Milenomics ² Podcast - No Annual Fee Edition

Check your Business Platinum and Personal Gold cards for 20,000 referrals We’ve been seeing [targeted] heightened 20,000 Membership Reward “Blue Star” referrals come and go on Amex Business Platinum and Personal Gold cards. Right now they seem to be “in season” with a high percentage of these cards showing heightened referral bonuses. Update: Others are reporting seeing this one Personal Platinum and Business Gold as well. In this write-up and Milenomics Short Cut podcast episode, we’ll cover how how to maximize this referral opportunity. If you’re new to Amex referrals, have a look this post: Generating and Using an Amex Referral To check whether you’re targeted, go here and click through each of your cards especially the Business Platinum and Personal Gold cards: americanexpress.com/refer Here are the topics we went over: You can refer a wide variety of Amex cards from either of these cards Don’t think you’re limited to referring for just these two cards. With Amex universal referral, your friend can sign up for a wide variety of Amex Membership Reward cards, plus co-branded cards like Hilton and Delta. With Amex the referral bonus is based on the card you refer from Regardless of which card your friend signs up for, the referral bonus is based on the card you refer from. That’s pretty unusual if you think about it. Amex has high signup bonuses for their flagship cards with high annual fees. But referrals are based on which card you refer from. This means your friend can sign up for a lowly no annual fee card, and you can still get 20,000 Membership Rewards if the card you’re referring from has been targeted. These 20,000 Membership Reward Referrals are Targeted Some people are targeted and some are not. Some cards are targeted and some are not. You can have two of the exact same card and you may see one targeted with 20,000 point referral capacity and the other card remains at 10,000 points. It even varies from day to day. If you see this offer, you may want to pounce on it. But you don’t necessarily need to use it immediately. More on that below. They can be “squirreled away.” We’ve heard that some people are temporarily blocked from generating Amex referrals. We call this a “penalty box” which is usually a timeout that heals itself after time, but it’s unclear what causes it and how to get out of it. The welcome bonuses are often better (on some cards) if you go incognito “Going incognito” to see better offers (or at least different offers) is definitely a thing. Amex is notorious for displaying different welcome bonuses depending on how “come at them.” Take for example the 40,000 point welcome bonus associated with the Amex Personal Gold card in the image at the top of this post. When I click through that referral link I sometimes see 40,000 and other times I see 50,000. First, compare notes with others on what the best current bonus is for a given card. Then try to get that offer to come up. You can check desktop or mobile. Chrome or Firefox. Try going incognito/private. Try connecting to a VPN in another part of the country. Any of these can cause the welcome bonus to change. Crazy, right? In some cases, referral welcome bonuses are worse than public non-referral offers It stinks when a bank makes a referral offer worse than a public offer. It happens from time to time, but I don’t think it’s necessarily malice on their part. Offers through various channels just vary, or in some cases lag one another. For example, we recentl

This episode was originally released last July 4th for our Patreon members. We’re releasing it here for all readers and listeners of the Podcast. Maybe you’ll find it a nice 38 minute distraction from everything going on right now.  Original Show notes are as follows: Today we’re taking a break from the regular show format to have a little fun. Both of us have a bit of a guilty pleasure: reading 1 star TripAdvisor reviews of hotels. Robert came up with the idea for today’s show, where we read an anonymous 1 star review of a hotel, and each try to guess the hotel. Along the way we got into a bit of a serious discussion about what should it take to make a 1-star review, and what causes higher end hotels to earn 1-star reviews. Play along by pausing the show and trying to figure out the hotel, and share your worst hotel experiences in the comments of this post! Posts referenced in this episode: Robert’s Review of the 4-Seasons Nevis Sam’s [Old] Review of the Grand Hyatt Kauai Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts:     Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:  

Welcome to another episode of Short Cuts on our No Annual Fee Podcast. I recently applied for a Home Equity Line of Credit and noticed that my FICO score was a bit lower than I expected. It got me wondering whether it is still important to monitor my credit report and check my credit score, and if so – how? In this episode we mention these services: Credit Karma Credit Sesame Experian.com See also: The Monetization Of Your Credit Score; Or: How Travel Is Not Free Want more? Check out Episode 70 of our paid podcast where we discuss: Advanced maneuvers in credit card applications Spring cleaning How sometimes it seems that nothing works Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts:     Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:  

