off 3 night stays (we were staying 3 nights) and doesn’t charge any fees - even a cleaning fee. So $3,652 through AirBnB vs $2,750 direct.
• Discuss
• AirBnB as a search engine, then booking elsewhere. Pros and cons.
• Second home ownership vs a la carte renting for just the situation you need.