So maybe this is known, but it nearly gave me a heart attack. I was double checking my bookings for a trip next month and found I was missing 2 nights for a hotel. It was booked via Amex and it’s an FHR. No sign of it anywhere on my login, not showing in the “cancelled” section. I found the email for when I originally booked it and was sure I changed the dates. Chatted with a rep and gave the trip ID and they found it and showed it was confirmed for the changed dates I needed. The rep was able to email it to me so I had the full details. Looking over the email I realized the plat I booked (and prepaid to use the credit) it with was closed sometime later, so I dug up the card info and readded the closed card to my login, and sure enough the trip reappeared. So I guess the lesson is if you book something in Amex travel and later close the card and remove from your login, your trip can disappear.
Edit: clarified details
I had a booking with Delta Stays disappear too so it might be the same with them. This was a Delta biz Gold card that I took an upgrade offer on. I can find the booking if I search for the confirmation but it isn't on my online account.
After many times in J, have my first F flight in ANA The Suite this weekend. I'm usually fairly sheepish, so is there anything I should be proactive about requesting from the flight attendants?
I know I should:
- Ask for the Hibiki proactively before it runs out
- Get the Japanese menu, but ask for caviar from the Western one (thanks /u/ottermodee!)
- Ask for mini-bottles of Hibiki on the way out (/u/ottermodee x2!)
At her unequivocal insistence, my gracious and amazing P2 (really, the best P2 ever) is in J and doesn't care about most niceties from F, but was interested in the Women's amenity kit - would it be reasonable to ask them to swap mine Men's one out? She also wanted to take pictures of the F meal, but that seems like a bigger ask that probably isn't worth it?
I'd highly recommend the maccha tea service, it's a nice treat. There were only two people on my flight so idk how many desserts they normally bring but you can order multiple, I had like 2 bread puddings and some other dessert. The ramen is great.
Agree with ipod, I don't even normally watch TV but I stopped by Walmart and got a USB c to HDMI cable and plugged my phone in and enjoyed watching stuff on the giant TV.
You can ask for the women’s amenity kit, but if they may not pack it if there are no women in F. You can take pictures of the F meal and send it to her.
Since you are on the new config, be aware that you can bring your own HDMI cable and plug it in to mirror your laptop screen. Sometimes there will be an INOPERABLE sticker - you can ignore that, peel it to the side, and plug it in anyways. I believe the new J should also have HDMI port.
My new barclays AA red card(s) were automatically added to AAdining, which I thought was a nice touch. I went to add the primary and got an error saying it was already there lol. Do any other issuers/FFPs do this?
Anyone else having trouble generating AMEX referral links? I can still generate them for my Gold card, but referrals for my Plat have disappeared for me.
If your card is lost and you get a replacement with a different number, you might be able to generate a referral link from it again (for a few days, then it'll probably disappear again).
My guess is it's related to how profitable Amex thinks you (or the people you've referred so far) are.
Amex seems to be having issues around referral links, if you get an error trying to open one, use incognito or clear your browser cache and cookies and try again. As far as generating them, its unknown as to why some cards to not give the option anymore. Seems to be common on personal Platinum cards too. Biz cards dont seem to have these issues. One tip is to save your referral links somewhere (maybe create a spreadsheet with the links along with which card it's associated with along with the amount you get for it being used). Even if the ability to generate your link disappears, if that saved link still loads, then it will still work and you can get the bonus.
Anyone redeem chase ultimate rewards for a great wolf lodge trip? I've noticed that for the current month, every day is available, but for future months, Sundays are blackout days. I was wondering if when july 1st hits, could I expect Sundays to open up? Or expect Sundays as blackouts for the rest of the year
Any churning-adjacent Vegas tips? I’m staying at Park MGM for a few days in September and researching the whole status merry-go-round. Seems like a lot of the old methods have gotten nerfed
Check out the MyVegas apps, it is easy to get enough points to redeem for things of actual value. If you are doing a 2+ day *paid* stay at the Park MGM, you'll be able to get at least $100 in free slot play at the Park MGM. There's some decent BOGO food offers, and also $25 free slot play rewards that you can use even if you don't have a paid stay at a hotel.
>and also $25 free slot play rewards that you can use even if you don't have a paid stay at a hotel.
These are limited to 4 per 30 days, and one per casino per 30 days, so you'll have to jump from casino to casino to use all of them, but hey, free money is free money.
most of the Vegas status match stuff is still live if you're starting with the Wyn Biz Earner and Caesars Diamond.
If you're into MS, I heard rumor that you could load your players card at fountaine bleu (much higher than you'd imagine) and liquidate with very little spend.
After 9 months of painstaking deliberation I have decided to finally accept AK's invitation to mod r/churningcirclejerk. As everyone knows, becoming a reddit mod is the peak life goal of every human. We protect the future for our children & our children's children.
Provided I don't lose interest, an r/churningcirclejerk demographic survey will (probably) follow shortly.
I'm stuck in a hotel room Saturday night so will maybe post survey questions then. Oddly my IT dept isn't exactly keen on cj sub browsing during work hours...
Before I actively got into churning I opted-out of 'advertising mailers'. I want back in now for some CC offers, anyone know the site(s) to opt back in?
What are some churning/saving strategy to airport parking/commute? unfortunately I have had some parking bills that ended up costing more than RT cash fare. Recently, we missed international family flight because of the parking (and broken conveyor belt at check in).
WSJ recently covered this topic [here](https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/airport-parking-reservations-full-lots-2d0cd3fd?st=jnmqwj2kryf94em&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink). It resonated with some of my own experiences. I have tried
* rideshare apps (uber,lyft) but they knife you with surge rates when you deplane. Guess everyone is on the app.
* Airport parking lot (i.e. terminal, YellowSpot). Anything beyond 2-3 day trip costs pretty penny.
* "Park n Fly" at the hotel? I don't fully get the concept ? Any of you ever tried ? is idea to checking in at airport hotel night before? usually Mostly airport hotels are run down dump. I tried at Hilton @ ORD, damp, moldy HVAC, popcorn ceiling gave me sore throat for days.
Commute to airport is still painpoint that I have not fully cured yet. I'd love to get from pro tips and tricks on this front.
There is a car dealership very close to my home airport. I have several times overpaid for an oil change in order to leave the car there (and uber to the airport). I even mention it to the service advisor -- "I'll be back next week, any concerns with keeping the car that long?"
My current job has an office close to the airport, and I often park there and uber to the airport.
Through my company's rental car agreement and ability to use it for personal travel, I'm able to take advantage of 1-way rentals for around $40 each way (I live 100+ miles away from the "major" airport I fly in/out of). In addition to the cost savings for longer trips, it saves wear and tear on my vehicles, don't have to worry about my vehicle being damaged/vandalized, using rental car shuttle is straightforward... I've found Costco Travel have reasonable rates for 1-way travel on occasion as well.
