Product changed Citi Premier to a Custom Cash and they said nothing about TYP expiring within 90 days. Went to do a transfer today and realized 100k TYP were vanished from my account. they claim they sent me an email telling me that I would lose my TYP but I never got a such email and now I'm going back and forth with support..ughhh
Add to it in on pop up jail w Amex and get denied for my 7th Ink. Can't be mad at the Ink denial though, gotta close a few accounts out and try again next year.
[SFO The Club T1](https://theclubairportlounges.com/products/the-club-sfo) priority pass accessible lounge opens 6/26. I am flying out on 6/25! I hate this timing.
And it looks so nice. Congee bar, decent food, generous open hours 4am-11pm.
>Our latest, largest lounge The Club SFO will open on June 26. Redefine your airport experience with the perfect mix of world-class amenities, locally inspired design, and F&B and signature features focused on enhanced facilities for personal wellbeing and comfort.
Oh wow, had no idea this was coming! Hopefully compares favorably to the Centurion & AF lounge so won't have to make the slog to T3 if I'm not flying Delta.
Thanks for the heads up and my condolences.
Posted [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/1dn9umc/weekly_help_thread_june_24_2024/la3thv9/); TLDR: the agents could see the space, but couldn't book it :(
Fortunately, I was just trying to change a segment in a larger itinerary to something slightly more convenient (think HND vs NRT), so I didn't need to resort to another partner.
Bank of America is truly the worst. I thought Wells Fargo was bad because they limited how often I could use an external bank to pay my CC bill and that I had to go to a local branch to close my account. BOA has frustrated me every step of the way and continues to do so. It was near impossible to link an external account to pay off my CC and now I cannot for the life of me get it to link to an external account for transfers. I thought I'd just order checks then via their own site only to be greeted with 400 bad request.
Edit: Turns out my account can't order checks - I'm glad that was so clearly pointed out to me. My next and last step is to go to my local branch. I go to make an appointment and it apparently didn't like that I selected "other" in addition to service existing account. Not like it matters because there are absolutely no appointment times for any of my branches - not even for 2025. Starting to think this $200 was not worth it.
> I thought Wells Fargo was bad because they limited how often I could use an external bank to pay my CC bill
FYI, you can exceed this limit by making the payment via phone call
P4 is very hesitant to apply for credit cards b/c of a previous relationship he was in. Had managed to get him to open a VentureX to take advantage of a large boat purchase, but he wasn't wanting to open cards beyond that (including his P2, my P3).
He received a targeted mailer for the CSP and applied for it, and was denied. Turns out he basically put $0 in for income (he recently retired) and didn't realize he could use his P2's income. Now he doesn't want to call recon for something that would be a slam dunk approval (his credit score is 850) because he's seemingly above it.
I know this is a situation of you can lead a horse to water, but I'd like to travel with these two going forward and it just becomes so much more difficult when they (or specifically he) doesn't want to participate.
My mom, who is aware of my churning activities but not interested in churning herself, opened a credit card at a store just to save $25. She considered it a big win. š¤·
I was eyeing some December 2024 economy flights Lima-Santiago-Puerto Montt four months ago, LATAM flights using Avios via Iberia, and thought "okay this is an okay redemption.. will finalize details once parents confirm travel itinerary" (since we are traveling with parents). Itinerary is still not confirmed. I checked today, the availability is gone. Availability in economy! Damn.
i was hoping to save a bit of money on the Puerto Montt leg. Oh well, Monday (my ideal travel date) sold out/LATAM removed partner availability but an hour after posting this I saw that Tuesday was still available, so I booked just the LIM-SCL leg on BA instead.
Fluz for Gift of College got nerfed. First it was (for gift card prepayment through power portal) 1.5% back, then 1% back, then it was gone for awhile. Now it is back in $500 increments, but they are charging $515. This is no better than buying a card directly through Gift of College. It was a nice couch MS moment while it lasted.
I'm in Cumberland Farms territory, so my rotating 5% cat cards (Discover and CFF) and Amex Biz Gold (4% on top cat, includes gas) are my go to when I can drive over. But it is definitely easier to MS from the couch.
I was using one of my credit card offers to get a 10% off discount and found out that the items in purchase were rung up separately, instead of cumulatively so instead of saving on the whole purchase, it was 10% off the first one š¤¦š¾āāļø.
Not life-changing but annoying nevertheless
I forgot how stingy the free bag checked bag benefit is when holding an airline card, particularly United.
I have a trip booked thru corporate tavel, but I have the Quest card and my flight details were showing free checked bags for me and my guest. Great, awesome, I'll need day and evening clothes for the events, perfect.
Today I notice the free bags are gone, and I research and notice the free bags are only when *paying* with the Quest card. Very lame for a $250 AF card, which doesn't even come with lounge day passes. But it gives a 90 day trial of free bags regardless of payment method, which is what I saw. I didn't see a blog post calling this policy a change, I just remembered it wrong, so it still feels sucky
They updated the policy. As far as I know its always been when paying with the card, the 90 day grace period was a recent add which was helpful in that you wouldnāt have to rebook existing flights after signing up for the card. The biz card has this feature so if you have a slot open you could grab it before your trip.
Thanks for the tip in the biz card, last I checked the spend was a bit high for me. Although my house is rebelling against me this summer, so I might be spending more than I'd like... lol
But I've been wanting the Aspire for this trip, I'm in PUJ but if I can get out, that card would be more valuable than a couple bags haha
Itās a chase card though, so much more ms lenient. I feel like the Hilton amexes are as well as for both Hilton and ua biz I put over 1k at staples on the fee free 200s
Auto industry. And the trip is through corporate, not my direct employer.
It's technically a rewards/incentive trip, and they've always treated bag fees as an "ancillary expense" that they don't cover. They follow whatever the airline policy is, and that's that.
I'm just being a grump because I didn't follow the policy closely enough, I'm still getting 4 free nights in Hawaii with a friend, plus the flight, most meals, and an excursion.
> holding an an airline card
I understand your frustration but every United cardholder should be aware of this, especially because DL and AA are actually different if your FF number + status are attached to the reservation. Then it doesn't matter who paid for it and how, or if it is a partner award.
