The Milenomics Podcast Network

M² Episode 137: Heightened Bonvoy Bonuses, What We’ve Been Up To and a Recap of our MSP Meetup

Added 2021-09-29 06:02:22 +0000 UTC

News

0:36 Amex Bonvoy Business 125,000 + Two 50k Certs

1:40 Amex Bonvoy Brilliant 150,000 + One 85k Cert

2:22 Chase Bonvoy Boundless 125,000 + One 50k Cert

10:54 Amex Personal Platinum 125,000 + 10x Restaurant/Shop Small

Recut this item:

What We’ve Been Up To

12:38 Amex Personal Platinum 25k/10x Triple Play

Link to check whether you’re targeted
My wife had 4 Personal Gold cards since I was often choosing that as the card to get for 25k grocery capacity
2 of these 4 were previously targeted for upgrade, upon checking again now 3 were
The newly targeted on was only 11 months old
Chatted seeking retention on them: Told nothing available on all 3.
Upgraded all 3 of them in succession.
Once those were showing as Platinum online, downgraded AU cards to Gold.
Will generate a lot of cards via email
But I guess this is an example of “batching” transactions? Ha ha.

15:53 Update: Safeway allowing weekly redemptions of Grocery Rewards (Upgrade)

Prior to this update you were able to redeem points earned in a month over a 2 month period. This made it difficult to scale much beyond a ‘full load’ of points x 2.
30-60 or so rewards could be used in a month--and then next month 30-60 more could be used.
Fresh Pass is another new offer that not only discounts grocery delivery but also makes rewards not expire.
Beyond this it seems like rewards ‘reopen’ after a week now, not a month. This allows more rewards to be used weekly on a single account and makes scaling Secure Spend or any other reward earning card much easier. I’m juggling far fewer accounts now. Rewards clipped seem to expire quicker.
Unsure if Fresh Pass keeps clipped rewards from expiring.
Can we talk a bit about how grocery delivery and pickup is a really nice feature for busy families?

21:45 Staples Fee-Free $200 VGCs

Sunday 9/26/2021 - Saturday 10/2/2021
Said to be limit 5
Not working on Visas initially but now seems to be working correctly on Visa cards.

22:53 Office Depot office max $15 off of $300 MCGC (ht: FM)

Sunday 9/26/2021 - Saturday 10/2/2021
Dosh cash back has come and gone for 2-4% but a cap of $10 a day. Makes these even better.
So much for clearing the backlog

23:59 Fluz Reaching Critical Mass

We’ve talked about this a few times on the show. Gideon covered it in a unique angle on his show as well.
But lately there have been a few things happening: End of the month the purchases rain down. Prevailing theory is they are eliminating excess expiration capacity.
Spend categories are better than ever. Gas, Grocery, Travel, Advertising, Shipping, the list goes on.
To say it is the ‘golden times’ of fluz is an understatement.
Both for min spend and for bonused MS there’s not much more in pj puchases you can do.
Fat Bobby and other 'uncapped events'

33:42 Meetup Recap

34:42 Delta Airlines

Robert: I feel like we both really got to know this airline better this weekend
And I have to say, I came away with a good impression of them
Sam: Similar. There were moments where I caught myself forgetting I was on a basic economy ticket. Empty middle both ways helped. Passing out cookies, the second pass through for drinks.
On the flight home I was approached in row 29 and thanked by name for my loyalty to DL (I last flew delta years ago and hold no status).
Robert: Paid for Main Cabin ticket, upgraded to Comfort+ as a Platinum Medallion on the outbound (a fellow meetup attendee snagged a seat in First as Diamond! Good for him.) Upgraded to First on the way home. Quite a feat out of MSP.
Spent some time in SkyClubs
I’d never pay for a day pass for a 15 minute visit but they can really hit the spot
- Sam: I thought the food was awful.
Learned that Amex Delta Reserve cards come with 2 guest passes a year
1.5 cpp premium drink redemption.

46:52 Intercontinental MSP

49:39 Event Content

Gathering the night before at the Intercontinental bar - nice spot
Nice space there in the airport I thought. Some might say “why don’t you just meet in a lounge - everyone has access?” but I think we really need a proper space for this kind of meeting.
Reviewed the state of the game
Earning, travel, what’s working
Really liked the crowd participation. It was like in person Slack.
Danny spoke on Automation
Ask CF Frost
Q&A (Q: What makes our podcast special)
Bar space downstairs
Great conversations. So nice to put faces to names. Especially those who we’ve heard on the show, or those active on Slack. You feel like you really know someone but meeting them in person takes it to the next level.
- Sam: I really appreciated the people who aren’t super active on Slack but who came out and shared and contributed to the day.