Frequent Miler on the Air - Rewards that can't wait | Ep78 | 12-26-20

Episode Date: December 26, 2020

1:00 Giant Mailbag 5:32 What crazy thing . . . 8:25 Mattress running the numbers: Is Marriott's targeted 22.5K offer worth chasing? https://frequentmiler.com/targeted-marriott-bonvoy-promotions/ 16:41 Main Event: Rewards that can't wait https://frequentmiler.com/end-of-year-checklist/ https://frequentmiler.com/amex-airline-fee-reimbursements-still-works/ https://frequentmiler.com/rumor-ihg-to-extend-free-night-certs-but-too-late-for-most/ https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-instant-status-match-challenge-from-ihg-hilton-hyatt-and-accor/ 38:06 Post roast: Isn't the Verizon credit card a total snoozer? Did Nick miss his chance to roast a prime cut? 49:06 Question of the week: How can I get just a few Membership Rewards points ASAP? https://frequentmiler.com/verizon-visa-mini-review-good-choice-for-verizon-wireless-customers/ Don't forget to like, subscribe, leave a comment, and turn on notifications if you'd like to know about the latest content. Thank you! Music credit: Annie Yoder

frequent miler on the air starts now today's main event rewards that can't wait but they'll have to wait because we've got a number of segments before we get into the main topic right clock is ticking on those rewards though craig i mean like time is running out we gotta we gotta get there you're right they they absolutely have to get there but i think we have you know the hour or so of this podcast we do we do hopefully so we'll get there i mean shoot if if it really can't wait till the end of this podcast we shouldn't be putting this out in podcast form i mean we should be we should be calling people out and say don't do this now so we're not we're not which we have done I mean, we've told people to stop listening to the podcast before and go after something

when it was that good. We have. Today, we may not tell you you have to stop listening. No. But we will tell you the things you need to take action on soon. But before we get to that, though, I'm excited because I imagine that the mailman must have come through between last week and this week. Yes.

The carrier has dropped off the packages and mail and whatnot that we were between last week and this week that the carrier has dropped off the packages and mail and whatnot that we were missing last week so i'm curious to see yes yes uh so the giant mailbag what happened is you're right the giant mailbag wasn't delivered last week so that was a bummer um this week a whole bunch of giant mailbags came, and so I picked out the YouTube mailbag. There's one just with YouTube feedback. Special YouTube one. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. So what I did is I just dug through the YouTube reactions in comment form and picked out a bunch to read off. All right. In no particular order, and in no actually even like reason why I picked these out other than I wanted to. And you can. And I can. I'm the one digging through this giant mailbag. I get to choose. All right, let's go. First one. So happy to find the series. It's great for all of us that are deep down the rabbit hole

and i think by rabbit hole uh he probably meant like miles and points type stuff not literally a rabbit hole i'm just guessing probably most likely you guys are fantastic thanks for starting these videos and keeping them up and two thumbs ups. Emojis. Back at you. Yeah, right. Thanks, Mom. And I highly recommend the Wyndham Grand at Bonnet Creek, Orlando and Wyndham Grand at

Clearwater Beach. There we go. We were looking for Wyndham recommendations. That's right. We were. And that's what that was in response to. If anyone's looking for a couple good Wyndhams windoms there you go i'm surprised you didn't talk about or touch upon the massive expedia devaluation that massive expedia devaluation well i think the reason that we haven't yet talked or touched on that talked about or touched on that is because i haven't touched expedia points with a 10 foot pole. So I haven't been particularly interested.

I think there was a devaluation there, right? I mean, they've like the VIP properties. I think there was some good use of Expedia points that went away, but same, same as you. I haven't, you know, years ago, I think Expedia once had a program that was almost worth paying attention to and it devalued years ago. And then I never paid attention since then. And you know, in fairness,

I remember at some point in a week in review around the web, linking to a post at a lazy travelers handbook, Andy had done a write-up about how you actually could get reasonable value out of Expedia points, but like you can maybe get reasonable value if you hunt for it and work at it it's just not not exciting to me when you know there's there's too many currencies out there that you have to work too hard to get amazing value out of but you know for people that do have expedia points you know i guess it is pretty sad so yeah something bad happened there so there you go we covered it uh there it is done touched on it.

