Milenomics² Podcast Episode 248: News, Follow Up and Best of Slack…

News: 

0:55 Boston Logan Airport Centurion Lounge Coming 2027 (Thrifty Traveler)

Updates: 

03:27 BofA Elite Incidentals: Still Waiting

• Last year tracker clicked over on 1/16, and credits posted 1/17

• This year? STILL not triggering well after recording this episode

• Do This Now: www.prioritypass.com/premiumrewardselite

• Up to 4 people, includes Priority Pass Restaurants. 

09:03 Worth discussing: 35,000 Business platinum referral means 250k links

• Robert reminded me that when a Business platinum shows 35,000 referrals it means the referral is 250k business platinum referral. 

• >2 months since my last 250k approval, so I lobbed one in

• Pending then…declined. No popup of course due to 90 day rule. 

• A much easier reconsideration call in 30 days for me. 

• I really like this workflow – Resy 15x and business platinum 250k 

• How to get rid of MR this year? 

16:59 Using incidentals is a great way to clean up Southwest credits

• Could be a Tip of the week, but maybe not so broadly applicable. 

• I do have a bunch of incidentals to do in the $50-$200 ranges. 

• Instead of finding a flight under $100 with Southwest you can use a Southwest Flight credit to get the amount to be charged on the Card Below the threshold. 

• This also helps you to create ‘transferrable’ credits (WGA+ or higher)

• Example: Find any priced flight, add on 1-2 Travel credits to get the CC portion down below $100. 

• Not as big an issue later in the year when cancellations are useful to cash out but need these to ‘stick’ 

• Helps make larger balances and transferable credits while you’re handling the booking. 

• Batch it up! 

Follow Up

21:45 Approved: Hawaiian Airlines Card

• Didn’t call, about 3 days later card was just approved. 

• Interesting that Bank of Hawaii credit cards are on Paypal bill pay

25:00 Cardless Qatar Update

• First statement after being unfrozen cut, miles conveyed to Qatar two days later

• Net: 162k Qatar miles, $499 AF + Fluz costs

• We’ll see if it amounts to anything more than [hopefully] using this for a couple JetBlue Mint tickets

26:12 Identity Verification US Bank

• Called and somehow the only thing that can get the triple cash reward card approved is a copy of my DL and SSN card

• Was told to FAX these in

• Really great slack DP from T to email them to cipverification@usbank.com

• Now I play the waiting game…

• Update: Approved about 2 days after the email! 

28:32 Best of Slack

28:38 Pay Federal Taxes w/Fluz Multi-Use Card

• There’s been a lot of chatter lately about credit card rates bouncing around for the 2 remaining official IRS payment processors

• But I didn’t have a good credit card to use to pay taxes, so I paid with a Fluz 537875 BIN multi-use card and earned 1.5%

• Paired with Fluz increasing instant access to $10,000 for most (and $20,000 for some) this is a nice quick way to effectively pay taxes in a bonuses category with low fees

• Shout out to: Sean F, Andrew C, and brian 

33:30 Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts Credits Not Triggering Because Hotel Takes Deposit Rather Than Prepayment

• Wanted to get a prepaid $200+ FHR booking on the books to try to liquidate the Amex Personal Platinum annual benefit

• The first thing I noticed is that the amount the hotel wanted to take for prepayment was less than the price quoted on the initial screen, which took the prepayment amount below $200, because the hotel wanted to hold off on charging property fees until arrival. So I increased the room quality to get over a $200 prepayment.

• I went ahead and booked it, but noticed that the charge that landed on the card was in the hotel’s name directly rather than “amex fine hotels and resorts”

• No biggie I thought, until the “platinum hotel credit” didn’t post for this booking. It did post swiftly for another booking where the charge posted directly to Amex.

• What is going on here?

• Well, since we travel in packs there’s almost always a Slack thread for things. Seems certain hotels charge a deposit instead of collecting prepayment for the stay. And FONTAINEBLEAU Las Vegas evidently is one of them. Thing is, it’s difficult to discern prior to booking which properties do this.

• Adding insult to injury these bookings can’t be canceled online. You have to call or chat to cancel them. Of course, I booked it on my wife’s account who was already wondering why I booked a hotel in Vegas, so I didn’t want to involve her. Thankfully Amex Travel chat (which is different from general Amex chat) patched it up.

• Really stinks for bookings late last year because you don’t have an opportunity to cancel and re-do it at a better behaving property. I wonder if you called they’d process a manual credit?

• Shout out to: Andrew C once again

• Frequent Miler discussion on this as well (link) 

37:58 Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts Clawbacks

• Maybe the topic above isn’t so important (for non-actual stays) if Amex is getting more aggressive about the lookback period for clawbacks

• Used to be that if you waited > 1 week after cancelling a card you could safely get a refund back to the card without a clawback

• But some late 2024 datapoints are concerning. Even when waiting > 1 month between card closure and hotel booking cancelation there are reports of clawbacks. Even when straddling a calendar year (between card closure and stay cancellation).

• Will have to monitor this (does an even longer period of separation help?)

• Andrew C on the job yet again

42:22 Amex Delta Cards: Delta Stays Credit

• Maybe we missed it, maybe we were skeptical of the utility of this, but apparently Amex Delta cards come with a Delta Stays credit and it’s not that painful to use

• Maybe the “Delta Stays” name made me think it was vacation rentals? But it’s mostly just regular hotels (they use Expedia) so the inventory is pretty robust and the inflation doesn’t look terrible.

• Personal Gold/Platinum/Reserve: $100, $150, $200

• Business Gold/Platinum/Reserve: $150, $200, $250

• Summary from Thrifty Traveler

• Be sure to book prepaid rather than at the hotel (can still be a refundable rate)

• I could have made use of this recently instead of using Marriott points for a cheap night

• I’d be kicking myself, but I hear this, perhaps like the FHR credit, is gameable? Meaning book a far-out date, cancel the card, and wait > 1 month then cancel and get a refund with clawback. Or maybe just book and cancel? Can’t hurt to try.

• But look at a Delta Business Gold card: Even if you’re not eligible for the welcome bonus for it you could a referral, get 15% off awards, get the Delta Stays credit, and maybe even spend $10k a $200 Delta Flight Credit (Dining earns 2x on the Business Gold). That’s not too shabby.

• Shout out to: Ivan for pointing this out in the #travel-credits channel