M² Episode 104: At Home Liquidation Down, but Not Out, WInterization and Thanksgiving Trip Reports (Patreon)

News

0:25 PayPal Key

• Plastiq Dead
• Died for many 11/25 sometime after around 3:30pm eastern
• Debrief?
• What is still working with PPK?
• Lots of things coding as 4x on Amex Personal Gold as “Global Restaurants” (Plastiq HELOC, BMW Financial Services, everything?)

07:13 Bravo 2% Deathwatch

• Reports of nastygrams sent for using old version of app at 2%
• Not entirely clear this is 100% dead but…
• Can Bravo still make sense at 2.9%?
• It’s somewhat surprising they’re objecting to use at 2% vs 2.9% rather that scrutinizing repeated large transactions from/to the same person (which would seem to be even more alarming)

10:38 Best Buy GC Resale Market Floundering

• For the longest time, select GC resellers were paying 98%+ for Best Buy GCs
• This created quite the opportunity for GC reselling
• But “something changed” over on the Best Buy side

14:07 Thoughts on prior 3 items...

• In-store liquidation took its lumps a couple weeks ago
• Online methods took major hits this past week
• Bright side: These were soft landings in most cases. Could have ended a lot worse.
• Did they save us from ourselves?

16:28 Hyatt Relaxes Globalist Status Requirements (FM)

• 30 nights needed for Gloablist in 2021 (rather than 60)
• “Bonus Journeys” promo: Through Feb 28, 2021 each night earns double elite nights (registration required)
• “Free Nights on Sale” promo: Through Feb 28, 2021 get 15% points back on award stays, 25% back if you have the Chase Hyatt card (registration required)
• So stay 15 nights (paid or award) get Globalist through Feb 2023
• Idea: Walk into your local Hyatt, regardless of room rate, and explain to them what you want (15 nights) and how much it will cost
• Is it a deal now?

24:27 Citi Expedia Devalues VIP Hotel Redemptions

• Previously points were worth twice as much towards “VIP” hotels (1.4 cpp vs 0.7 cpp)
• After 1/31/2021 VIP hotels will also be worth 0.7 cpp
• Starting 2/1/2021 VIP hotel bookings will earn 3x rewards
• They make it sound like they’re giving 3x (on the earning side) and only taking away 2x (on the redemption side) but clearly this is a huge nerfing of the value of rewards earned through signup
• Upshot: Book provisionally by 1/31/2021 to capture value

30:01 Staples Fee-Free MCGCs/VGCs

• Sunday 11/29-12/12/2020
• Runs for two weeks

30:30 Stop & Shop/Giant 3x VGCs?

• Friday 11/27-12/4/2020
• S&S/Giant ad only mentions 15x on Google Play/Happy Moments
• But reports are VGCs are earning 3x this week as well

Follow Up

32:01BofA Business Cash Reward $500 SUB posted (link)

• Last received this bonus about a year ago.
• This completes my idea of letting them close the card and reopening a new one.

32:41 FoundersCard

• Went to cancel and they offered me a full membership (ie, including Stripe/other stuff not available in trial) for a year for $95
• Cancelled any way and they immediately offered another trial year for $0
• Good solution for my use model

33:18 Winterization: Think now about wrapping up 2020

• Air travel incidentals
• Q4 5x categories (Freedom, BofA Cash Rewards, Citi Dividend, Discover)
• Schwab Platinum cashout path and triple dip?
• Good time for a Morgan Stanley Platinum?
• Any more Amex referrals/applications in the mix?

45:35 Thanksgiving travel during Covid

Each of our Thoughts on Air Travel during Covid?

• Sam: Flying with two little ones--I’m mostly concerned with surfaces. Airlines say they’re cleaning and disinfecting--but there’s no way they clean tray tables for example, and kids want to touch everything.
• Masks: Usage has been good--but I’ve heard FA asking people to put their masks back on.  Possibly not near me because I am flying as far back as possible
• This time around my plan to be the last on the plane didn’t result in the bubble I wanted--Southwest was load balancing. 50 pax on a 737-800, they only wanted us in the first 21 rows (84 seats available in those rows).
• Meant we had some people in front of us, but no one behind us at least.

Thoughts:

Somewhat useless to be at a ski area with kids this young (for skiing).

Covid affects on skiing (Article)

• Breckenridge not even open to walk ups.
• Pass holders only and reservations required
• Limits on skiers (this could be good if you can get a reservation).
• Epic passes offer a lot of options if you’re looking to travel for skiing. Plenty of options in CA/CO (and beyond) on one pass.

Altitude issues

• Breathing issues for all of us
• Combined with extremely dry air makes for a few days of tough adjustment.
• Kids did better than I expected.  Tahoe issues had me really nervous.

Ski in/out vs off site

Airbnb vs hotels (with no eat in dining)

• I do think this trip was the ‘pinnacle’ of my Covid era

Covid Testing Challenges

• Figuring out options is confusing

1:15:50 Louse of the Week

• Robert: Virgin Atlantic