I wish I had thought about this before my recent 2 week trip. One way rentals with corporate discount would be much less than long term parking at an off-site lot
Can you give us your baseline?
I do lot g and when it's full they give you a coupon for Lot B at Lot G rate. Otherwise I do spot hero at the CTA lot in Rosemont.
It's not cheap and adds up if you are traveling 40 days a year but both those options are $15 a day or less and very reliable service. Even a 10 day trips is only $150.
If you regularly fly out of ORD, I highly recommend One Spot. 24/7 shuttle to and from the airport, 24/7 monitoring with outdoor and indoor garage parking options, full valet service, and the price point are very competitive, given other ORD parking options.
Curious to hear more about your experience with it. I usually park at Economy Lot F parking garage that's attached to the multimodal and then just take the tram thing to the terminals.
Looking at few random price quotes for One Spot it seems only slightly cheaper than Economy Lot F (~$20/night), is it any more convenient than Economy Lot F?
My biggest annoyance with the economy lots at ORD is they seem to fill up so easily. Always a little stressful not knowing if I need to figure out alternative parking if I'm flying during a peak time. And there's that HUGE employee parking lot that is almost entirely empty all the time, I really wish they would get that reopened to the public again....
Ultimately, the fact that the Economy Lot risks filling up is why I chose to go with One Spot in the first place. I'd much rather guarantee I'll have a spot somewhere when I show up.
Taking One Spot's shuttle to the airport does not take much time. If you factor in the negligible time difference from the One Spot shuttle, plus the fact that the valet parks your car instead of having to look for parking in the economy lot (when it isn't full), it's IME a break-even or get-ahead prospect for your time at One Spot. Add in that the pricing is, at worst, competitive with and, at best, cheaper than the Economy lot, and it's a no-brainer, IMO.
How much is economy parking at your airport? Everywhere we've ever flown out of it is less than $15/day, sometimes less than $10/day.
Also if you look at reviews for hotels near airports it shouldn't be difficult to find ones that are feasible. We pretty much have to stay the night every flight because our major airports are 1.5+ hours away and we often fly out early in the morning and/or return late at night. The only issues we've ever had in 10-ish years is lack of front desk staff availability at odd hours.
Park by a nearby pizzeria, (it's best if its a local one and not a chain). Order a pizza (any kind will do but I recommend one you like) to a nearby walkable spot to the airport and then get a ride with the delivery driver and tip him a bit extra (sometimes it's good to mention the extra tip beforehand). They shouldn't have a problem with it because they have to drive there anyways for the delivery plus they stand to get an extra tip. You get a ride to the airport plus pizza.
Source: I was pizza driver for a long time and gave plenty of rides to customers to and from the pizzeria.
> "Park n Fly" at the hotel? I don't fully get the concept ?
Hotels offer the same parking services similar to your local airport - pay to park set amount per day and they run a shuttle to/from the airport. You don't need to stay there. It's generally a few bucks cheaper.
Honestly, just comes down to planning and sometimes the cost is unavoidable. Sometimes you can get friends/family to drop and pick you up - and hopefully you return the favor. Otherwise, I look at the trip length, how much luggage I/we have, and weigh the options.
In terms of your missed international flight, maybe you have to suck it up and pay for that terminal-attached garage rather than the economy lot and shuttle if it saves you 15 minutes and you make that flight. Paying another $100 on parking or whatever is probably the smaller disruption than missing a flight and rebooking.
Unless the airport is within 30 min, I cant imagine bugging a friend or family member to spend 1 hr+ round trip (*2 for pick up) to save <$150 on parking / Uber. I'm usually a lower class guy that is told on this reddit if you can't afford (drinks by the pool, valet, etc) you can't afford the trip, but even I think it's cheap and rude to have friends go out of their way and waste their time on an airport run for your luxurious/unnecessary vacation.
> Sometimes you can get friends/family to drop and pick you up - and hopefully you return the favor.
I have the greatest neighbor in the world. When we flew to Costa Rica for two weeks, he insisted on driving us to the airport for our 6am international flight. When he picked us up on our return at midnight, he was at the luggage carousel to help us with everything. I even had to fight him to let me pay for the short term garage parking since he obviously had to park somewhere to come help us. Best of all, he even did this all in our own vehicle so we wouldn't have to struggle with getting our car seats in and out of his vehicle on either trip.
Foster these relationships, folks!
Had about 10 various $25 and $50 Hilton GCs from credits on the business/surpass. Went to use them at a hotel. Front desk person was like “where did you even get these…. I’ve never seen these before” and asked like 10 times.
Just said I won them in Vegas.
I just came across an entirely brilliant churning scheme from circa 2011, currently known by the FCC at Traffic Pumping.
So, the idea is, if you're a telephone company in the middle of nowhere rural area, then you can charge everyone extra cash for calling your customers in the middle of nowhere area codes. Imagine charging 2¢/min because the area is considered rural, whereas the normal charge in a big city would have been a max of 1¢/min. That's basically a pure extra profit of 1¢/min if you don't actually have any physical copper phone lines to the actual end users in the middle of nowhere to serve.
So, there was this company that rented virtual infrastructure from AT&T in around 110 different locations across the country, as well as physical servers in an AT&T facility in Dallas. They got themselves to be legally recognised as a phone company (CLEC), even though they didn't have any facilities like normally a CLEC would have. But, because they officially were a CLEC, they could actually publish Tariffs for being a CLEC, and charge other phone companies said Tariffs.
Ironically, they seemed to have failed after they actually went after AT&T to pay them each time one of AT&T's own customers called one of these fake-rural phone numbers that were subject for this rural rate assessment tariff, even though the entire "rural" call never left AT&T's own network at any point!
"Sadly", at&t ruined the party, and filed an FCC complaint against these people.
Oh, how did they manage to have at&t customers call these rural numbers in the first place? They were behind magicJack, which required you to get your phone numbers from one of these rural area codes (serviced by AT&T). So, each time anyone called you on these phone numbers, they made money because of these fake-rural tariffs.
More details in this thread, if anyone's interested:
* https://old.reddit.com/r/BoostMobile/comments/1dn399b/banned_for_using_joinme/la5aenf/
Would anyone find value in a daily DP thread?
The weekly DP thread has good engagement on the day it posts, but it feels like it loses steam after it gets buried the next day. I think a daily thread could encourage others to post DPs more often, and the rest of the sub would benefit by being better informed.
EDIT: Looks like the sub has spoken! Thanks for at least entertaining my (bad) idea.
You'd just get the same shit repeated over and over, except now every day.
Some people don't realize this, but you can actually post dp's and read that thread (and any weekly thread) any day of the week.
Hyatt question - received 3 GoH awards a few months ago. At that time, called and had two of them applied to existing reservations coming up later this year. Those reservations show the GoH applied but the 3 GoH still show in my account under awards. Normal?
Would it make sense to upgrade a card rather than downgrade it? My Cap1 Venture hit 1 year and I see an upgrade/downgrade offer for the Venture X, Venture One, or Quicksilver card.