Next one. Great show. Brief and to the point. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very clear. Next one. My main question is, hopefully it's the question of the week. Greg, what did you do to scare Nick from post-roasting you? I don't think he has post-roasted you for like five Frequent Miler on-air episodes.

This was a couple weeks back, though, and you have since. I have. i prepared today don't worry all right good good sweat the whole and lastly another fun episode thanks guys really enjoy your work my favorite is the knowledge dropped at one hour and 40 minutes if you listen very carefully you'll hear all of greg's ms secrets so this was a couple weeks ago right and uh the the podcast went well above uh an hour and 40 um or up to hour 40 or something because there was a whole bunch of dead time and i put i roasted you about that last week so that's why he was joking that there was some secret at the end there which i hope some people were fast forwarding and listening and like,

is it there? Is that what was going on? Is an Easter egg here? There wasn't. No, sorry. I mean, you know, obviously if we put in the dead space potentially that would have been a, that would have been actually a really smart way to, to slip in some like secrets, but yeah, you know, we're not that smart. I guess. No. Whoops. Yeah. All right. So that's it for the mailbag so what segment is up next oh that's pretty good well that brings us then next up to

what crazy thing did city do this week all right but before we get into the contents of that i do want to say we decided to rename this segment. So many, many weeks, we don't actually talk about what crazy things Citi has done, but what crazy things someone has done, like some business, some loyalty program, some credit card company. Last week it was IHG, the week before that it might've been Amex. I mean, it's all sorts of different things, right? Right. So we're not changing it like entirely what we're doing is trimming it so we're just calling it what crazy thing dot dot dot we won't say the dot dot dot in the future but you know when you hear us say what crazy thing just imagine dot dot dot all right so with that background, what crazy thing do we have on store this week?

Welcome back, Citi. Welcome back. We missed you. We're back again. Nice to see you again, Citi. So happy holidays. So Citi is back this week because they did something crazy. They did something crazy, but to be honest with you, I don't know very much about this. I think you know more about what crazy things Citi did this week than I do. So why don't you tell us? It's crazy, like nice to their employees, I think. So what they're doing is they're allowing employees who have been there five years or more 12-week sabbaticals. And it's not 100% paid time off, but quarter, 25% paid time off,

12 weeks, pretty awesome. Or I'm not sure actually if it's an and or an or, but another thing they're allowing is one month of full pay for you being a Citibank employee to go work at a charity. So where you'd work there unpaid for the charity, like the charity wouldn't pay you, but Citibank will pay your full salary while you're there. That's awesome. That is awesome. Both nice to the employees, giving them something, both either a sabbatical or this one month to do good. It's something super nice for all these charities and super nice for anyone benefiting from the charities.

That's a great holiday present holiday. That's got to energize you. A present to the world, I guess. Yeah. And as an employee, that's got to energize you too, right? I mean, the ability to spend an entire month giving something that presumably matters to you, a charity that matters to you. Right. I mean, that is pretty awesome. So Citi, props to you there. We named the segment after you, I know. We do roast you now and then, but know here that's bravo city nicely yes yes yes and and you know hopefully when when employees come back well rested from these sabbaticals they'll be ready to do more crazy right they'll

still be crazy right yeah they'll be great oh of course i hope i hope don't don't get on me stay crazy city stay crazy stay crazy. All right. So mattress running the numbers this week. So this week, our mattress running the numbers segment was inspired at least in part, I think, by an email that I sent trying to figure out what I should do. So we've got this Marriott promotion, and I think you've got the same promotion that I do, right? So I do. I can get, you can get, we can get, many people can get up to 22,500 bonus Marriott points. And what it requires is two paid stays. After the first paid stay, you get 7,500 points. After the second paid stay, you get 15,000 points. That's on top of whatever you ordinarily

