I keep all my families finances in QuickBooks because I'm an accounting nerd, and I've started accounting for every time I book travel using rewards I put the cost of the travel as an expense, then credit my credit card dues account. I'm not nearly into churning as a lot of the guys in here but still since the start of 2017 I've netted roughly $6500 in travel credits. So averaging a little over $2k a year in free travel with very minimal churning work.
So my fucking Hilton Honors account got hacked tonight. Canceled 4 separate reservations I have booked over the next month and redeemed all my points for gift cards over in China. Over 400,000 points.
The customer rep I spoke to seemed confident that it’ll work out. She opened a fraud case for it and put notes in to give me back whatever points are necessary to book the same hotels. So it seems like it should work out fine, just a pain in the ass to deal with as I’m flying to Europe on Friday so I need it worked out by then.
I got all my points back and all my reservations restored. I'm paying for a hotel Saturday and Sunday in cash and they gave me extra points to make up the cost for the room currently so I could book it with points and cash so it came out to the same rate as when I booked it last month. All together it worked out as if nothing had happened.
seeing conflicting info on whether venmo counts towards minimum spend for american express surpass card. this is from the terms and conditions that seems to indicate venmo would not be option. does that also rule out somethinng like plastiq? does anyone have any recent experience using either of these to hit minimum spend? just got the surpass card under the assumption that we could make a ~$3500 purchase via square, but now i'm being told the place only accepts venmo for credit card payments. thoughts?
Venmo doesnt code as purchases for amex cards, so that's out. As far as plastiq goes, it can be used, but I believe you are pretty limited on what you can pay with amex cards through it. And if you use it "too much" amex has been known to clawback points. https://help.plastiq.com/hc/en-us/a...merican-Express-not-allowed-in-all-categories
I never considered someone would try to do that. I guess I need to change my weak AF Bonvoy password. Good to know that they took care of you. That would fucking suck if you were out 400k points
If you want to avoid having them ask you three times if you are sure you want to do that, you can just send them a secure message too.
Platinum pros: Centurion Lounge access in two airports I connect in a lot (SFO and IAH). Plus lounge access in my home airport, which I wouldn't get through Priority Select. I would definitely use the $200/year in Uber credit. On the other end, I don't know if I would use the $200 in airline credit. I fly United for free, so not sure when this would come in handy. No increased bonus return for eating at restaurants, which is my main spend. Aspire pros: Hilton Diamond status and $250 Hilton credit. Free weekend night once a year. Plus fifth consecutive night free. Nice bonus for eating at restaurants. Cons: Same as Platinum with the airline incidental fees, not sure when I would use it. As far as Hilton, I don't tend to stay in many hotels. Domestic travel is at Airbnbs/friends places. International is typically at hostels. Ultimately, if I can get the 100k point sign up bonus for Platinum, I think I have to do that? How does Amex look at people who cancel after a year or two? I have still never cancelled a card, so I'm a bit hesitant to do that. Jordan/Egypt/Greece in a week, all in hostels. Hawaii in November, at a friends. South Africa in January, maybe I could use Hilton there? /humblebrag
Amex would be ok with you canceling either in a year. Or downgrading I haven't personally seen the 100k platinum but if you get it I agree Or get both since the platinum is a charge card
Now that gift card isn't possible easily for the $200 incidental spend the amex cost/benefit definitely changed. I've used mine for stand by fees but i'll have status next year so imagine that'll get waived. Some reports it'll work for seat upcharge, so if I book economy but pay up to comfort+ or something after the fact it'll reimburse. I never buy anything on a plane. Definitely harder to use. I don't put anyyyy regular spend on my Plat, I still put basically everything on my CSR. I did do a flight booked on it, because the flight discounts for premium economy + business paid fares can be huge. Doesn't sound like that'll help you though.
this led me to go down a hole to try to figure out how to spend the $90 I have left (was using it for luggage fees but now get those waived) seems like i'm just going to buy drinks on a few domestic flights this fall i wish they'd just drop it to $150 but make it work like Chases
they removed 1x (yearly in January) option to switch...meaning I'm set to AA forever? I did not hear this.
iirc you used to be able to swap it around during the year if you called so people would change it to match their flight schedules
No, it's still there. I'm saying he can't switch airlines to use the rest of his credit this year. It's almost worthless for most of us
math works out for it easily in my case, hell I saved $400 just on two tickets to Japan using Amex's flight program especially because I got a retention offer on the plat after threatening to cancel
I have about 300k chase points but I don’t have a reserve. Upgrading when my CSP hits 13 months (October) is a no brainer for the redemption value alone, right?
Unless you want to wait 3 more years for a bonus or if you transfer points to Hyatt/SW/United. I haven't gone through the portal much I do find significant other values in the csr though
Things were so much easier 7 years ago when I got my Discover It, Chase Freedom, and Amex Blue Cash Everyday. The game has passed me by. I have no money, I have no cards, I have no points, my pets heads are falling off.
$55 extra bucks for the CSR is worth it for the lounge access and trip delay protection in itself imo. Not to mention the extra $750 in potential portal value. That $450 hurts initially though, i'll admit.
old news for most but i direct messaged chase about swapping out my CSR's for ones that have the contactless option built in and they next day aired them to me the tap functionality is becoming the easiest method for mass transit, no separate card needed for any of my fall travel and all can just use that card
have NZ/AUS/FR/ENG in the next two months and trying to figure out transit for them is literally just "tap your credit card or google pay" I like the credit card back up in case not having internet for the wifes phone inhibits google pay despite the token technology but yes, it's insanely infuriating
I did not need internet for apple pay fwiw. Also - transit is weird. If you have to use an automated kiosk, you may need to use a pin
yeah i researched it that phone based payment systems store something like 5 uses but need some kind of wifi check in after that to dl more tokens to allow more uses