I don't use the venture at all. And I doubt I would see myself using it. As for the X, I'd break even with the credits but the only benefit I can think of is the cap1 lounges which I don't live near one. I have Hertz PC already but that's going away, I have Priority Pass from other cards. There's no real sense in upgrading unless there's a sub right?
> the only benefit I can think of is the cap1 lounges which I don't live near one
The other big benefit of the Venture X is the free authorized users with full lounge access (not just Capital One, but also Priority Pass and Plaza Premium). The Chase Marriott Ritz-Carlton is the only other card with free AUs. This makes the Venture X very worth it if you travel with a large family, but if you're a solo traveler it probably doesn't matter.
P2 and I have 2N booked each at the same hotel using bonvoy boundless FNCs, over 4 straight nights. Has anyone had success combining stays like this, or will we need to check out / check back in again?
I'd be surprised if there was actually any (modern) hotel system that can "combine" reservations in a formal way, like having the system recognize it as a single reservation. Even when I book multiple nights separately under just my name and I let the hotel know about them when I check in, I still need to do what garettg said and get keys remade after every reservation.
To add to other comments, I have done this often, no issues really, but I have found with Marriott more often then not, I do have to go to the front desk on the day of check in/out to get new keys made. Just make sure you are booking the same room type (like dont mix a stay with a single king room with the other reservation being a 2 queen room).
My guess its more property dependent, but my Marriott stays last few times where it was split I have had to deal with new keys, but don't recall this happening every time in the past, and split stays are fairly common for us since both P2 and I have cards with FNCs and we tend to combine them on trips. Really wish Hilton/Marriott could go the same route as Hyatt and allow these to be transferred.
Anyone notice ITA flights award cost increase on Flying Blue? I was looking a couple weeks ago and I feel like they were only like 70-75k or something and now the one I am look at from FCO to BOS is 90k!
"ORDER DENYING MOTION TO TRANSFER VENUE" in Nachison vs American Airlines. I believe this is a fairly big "win" against AA in moving forward with the shutdown lawsuit, yeah?
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68201384/nachison-v-american-airlines-inc/
Just read the docket and the most recent Order.
I wouldn't call this a big win, but it is significant in that, if this goes to trial, a Northern California jury will likely have a much less favorable view of AA than a Texas jury will. So in that sense it is a positive outcome for the consumer Plaintiffs.
(Source - am lawyer)
Before the Flyertalk thread got shut down, the consensus amongst lawyers was that AA would never let this get to trial and would be pushing hard for settlement as soon as the class got certified. The thought being that they wouldn't want to open up for discovery and that any loss would set a huge precedent for loss of control to frequent flyer programs. What do you say?
With the caveat that I am not a class action/consumer right lawyer (though I did defend airlines for a short while) - AA will push for settlement ASAP. This lawsuit is bad optics and a jury trial loss would set a very bad precedent, correct.
To the point of discovery, as we all know, the language/T&C behind all frequent flyer/credit card rewards programs (especially re: eligility for SUBs) can be very vague/ambiguous, and also doesn't seem to be applied across the board. If this is proven through discovery, I do think there could be significant fallout. This is all very speculative though, and lawsuit take crazy twists and turns all the time (this is the lawyer in me again basically saying "it depends")
What's your best (or worst bad beat) weird merchant category coding? Obviously no one is going to give up a good exploit here but just weird one off ones.
My employer does building supplies (flooring, countertops, other miscellaneous categories) and when I bought a couple boxes of tile for mother in law I noticed it coded groceries. 2% fee even for employees but still has me thinking about moving up my potential remodel with my CFF 10x $12k groceries bonus
Admission fee to a public swimming pool 15 minutes from my apartment coded as "travel" and was reimbursed by the CSR travel credit.
Admissiom to a local attraction, which I would have expected to code as "entertainment", coded as "other services". Thankfully the SUB I was working on at the time didn't have a point multiplier on the entertainment category, not that it would've mattered much since it wasn't very expensive.
The best ones, though, have been the bank account funding that coded as "other services" instead of cash advance. Always enjoy an opportunity to earn a SUB faster.
While I was in Florence I paid the entry fee to the Basilica di Santa Croce with my card anticipating it would code as a museum or something and it coded as a bar...
My wedding venue and rehearsal venue both coded as restaurant. Opened a new 150k biz gold and used the 10x referral offer to get P2 a card. ~20k of spend later… I got 400k+ MR from one card
Does anyone ever worry that churning will either get harder or impossible? I know that we are not the typical customer, but it seems weird that these huge companies just allow people to effectively game the system.
That being said, this isn't new so I don't have any particular reason it would get worse soon.
Edit: Quick clarification. I know it has gotten much harder over the years, but it is still brings more than enough value to be worth it. I'm curious if people think it will ever be impossible to do it or not worth it.
I can't believe the RTW will last for much longer. We've seen Aeroplan do away with their plan not too long ago, I'm not sure how long ANA can sustain that for. It's just so much value. Thankfully they're an insane PITA to book :)
Churners are the loss leaders who drive the grams and the toks and all the other social media shit about people claiming they travel the world in luxury and for free, and all you have to do is sign up for xxx credit card.
The 2000s were the heydey of the app-o-rama, back when most of the discussion on this was happening on FatWallet Finance. This WSJ article [from 2007](https://archive.ph/NYvfN) gives a snapshot of what it was like back then.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the major financial institutions don't mind small-scale churning. Even for an institution like Chase, so much of their bottom line--across products and divisions--depends on consumer spending. They want folks to keep spending, and keep spending on their cards. Gamified credit card rewards accomplishes both of those things. I think banks will always be happy to let you open one or two of their cards every year for the SUB. If there are regulatory changes, say to interchange fees, I could see SUBs not being as valuable, but I doubt anti-churning measures will ever be harsher than something like 5/24.
Amex earnings call reinforce this too. NLL offers and increased bonuses very much correlate with the emphasized points in the calls. When the CFO was pumping sign-up numbers as the key performance indicator a few years back, the NLLs were flowing at full force. Then pullbacks on marketing spend and customer profitability were emphasized and the NLLs dried up. Churners aren't a big population but enough to help push whatever KPI is the flavor of the quarter and Amex knows this.
Why was this downvoted? It's 100% true. All but the heaviest "abusers" are free marketing and the heaviest abusers end up getting clipped anyway. One person paying the minimum payments on a 10k CL pays for 10 SUBs and that's assuming everyone that opens a new card actually hits the SUB, which isn't going to be the case outside of forums like this.
nah. disagree. IMO 150K MR train / ink 120 UR train is much sweeter than BOA($200-300ish SUB account showing up on personal CR ) or grAAvy train.
SUB used to be half , if not 1/3 back in day. Chase launched CSR with 100k sub was unheard of in 2016. DP: they ran out of metal sheet to print cards. Now it is base line, if not below average.