earn from the stay. So two stays get you 22,500 points. Mattress run worthy or what? What do you think? Is this something that if you have it, should you definitely go for it? What's the limit on a paid stay? What are your thoughts? Yeah. If you have it, go for it. In my opinion, that's you, you know, you, if you could get a stay for, I mean, even a hundred dollars, it's, you know, you're getting points, not terribly cheaply, but, um, not too. But, you know, I'm thinking more like if you could get a stay for like 70 bucks, it's worth mattress running, I think, to get that many points bonus. And if you have actual stays that you need, of course, I think it's a no brainer to divert

your stay. You're, you know, if you have a paid stay, you're going to be making anyway. And it's, you. And you're sort of agnostic to which hotel and there's something reasonable in the Marriott realm. Absolutely divert your stay to Marriott for this, assuming you don't have an even better promo with another chain. What about you? No, I agree with you. I was considering it in the larger context of a upcoming stay as an activity that I had planned. But definitely, I think it's worth it.

Like you said, if you've got a cheap Marriott near you, in my case, there's a Marriott nearby that's $50 a night. So it's actually talking $54. So for $108,000, $22,500 points, I mean, that's pretty much a no-brainer. Because I'll surely redeem those points for better value. They'll save me more than $100. And in the long run, so I mean, it's just like investing in an investment that you know, is going to go up in value. So yeah. And so I mentioned to you the other day that that I'm planning a big road trip, hoping to do a big road trip soon. And one of the things I noticed is, you know, I was trying to figure out how to use up all my Marriott

certificates. And, and I found a Marriott that's like on the path and I thought, and it got good reviews and I thought this will be perfect. Until I looked at the paid stay prices that were so dirt cheap. And I was like, I don't want to waste a certificate on this. But then I remembered this promotion. Like, ah, there you go. You know, I won't feel bad about not using a certificate if instead I pay for it, I'll probably pay with a Marriott gift card that I got a discount. And, you know, you won't feel bad about that until the 35k certificate expires. And then you will be like, I traded it for 22,500 points. That's right. But I, but, but I still will, you know, plan to use them all. So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, I think it's worth it. I think the thing is the timing. So here's the, the additional question is the timing. So when I have, when I pull up the promotion in

the app, which is where I originally saw it, it says that it needs to be completed by, and it has the number one in brackets. It doesn't actually have a date, it doesn't have any information. When I pull it up on the website, though, I think it says by the end of February, February, I think, which I didn't even realize that it had more information there for the first few days. So I wasn't really sure when this had to be done by. But now that I know that apparently this promotion is running through the end of February, when should I do it? Because you know, right now I'm close, but not quite far enough to requalify for titanium. I would need a couple more nights. And then on the flip side, if I wait until January or February, then, you know, I get

extra nights towards next year's elite status. So, I mean, which makes more sense and why. Right, right. So it's kind of interesting because I'd say for most people, the better bet, and for me, it's very clearly the better bet is to wait till next year. So do it in 2021. And because next year, I hope to requalify for at least platinum elite status because probably status won't roll over yet again like it did um this year for 2021 um and so those two nights will count you know help count towards status it's only a little a little pea in the bucket it's unknown to say right right no for the record i'm talking about

um peas in a pod type of peas. Right, right, right, right. That's not at all what anybody else heard. No, I know, I know. It took me a while to realize that. But anyway, that being said. I mean, I know you're an environmentally friendly guy, Craig, but I didn't realize you had an outhouse at home, you know?

