Milenomics² Podcast Episode 245: Everything Expires: Including 2024… (Patreon)

0:20 Amex Business Platinum: New $50 Quarterly Hilton Credits

• Enrollment required (naturally)

• Requires entering your Hilton loyalty number at the time of registration…

• …which auto-enrolls your “business” in Hilton for Business with fewer enrollment details than if you register head-on at 

• How to play this? Online GC purchase for Q4? Use on-property in $50 increments for paid stays? Harder to ignore than similar credits on Hilton co-branded cards when you’ve got a lot of Business Platinums.

7:45 BofA Elite Application/Credit Liquidation Update

• Were we 2 for 2 on P1/P2 late season applications?

• How is incidental/lifestyle credit liquidation going? What surprises have we bumped into?

• Tangent: Chase Ritz $300 credit liquidation

18:15 Fluz Sputtering 

• $10k instant access but longer holds. 

• Have to check Funding of MUVC more than ever before a payment. 

• Scheduled payments become nearly impossible to guarantee 

• MCC for cash loads not reliably office supply for me. 

• Still great but like a wild animal, always be on alert around it. 

23:20 Chase Ink Unlimited Update

• Met min spend, welcome bonus posted

• Called to product change to Ink Cash for 5x capacity

• Rep said card ineligible to product change (too new?)

• Will try again after some time

25:00 AA/Hawaiian Mirage

• Saw on Google Flights that AA was offering BOS - HNL First on Hawaiian metal for just $900 pp one-way (booked directly with Hawaiian the flights were > $3,000)

• Multiple days were available, including peak February break on ideal days in both directions

• Tried booking with AA: Led to error page before I could enter payment details

• Booked with Amex Travel online: Got record locator but never ticketed

• Booked with BofA Concierge: Ultimately never ticketed either

• Tried to book on AA’s site w/VPN from Spain: Proceeded to enter credit card info, but browser ultimately just spun and spun

• What happened here that we can generalize and learn from?

31:30 Hawaiian: Redemption Story

• Saw some useful upgrade space appear a few days after the mirage fares

• Had expiring travel bank from last year and remnant Hawaiian miles

• Hawaiian travel credits expires 365 days after prior booking, and travel has to be completed by then

• Went to book the outbound after seeing space when manually checking on “Expert” Flyer (eyeroll), rep said space was gone

• Tried to use the travel credits for return flight but they’re set to expire half-way through our trip

• Rep said to email Hawaiian Airlines Consumer Affairs Office requesting a conversation from travel credit to travel voucher. I did so. Never got a reply.

• Booked HNL - BOS w/130k pp one-way in First

• Booked JFK - HNL using remnant expiring Hawaiian travel credit from last year (+50k pp)

• Tacked on cheap BOS - JFK positioning award on outbound

• So effectively the same trip we booked for April last year

• Have to say: Hawaiian call center was pretty good. Short hold times early in the morning. Reps got right down to business and implemented what they could quickly.

• Mahalo!

38:00 Alaska Wallet Expiry Updated to 5 years

• Cryptic email about my famous (infamous?) Wallet and “Extension of Your Travel Credit Validity”

• “Earlier this year you were issued an Alaska Airlines travel credit following a flight disruption. We are pleased to inform you that your credit is valid and redeemable for five years from the date that the certificate was issued”

• Digging into this it seems like a new policy and that when a schedule change occurs a travel credit of no less than 5 years needs to be allowed. 

• https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/08/12/2024-17602/refunds-and-other-consumer-protections-2024-faa-reauthorization

• 3 hours for domestic, 6 for international

44:15 Hair-Brained Ritz-Carlton Stay

• Had an expiring 85k cert from the Ritz card, thought I’d use it for a lowly $175/nt hotel but that ended up being unnecessary

• So decided to spend a Saturday night at the Ritz-Carlton Boston

• I’ve enjoyed Club Level stays here in the past, but came away from this stay underwhelmed. There’s just not much special about the place.

• Thought about taking Uber both directions, but instead did SpotHero for $35 in the Ritz garage (rather than $65 valet). Biggest mess I’ve ever seen in a parking garage. Took 45 minutes to park.

• Lobby is small and crowded - unpleasant. Agent at check-in told us we wouldn’t be able to go to the restaurant & bar we had a reservation at because it’s a bar and they card everyone. Turned out to not be the case at all. Why a hotel clerk would say this is beyond me.

• Mini bar was empty. Coffee solution is room service or call and beg for one of the few Keurig/Nespresso machines. It’s as if every bit of Ritz-Carlton uniqueness has been wrung out of the place.

• Did room service breakfast which was very good for around $100 (had to try the eggs benedict, right?)

• I’ve got to start finding better uses for these certificates but having only 1 of them each year makes it awkward.