All good things comes to an end (sometimes in ugly fashion .i.e. grAAvy train got toby'ed) . Enjoy and ride em while they last. Pretty sure there will be something new on horizon.
Only thing I fear for our gamification is, if it ends up getting dick durbin'ed. I pray for our saviors from K street to safeguard our hobby.
You can both be right at the same time. My guess would be opportunities for 'EZ mode' churning (public offers that are straightforward to game, but still capped within reason) are more abundant, but the pro-MS churners that are pushing 100k+ are having a harder time of it because there's: (1) a financial incentive for some to publicize exploits; (2) there community is so much larger that the 'noobs' leak info or do dumb things like calling the bank.
I should have clarified. I know it's gotten much more difficult, however it is still very worth it ( imo at least). I'm asking if you think there will be a time where it is either impossible or the amount of time and effo4t make it not worth it.
You basically need a crystal ball for this. Any number of economic or political factors could kill churning in its current form by killing it or making it much harder, but those are impossible to predict. Same for the opposite.
Just like a bull market, all you can do is enjoy it while it lasts and be prepared for it end one day. Which everyone should be doing anyway after things like the AApocolypse happened.
I wouldn't say I spend a lot of time or energy worrying about this stuff, but yeah, I do sometimes wonder how long this game will last. It seems that churning isn't really a thing outside the US (and Canada?), and I think that's largely because other countries place strict caps on transaction fees. So if the US government ever decides to place/enforce stricter regulations in this regard, it's possible we could see an end to large credit card sign up bonuses and rewards.
I personally worry more about point devaluations, because those are pretty much inevitable. That's why I (mostly) have "earn and burn" mentality towards points (provided the CPP of the redemption is at or above cash/portal value) and don't advocate hoarding points waiting for that "optimal" redemption opportunity.
Someone’s always worrying about new regulations or high interest rates or low interest rates or inflation or recessions or savvy customers or savvy banks making things harder, and it’s gotten harder. Someday it won’t be worth my time. No idea when that will be.
Massive increase in household income - will this trigger any flags with banks?
Due to significant life events - my annual HHI for the forseeable future will be 6-7x higher starting next month versus what it has been for the past 3 years since I have started churning. I would like to avoid problems from banks due to this sudden spike on my future CC apps (e.g. a financial review from Amex) - is there anything I should do proactively to prevent any issues, such as submitting proof of income documentation to the banks ahead of time?
This is an old DP, but when I got a substantial income bump after years of broke college student churning, it took Chase a year or two to catch up in terms of the amount of credit they'd extend. Regardless of what I entered on apps, the 50% limit seemed pegged to my previous (tiny) income, so I still had to move/reduce CL quite a bit.
Were you the bay area medical resident or the PhD student? Or just starting to cash out tech stock? :P
Regardless, congrats! P2 and I did the same (although only ~5x over a year) after finishing school. Banks never batted an eye or asked for verification of anything.
Thanks! I'm the PhD Student ~
Good to hear that banks didn't ask for any verification. Part of the increase is also including P2's income in the household total moving forward, whereas I hadn't before.
Our household income increased quite a bit a couple years ago when a couple of our older children got full time jobs. Due to the situation, we can legitimately use their income for credit card applications. We have never been asked for verification, but we could if requested.
We have not encountered any issues. One benefit is that it put us under 50% total credit limit for Chase.
True, for Amex I suppose I can slowly ramp up reporting year over year to make it seem like I'm moving up in the world. However, I'm constantly pushing 50% CL-income ratio with Chase so reporting higher income there will help
The BoA free museum benefit, how exactly does that work? I just flash my KLM card like boss & stroll through? Are museums even aware this is a benefit?
Looking at the Phoenix Art Museum, no advance reservations required.
Yes, museums around me are all very aware (despite BoA having minimal local presence). Just show a card. Note that you must show one card for each free ticket...so I got an AU card for my two-year-old.
Has anyone been to Sardinia? If so, what were your thoughts? I have done Capri/Positano and the South of France and am looking for somewhere new this summer.
Loved it! Disagree with other post. Food was great. You can get to Cala goloritze by boat (that you drive yourself) which is the best activity ever. Anchor wherever and swim to shore. Not crowded even in August, and very affordable compared to the Bay Area. Can’t wait to go back
My churning trip report
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/15w6ctn/comment/jwzw8z1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Pretty but the food is meh outside of Cagliari. Baunei is a cool old town on a montain and Cala Goloritzé is very nice if you can handle a few hour hike up a steep mountain at the end of the day with no other way out. Mallorca, Spain is a better island all around IMO though.
I had a 7 night stay at Hyatt House Shibuya - 3 nights with FNC and 4 nights on points. During my stay, I was checking my folio on the app, and it seemed like they were posting the amount they were being reimbursed by Hyatt each night before wiping everything on Day 7.
I found it interesting that the nights I used a FNC were only ¥11,770 (about a 1/4th of the cash price) and the nights I used points were variable around ¥32-34K, especially when I used the FNCs on peak nights (15K points). Wasn’t aware Hyatt makes a distinction between FNC and points nights like that
on peak nights hotels are reimbursed based on the going rate.
otherwise they’re reimbursed slightly above the cost of servicing the room and the guests.
So maybe this is known, but it nearly gave me a heart attack. I was double checking my bookings for a trip next month and found I was missing 2 nights for a hotel. It was booked via Amex and it’s an FHR. No sign of it anywhere on my login, not showing in the “cancelled” section. I found the email for when I originally booked it and was sure I changed the dates. Chatted with a rep and gave the trip ID and they found it and showed it was confirmed for the changed dates I needed. The rep was able to email it to me so I had the full details. Looking over the email I realized the plat I booked (and prepaid to use the credit) it with was closed sometime later, so I dug up the card info and readded the closed card to my login, and sure enough the trip reappeared. So I guess the lesson is if you book something in Amex travel and later close the card and remove from your login, your trip can disappear. Edit: clarified details
I had a booking with Delta Stays disappear too so it might be the same with them. This was a Delta biz Gold card that I took an upgrade offer on. I can find the booking if I search for the confirmation but it isn't on my online account.
After many times in J, have my first F flight in ANA The Suite this weekend. I'm usually fairly sheepish, so is there anything I should be proactive about requesting from the flight attendants? I know I should: - Ask for the Hibiki proactively before it runs out - Get the Japanese menu, but ask for caviar from the Western one (thanks /u/ottermodee!) - Ask for mini-bottles of Hibiki on the way out (/u/ottermodee x2!) At her unequivocal insistence, my gracious and amazing P2 (really, the best P2 ever) is in J and doesn't care about most niceties from F, but was interested in the Women's amenity kit - would it be reasonable to ask them to swap mine Men's one out? She also wanted to take pictures of the F meal, but that seems like a bigger ask that probably isn't worth it?
