M² Episode 140: The Smoke Clears on Amex -- The Path Forward & More

0:20 Amex Shutdowns Follow-On

• Community is still on edge
• Most (but not all) shutdown reports seem tied to applying through one rep over the phone, but there are some hearsay reports of mailers and targeted offers being triggers
• Seems bananas, but here we are
• Discuss: How is this informing our actions with Amex (and other banks) in the near term?
  • We’re not partners, don’t fool ourselves into thinking that we are.
• Robert: Applied for a Schwab Platinum for my wife which was surprisingly approved given that she’s been firmly in the history penalty box for some time. Cashed out all her MRs straight away.
• Sam: added 4 employee cards to my wife’s new (no bonus) green business card for $20k each.  5x is the new 10x.
• Robert: Got to work liquidating air incidentals on new/newly upgraded Platinum cards. Saks credits next.
• Sam: Saks and some incidentals as well.
• Robert: Didn’t take advantage of 150,000 Business Platinum mailer I’d been staring at for some time. Expired 9/30/2021 so that relieved the temptation. Have targeted mailers really triggered shutdowns? I can’t imagine that’s broadly true.
• Sam: On the fence about pressing forward.  Have another business gold app in my email. But I’m thinking this is a guidepost that I need to reel it back in.
• Robert: Do we have the courage to do +4x household referral? (ends 12/1)

08:01 Amex Business Platinum Enhancements

• Dell credit increased from $100 each 6 months to $200 each 6 months (so I guess we’ve got more work to do for 2H 2021?)
• $10/month wireless credit (I like this actually)
• Adobe and Indeed credits
• Enrollment required for all these
• AF increases from $550 to $695 for applications received on or after 1/13/2022
• Referral now showing 150,000 offer

18:20 Amex Business Platinum / Business Green: 20,000 MRs Per AU up to 5 AUs (link to check)

• Each AU needs to spend $4,000 on their card for 20,000
• The annual fee for each Employee Business Platinum Card is $300.
• You can add Employee Business Gold Cards for $45 each.
• You can also add Employee Business Green.
• Added on my new Business Green (P2) and will seek a retention offer

22:30 Fluz/PayPal/PayPal Key Update

• Last show we discussed how PayPal works w/Fluz
• This was useful for Freedom Q4 5x for people who have had trouble getting Fluz toa accept their PayPal Key BIN
• Brooke reached out to Fluz and asked (told?) them to unblock the BIN and...they did!?
• But there seems to be some trouble linking Chase Freedom cards to PPK, to the point where when I use it, Chase declines it and my Fluz account gets locked up until they restore it :(
• Side note: Pay at CVS w/PayPal QR code in app for 5x + 3x on Freedom Flex (reddit)
• Good reminder that PPK works a LOT of places, so while we might prefer Fluz it isn’t the only avenue fo this.  (Buyer’s Clubs for example)
• Discuss: The ongoing utility of Fluz

29:20 Chase Hyatt *Business* Card Launches

• 75,000 welcome bonus
• $7,500 min spend in 3 months
• $199 AF not waived first year
• Spend $50,000 in a year and receive a 10% ‘rebate’ on redemptions up to 20k Hyatt a year.
• Subject to 5/24
• Can refer from Chase Personal Hyatt card which is nice

31:39 Capital One Points Now Transfer 1:1 Air Travel Partners

• Some calling this “Huge!”
• I guess they got the memo that America loves math, and this one is easy to ignore because of tight approval standards, but in light of Amex shutdowns let’s give this a closer look…
• Could you get a Savor card for 4x at restaurants from Fluz and a 2x card as well and be in some kind of useful business? Hmm…
• Discuss: Is this kind of thing more relevant if shutdown by Amex?

34:07 Targeted $300 Kabbage Bonus Posted

• Signed up July 19, 2021
• Bonus posted some time here in early October to little fanfare
• Did 5 x $0.50 Amazon loads
• Nothing here yet.
• Semi-serious question: Does an Amex shutdown extend to Kabbage? Or is it like a Bluebird shutdown that thankfully doesn’t extend to Amex?

37:45 More Hotel Certificate Burning Puzzlers

• Burned a bunch of certs on a father/son trip to Chicago this summer
• Puzzler comes up again for Disney World trip w/my younger son
• Need: 3 nights. Just a room near the parks. Arrive late Friday, depart very early Monday.
• Marriott Bonvoy: Two 50k certs, expiring Jan 2021
• Hilton: Three free night certs, two of which are expiring Jan 2021
• Hyatt: Three Cat 1-4 certs in my wife’s name, two of which are expiring Jan 2021
• Marriott: Nicer properties are again 60k one night and 50k the other night so doesn’t cover the whole trip, triggers unwanted hotel hopping. Also triggers resort fees which is really annoying when you just need a room and some nights are short.
• Hyatt: Was really intrigued by the ability to transfer wife’s certs to my account for Globalist benefits. But like I’ve said - the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress just isn’t that great a hotel. Maybe I could convert these to points that don’t expire and then transfer them?
• Hilton: Waldorf Astoria is the most expensive of the bunch, I know it, I like it. Comes with $50/nt breakfast w/Diamond which is good enough to mostly cover some excellent room service breakfast for two. Resort fee waived.
• Thinking not just of this trip but what else I might be able to use them before they expire? Like, if I’m going to NYC I want to stay at the Park Hyatt. So none of these certificates are valuable. But Chicago is *great* for certificates as discussed earlier.
• Wildcard in all this: Might these be extended further?
• Discuss: Do I go with what’s the most expensive? The best value? The most clever? The most “What I want to do?”
• Ended up booking Waldorf Astoria again, as boring as it may seem since we just did it. Just too pleasant and valuable to me to pass up.

45:05 Reminder: Citi TYP to AA By November 13,2021

• Cleared out my wife’s TYP to AA
• Will likely transfer over 100,000 of mine as well
• Sam: Couldn't bring myself to do it. Cashed almost all out to cash. 

50:06 Tip of the Week: Big Crumbs

• Make it a priority to follow-up on those annoying but important bigger items in the game. Examples: TYP MegaPool refund, funds sleeping in GoBank, Ritz Bacara refund. Some of these take about as long as a Fluz transaction but are significantly more valuable.