The Milenomics Podcast Network

M² Episode 147: Last Call Opportunities, and the Best Deals of 2021 - That are Still Available

Added 2021-12-27 23:47:16 +0000 UTC

0:23 Last Chance: Check for incidentals on Amex cards. Add employee cards, Upgrade Gold to Platinum, etc.

Biggest deals of the year (in review)

9:59 Fluz

We started the year off using fluz for category bonuses, Ink 5x and Chase pay yourself back.
All of this happened on the App (or in bluestacks). . The app feels glacially slow now.
Fluz has spent the year working hard to get category bonuses down right. The original Grocery, Restaurants, and Travel have expanded greatly to Ride Share, Business Services, and many others. They keep working hard on this, with rewards for us all.
One of the biggest developments of the year has to be the fluz power portal. Early this year applications were approved, and we had no idea what we were in for.
We first speak about the power portal in Episode 123 (23:38), with this gem of a quote:” Is fluz on life support? Are they maturing past their need for us?”
Since then they’re neither on life support or maturing past their need for us.
On the contrary–the first big event of the year was the Fat Bobby Event in late Sept.
We discuss this event and the turning point of the big spend that can be hit on Fluz in Episode 137 (23:59)
This coincided with Danny’s Citi Automation spreadsheet which was shared at the MSP meetup. Together these allowed increased volume plays that we wouldn’t have done last year.
Was Fat Bobby a glitch? beta test? Lately Vida Beach B2B is $5,000 each day. That’s like a Fat Bobby event 3x a week.

18:15 Amex: Year in Review

Amazing to think we started the year still earning from the 3-for-all from 2020, and trying (unsuccessfully) to extend it into 2021.
If 2020 was the year of uncapped spend 2021 was the year of applying for Amex cards without lifetime language.
Sam: Applications for Business Platinums, Business Gold cards with $10-$15k min spend over and over for P1 and P2 really helped push my monthly spend up.
Robert: A June offer to upgrade a gold to a Platinum for 25k +10x at grocery seemed too good to be true. Episode 129 had us thinking the 10x wasn’t going to attach.
Then in Episode 135 news broke that Amex fixed the problem, and the 10x was working correctly. Robert wondered “Would they go back and get it right for early adopters?”
The answer came just one week later in episode 136. Amex’s perfect system was still intact.
We thought the the +4 (4 for us) offer was Amex’s October Surprise, and BOY were we wrong.
For the first time ever we cut a breaking news episode out of format on the Amex shutdowns. (Dark times)
We cautiously came out of our Amex Caves a few weeks later to start working on +4, and the community rejoiced together that Amex relented and started reopening accounts fo those incorrectly shut down. (Ep 143).
And so we raced to the finish for the year, emboldened and with the 20k Business Employee promo stacking.

25:01 A Second Planetary Alignment. Amex 4-for-Us + Employee Cards + Fluz + Plastiq

Last year we discussed the Planetary alignment that was 3-for-all (4 MR per $1) with PPK and Plastiq working together.
This year Fluz + Plastiq and Fluz + Citi Pay By Phone have the benefit of +4 from Amex.(Episode 138)
On top of this Amex has offered incredible Category bonuses, as well as Employee Card bonuses. Be sure to listen to Checking in Episode 9 for more on this.
What this means is the first $25,000 on the card could be 5+ Membership Rewards, and you can have a few of these going.
Fluz kicking off $5,000 days makes this all doable from home.
This is a lot more work than last year’s alignment. But the end result seems to be similar point hauls this year.
A story of the year for me was how past decisions informed future options with Amex
And how Amex is still a harder thing to explain to point enthusiastic friends in real life than Amex - to the point where people are still magnetically drawn to the simplicity of Chase

28:38 Secure Spend: Hard to Find Early in the Year. Massive Earnings Late in the Fall

This one goes back to episode 115 of the podcast, titled “New Bins, New Bookings and New Opportunities”
The H/T on these went ot Sideshow Bob back in January.
These looked identical to One Vanilla and so the hunt was on – at this time for CVS stores that stocked them.
We had some fun talking about a CVS tracker not for vaccines but for Secure spend.
By April we theorized these were going to replace One Vanilla. In Episode 120 Robert said he’d love to see a grocery store stock Secure Spend.
And sure enough–they started showing up at grocery stores. Safeway switched from Metabank to Vanilla–and Secure spends came along for the ride.
Then in September Plastiq started recognizing Secure Spend as CC and running them at 2.85%, limiting payees as well. (see: Episode 136)
Stockpile came up as an avenue for these – $0 fee and easy to liquidate.
And then… stockpile stopped taking these. It looked like Secure Spend would be relegated to the history books.
Until! Plastiq started taking them again at 1%. (Thanks Mike C!). And so our Spend is once again Secure!

34:04 Serve Visas at Speedway/Stockpile

For me this was a spin-off of SecureSpend
When SecureSpend died at Plastiq for 1% we learned that SecureSpend worked at Stockpile
But then SecureSpend died on Stockpile and we learned that Serve Visas at Speedway work on Stockpile
They sell these Serve Visas elsewhere, but not with a credit card
MCGC from Kroger stores as well working.
Bracing for impact with tax implications of Stockpile, but it’s behaved remarkably well
And then SecureSpend started working on Plastiq at 1% again!

36:07 Sutton Bank eMCGCs on Plastiq at 1%

37:32 Safeway J4U Year in Review

This is a great example of how the game rewards the learner.
Back in Episode 22 we covered that J4U rewards were now usable for more than just gas.
In March of this year there was a glitch where Metabank visa cards at Safeway stores were earning 16x-24x J4U rewards. We covered this in episode 117.
This forced the community to get creative, because the rewards earned wouldn’t be usable in a single month.
The solution was a “strangers on a train” style phone number swap with someone in a different ‘region,’ a trick that works because of how Safeway links the rewards to your store.
The glitch was patched up and the knowledge of how these rewards worked seemed destined to be lost to time.
Except when Secure Spend and Vanilla cards came to Safeway they were earning 2x rewards. FQF covered this in episode 27 of the Manifesto.
On top of this j4U updated their rewards to be weekly, allowing many more rewards to be used on a single account.
Sadly these stopped earning 2x rewards in November, and FQF covered this in his chat with calwatch.
Amazingly, just like the Plastiq return from the dead–these recently (in the last few weeks) have AGAIN started kicking off 2x rewards.

41:57 Tricks of 2021

We learned about paying to upgrade Hilton Award stays booked with Free night certificates. This was a fun exercise and one that Robert put into practice more than once in Orlando.
Delta Companion Certificate, First Class Upgrade Certs, and Same Day Changes (Ep 142)

45:27 Trips we Took:

47:06 Trips we Cancelled

Too many to note! The story here is that we thought no cancellation fees would be a bonus to us–but it also seems to have coincided with airlines cancelling/changing flights out from under us.

49:20 2021 Awards