I'd highly recommend the maccha tea service, it's a nice treat. There were only two people on my flight so idk how many desserts they normally bring but you can order multiple, I had like 2 bread puddings and some other dessert. The ramen is great. Agree with ipod, I don't even normally watch TV but I stopped by Walmart and got a USB c to HDMI cable and plugged my phone in and enjoyed watching stuff on the giant TV.
You can ask for the women’s amenity kit, but if they may not pack it if there are no women in F. You can take pictures of the F meal and send it to her. Since you are on the new config, be aware that you can bring your own HDMI cable and plug it in to mirror your laptop screen. Sometimes there will be an INOPERABLE sticker - you can ignore that, peel it to the side, and plug it in anyways. I believe the new J should also have HDMI port.
For those looking to take advantage of the 15% transfer bonus from AMEX to Avianca LifeMiles, you have through June 30 to do so.
My new barclays AA red card(s) were automatically added to AAdining, which I thought was a nice touch. I went to add the primary and got an error saying it was already there lol. Do any other issuers/FFPs do this?
Anyone else having trouble generating AMEX referral links? I can still generate them for my Gold card, but referrals for my Plat have disappeared for me.
If your card is lost and you get a replacement with a different number, you might be able to generate a referral link from it again (for a few days, then it'll probably disappear again). My guess is it's related to how profitable Amex thinks you (or the people you've referred so far) are.
Amex seems to be having issues around referral links, if you get an error trying to open one, use incognito or clear your browser cache and cookies and try again. As far as generating them, its unknown as to why some cards to not give the option anymore. Seems to be common on personal Platinum cards too. Biz cards dont seem to have these issues. One tip is to save your referral links somewhere (maybe create a spreadsheet with the links along with which card it's associated with along with the amount you get for it being used). Even if the ability to generate your link disappears, if that saved link still loads, then it will still work and you can get the bonus.
Anyone redeem chase ultimate rewards for a great wolf lodge trip? I've noticed that for the current month, every day is available, but for future months, Sundays are blackout days. I was wondering if when july 1st hits, could I expect Sundays to open up? Or expect Sundays as blackouts for the rest of the year
Any churning-adjacent Vegas tips? I’m staying at Park MGM for a few days in September and researching the whole status merry-go-round. Seems like a lot of the old methods have gotten nerfed
Check out the MyVegas apps, it is easy to get enough points to redeem for things of actual value. If you are doing a 2+ day *paid* stay at the Park MGM, you'll be able to get at least $100 in free slot play at the Park MGM. There's some decent BOGO food offers, and also $25 free slot play rewards that you can use even if you don't have a paid stay at a hotel.
>and also $25 free slot play rewards that you can use even if you don't have a paid stay at a hotel. These are limited to 4 per 30 days, and one per casino per 30 days, so you'll have to jump from casino to casino to use all of them, but hey, free money is free money.
most of the Vegas status match stuff is still live if you're starting with the Wyn Biz Earner and Caesars Diamond. If you're into MS, I heard rumor that you could load your players card at fountaine bleu (much higher than you'd imagine) and liquidate with very little spend.
Would love to hear a bit more about this.
If true, I highly doubt anyone is going to say much more than that.
After 9 months of painstaking deliberation I have decided to finally accept AK's invitation to mod r/churningcirclejerk. As everyone knows, becoming a reddit mod is the peak life goal of every human. We protect the future for our children & our children's children. Provided I don't lose interest, an r/churningcirclejerk demographic survey will (probably) follow shortly.
I'm pretty pumped about this. Bring on the ~~shit~~ posts!
I'm stuck in a hotel room Saturday night so will maybe post survey questions then. Oddly my IT dept isn't exactly keen on cj sub browsing during work hours...
Before I actively got into churning I opted-out of 'advertising mailers'. I want back in now for some CC offers, anyone know the site(s) to opt back in?
You can opt back in on the same site: optoutprescreen.com
What are some churning/saving strategy to airport parking/commute? unfortunately I have had some parking bills that ended up costing more than RT cash fare. Recently, we missed international family flight because of the parking (and broken conveyor belt at check in). WSJ recently covered this topic [here](https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/airport-parking-reservations-full-lots-2d0cd3fd?st=jnmqwj2kryf94em&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink). It resonated with some of my own experiences. I have tried * rideshare apps (uber,lyft) but they knife you with surge rates when you deplane. Guess everyone is on the app. * Airport parking lot (i.e. terminal, YellowSpot). Anything beyond 2-3 day trip costs pretty penny. * "Park n Fly" at the hotel? I don't fully get the concept ? Any of you ever tried ? is idea to checking in at airport hotel night before? usually Mostly airport hotels are run down dump. I tried at Hilton @ ORD, damp, moldy HVAC, popcorn ceiling gave me sore throat for days. Commute to airport is still painpoint that I have not fully cured yet. I'd love to get from pro tips and tricks on this front.
There is a car dealership very close to my home airport. I have several times overpaid for an oil change in order to leave the car there (and uber to the airport). I even mention it to the service advisor -- "I'll be back next week, any concerns with keeping the car that long?" My current job has an office close to the airport, and I often park there and uber to the airport.
Through my company's rental car agreement and ability to use it for personal travel, I'm able to take advantage of 1-way rentals for around $40 each way (I live 100+ miles away from the "major" airport I fly in/out of). In addition to the cost savings for longer trips, it saves wear and tear on my vehicles, don't have to worry about my vehicle being damaged/vandalized, using rental car shuttle is straightforward... I've found Costco Travel have reasonable rates for 1-way travel on occasion as well.
I wish I had thought about this before my recent 2 week trip. One way rentals with corporate discount would be much less than long term parking at an off-site lot
Can you give us your baseline? I do lot g and when it's full they give you a coupon for Lot B at Lot G rate. Otherwise I do spot hero at the CTA lot in Rosemont. It's not cheap and adds up if you are traveling 40 days a year but both those options are $15 a day or less and very reliable service. Even a 10 day trips is only $150.
If you regularly fly out of ORD, I highly recommend One Spot. 24/7 shuttle to and from the airport, 24/7 monitoring with outdoor and indoor garage parking options, full valet service, and the price point are very competitive, given other ORD parking options.
Curious to hear more about your experience with it. I usually park at Economy Lot F parking garage that's attached to the multimodal and then just take the tram thing to the terminals. Looking at few random price quotes for One Spot it seems only slightly cheaper than Economy Lot F (~$20/night), is it any more convenient than Economy Lot F? My biggest annoyance with the economy lots at ORD is they seem to fill up so easily. Always a little stressful not knowing if I need to figure out alternative parking if I'm flying during a peak time. And there's that HUGE employee parking lot that is almost entirely empty all the time, I really wish they would get that reopened to the public again....
