The Manifesto Episode 16: 3 Tips and Tricks on Gideon's Mind

Hello, and welcome to The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. I’m Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, and due to some intercontinental scheduling conflicts I’m on my own for today’s podcast, so I thought I’d share three tips and tricks that have been on my mind lately.

Alaska Companion Fares

• “For companion fares issued on or after October 1, 2019, both the primary fare and the companion fare must be purchased using your Alaska Airlines credit card.” https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/frequently-asked-questions/faq-companion-discount-code
• But companion fares can be paid for with My Wallet funds!
• And companion fares can be used by anyone by sharing the “discount code” and paid for with their own My Wallet funds
• Change/Cancel fees waived for all tickets purchased through 2020, all tickets except saver fares starting 2021
• Consequence 1: can give/sell Companion Fare to anyone who has sufficient My Wallet funds without sharing credit card information (and without them having an Alaska Airlines credit card).
• Consequence 2: can “pay for” a Companion Fare using any credit card by booking main cabin or first class fares and refunding the price as My Wallet funds. Ideally find a fare that’s exactly $99+taxes more than your desired itinerary to avoid breakage.
• One of the worst things about companion tickets (like Delta’s) is that it forces you to pay cash, even if you have access to manufactured currencies like US Bank Flexpoints, American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Venture Miles, etc. Using My Wallet funds lets you redeem those currencies for companion fares.
• Note you may be losing trip delay protection offered by premium credit cards.

Walmart in-app billpay

• I’ve been experimenting with in-app billpay for a few months and run into problems multiple times. Sometimes at the step of entering payment amount, sometimes when adding prepaid debit card, sometimes when attempting to complete payment.
• Embarrassingly, I was tracking each payment individually, but wasn’t tracking overall use of the service.
• Today I compiled a sheet with all my (successful) payments and will use it to track errors going forward.
• First consistent errors started when I attempted a payment that would have put me over $5,500 in rolling 30-day payments. That’s definitely not a hard limit — lots of reports of an $8,000 30-day payment limit. But it might be the limit in my state or on my account.
• The point is, tracking your per-payee payments, calendar month payments, and rolling 30-day payments may help you identify your own account/state/payee limits, if any.
• Other errors appear at random. Sometimes MasterCards work, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes Visa cards work, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the whole service breaks down for days at a time.

Uses of card-writing hardware

• Money orders at merchants that check debit cards. This could be particularly finicky Walmart stores, grocery stores in areas that see a lot of fraud/large travel hacker populations.
• Converting “weird” cards. Converting Happy gift cards into Visa prepaid debit cards for use at Home Depot/Bed Bath & Beyond.
• Lots of stores got nervous in the 5Back days.
• I like the MSR605X, but they all work more or less the same. Old software didn’t work on my old Macbook, but new software works on new Macbook: http://www.deftun.com/pages/Download-softwares-34964.html
• Familiarize yourself with the software. Most important thing is to make sure you’re reading the card you want to read and writing the card you want to write.
• For minimum hassle, write onto an unexpired card without a chip (since you’re only overwriting the magnetic strip, not the chip).
• Some merchants may force cashiers to type in the last four digits (which won’t match). Don’t try this at those merchants unless you have enough time on your hands for a long chat with the police.

No guest so no quar question of the week.

 Thanks for joining me for another solo episode of The Manifesto with Gideon, the Free-quent Flyer, on the Milenomics Podcast Network. Goodbye, and good luck.