Milenomics² Podcast Episode 223: News, Follow Up, and Quick Trip Reports…on (Patreon)

News

0:27 Q2 2024 5x Categories

• Chase Freedom: Restaurants, Hotels, Amazon, Whole Foods

• Discover: Gas Stations & Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Home Improvement Stores, and Public Transit

• Citi Dividend: Grocery, Drugstores

• Discuss: How are we doing on 5x across all cards lately?

04:29 Follow Up

04:35 Painful Amex Reconsideration Calls Continue

• Applied for a 250k Business platinum. 90 days meant it was declined

• Getting a phone rep to put it back in took 3 calls

• Eventually I was able to get it resubmitted, and then I heard nothing

• Called back, and was told it was in High Risk Fraud

• Indeed a letter arrived saying as much about a week later (Banker letter)

• Called HRF, identity verified with last 3 digits of a card on hand

• Business Gold was even more painful, somehow with persistence got it to be resubmitted and approved 

• Each card needed me to be verified even though I was talking to one person! 

10:42 Wells Fargo Autograph Journey

• Me: Denied P2: Approved after calling (for ID verification)

• 5x on Hotels, Fluz said to work

• Get 1.5 uplift towards airfare w/WF Visa Signature

• Pretty tremendous opportunity from home

14:13 FL Trip Report

• Delta Regional Upgrade Certificate Waitlist: Utter Fiasco

• How awful is Clear? (it is awful) 

• Home2Suites Naples: 5 Stars!

Question: Should we limit complexity in the face of ever complicated bookings?

26:50 Kauai Early Trip report: Homewood Suites LAX

• Casual uber the night before…

• LAX airport hotel  (Homewood suites) 

• Used an expiring FNC. 

• Arrived and BUNGLED it.  

• Had to patch this up on the fly. And immediately thought: why did I bother with this extra complexity? 

36:16 Look Into: Private Suite LAX

• https://reserveps.com/the-private-suite

• https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/the-private-suite-lax/index.html

40:04 Last Minute Pivot: Swapping Italy for Hawaii 2 Weeks Before Departure

• Out: Four Seasons Lanai

• In: Rosewood Tuscany

• Just one too many things went wrong w/Lanai. Golf course aeration, restaurant closure. Just wasn’t feeling the spirit of Aloha.

• Pivoted to a Rosewood in Tuscany and was met with the exact opposite pre-arrival experience. True hospitality, a spirit of “yes, we can do that.” Looking very forward to it.

• Discuss: The importance of a good pre-arrival experience for special occasions

• Canceled Hawaiian/United flights. Now have a ton of Hawaiian miles (c’mon Alaska acquisition!) and some Hawaiian flight credits.