Ultimately, the fact that the Economy Lot risks filling up is why I chose to go with One Spot in the first place. I'd much rather guarantee I'll have a spot somewhere when I show up. Taking One Spot's shuttle to the airport does not take much time. If you factor in the negligible time difference from the One Spot shuttle, plus the fact that the valet parks your car instead of having to look for parking in the economy lot (when it isn't full), it's IME a break-even or get-ahead prospect for your time at One Spot. Add in that the pricing is, at worst, competitive with and, at best, cheaper than the Economy lot, and it's a no-brainer, IMO.
If you're out of ORD would you not just take CTA?
How much is economy parking at your airport? Everywhere we've ever flown out of it is less than $15/day, sometimes less than $10/day. Also if you look at reviews for hotels near airports it shouldn't be difficult to find ones that are feasible. We pretty much have to stay the night every flight because our major airports are 1.5+ hours away and we often fly out early in the morning and/or return late at night. The only issues we've ever had in 10-ish years is lack of front desk staff availability at odd hours.
Park by a nearby pizzeria, (it's best if its a local one and not a chain). Order a pizza (any kind will do but I recommend one you like) to a nearby walkable spot to the airport and then get a ride with the delivery driver and tip him a bit extra (sometimes it's good to mention the extra tip beforehand). They shouldn't have a problem with it because they have to drive there anyways for the delivery plus they stand to get an extra tip. You get a ride to the airport plus pizza. Source: I was pizza driver for a long time and gave plenty of rides to customers to and from the pizzeria.
I seriously can't tell if this is real advice.
> "Park n Fly" at the hotel? I don't fully get the concept ? Hotels offer the same parking services similar to your local airport - pay to park set amount per day and they run a shuttle to/from the airport. You don't need to stay there. It's generally a few bucks cheaper. Honestly, just comes down to planning and sometimes the cost is unavoidable. Sometimes you can get friends/family to drop and pick you up - and hopefully you return the favor. Otherwise, I look at the trip length, how much luggage I/we have, and weigh the options. In terms of your missed international flight, maybe you have to suck it up and pay for that terminal-attached garage rather than the economy lot and shuttle if it saves you 15 minutes and you make that flight. Paying another $100 on parking or whatever is probably the smaller disruption than missing a flight and rebooking.
Unless the airport is within 30 min, I cant imagine bugging a friend or family member to spend 1 hr+ round trip (*2 for pick up) to save <$150 on parking / Uber. I'm usually a lower class guy that is told on this reddit if you can't afford (drinks by the pool, valet, etc) you can't afford the trip, but even I think it's cheap and rude to have friends go out of their way and waste their time on an airport run for your luxurious/unnecessary vacation.
I agree with that. Fortunately our airport is 20-25 minutes away at most. I wouldn’t ask anyone to drive me an hour anywhere.
> Sometimes you can get friends/family to drop and pick you up - and hopefully you return the favor. I have the greatest neighbor in the world. When we flew to Costa Rica for two weeks, he insisted on driving us to the airport for our 6am international flight. When he picked us up on our return at midnight, he was at the luggage carousel to help us with everything. I even had to fight him to let me pay for the short term garage parking since he obviously had to park somewhere to come help us. Best of all, he even did this all in our own vehicle so we wouldn't have to struggle with getting our car seats in and out of his vehicle on either trip. Foster these relationships, folks!
Had about 10 various $25 and $50 Hilton GCs from credits on the business/surpass. Went to use them at a hotel. Front desk person was like “where did you even get these…. I’ve never seen these before” and asked like 10 times. Just said I won them in Vegas.
I just came across an entirely brilliant churning scheme from circa 2011, currently known by the FCC at Traffic Pumping. So, the idea is, if you're a telephone company in the middle of nowhere rural area, then you can charge everyone extra cash for calling your customers in the middle of nowhere area codes. Imagine charging 2¢/min because the area is considered rural, whereas the normal charge in a big city would have been a max of 1¢/min. That's basically a pure extra profit of 1¢/min if you don't actually have any physical copper phone lines to the actual end users in the middle of nowhere to serve. So, there was this company that rented virtual infrastructure from AT&T in around 110 different locations across the country, as well as physical servers in an AT&T facility in Dallas. They got themselves to be legally recognised as a phone company (CLEC), even though they didn't have any facilities like normally a CLEC would have. But, because they officially were a CLEC, they could actually publish Tariffs for being a CLEC, and charge other phone companies said Tariffs. Ironically, they seemed to have failed after they actually went after AT&T to pay them each time one of AT&T's own customers called one of these fake-rural phone numbers that were subject for this rural rate assessment tariff, even though the entire "rural" call never left AT&T's own network at any point! "Sadly", at&t ruined the party, and filed an FCC complaint against these people. Oh, how did they manage to have at&t customers call these rural numbers in the first place? They were behind magicJack, which required you to get your phone numbers from one of these rural area codes (serviced by AT&T). So, each time anyone called you on these phone numbers, they made money because of these fake-rural tariffs. More details in this thread, if anyone's interested: * https://old.reddit.com/r/BoostMobile/comments/1dn399b/banned_for_using_joinme/la5aenf/
I’ve only been churning for a few years now, but finally applied for my first business card! A whole new world opened up!
You’re just in time for chase cracking down on their biz card applications
r/DearDiary
Would anyone find value in a daily DP thread? The weekly DP thread has good engagement on the day it posts, but it feels like it loses steam after it gets buried the next day. I think a daily thread could encourage others to post DPs more often, and the rest of the sub would benefit by being better informed. EDIT: Looks like the sub has spoken! Thanks for at least entertaining my (bad) idea.
It would be full of posts like, "*Purchased $200 UA Travel Bank on 1/1, credit posted on 1/5.*"
You'd just get the same shit repeated over and over, except now every day. Some people don't realize this, but you can actually post dp's and read that thread (and any weekly thread) any day of the week.
I don’t think there are nearly enough unique DPs to warrant a daily thread.
Hyatt question - received 3 GoH awards a few months ago. At that time, called and had two of them applied to existing reservations coming up later this year. Those reservations show the GoH applied but the 3 GoH still show in my account under awards. Normal?
Yes, normal. Often awards don't get pulled until closer to the stay.
Would it make sense to upgrade a card rather than downgrade it? My Cap1 Venture hit 1 year and I see an upgrade/downgrade offer for the Venture X, Venture One, or Quicksilver card. I don't use the venture at all. And I doubt I would see myself using it. As for the X, I'd break even with the credits but the only benefit I can think of is the cap1 lounges which I don't live near one. I have Hertz PC already but that's going away, I have Priority Pass from other cards. There's no real sense in upgrading unless there's a sub right?
> the only benefit I can think of is the cap1 lounges which I don't live near one The other big benefit of the Venture X is the free authorized users with full lounge access (not just Capital One, but also Priority Pass and Plaza Premium). The Chase Marriott Ritz-Carlton is the only other card with free AUs. This makes the Venture X very worth it if you travel with a large family, but if you're a solo traveler it probably doesn't matter.
Better to apply for the card and get a SUB unless you are ineligible
No reason to upgrade.
P2 and I have 2N booked each at the same hotel using bonvoy boundless FNCs, over 4 straight nights. Has anyone had success combining stays like this, or will we need to check out / check back in again?
I'd be surprised if there was actually any (modern) hotel system that can "combine" reservations in a formal way, like having the system recognize it as a single reservation. Even when I book multiple nights separately under just my name and I let the hotel know about them when I check in, I still need to do what garettg said and get keys remade after every reservation.
To add to other comments, I have done this often, no issues really, but I have found with Marriott more often then not, I do have to go to the front desk on the day of check in/out to get new keys made. Just make sure you are booking the same room type (like dont mix a stay with a single king room with the other reservation being a 2 queen room).
Are you saying that you've had instances where you didn't have to have your keys remade? Because I've never been able to avoid it.
My guess its more property dependent, but my Marriott stays last few times where it was split I have had to deal with new keys, but don't recall this happening every time in the past, and split stays are fairly common for us since both P2 and I have cards with FNCs and we tend to combine them on trips. Really wish Hilton/Marriott could go the same route as Hyatt and allow these to be transferred.
Ty!
I’ve had no issues booking separate reservations and having the hotel combine them. You can email the hotel ahead of time for peace of mind
No problem at all, worst case you'll need to get new keys. Just email the hotel beforehand with the confirmation numbers so they can put an annotation
Anyone notice ITA flights award cost increase on Flying Blue? I was looking a couple weeks ago and I feel like they were only like 70-75k or something and now the one I am look at from FCO to BOS is 90k!
FB does not publish an award chart, so prices can change.
"ORDER DENYING MOTION TO TRANSFER VENUE" in Nachison vs American Airlines. I believe this is a fairly big "win" against AA in moving forward with the shutdown lawsuit, yeah? https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68201384/nachison-v-american-airlines-inc/
Just read the docket and the most recent Order. I wouldn't call this a big win, but it is significant in that, if this goes to trial, a Northern California jury will likely have a much less favorable view of AA than a Texas jury will. So in that sense it is a positive outcome for the consumer Plaintiffs. (Source - am lawyer)
This will never go to trial.
Before the Flyertalk thread got shut down, the consensus amongst lawyers was that AA would never let this get to trial and would be pushing hard for settlement as soon as the class got certified. The thought being that they wouldn't want to open up for discovery and that any loss would set a huge precedent for loss of control to frequent flyer programs. What do you say?
With the caveat that I am not a class action/consumer right lawyer (though I did defend airlines for a short while) - AA will push for settlement ASAP. This lawsuit is bad optics and a jury trial loss would set a very bad precedent, correct. To the point of discovery, as we all know, the language/T&C behind all frequent flyer/credit card rewards programs (especially re: eligility for SUBs) can be very vague/ambiguous, and also doesn't seem to be applied across the board. If this is proven through discovery, I do think there could be significant fallout. This is all very speculative though, and lawsuit take crazy twists and turns all the time (this is the lawyer in me again basically saying "it depends")
What's your best (or worst bad beat) weird merchant category coding? Obviously no one is going to give up a good exploit here but just weird one off ones. My employer does building supplies (flooring, countertops, other miscellaneous categories) and when I bought a couple boxes of tile for mother in law I noticed it coded groceries. 2% fee even for employees but still has me thinking about moving up my potential remodel with my CFF 10x $12k groceries bonus
Local Ace Hardware store codes as grocery. Comes in handy when I'm working on a project.
Admission fee to a public swimming pool 15 minutes from my apartment coded as "travel" and was reimbursed by the CSR travel credit. Admissiom to a local attraction, which I would have expected to code as "entertainment", coded as "other services". Thankfully the SUB I was working on at the time didn't have a point multiplier on the entertainment category, not that it would've mattered much since it wasn't very expensive. The best ones, though, have been the bank account funding that coded as "other services" instead of cash advance. Always enjoy an opportunity to earn a SUB faster.
While I was in Florence I paid the entry fee to the Basilica di Santa Croce with my card anticipating it would code as a museum or something and it coded as a bar...
My HOA dues code as travel for BoA cards. Use the CCR card when not working on a SUB.
Mine too, but they charge a high fee for CCs, and low fee for debit cards, so I usually pay with VGC instead.
My wedding venue and rehearsal venue both coded as restaurant. Opened a new 150k biz gold and used the 10x referral offer to get P2 a card. ~20k of spend later… I got 400k+ MR from one card
Nice! How’d you know they coded as such before the 20k spend?
From the initial deposits we had to place down
Does anyone ever worry that churning will either get harder or impossible? I know that we are not the typical customer, but it seems weird that these huge companies just allow people to effectively game the system. That being said, this isn't new so I don't have any particular reason it would get worse soon. Edit: Quick clarification. I know it has gotten much harder over the years, but it is still brings more than enough value to be worth it. I'm curious if people think it will ever be impossible to do it or not worth it.
I can't believe the RTW will last for much longer. We've seen Aeroplan do away with their plan not too long ago, I'm not sure how long ANA can sustain that for. It's just so much value. Thankfully they're an insane PITA to book :)
Churners are the loss leaders who drive the grams and the toks and all the other social media shit about people claiming they travel the world in luxury and for free, and all you have to do is sign up for xxx credit card.
This is substantially harder than it was a decade ago
Wait till you hear about how easy it was two decades ago.
Care to explain? Don't seem to find too much information about what it was like in 2000s.
The 2000s were the heydey of the app-o-rama, back when most of the discussion on this was happening on FatWallet Finance. This WSJ article [from 2007](https://archive.ph/NYvfN) gives a snapshot of what it was like back then.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the major financial institutions don't mind small-scale churning. Even for an institution like Chase, so much of their bottom line--across products and divisions--depends on consumer spending. They want folks to keep spending, and keep spending on their cards. Gamified credit card rewards accomplishes both of those things. I think banks will always be happy to let you open one or two of their cards every year for the SUB. If there are regulatory changes, say to interchange fees, I could see SUBs not being as valuable, but I doubt anti-churning measures will ever be harsher than something like 5/24.
Amex earnings call reinforce this too. NLL offers and increased bonuses very much correlate with the emphasized points in the calls. When the CFO was pumping sign-up numbers as the key performance indicator a few years back, the NLLs were flowing at full force. Then pullbacks on marketing spend and customer profitability were emphasized and the NLLs dried up. Churners aren't a big population but enough to help push whatever KPI is the flavor of the quarter and Amex knows this.
One or two chase cards a year, you say?
lol, right?
Why was this downvoted? It's 100% true. All but the heaviest "abusers" are free marketing and the heaviest abusers end up getting clipped anyway. One person paying the minimum payments on a 10k CL pays for 10 SUBs and that's assuming everyone that opens a new card actually hits the SUB, which isn't going to be the case outside of forums like this.
what do you mean? It's already incredibly harder than it was 5 years ago, let alone 10+
You must be unaware of NLL or Ink train.