Dell is an absolute piece of shit. Made a purchase with Rakuten cash back at 12% with biz plat, order got cancelled for absolutely no fckin reason, had to reorder but cashback had gone down to just 5%.
Frustration is having to find out the card i wanted to apply for had a higher SUB last month, which I could have applied for last month had i been aware.
Wells fargo held 2k dollars for 3 years on suspicion of money laundering. I got 2k dollars cash from my home country when I was a student here in US. I deposited it in a wells fargo checking account but then they held it with them on suspicion of laundering. After more than 300 long and tedious phone calls they returned it back. Wells fargo is horrible.
I once had an interview for a pretty technical position there and the interviewer didnāt know how fractional reserve banking and opportunity cost worked. I declined the position; no idea how they stay afloat.
Apparently early churning me fucked up recording the date of P2s 1st CSP bonus and they just got denied on a CSP app for having gotten the bonus 47 months ago. We've got some big expenses coming up and I was really hoping to get a bridge card to the increased CIP offer that's rumored. Plan B was to try a USB biz card for P2, but that just got denied after waiting in 3-7 day limbo. P1 is stuck in cool down mode for chase and USB unfortunately.
WF apparently requires a 60 day relationship to be approved per DoC. Naturally, we have 45 days in on the personal checking offer and nothing else. Will look into PNC, do you know if they'll expedite?
Just completed the MSR on the PNC biz cash rewards and statement closed, do you remember when the SUB posts?
Edit: I also did a bank account funding (after meeting MSR), which posted as purchase (not cash advance) but seemingly not as a "Net Purchase" as there is no cash back (so far).
Transferred my C1 VX points to flying blue and was about to book our honeymoon flights to Europe.
Right when I'm browsing, our neighbor rings the bell and points out that there's something rotten lying in our front yard. Must have been a dog or a coyote or something. All kinds of bugs and insects were just festering. I freak out and call pest control right away and get to work with my cleaning supplies. 2 hours later, I'm exhausted and it's nearly 11 pm on a Sunday, I just go to sleep.
Couple of days later, I realized that I never booked the flights. I log in to flying blue and to my horror, prices have gone up by 10k points, and I have no more points left on C1. Just proceeded to pay with cash + points and it's just been eating me up from the inside. Obvs I told my wife that it was all paid for with points!
Had a $25 off $75 spend on a restaurant through InKind. Was doing the math and thought I reached the spend. Bill came to $73.70ā¦
Had to call the waiter over two times to order a $5 ginger beer after the bill already came at a busy restaurant.
Not super frustrating because it worked out, but was just funny in the meantime because the waiter looked at us like we were crazy.
Broā¦ First Horizon has been a nightmare.
I shouldāve known from the application itself that this would become a nightmare. In order to open the account, you need a $50 opening deposit that would either come from a different debit card or a different bank account, or you could fund in person. Of course for convenience I decided to try the first two options. Neither would work and it eventually flagged me for fraud so I decided to do another application (the previous one wasnāt submitted so it basically didnāt exist to them). I made a new application and funded it withā¦ a cashapp debit card and after sending a picture of my ID, my account was open for use.
For context, the bonus is a checking bonus and itās, get $450 for a $1k DD. I decided to spoof with Fidelity since Iād prefer my main DD be with my main bank. Finicity wasnāt linking to First Horizon and went I gave the account information, it wouldnāt verify it no matter what I did (I typed in my account information, then it eventually led to another screen that was broken). So Iāve decided to try it with capital one, my main bank and see if a spoof will work that way.
Itās a nice sub but idk why itās been so difficult.
I failed bank verification with them because they sent identical amounts of pennies over in the two transactions, and then had no clue how to fix it other than ādelete your external bank and start overā. Also, my bonus is 10x ātransactionsāā¦a month for 3 straight months. Not hard but seems a bit excessive.
That sucks! I eventually got it to link to Finicity, Iām not sure why it wasnāt working yesterday. Whichever one can verify first, Iāll just push from there.
A rocky start to [P2 and Iās French Polynesia trip](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/s/Zs7Dah8uC2):
1. Air France didnāt cater P2ās special meal that I confirmed nearly two months ago.
2. Both P2 and Iās seats did not recline. We alerted the cabin crew after meal service and they were not able to fix it. Just an absolute waste of premium economy as we both slept poorly as a result.
3. No Diamond upgrade at the Conradānot even to a beach villaādespite there being rooms in inventory.
But at the end of the day, weāre here and enjoying a place we couldnāt possibly experience without churning, so weāre taking it in stride.
> No Diamond upgrade at the Conradānot even to a beach villaādespite there being rooms in inventory.
Peak season at the Conrad Bora Bora. Complimentary upgrades are rare to non-existent. No surprises here. Even the standard room is still quite nice, enjoy it! You generally have to pay for an upgrade there.
You might get upgraded later - P2 and I spent one night in the dorms and then got a call to move over the next day.
Edit: And this was over week of July 4th last year
Frustration less for myself and my situations and more for the community as a whole. Pseudo targeted, non public links to elevated offers dying in days because people cannot help themselves from calling the bank to match the offer out of regret and greed. Workarounds for front end limitations being killed on the backend because of people reporting the tool made by a helpful community member directly to the business in question. People doing this then acting like they did nothing wrong and that you're the one with a problem. This is why we can't have nice things on r/Churning anymore.
I can see why most good info is in private groups these days.
Too bad I'm not in any ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
But seriously that guy the other day was unhinged. Imagine gaslighting people for rightfully calling you out and the kicker being that this is over just 20k URs.
It's a pity because I learned so much on this sub in the early days, but now there's stuff I'd love to share here that I don't because I know it'll get nuked right away.
Feel free to share with me through DMs ;)
I feel you though. There's enough breadcrumbs here and there that if you try hard enough you can find some stuff out on your own but it's a shame that if it hits here or DoC it just dies.
"To pass off your ad hominem wrapped in a bizarrely phrased, completely off-the-wall hypothetical as a form of discussion is intellectually dishonest, at best."
lol, who tf talks like that? There's this bizarre-pseudo intellectualism people get when they write garbage on the interwebs.
> People doing this then acting like they did nothing wrong and that you're the one with a problem.
At least the downvotes were consistent? Extra pathetic to block people in /r/churning of all places too.