Welcome to another episode of Short Cuts on our No Annual Fee Podcast. Today we talk about where the points & miles game fits in the context of a pandemic like we’re currently experiencing. We discuss the importance of demand schedules. Check this link for more on that topic. Want more? Become a Patron to Unlock 1+ Hour Weekly Shows Support Milenomics on Patreon where you’ll get: A weekly podcast episode for subscibers only Access to a robust Slack community And more… Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts:     Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:  

Welcome to another episode of Short Cuts on our No Annual Fee Podcast. Today we’re talking about opportunities for travel deals surrounding Coronavirus. Not necessarily for travel in the near term, but where we see angles to book award travel further out with flexible cancellation terms. Want more? Become a Patron to Unlock 1+ Hour Weekly Shows Check out Episode 67 of our Paid Show where we discuss: Converting bad bank points into airline travel bank credits A low fee way to pay certain mortgages online with a credit card A recent trip to Japan with reviews of the Park Hyatt Tokyo and Kyoto And much more… Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts:     Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:  

We’re trying something different on our No Annual Fee Podcast this week with a format called Short Cuts. In Short Cuts we’ll cover the latest points & miles news, and our take on recent developments, in short digestible shows with a singular topic. This week we’re talking Coronavirus change waivers, and how to navigate them for upcoming travel. In life almost everything is negotiable, including change waivers. Want more? Become a Patron to Unlock 1+ Hour Weekly Shows Check out Episode 67 of our Paid Show where we discuss: Booking awards Mileage runs Coronavirus waivers And much more… Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts:     Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:  

We’ve not put out a free episode of the Milenomics² podcast since last year–The success of the paid show led us to focus on the thriving community of Patreon subscribers.  Over on the Patreon page, and on the heels of the Shop Talk post we did about AA Account Shutdown issues, we’ve recorded a few paid shows on the topic of AA shutdowns as well. I’m biased, but I do believe the paid podcast has hit a stride–a mix of long-form interviews between Robert and I, discussions of what we’re up to, hilarious mistakes we both make, tips and tricks that we’ve learned from each other and the Patreon Slack community. And, as you’ll see today, every once in awhile, and unexpected twist makes it onto the show. Free Preview of the Paid Show In an attempt to get this story in front of as many people as possible we’ve decided to take the unprecedented step of releasing this paid show here on the blog, and on the free podcast feed. Show Notes: While recording last week’s episode–just 2 days before Robert was scheduled to leave on AA tickets booked from his locked account we started recording this episode. Along the way Robert identified possible ways to salvage this trip should the worst happen and AA shut down his account. We’ll outline 4 such possibilities at the top of the show–and then get into a discussion of some travel Robert did a few years ago where he had some issues with positioning flights. And then, around 33:40 into the show just as we were ready to wrap up our second topic and move into a planned discussion Robert received an email from AA Corporate Security–shutting down his AAdvantage account.  A few moments later Robert realized that the award seats he had booked for his Japan trip which was upcoming in less than 48 hours were also cancelled by AA. Using the contingency plans discussed at the top of the show, and not wasting any time Robert races to try to re-book himself onto the same flight as the rest of his family, booked out of a separate AA account not shutdown. Step through the agony of an AA shutdown, and stick around to see if AA is successful or not in spoiling a family vacation to Japan…. on today’s Milenomics² Podcast.   Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts: Or on Google Play Music: And on Spotify:

0:42 Bank of America $300 Personal Checking Bonus (HT DoC) Requires $4,000 Direct Deposit in 3 monthsYou need to have a checking account with BofA to quality for their Preferred Rewards program (which provides up to 75% uplift for spending on certain personal BofA credit cards) 1:30 Banco Popular Avianca Vuela Visa 60,000 Offer (HT US Credit Card Guide) $149 AF not waived the first year40,000 first use+20,000 with $1,000 spend in first 3 months with code SB4060Deal or not a deal? 3:53 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Credit Card 50,000 (HT DoC) 30,000 after $2,000 in spend first 90 days20,000 after additional $6,000 spend in first 6 months$95 AF not waived first yearIssued by Synchrony BankDeal or not a deal? 7:10 Stop & Shop gas rewards for groceries? Trial for nowHas anyone been targeted?100 = $1 off groceries. Not as good as gas rewards for all but the smallest tanks (10 gallons = this)If you find yourself with expiring rewards this is a way to 'cash out' at 10/(your fill up in gallons). Very similar to the Safeway rewards we've discussed. 10:02 Airline Shopping Portal Bonuses (HT Frequent Miler) United 2,500 for $600 ends 8/18Alaska 1,500 for $600 ends 8/11Southwest 2,000 for $550 ends 8/18AA 2,000 for $500 ends 8/18Smaller bonuses for lesser amounts of spend as well 10:36 Amex Adds Weekend Night Certs to $95 AF Hilton Cards + 130,000 (HT DoC) Surpass/Business 130,000 + Free Weekend NightBoth available for referralFree Weekend Night cert for every $15,000 spent per *calendar* year, post quickly after spend threshold metA whopper of a deal I say 13:12 BofA Amtrak 40,000 + $100 (HT DoC) Some serious value he re if you’re up for Amtrak travelAmtrak points are worth 2.9 cpp towards non-Acela2.5 cpp towards Acela10,000 Amtrak points gets you 4 one-way upgrade certsSemi-related: You can redeem bank points for Amtrak through a roundabout method with up to 1.64 cpp of valueDeal or not a deal? 16:07 Free Topic: Is Hotel Status an even bigger trap than airline status? Robert: Recent stay at Waldorf Astoria Chicago Near total bust from a status standpointConcierge emailed ahead of time and said status entitles you to 1-level upgrade *if* space is availableConcierge pi

