Milenomics² Podcast Episode 270: Shutdowns and Winterization.

0:24 Wyndham Winding Down Vacasa Partnership (Loyalty Lobby)

• Bad News, just bad

• No longer a path to booking with Wyndham for Vacasa After Nov 30

• Last bookable date is Jan 31, 2026

• Effectively dead. 

• Vacasa still exists, and it was pretty much only useful because of the accident of 8x Fuel.7

15:52 Wells Fargo: JetBlue now 1:1 Transfer Partner

• Still have: Way too many Jetblue points 

• Also: Air France

25:15 Shutdowns: Synchrony and Wells Fargo

• Wells Fargo

• Seemed to me to have to do with selling points (or perhaps Fluz + selling points)

• Transferred out all my points from P2 to P1, then all of them to Air France

• Related: 1.75 uplift unlocked on the 1st of the month, a couple months after spending $50,000 on Visa Signature. Strange.

• Synchrony

• These are widespread and…bad

• Common thread does seem to be Fluz and/or PBP

• Fraud investigations as well (including in person?) Wild if true

• There’s always someone doing way worse things, fluz does almost no due diligence and I could see someone using it to steal and drain CC. 

29:06 Unlocked: Citi Strata Elite Cards

• P2’s 2nd card was unlocked

• Email threatens to refund Annual Fee and credit 100k welcome bonus within 5 days (we’ll see)

• 1st card unlocked a couple days later

• Never got emails on 1st card, so went ahead and met min spend on it (had a few days left after they unlocked it)

• We’ll see on AF refunds process on either card

• Overall, a bit of a wild ride but I’ll take it?

31:46 Chase News

• October 26, 2025 is upon us, and they’ve released the hounds of Sapphire Reserve perks to those who had the card before they enhanced the perks (Sapphire Reserve $150 per-six-month dining credit, The Edit, etc)

• Have we really entered the era where points earned on cards other than the Sapphire Reserve don’t get 1.5 cpp uplift (or Boosted better) for booking through the Chase portal? Man, that sounds like overly-complicated accounting. Better to transfer to partners?

  • Good reminder to do the math at 1CPP when you’re earning.

  • What happens when you upgrade a freedom?

• 25% transfer bonus to Southwest through Nov 6, 2025

• Check https://www.chase.com/mybonus for targeted bonuses (I saw 5x up to $1,000 on Ritz card)

What We’ve Been Up To

37:50 Went for it: CapitalOne to JAL

• The 30% inaugural bonus was set to expire, so I dedicated to go all-in on JAL and transfer ~500k CapOne

• First 250k or so went through instantly

• The second transfer got held up. They called me the next day to confirm it was me.

40:34 2x Delta Gold Business 90k

• This is a complicated update and a second application. 

• Almost a month ago I applied and… nothing 

• 3 (!)  weeks after applying I got a “we’ve finished reviewing your application” email

• About a week later a letter arrived, it was not a denial for duplicate but instead a HRF ‘bank letterhead’ request. 

• Called HRF and they approved after giving the last 3 digits of another card. 

• This seemed like it skirted Lifetime language and duplicate application status, the HRF flag was the only check that it wouldn’t skip 

• Seemed like a worthwhile P2 application as well, so I flanked there and tried to apply as well. On mobile I continuously got popups. Unsure if I did something wrong but later on Desktop was successful without a popup. Blue pending notice. 

• Broader discussion: With lots of slots what should we be doing differently? 

47:31 Approved: Morgan Stanley Platinum 125k (one last time)

• Used new-tab approach

• Workflow seemed “different” than in the past

• Got a email from Amex w/subj: “A servicing message from American Express”

• Called, automated message said they’ve received duplicate applications and suggested I wait for a letter

• I persisted, and spoke with a rep who saw straight away which card I was calling about

• Conversation was strange, as it usually is on these things, but rep told me I had to withdraw the first application to get the second reconsidered

• I said fine, and then she transferred me to high risk/fraud team who was able to instantly approve

• Could be business as usual but I don’t like change in this area

• Discuss: Personal Platinum vs Business Platinum (is this a yes/and situation?)

• Related: Closing Morgan Stanley Access account. Have to call? Should be illegal.

52:50 Winterization: Things to Do Before Year End

• Amex FHR Credits ($300/half year)

• Cit Strata Elite Splurge Credit ($200 per calendar year)

• Citi Strata Elite Hotel Credit (2-night min, book by 12/31/2025, $300 per calendar year)

• Amex Personal Platinum Resy credits ($100 per quarter)

• Amex air incidentals ($200 per card year)

• Delta Gold Business Hotel Credit ($150 per calendar year)

• More obscure air credits (BofA Elite $300/yr, Chase Ritz $300/yr, Hilton Aspire $50/quarter, Dell Credits)

• Amex Business Platinum Hilton credits ($50/quarter, time to buy Starbucks GCs in a Hilton?)

• Amex Personal Platinum Lululemon ($75/quarter)

• Apply for another BofA Elite (and be ready to do the incidental spend on your old one Jan 1)

• Apply for Amex Personal/Business Platinum for triple Dip

• Amex Business Platinum Dell credits ($150 for 2H 2025)

• Amex Personal Platinum Saks credits ($50/half)

• Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit ($300 per cardmember year, easy one)

• CapOne Venture travel portal credits ($300 per cardmember year)

• Chase Sapphire perks: $150/half dining credit, $250/half 2-night The Edit, $150/half StubHub/viagogo

• Tend to digital subscriptions. Make sure you’re not exceeding the credits on any one Amex Personal Platinum, move AppleTV+ to Sapphire Reserve, sign up for new novel ones you like (WJS and YouTube Premium come to mind), and cancel ones you never use