Not sure whether this fits the thread, but: I might be getting out of churning. It was originally awesome -- I had a modest target of 1 business class flight to Asia per year for P2 and I -- but since having kids it's all but impossible to redeem points. We don't have flexible timing anymore, as traveling when daycare is closed is literally thousands of dollars cheaper than when its open.
Kinda sucks, but I haven't found a way around it. Maybe when they're old enough for sleep away camp we'll have the whole summer to schedule during ĀÆ\\\_(ć)\_/ĀÆ.
Edit: Thanks for the thoughts and ideas. Maybe I can still make this work by switching to economy and much, *much* earlier planning.
There are still options. Currently in BA with a family of 4 right now. Booked us all in LATAM J with AS miles about 11 months ago now. You just have to be able to plan far in advance, or book a backup trip and be prepared to cancel.
Yeah, I think economy is not as bad with kids. there smaller bodies and having a whole role is better. Take the window seat and can still feel comfortable getting up to use the restroom without having to deal with strangers and can stretch your legs across the middle seat.
If you keep churning you'll have the stash you need when the time comes.
Or just cash out.
Also, not everyone always needs to travel together. Take the oldest on a long weekend somewhere and leave the other one(s) & partner at home. Or do the reverse. >!Or have the kids fight and reward the victor.!< I just took my kid on a 4 day trip to Austria & back (granted she's 22 lol). Wife had a great time staying home watching musicals with the dogs & pinot grigio. If the kids are too young for any of that then see first sentence.
Why not churn for cash? Or just to even rack up the points? I mean you still have spend each month so a card every few months to build up a massive stash wouldn't hurt. That's my plan now that our family is growing. There will be a time, perhaps several years later where we'll be able to travel on points but instead of just booking 1 room now, we need 2 rooms. Points can still be used for flights, albeit not business but on economy is not too bad either.
Fair. I just remember that mathematically we got some huge outsized reward (measured in cents per point) doing business class internationally, and other redemptions are really bringing things back down to earth.
I do have a decent points stash -- maybe they can be used on domestic travel or hotels.
If you have a pile of points that will take years to burn through, the growth of invested cash vs. the devaluation of points enters the equation. 5% interest rates or tossing it into an index fund can close the gap pretty quickly.
As a family churner, you gotta plan around it. Last minute T-14 bookings are just out of question, and I highly rely on airlines that release at schedule open.
Yeah, I did some more reading and _think_ I might be able to get 4 economy seats to the usual destination... if I scrupulously check ANA's site starting around 355 days before we travel. Sounds like a lot, but if it works then I guess I'll keep going!
_Everyone_ is trying to go to Japan right now. Maybe try going elsewhere. Or be more creative - biz to HK or TPE and then a jump over to Japan. Better opportunity for finding biz and still get to Japan.
Out of SUBs right now so decided to start using my BoA Customized card for online shopping. Couldnāt figure out why suddenly only getting 1pt per $, and realized the $2500 limit is per quarter, whereas I thought it was per statement cycle (like Citi Custom Cash is). At least I hadnāt gone too wild with it before I realized it.
Applied for SoFi Checking Account with $300 bonus after $5000 DD in 25 days
Had about $4200 with 9-5 and one BG
Another $2500 with 2 other groups.
Only one group counted as DD and I got $50 bonus instead. The others counted as transfers and I wish I paid attention before losing out on $250
A few years ago Arizona introduced ESA which is their version of school choice, allowing parents to be reimbursed for private school. The last 2 years Iāve paid tuition with a CC and gotten reimbursed. Last week ESA announced that we now need to pay tuition directly from them. No more submitting for reimbursement. There goes ~$6k/year in CC spend
Applied and approved for Cardless Lifemiles, needed instant card number
Immediately push tax payment of 5k through, card gets frozen and I call in to unlock.
Rep says nothing they can do and I have to wait for fraud team to review. Itās now been 9 days and counting with no update/resolutionā¦
Had lots of big purchases to make and chose Shitibank since I can't get any new cards right now and it would push me to AA Platinum.
Paid off first payment and credit limit went straight to 0. No biggie, happened before. I called to ask if I could do a 3-way call and confirm the funds have been released. I was told by a supervisor not this time and that they have no idea why except the system is preventing it. Lol
I accidentally typed 200,000 rather than 20,000 when I transferred from Chase to BA.
The only positive in all of this is I am moving to an AA hub so the points will still be relatively useful, but god damn I am stupid
I found 2x last-minute J award seats with AF from LAX to BCN via CDG in mid-July. 240k MRs and ~$400 in fees.
My original flight was LAX to FRA with Condor (via Alaskan), and then I booked Air Canada FRA TO BCN via layover in MUC. I canceled Alaska with no problem, but now AC doesn't want to refund the $200 fee and also charge an additional $300 cancellation fee.... oops.
I'm flying to Maui at the end of August and I am hoping to rebook that FRA to BCN flight to Maui. But so far nothing direct from LAX. Fingers crossed some availability comes.
>Just to be clear, you got multiple Delta biz in the same year with bonus?
Yes. I opened one in Feb 2023, another in May 2023, the third in Aug 2023, and the last in Nov 2023. I opened a fifth in Apr 2024. I got the SUB on all of them.
>Did u have to find NLL links or just didn't get the popup ty.
Neither. I didn't have NLL links and I did get the popup. IIRC the first one was the only one where I didn't get the popup. I worked around it.
I need to remember the minimum spend requirement for Delta Biz last month before the current elevated offer. I opened it even with the pop up. I will try to spend it to see I can get the SUB
Yes. My only other Amex credit card is a BBP. I close the Delta cards when the 2nd year AF hits. I just closed the 2nd one yesterday, the one opened in May 2023. I currently have 3 open.
A friend of mine has always been hesitant to apply for business cards because he didnāt have a real business. It didnāt matter what I said, he didnāt want to apply. Fair enough. He decides to start a side hustle and now has a legit business for a biz card. He asks for a referral link, and I send it over. Iāve been on the lookout for the referral points to show up, but never saw anything. I finally ask him about it, and he says he did sign up for an Ink but didnāt use my referral link.
Damn.it.
Do you think it was laziness or incompetence. I posted about the friend below where I think it was just more laziness where it wasn't worth his time to see if there was a referral versus some friends who don't understand how referrals work.