Today we're back with what turns out to be a meaty review of core Milenomics philosophies, but first the news... 0:30 Citi Double Cash to Earn TYP? (HT DoC) Coming later this yearUnclear what the conversion ratio will be 1:10 Citi Going to 48-Month Waiting Period on AA Cards (link) 2:10 BofA Alaska Personal 40,000 + $100 Statement Credit (HT DoC) Direct linkCan’t get the card if you’ve had it in the preceeding 24 months 2:55 3x Fuel Rewards on VGCs at Stop & Shop/Giant 7/12-7/18 3:20 5 Things the Points & Miles Community dislikes more than they should Paying fuel surcharges See Episode 30: 10 Tips & Tricks for Premium Cabins to EuropePaying credit card annual fees See Episode 8: Liquidating Air Travel IncidentalsBuying miles (especially from friends in the community)Paying cash for lodging See Milenomics Classic post on not actively collecting hotel points See The most seasonally miscategorized Hyatt properties Paying for VGC/MCGC liquidation Spread, Scale, Time, P(Malfunction): The NPV of a Deal Like what you heard in the No Annual Fee version? Check out Episode 35 of our subscriber podcast: Advanced maneuvers in credit card applicationsMaximizing 2H2019 Amex Platinum creditsA point-fueled trip reportAnd much more... Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts: Or on Google Play Music: And NOW also on Spotify:

On this week’s No Annual Fee Edition of the podcast we discuss: 0:30 Q3 5x Categories Announced Chase Freedom: Gas and streaming services Discover: PayPal and restaurants Citi Dividend: Airline and car rentals 1:20 Office Depot $10 off $100 in Select Happy Cards (link) Repeat of last promo Unfortunately looks to be excluding Happy Guy (Home Depot) 2:25 Stop & Shop 8x Fuel Rewards Happy Cards 6/21-6/27/2019 2:40 Safeway J4U $10 off of $100 or more Visa GC This is a repeat of the promo from a month or so ago $10 erases $5.95 purchase fee Does work on Variable $500’s Makes sure you have liquidation in place  3:30 Amex Qantas Transfer Bonus and Targeted Qantas Transfer Bonus: Do they stack? Amex is running an untargeted 20% bonus People on DansDeals say they’re getting 20% on top of 20% for no apparent reason (Additionally?) My wife was targeted for a 15% transfer bonus on the Qantas side Do these stack? I transferred 1,000 Qantas miles from Amex This earned 1,200 upon arrival 4 days later a 20% bonus of 240 points posted If this sticks, it works out to a 1.44 transfer ratio If the additional 15% posts it would be a 1.62 transfer ratio Crazy one, but if all the bonuses posted it would be huge Devaluation coming? (LoyaltyLobby link) Yes, devaluation occurred (PointMeToThePlane link) 15:25 80,000 Signup Bonus Southwest Business Credit Card (FM link) $199 annual fee Expected to be subject to 5/24 Southwest Companion Pass: Deal or not a deal? (link) Like what you heard in the No Annual Fee version? Check out Episode 32 of our subscriber podcast: $150 promo from a Plastiq clone Maximizing a 50,000 point Amex upgrade offer A quick discussion about playing the timeshare game And much more… Subscribe to the No Annual Fee Edition Subscribe below to the Free, No Annual Fee Milenomics² podcast on Apple Podcasts: