M² Episode 146: A Big AA Gamble, Fluz Opens the Floodgates, and We Play Old Blue Cash 'Keep or Cancel?'

0:22 AA Simply Miles 240x Opportunity

• Offer died 12/14 -- Waiting to see if the miles are paid out. 
• AA card-linked program that supports Mastercards only at this point
• They’re running a promo whereby they’ll give you an “additional 5x” on points earned through 12/27/2021
• This is more generous than it sounded to me when I first heard about it, but evidently they ran this promo in 2019 and it’s whatever the offer is + five times that
• Example: 40 + (5 * 40) = 240x for a charitable donation
• Plus other compelling retailer offers

08:46 Rakuten Card-Linked 5x

• Includes some gems like Walmart, Office Depot, Walgreens and Best Buy.
• Lowes, one of the most terrible places to shop is also included in the 5x
• Staples holding at 2.5x
• Need to ‘activate’ each time before use
• Accounts have been shut down in the past for abuse buying GC.  Add filler or pick random amounts for one card.
• In store right now vs. online
• Stacks well with other good offers: 5% at Office supply, Amex +4for you,  10x SYW at Home improvement/electronics. .

14:15 New-to-me online GC purveyor: The Gift Card Shop

• Looks to be a clone of mastercardgiftcard.com / vanillagift.com
• Run by InComm
• Sells Plastiq compatible $500 eMCGCs for $5.95 activation fee
• So a way to spend on Amex at 2%
• Likely earns 3x on Citi AT&T Access More, good way to establish Citi balance for paying off with Fluz
• SHOPEARLY2021 code does not work
• I'd imagine limits are $1,000/day
• Could be something to try if you're banned by mastercardgiftcard.com / vanillagift.com -or- you're looking to increase daily spend on this type of cards
• I'm unsure if their Visa BINs are useful from a liquidation standpoint (anyone know? probably same as vanillagift.com)
• https://www.thegiftcardshop.com/mc-radiant-evergreen

21:20 Plastiq Time

• 409758 BIN SecureSpend and newer Vanilla VGCs w/Green Present working at 1% again on Plastiq, good towards HELOC/Mortgage/other payments (thanks for the heads up Mike C!)
• Plastiq “overheating” when a lot of payments pushed through within a certain amount of time. Unclear what the threshold is but it resolves after a few hours.
• Discussion of how to spin up new Plastiq Accounts (need new information)

29:27 Fluz Time

• In App amounts trending up, one day even had $2000+ in app
• Great way to gain Power Portal Access
• In Addition to the 0:00 UTC reset there have been refresh events mid-day
• Mid-Day refresh have been better than the reset that follows in some cases.
• Alerts-fluz channel is a must follow/must have notifications on.

36:00 Chase 5/24 Breakthrough Cases

• Some approvals report from people over 5/24 for:
• Southwest Personal
• United Personal
• Amazon card
• DoC datapoints
• Hyatt personal/business apps seem to still be solidly blocked over 5/24
• Some concerns about rocking the boat with Chase if carelessly lobbing in applications
• Robert: Tried for a Hyatt Personal. Denied.

40:10 Amex OBC: Keep or Cancel

• In a moment of weakness Sam considered closing this to make CC space
• Discussion of low value $6500 in spend + 5% vs. Freedom Flex 3x * 1.5cpp (4.5%)
• Maybe on paper they seem comparable–but Amex cards work, nearly every time.

47:31 PSA: Make Sure to “Pay” For Amex Business Platinum for 35% Rebate

• When you use Membership Rewards to book flights, Amex asks you which of your cards you'd like to use to "pay" for the flight.
• It's confusing because you're not really paying for the flight - you're using Membership Rewards for the flight.
• In the past, it didn't really matter which card you chose.
• In fact, at one point some time ago you'd get 5x for the airfare if you chose a Personal Platinum card.
• I wanted to test whether this might still be working so I chose a Personal Platinum card for the transaction.
• I noticed recently that the 35% rebate didn't post 30 days after the transaction as it normally does so I chatted them up.
• They swiftly told me the transaction didn't qualify because I elected to use a Personal Platinum card rather than a Business Platinum card.
• And they wouldn't budge on this or patch it up.
• Fortunately in this case there was a schedule change significant enough to request a refund, but I'm going to be careful going forward to associate these transactions with a Business Platinum card.