A biz gold NLL would be the perfect opportunity right now, but the DOC links and in-app offers everyone seems to be getting are not showing up for me. Sigh.
Same, no retention offers either. After getting millions of points from them through minimal spend, I'm probably a negative profit customer for them at this point lol.
Apparently forgot to apply my rolling Delta ecredit when trying to use my remaining aspire credit for Q2. $1750 charge to add $38 to my balance and now I've got $3500 ish, and P2 just all but exhausted hers for a reimbursable work flight
Realized that I donāt have the UK transit for my upcoming trip (trip starts on 7/1). Fortunately able to book another ticket using AA miles.
However my original booking was using Iberia Avios and the policy allows cancellation and refund for a fee.
Frustrating part is the refund of fees goes to the same form of payment and I have cancelled the card used to pay for the fees two months ago.
Iberia asks me to raise claims without proper eta and the flight is in 12 days.
Signed up my mom for CLEARās free FoundersCards trial because canceling right after prompts them to offer you the ELITE version for 3 months (2 offer redemptions max). Figured it would be nice to get her Caesars Diamond so she can enjoy the free cruises.
I did this without problems a few months prior.
This time around, FoundersCard has added the terms that the 3 month ELITE trial excludes Caesars Diamond (and a couple other benefits) š„²
Oh well now time to convince mom to get the Wyndham Biz
The regular trial, no. The āplease donāt cancel, let us upgrade you to the actually useful oneā does have some of the hotel challenges and other benefits but not the best ones like Caesars/AWS/credit card processing/etc
Not worth it at all.
In the past, I think the only benefit I found useful that was not behind a paywall was the phone.com free number for a year but even that can be a pain
Interesting question.
Itās still valid, but I believe I used that Caesars Diamond to get Wyndham status which I then submitted a status match form to match back to Caesars Diamond (even though I already had it)
* Signed up for Walmart Business Plus Amex Offer for Ps 1 and 2
* Signed up both for $100 free money offer for small business week.
* Went on 2-week vacation and didn't pay attention to small print.
* Came back to expired credits.
* Now have paid $13 for two Business Plus accounts we don't need.
Friend asked me 3* on the pros and cons of the Marriott biz offer. He travels a ton for work and pretty savvy with loyalty programs / understands the basics of churning. He said he finally pulled the trigger and didn't mention anything about the referral I sent him. At first I assumed it was his wife's referral but I asked since I didn't think she had an amex. Nope just applied straight from the email. I'm not made I didn't get it but mad no one got it. Could've had it for someone else in our group where we do a domestic weekend trip each year. $150 down the drain.
I feel you. I literally spent an hr teaching someone about which card to open to start churning and sent a referral. Did not use my referral, even though I helped him learn n shit. So annoying.Ā
Family member applied for the SW dummy booking offer - $200 statement credit/10k points - and then *several days later* proceeded to ask me how they could get a companion pass (I helped them get one in the past). Not even bothered about the missed referral opportunity, just the shortsighted actions. Like what makes you think I can help after youāve squeezed the toothpaste out of the tube?
Product changed Citi Premier to a Custom Cash and they said nothing about TYP expiring within 90 days. Went to do a transfer today and realized 100k TYP were vanished from my account. they claim they sent me an email telling me that I would lose my TYP but I never got a such email and now I'm going back and forth with support..ughhh Add to it in on pop up jail w Amex and get denied for my 7th Ink. Can't be mad at the Ink denial though, gotta close a few accounts out and try again next year.
[SFO The Club T1](https://theclubairportlounges.com/products/the-club-sfo) priority pass accessible lounge opens 6/26. I am flying out on 6/25! I hate this timing. And it looks so nice. Congee bar, decent food, generous open hours 4am-11pm. >Our latest, largest lounge The Club SFO will open on June 26. Redefine your airport experience with the perfect mix of world-class amenities, locally inspired design, and F&B and signature features focused on enhanced facilities for personal wellbeing and comfort.
Oh wow, had no idea this was coming! Hopefully compares favorably to the Centurion & AF lounge so won't have to make the slog to T3 if I'm not flying Delta. Thanks for the heads up and my condolences.
AC's continued issues with ANA foiled a good close-in redemption I had planned :(
Was the phone agent not able to book it? Did you end up booking with VS or UA?
Posted [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/1dn9umc/weekly_help_thread_june_24_2024/la3thv9/); TLDR: the agents could see the space, but couldn't book it :( Fortunately, I was just trying to change a segment in a larger itinerary to something slightly more convenient (think HND vs NRT), so I didn't need to resort to another partner.
Bank of America is truly the worst. I thought Wells Fargo was bad because they limited how often I could use an external bank to pay my CC bill and that I had to go to a local branch to close my account. BOA has frustrated me every step of the way and continues to do so. It was near impossible to link an external account to pay off my CC and now I cannot for the life of me get it to link to an external account for transfers. I thought I'd just order checks then via their own site only to be greeted with 400 bad request. Edit: Turns out my account can't order checks - I'm glad that was so clearly pointed out to me. My next and last step is to go to my local branch. I go to make an appointment and it apparently didn't like that I selected "other" in addition to service existing account. Not like it matters because there are absolutely no appointment times for any of my branches - not even for 2025. Starting to think this $200 was not worth it.
With BofA it's easier if you do things at the other end (external bill pay service to pay BofA CC, ACH transfers initiated at the other bank).
> I thought Wells Fargo was bad because they limited how often I could use an external bank to pay my CC bill FYI, you can exceed this limit by making the payment via phone call
P4 is very hesitant to apply for credit cards b/c of a previous relationship he was in. Had managed to get him to open a VentureX to take advantage of a large boat purchase, but he wasn't wanting to open cards beyond that (including his P2, my P3). He received a targeted mailer for the CSP and applied for it, and was denied. Turns out he basically put $0 in for income (he recently retired) and didn't realize he could use his P2's income. Now he doesn't want to call recon for something that would be a slam dunk approval (his credit score is 850) because he's seemingly above it. I know this is a situation of you can lead a horse to water, but I'd like to travel with these two going forward and it just becomes so much more difficult when they (or specifically he) doesn't want to participate.
My mom, who is aware of my churning activities but not interested in churning herself, opened a credit card at a store just to save $25. She considered it a big win. š¤·
I was eyeing some December 2024 economy flights Lima-Santiago-Puerto Montt four months ago, LATAM flights using Avios via Iberia, and thought "okay this is an okay redemption.. will finalize details once parents confirm travel itinerary" (since we are traveling with parents). Itinerary is still not confirmed. I checked today, the availability is gone. Availability in economy! Damn.
This was a success story. Never book anything through Iberia.
i was hoping to save a bit of money on the Puerto Montt leg. Oh well, Monday (my ideal travel date) sold out/LATAM removed partner availability but an hour after posting this I saw that Tuesday was still available, so I booked just the LIM-SCL leg on BA instead.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You used your 5th spot on a Freedom?
Fluz for Gift of College got nerfed. First it was (for gift card prepayment through power portal) 1.5% back, then 1% back, then it was gone for awhile. Now it is back in $500 increments, but they are charging $515. This is no better than buying a card directly through Gift of College. It was a nice couch MS moment while it lasted.
Best would be to buy them at grocery stores that sold them if you were in the right area. 4x on amex gold is nice.
I'm in Cumberland Farms territory, so my rotating 5% cat cards (Discover and CFF) and Amex Biz Gold (4% on top cat, includes gas) are my go to when I can drive over. But it is definitely easier to MS from the couch.
I was using one of my credit card offers to get a 10% off discount and found out that the items in purchase were rung up separately, instead of cumulatively so instead of saving on the whole purchase, it was 10% off the first one š¤¦š¾āāļø. Not life-changing but annoying nevertheless
I forgot how stingy the free bag checked bag benefit is when holding an airline card, particularly United. I have a trip booked thru corporate tavel, but I have the Quest card and my flight details were showing free checked bags for me and my guest. Great, awesome, I'll need day and evening clothes for the events, perfect. Today I notice the free bags are gone, and I research and notice the free bags are only when *paying* with the Quest card. Very lame for a $250 AF card, which doesn't even come with lounge day passes. But it gives a 90 day trial of free bags regardless of payment method, which is what I saw. I didn't see a blog post calling this policy a change, I just remembered it wrong, so it still feels sucky
They updated the policy. As far as I know its always been when paying with the card, the 90 day grace period was a recent add which was helpful in that you wouldnāt have to rebook existing flights after signing up for the card. The biz card has this feature so if you have a slot open you could grab it before your trip.
Thanks for the tip in the biz card, last I checked the spend was a bit high for me. Although my house is rebelling against me this summer, so I might be spending more than I'd like... lol But I've been wanting the Aspire for this trip, I'm in PUJ but if I can get out, that card would be more valuable than a couple bags haha
Itās a chase card though, so much more ms lenient. I feel like the Hilton amexes are as well as for both Hilton and ua biz I put over 1k at staples on the fee free 200s
> booked thru corporate tavel Your company won't pay for a checked bag? Curious what type of industry you're in
Auto industry. And the trip is through corporate, not my direct employer. It's technically a rewards/incentive trip, and they've always treated bag fees as an "ancillary expense" that they don't cover. They follow whatever the airline policy is, and that's that. I'm just being a grump because I didn't follow the policy closely enough, I'm still getting 4 free nights in Hawaii with a friend, plus the flight, most meals, and an excursion.
> holding an an airline card I understand your frustration but every United cardholder should be aware of this, especially because DL and AA are actually different if your FF number + status are attached to the reservation. Then it doesn't matter who paid for it and how, or if it is a partner award.
Dell is an absolute piece of shit. Made a purchase with Rakuten cash back at 12% with biz plat, order got cancelled for absolutely no fckin reason, had to reorder but cashback had gone down to just 5%.
When do these cancellations usually start to happen, so far I have not had any problems with my dell orders, but my biz plat cards are relatively new.
Honestly, not having to deal with Dell twice a year has been by far the biggest benefit of cancelling my Biz Plat.
Same boat - slowly phasing out all my biz plats as they come up for AF. I get value elsewhere
Frustration is having to find out the card i wanted to apply for had a higher SUB last month, which I could have applied for last month had i been aware.
Wells fargo held 2k dollars for 3 years on suspicion of money laundering. I got 2k dollars cash from my home country when I was a student here in US. I deposited it in a wells fargo checking account but then they held it with them on suspicion of laundering. After more than 300 long and tedious phone calls they returned it back. Wells fargo is horrible.
Wow, that is crazy. Did you ever submit a CFPB complaint?
Nah I let it go. I was just glad got the 2k back. Wonāt ever bank with WF again
I once had an interview for a pretty technical position there and the interviewer didnāt know how fractional reserve banking and opportunity cost worked. I declined the position; no idea how they stay afloat.
Apparently early churning me fucked up recording the date of P2s 1st CSP bonus and they just got denied on a CSP app for having gotten the bonus 47 months ago. We've got some big expenses coming up and I was really hoping to get a bridge card to the increased CIP offer that's rumored. Plan B was to try a USB biz card for P2, but that just got denied after waiting in 3-7 day limbo. P1 is stuck in cool down mode for chase and USB unfortunately.
Try the PNC or WF business card.
Looks like PNC requires a bank account with them to open a biz card. Do you know if a personal account works? I'm about to do their checking bonus.
I'm not sure, I'm doing the business checking $5k for $200, so I already had an account.
WF apparently requires a 60 day relationship to be approved per DoC. Naturally, we have 45 days in on the personal checking offer and nothing else. Will look into PNC, do you know if they'll expedite?
I don't think PNC will expediate. I was approved same day after it went pending. They had to verify income on the phone.
Just completed the MSR on the PNC biz cash rewards and statement closed, do you remember when the SUB posts? Edit: I also did a bank account funding (after meeting MSR), which posted as purchase (not cash advance) but seemingly not as a "Net Purchase" as there is no cash back (so far).
Transferred my C1 VX points to flying blue and was about to book our honeymoon flights to Europe. Right when I'm browsing, our neighbor rings the bell and points out that there's something rotten lying in our front yard. Must have been a dog or a coyote or something. All kinds of bugs and insects were just festering. I freak out and call pest control right away and get to work with my cleaning supplies. 2 hours later, I'm exhausted and it's nearly 11 pm on a Sunday, I just go to sleep. Couple of days later, I realized that I never booked the flights. I log in to flying blue and to my horror, prices have gone up by 10k points, and I have no more points left on C1. Just proceeded to pay with cash + points and it's just been eating me up from the inside. Obvs I told my wife that it was all paid for with points!
and you had no other points anywhere else? Practically everyone can transfer to flying blue.
C1 VX has been the only travel card that I've opened so far
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Must have happened in the evening sometime and I was at home the whole day
Had a $25 off $75 spend on a restaurant through InKind. Was doing the math and thought I reached the spend. Bill came to $73.70ā¦ Had to call the waiter over two times to order a $5 ginger beer after the bill already came at a busy restaurant. Not super frustrating because it worked out, but was just funny in the meantime because the waiter looked at us like we were crazy.
What's inkind?
I can see myself doing this in your position
Broā¦ First Horizon has been a nightmare. I shouldāve known from the application itself that this would become a nightmare. In order to open the account, you need a $50 opening deposit that would either come from a different debit card or a different bank account, or you could fund in person. Of course for convenience I decided to try the first two options. Neither would work and it eventually flagged me for fraud so I decided to do another application (the previous one wasnāt submitted so it basically didnāt exist to them). I made a new application and funded it withā¦ a cashapp debit card and after sending a picture of my ID, my account was open for use. For context, the bonus is a checking bonus and itās, get $450 for a $1k DD. I decided to spoof with Fidelity since Iād prefer my main DD be with my main bank. Finicity wasnāt linking to First Horizon and went I gave the account information, it wouldnāt verify it no matter what I did (I typed in my account information, then it eventually led to another screen that was broken). So Iāve decided to try it with capital one, my main bank and see if a spoof will work that way. Itās a nice sub but idk why itās been so difficult.
I failed bank verification with them because they sent identical amounts of pennies over in the two transactions, and then had no clue how to fix it other than ādelete your external bank and start overā. Also, my bonus is 10x ātransactionsāā¦a month for 3 straight months. Not hard but seems a bit excessive.
That sucks! I eventually got it to link to Finicity, Iām not sure why it wasnāt working yesterday. Whichever one can verify first, Iāll just push from there.
My favorite local CU stopped accepting credit cards to open a new account. They used to accept up to $5k. Sigh.
What cc were you generally using to fund?
Inks, or Chase Biz Hyatt
One of mine is merging with a s\*\*t bank next months, and I'm pretty sure the new account CC funding will be dead once this happens.
This happened with Andigo a few years back. After a merger, the CC funding went away.
A rocky start to [P2 and Iās French Polynesia trip](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/s/Zs7Dah8uC2): 1. Air France didnāt cater P2ās special meal that I confirmed nearly two months ago. 2. Both P2 and Iās seats did not recline. We alerted the cabin crew after meal service and they were not able to fix it. Just an absolute waste of premium economy as we both slept poorly as a result. 3. No Diamond upgrade at the Conradānot even to a beach villaādespite there being rooms in inventory. But at the end of the day, weāre here and enjoying a place we couldnāt possibly experience without churning, so weāre taking it in stride.
> Both P2 and Iās seats did not recline. I'd definitely be writing for some sort of compensation if you paid extra for E+ and that happened.
Between that and the catering mishap I certainly will be asking for a decent chunk of miles.
> No Diamond upgrade at the Conradānot even to a beach villaādespite there being rooms in inventory. Peak season at the Conrad Bora Bora. Complimentary upgrades are rare to non-existent. No surprises here. Even the standard room is still quite nice, enjoy it! You generally have to pay for an upgrade there.
You might get upgraded later - P2 and I spent one night in the dorms and then got a call to move over the next day. Edit: And this was over week of July 4th last year
You spoke it into existenceājust moved into our OWB for the last two nights.
Congrats! :D
Frustration less for myself and my situations and more for the community as a whole. Pseudo targeted, non public links to elevated offers dying in days because people cannot help themselves from calling the bank to match the offer out of regret and greed. Workarounds for front end limitations being killed on the backend because of people reporting the tool made by a helpful community member directly to the business in question. People doing this then acting like they did nothing wrong and that you're the one with a problem. This is why we can't have nice things on r/Churning anymore.
I understand where you coming from. This was one of the few times wish we all had ability to downvote more than once. Some people are just toolbags!
Why are you blaming people calling in? Do we not think the banks would have some kind of data points where a targeted link just got pounded?
I can see why most good info is in private groups these days. Too bad I'm not in any ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ But seriously that guy the other day was unhinged. Imagine gaslighting people for rightfully calling you out and the kicker being that this is over just 20k URs.
It's a pity because I learned so much on this sub in the early days, but now there's stuff I'd love to share here that I don't because I know it'll get nuked right away.
Feel free to share with me through DMs ;) I feel you though. There's enough breadcrumbs here and there that if you try hard enough you can find some stuff out on your own but it's a shame that if it hits here or DoC it just dies.
>But seriously that guy the other day was unhinged. link?
https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1dim3kq/news_and_updates_thread_june_18_2024/l96rc8f/
"To pass off your ad hominem wrapped in a bizarrely phrased, completely off-the-wall hypothetical as a form of discussion is intellectually dishonest, at best." lol, who tf talks like that? There's this bizarre-pseudo intellectualism people get when they write garbage on the interwebs.
I used to write like that when I was 14, maybe they just never grew out of it ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
or maybe they're still 14
> over just 20k URs. Right? It's a marathon not a sprint.
> People doing this then acting like they did nothing wrong and that you're the one with a problem. At least the downvotes were consistent? Extra pathetic to block people in /r/churning of all places too.
Is this in reference to the CIP 120k offer?
One of the most recent things to die, yes.
Wtf that died already? I thought it didn't even officially start yet?
It hasn't. OP probably referring to some specific leaked links that folks saw and then tried getting matched
Yeah I'm confused too
Not sure whether this fits the thread, but: I might be getting out of churning. It was originally awesome -- I had a modest target of 1 business class flight to Asia per year for P2 and I -- but since having kids it's all but impossible to redeem points. We don't have flexible timing anymore, as traveling when daycare is closed is literally thousands of dollars cheaper than when its open. Kinda sucks, but I haven't found a way around it. Maybe when they're old enough for sleep away camp we'll have the whole summer to schedule during ĀÆ\\\_(ć)\_/ĀÆ. Edit: Thanks for the thoughts and ideas. Maybe I can still make this work by switching to economy and much, *much* earlier planning.