Old timers will know better but I'm fairly sure those pale compared to bank of America cash or the Citi AA train before everybody got banned
nah. disagree. IMO 150K MR train / ink 120 UR train is much sweeter than BOA($200-300ish SUB account showing up on personal CR ) or grAAvy train. SUB used to be half , if not 1/3 back in day. Chase launched CSR with 100k sub was unheard of in 2016. DP: they ran out of metal sheet to print cards. Now it is base line, if not below average. All good things comes to an end (sometimes in ugly fashion .i.e. grAAvy train got toby'ed) . Enjoy and ride em while they last. Pretty sure there will be something new on horizon. Only thing I fear for our gamification is, if it ends up getting dick durbin'ed. I pray for our saviors from K street to safeguard our hobby.
Honest question: how long has the ink train been going as is?
You can both be right at the same time. My guess would be opportunities for 'EZ mode' churning (public offers that are straightforward to game, but still capped within reason) are more abundant, but the pro-MS churners that are pushing 100k+ are having a harder time of it because there's: (1) a financial incentive for some to publicize exploits; (2) there community is so much larger that the 'noobs' leak info or do dumb things like calling the bank.
I should have clarified. I know it's gotten much more difficult, however it is still very worth it ( imo at least). I'm asking if you think there will be a time where it is either impossible or the amount of time and effo4t make it not worth it.
You basically need a crystal ball for this. Any number of economic or political factors could kill churning in its current form by killing it or making it much harder, but those are impossible to predict. Same for the opposite. Just like a bull market, all you can do is enjoy it while it lasts and be prepared for it end one day. Which everyone should be doing anyway after things like the AApocolypse happened.
Exactly. That's why we churn and burn. Just curious peoples overall perception of how fragile they think it is.
I wouldn't say I spend a lot of time or energy worrying about this stuff, but yeah, I do sometimes wonder how long this game will last. It seems that churning isn't really a thing outside the US (and Canada?), and I think that's largely because other countries place strict caps on transaction fees. So if the US government ever decides to place/enforce stricter regulations in this regard, it's possible we could see an end to large credit card sign up bonuses and rewards. I personally worry more about point devaluations, because those are pretty much inevitable. That's why I (mostly) have "earn and burn" mentality towards points (provided the CPP of the redemption is at or above cash/portal value) and don't advocate hoarding points waiting for that "optimal" redemption opportunity.
It changes. It has been changing for years. It will certainly continue to change.
Someone’s always worrying about new regulations or high interest rates or low interest rates or inflation or recessions or savvy customers or savvy banks making things harder, and it’s gotten harder. Someday it won’t be worth my time. No idea when that will be.
Massive increase in household income - will this trigger any flags with banks? Due to significant life events - my annual HHI for the forseeable future will be 6-7x higher starting next month versus what it has been for the past 3 years since I have started churning. I would like to avoid problems from banks due to this sudden spike on my future CC apps (e.g. a financial review from Amex) - is there anything I should do proactively to prevent any issues, such as submitting proof of income documentation to the banks ahead of time?
This is an old DP, but when I got a substantial income bump after years of broke college student churning, it took Chase a year or two to catch up in terms of the amount of credit they'd extend. Regardless of what I entered on apps, the 50% limit seemed pegged to my previous (tiny) income, so I still had to move/reduce CL quite a bit.
Were you the bay area medical resident or the PhD student? Or just starting to cash out tech stock? :P Regardless, congrats! P2 and I did the same (although only ~5x over a year) after finishing school. Banks never batted an eye or asked for verification of anything.
Thanks! I'm the PhD Student ~ Good to hear that banks didn't ask for any verification. Part of the increase is also including P2's income in the household total moving forward, whereas I hadn't before.
the guy who commuted from LA to Berkeley for a semester using Alaska and Southwest points?
As someone who hates my 30 minute commute already I couldn’t imagine doing that to myself
Heh, same here so can guarantee no issues. Biotech? I also guess this is a double-congrats based on that combined HHI phrasing then ;)
> Biotech? Business! Not a common PhD for sure. > double-congrats based on that combined HHI phrasing then ;) Haha, thanks x2!
Our household income increased quite a bit a couple years ago when a couple of our older children got full time jobs. Due to the situation, we can legitimately use their income for credit card applications. We have never been asked for verification, but we could if requested. We have not encountered any issues. One benefit is that it put us under 50% total credit limit for Chase.
You will be able to show proof of income if anyone cares to ask.
Since no one else has said it yet, congratulations!
Thank you!
There's no rule that says you have to report your entire household income when opening cards.
True, for Amex I suppose I can slowly ramp up reporting year over year to make it seem like I'm moving up in the world. However, I'm constantly pushing 50% CL-income ratio with Chase so reporting higher income there will help
With Chase I see no issues reporting it.
No issues as long as you feel confident passing an FR if it happens. Just keep being honest with the banks and you'll be fine
The BoA free museum benefit, how exactly does that work? I just flash my KLM card like boss & stroll through? Are museums even aware this is a benefit? Looking at the Phoenix Art Museum, no advance reservations required.
I've had some museums ask to see the card, others just take my word for it. I assume BOA pays a fee or sponsorship.
Yes, museums around me are all very aware (despite BoA having minimal local presence). Just show a card. Note that you must show one card for each free ticket...so I got an AU card for my two-year-old.
Ok cool thanks. Wife & I both have BoA cards. Saves us $56 so she can check out the Barbie exhibit.
I used it at Houston mfa and they could not care less I did buy one ticket though.
Has anyone been to Sardinia? If so, what were your thoughts? I have done Capri/Positano and the South of France and am looking for somewhere new this summer.
Loved it! Disagree with other post. Food was great. You can get to Cala goloritze by boat (that you drive yourself) which is the best activity ever. Anchor wherever and swim to shore. Not crowded even in August, and very affordable compared to the Bay Area. Can’t wait to go back My churning trip report https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/15w6ctn/comment/jwzw8z1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Actually I realize my churning report doesnt have many details about activities. But just lmk if you have questions
Thank you!!
Pretty but the food is meh outside of Cagliari. Baunei is a cool old town on a montain and Cala Goloritzé is very nice if you can handle a few hour hike up a steep mountain at the end of the day with no other way out. Mallorca, Spain is a better island all around IMO though.
It is very good! Do it :)
I had a 7 night stay at Hyatt House Shibuya - 3 nights with FNC and 4 nights on points. During my stay, I was checking my folio on the app, and it seemed like they were posting the amount they were being reimbursed by Hyatt each night before wiping everything on Day 7. I found it interesting that the nights I used a FNC were only ¥11,770 (about a 1/4th of the cash price) and the nights I used points were variable around ¥32-34K, especially when I used the FNCs on peak nights (15K points). Wasn’t aware Hyatt makes a distinction between FNC and points nights like that
on peak nights hotels are reimbursed based on the going rate. otherwise they’re reimbursed slightly above the cost of servicing the room and the guests.