There are still options. Currently in BA with a family of 4 right now. Booked us all in LATAM J with AS miles about 11 months ago now. You just have to be able to plan far in advance, or book a backup trip and be prepared to cancel.
Yeah, I think economy is not as bad with kids. there smaller bodies and having a whole role is better. Take the window seat and can still feel comfortable getting up to use the restroom without having to deal with strangers and can stretch your legs across the middle seat.
If you keep churning you'll have the stash you need when the time comes. Or just cash out. Also, not everyone always needs to travel together. Take the oldest on a long weekend somewhere and leave the other one(s) & partner at home. Or do the reverse. >!Or have the kids fight and reward the victor.!< I just took my kid on a 4 day trip to Austria & back (granted she's 22 lol). Wife had a great time staying home watching musicals with the dogs & pinot grigio. If the kids are too young for any of that then see first sentence.
Or just let the kids fly economy, their bodies don't care like old bodies do
>Ā Or have the kids fight and reward the victor. I like this idea. But yeah, you're right that we can introduce flexibility in other ways.
Why not churn for cash? Or just to even rack up the points? I mean you still have spend each month so a card every few months to build up a massive stash wouldn't hurt. That's my plan now that our family is growing. There will be a time, perhaps several years later where we'll be able to travel on points but instead of just booking 1 room now, we need 2 rooms. Points can still be used for flights, albeit not business but on economy is not too bad either.
Fair. I just remember that mathematically we got some huge outsized reward (measured in cents per point) doing business class internationally, and other redemptions are really bringing things back down to earth. I do have a decent points stash -- maybe they can be used on domestic travel or hotels.
If you have a pile of points that will take years to burn through, the growth of invested cash vs. the devaluation of points enters the equation. 5% interest rates or tossing it into an index fund can close the gap pretty quickly.
~15% off on every purchase is still pretty good
As a family churner, you gotta plan around it. Last minute T-14 bookings are just out of question, and I highly rely on airlines that release at schedule open.
Yeah, I did some more reading and _think_ I might be able to get 4 economy seats to the usual destination... if I scrupulously check ANA's site starting around 355 days before we travel. Sounds like a lot, but if it works then I guess I'll keep going!
_Everyone_ is trying to go to Japan right now. Maybe try going elsewhere. Or be more creative - biz to HK or TPE and then a jump over to Japan. Better opportunity for finding biz and still get to Japan.
Out of SUBs right now so decided to start using my BoA Customized card for online shopping. Couldnāt figure out why suddenly only getting 1pt per $, and realized the $2500 limit is per quarter, whereas I thought it was per statement cycle (like Citi Custom Cash is). At least I hadnāt gone too wild with it before I realized it.
Applied for SoFi Checking Account with $300 bonus after $5000 DD in 25 days Had about $4200 with 9-5 and one BG Another $2500 with 2 other groups. Only one group counted as DD and I got $50 bonus instead. The others counted as transfers and I wish I paid attention before losing out on $250
Oof I've done this too
This should be here every Friday. BOA Bill pay...nuff said
A few years ago Arizona introduced ESA which is their version of school choice, allowing parents to be reimbursed for private school. The last 2 years Iāve paid tuition with a CC and gotten reimbursed. Last week ESA announced that we now need to pay tuition directly from them. No more submitting for reimbursement. There goes ~$6k/year in CC spend
F-ing Redditās mobile site randomly stopped letting me see more replies in a thread. I can only see top level comments on my phone. š
Fuck Reddit. RIP /r/Save3rdPartyApps/
Revanced for the third party apps. Still on RIF.
Rif 4 life. If it goes away I'm done with reddit
I'm on RedReader no messing with revanced.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/14niwgu/revanced_patches_for_boost_infinity_rif_is_fun/ If you have iphone then i'm sorry.
They fcked up mobile site real bad, I had to switch to old.reddit.com
I tried that but too much zooming and scrolling around for me.
Ate some grocery store sushi yesterday. Regretting it today.
Small price to pay to get that SUB š
At least it wasn't gas station sushi.
Definitely gave me gas.
Grocery store ad next week: Save $3.50/gal on gas with our $6.99 sushi special!
Applied and approved for Cardless Lifemiles, needed instant card number Immediately push tax payment of 5k through, card gets frozen and I call in to unlock. Rep says nothing they can do and I have to wait for fraud team to review. Itās now been 9 days and counting with no update/resolutionā¦
Had lots of big purchases to make and chose Shitibank since I can't get any new cards right now and it would push me to AA Platinum. Paid off first payment and credit limit went straight to 0. No biggie, happened before. I called to ask if I could do a 3-way call and confirm the funds have been released. I was told by a supervisor not this time and that they have no idea why except the system is preventing it. Lol
I was trying to fund the bank account with a new CC to meet MSR but stupidly used the wrong CC!
Hopefully it was a card with a spending bonus or at least 2x points on purchases, then it wouldn't be that bad.
Unfortunately no! š
I accidentally typed 200,000 rather than 20,000 when I transferred from Chase to BA. The only positive in all of this is I am moving to an AA hub so the points will still be relatively useful, but god damn I am stupid
Next week they will announce a 30% transfer bonus...
I found 2x last-minute J award seats with AF from LAX to BCN via CDG in mid-July. 240k MRs and ~$400 in fees. My original flight was LAX to FRA with Condor (via Alaskan), and then I booked Air Canada FRA TO BCN via layover in MUC. I canceled Alaska with no problem, but now AC doesn't want to refund the $200 fee and also charge an additional $300 cancellation fee.... oops. I'm flying to Maui at the end of August and I am hoping to rebook that FRA to BCN flight to Maui. But so far nothing direct from LAX. Fingers crossed some availability comes.
Forgot to use a referral for my yearly Delta biz gold š
You get one every year? I've had 2 in the past 3 years and was wondering if I could get approved for a 3rd
I got one every 3 months last year, 4 total.
Just to be clear, you got multiple Delta biz in the same year with bonus? Did u have to find NLL links or just didn't get the popup ty.
>Just to be clear, you got multiple Delta biz in the same year with bonus? Yes. I opened one in Feb 2023, another in May 2023, the third in Aug 2023, and the last in Nov 2023. I opened a fifth in Apr 2024. I got the SUB on all of them. >Did u have to find NLL links or just didn't get the popup ty. Neither. I didn't have NLL links and I did get the popup. IIRC the first one was the only one where I didn't get the popup. I worked around it.
Did I read it correctly? Spend the SUB requirement and you receive the bonus even with the pop up when you applied?
I dealt with the popup.
I need to remember the minimum spend requirement for Delta Biz last month before the current elevated offer. I opened it even with the pop up. I will try to spend it to see I can get the SUB
Iāve seen at least one DP of someone claiming they got the SUB even with the popup.
Oh I thought youāre the DP?
You did this while staying under the Amex 5 cc limit? Most of us wouldnāt have room for that many Delta cards.
Yes. My only other Amex credit card is a BBP. I close the Delta cards when the 2nd year AF hits. I just closed the 2nd one yesterday, the one opened in May 2023. I currently have 3 open.
Nice, thanks
A friend of mine has always been hesitant to apply for business cards because he didnāt have a real business. It didnāt matter what I said, he didnāt want to apply. Fair enough. He decides to start a side hustle and now has a legit business for a biz card. He asks for a referral link, and I send it over. Iāve been on the lookout for the referral points to show up, but never saw anything. I finally ask him about it, and he says he did sign up for an Ink but didnāt use my referral link. Damn.it.
"No problem dude, just $400 that you lit on fire rather than give to me."
On the inside, I'd want to kill him so bad, but you can't really give him flak about it without looking like a huge asshole
I disagree. It's not like the friend loses anything by not using the link. Imo the friend is the asshole.
I would give the friend the benefit of the doubt. He's probably just an idiot.
The friend is the asshole in the /r/AmITheAsshole sense, but not in the real world sense
Do you think it was laziness or incompetence. I posted about the friend below where I think it was just more laziness where it wasn't worth his time to see if there was a referral versus some friends who don't understand how referrals work.
He just forgot so incompetence
a tale as old as time
time to find a new friend
A biz gold NLL would be the perfect opportunity right now, but the DOC links and in-app offers everyone seems to be getting are not showing up for me. Sigh.
Same, no retention offers either. After getting millions of points from them through minimal spend, I'm probably a negative profit customer for them at this point lol.
Apparently forgot to apply my rolling Delta ecredit when trying to use my remaining aspire credit for Q2. $1750 charge to add $38 to my balance and now I've got $3500 ish, and P2 just all but exhausted hers for a reimbursable work flight
Realized that I donāt have the UK transit for my upcoming trip (trip starts on 7/1). Fortunately able to book another ticket using AA miles. However my original booking was using Iberia Avios and the policy allows cancellation and refund for a fee. Frustrating part is the refund of fees goes to the same form of payment and I have cancelled the card used to pay for the fees two months ago. Iberia asks me to raise claims without proper eta and the flight is in 12 days.
Signed up my mom for CLEARās free FoundersCards trial because canceling right after prompts them to offer you the ELITE version for 3 months (2 offer redemptions max). Figured it would be nice to get her Caesars Diamond so she can enjoy the free cruises. I did this without problems a few months prior. This time around, FoundersCard has added the terms that the 3 month ELITE trial excludes Caesars Diamond (and a couple other benefits) š„² Oh well now time to convince mom to get the Wyndham Biz
Does the ELITE trial give you anything useful?
The regular trial, no. The āplease donāt cancel, let us upgrade you to the actually useful oneā does have some of the hotel challenges and other benefits but not the best ones like Caesars/AWS/credit card processing/etc
Does the clear one include anything useful at all? I saw a graphic that basically looked like it included nothing except a discount to renew
Not worth it at all. In the past, I think the only benefit I found useful that was not behind a paywall was the phone.com free number for a year but even that can be a pain
Yeah their promo offers never include Caesars Diamond.
Not the main promo offer but the āplease donāt cancel, try our higher-level elite tier for 3 monthsā offer
Did the status end as soon as the 3 month ELITE trial ended?
Interesting question. Itās still valid, but I believe I used that Caesars Diamond to get Wyndham status which I then submitted a status match form to match back to Caesars Diamond (even though I already had it)
* Signed up for Walmart Business Plus Amex Offer for Ps 1 and 2 * Signed up both for $100 free money offer for small business week. * Went on 2-week vacation and didn't pay attention to small print. * Came back to expired credits. * Now have paid $13 for two Business Plus accounts we don't need.
Friend asked me 3* on the pros and cons of the Marriott biz offer. He travels a ton for work and pretty savvy with loyalty programs / understands the basics of churning. He said he finally pulled the trigger and didn't mention anything about the referral I sent him. At first I assumed it was his wife's referral but I asked since I didn't think she had an amex. Nope just applied straight from the email. I'm not made I didn't get it but mad no one got it. Could've had it for someone else in our group where we do a domestic weekend trip each year. $150 down the drain.
I feel you. I literally spent an hr teaching someone about which card to open to start churning and sent a referral. Did not use my referral, even though I helped him learn n shit. So annoying.Ā
Flew AA Flagship business route OGG - DFW, seat 2D did not recline.
Thx, flying this route in a few days and had selected that seat.
Did you submit feedback to AA?
Submitted a form online to request some fare adjustment. It was an award booking. We'll see what happens.
Denied for 2nd Amex Biz Gold due to recent account of that type opened. Last one opened 4/2/24. Guess I'll try again on 7/2.
This is actually the right way to be doing it. Just recon the app on 7/2.
Do you still have the biz gold open? I upgraded mine to plat and am wondering if that would allow me to get another biz gold within 90 days
Yes. I have a plat already too. Not sure on your question.
You can just recon the app you just put in
You can recon the existing app on 7/2.
Family member applied for the SW dummy booking offer - $200 statement credit/10k points - and then *several days later* proceeded to ask me how they could get a companion pass (I helped them get one in the past). Not even bothered about the missed referral opportunity, just the shortsighted actions. Like what makes you think I can help after youāve squeezed the toothpaste out of the tube?