That being said, so if somebody is a couple days away from a level of status they want to achieve this year, then I think it makes sense to do it this year. Your case is kind of weird though, because you're trying to, you're considering getting to titanium status, which you already have and already rolls over because of Marriott's pandemic policies. So getting there, the only thing I think getting there gets you is a choice benefit. And you've said before you'd probably pick the 40K free night. So is it better for you to try to get that 40k free night this year or next or get closer to status next year and i would guess the latter but yeah the latter is probably true i think that my

hesitation with it was that i thought well you know if i actually get 75 nights this year and then marriott does something similar next year to what they did this past year where they gave us all half the number of elite nights in order to get the status that we had earned the previous year. You know, if that kind of thing repeated again, would they do that based on the number of elite Knights you actually earned in 2020, rather than your elite status level? You know, would you get half the number of elite Knights you earned? In which case, you know, I'd obviously like to pick up a few more. But at the same time, I think it's, I don't know, it's possible, but it's like, I'm going to be spending money on hoping and maybe and if it was only two nights that I was short, then I would probably do it and just, you know, whatever, it's 50 bucks a night, it's still a good investment, the points

are worth more to me. So I'm okay with that with converting my cash to points there. But I also would need another five night mattress run that I have booked. So ultimately decided that it's not worth going after. So I'm not going to do it now. I'm going to hold off for January. I don't know as though it's realistic that I'll requalify for anything next year. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.

I don't know when travel is going to get more comfortable for me. But I'll take those two extra nights, I guess, just in case. How many Marriott free night certificates do you have that are expiring, that are in your own account? Not my wife's? In my own account, I have four or five. So not enough to really get you to that next level. No.

Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah. So I have so many that I literally between having to, you know, personal, having personal Marriott and, and business Marriott credit cards and all my free nights that I'm going to be using next year,

I'm going to make it a platinum status just by using them up. That's pretty crazy. Yeah. No, I'm not, I'm not at that level yet i've got several but not uh not five i think because i have a couple of 50k's i got them extended and same thing with the 35k's but then i have several 35k's in my wife's account also because she we hadn't been using hers we keep getting them extended she doesn't have status and i do and so we end up using my stuff first right right blah blah blah so yeah so anyway uh we'll see we'll see i don't i don't know maybe i'll make it maybe i won't but at any rate if you got targeted for

this go after it it's worth it i think that's all there is to say about that let's move on to the main event talk to me about the main event. Yes. Main events. We're calling it rewards. I can't wait. So there's a lot of things that, that actually have a hard expiration of the end of this calendar year that if you want to get in on your like a credit card, airline fee credits and different things like that, um, you have to do it now before it's too late, right? Then there's a bunch of things that need to be done soon-ish, but don't have necessarily a hard set date. So I'll just bring up one, for example, or one sort of group of things are all these free night certificates from different credit cards that have all been

extended to this coming summer to 2021 summer like marriott has them all going through august 1st um uh radison has them going through june or something uh june 30th maybe um you know there's a whole bunch ihg has them going them going until I think maybe August or end of July for yet. Anyway. So yeah, this is the time to book those things, but it doesn't have to be before the end of the year, but December, January, that kind of thing soon. Yeah. Right. So what are the things in your mind are the, are the, the, the must do things like, like just don't, you know, I'm not talking about those little things like, you know, don't miss out on that $5 CVS coupon. But it expires at the end of the month. You paid $5 a month for the membership. You got to use it, right? Well, that's true. You

do have to use that. As a reference to Greg's post about CVS extra rewards, if you haven't read it, then you don't want to miss out on your coupon. But anyway, what are the things, the airline fee credits, first of all, the Amex airline fee credits, because you probably have at least a card or two that has Amex airline fee credits and you don't want to leave that money on the table. I mean, you got to use it, get to use it or lose it. Get to use it by December 31st and do me a favor, don't wait until the very last

minute like I did last year. And I bought United Club Passes on December 31st. And there they were on the account on December 31st. And there the charge posted with a January 1st date. I don't even know. I haven't seen something like that before. Sure enough, it did. So what a pain that was. So don't wait until the very last day. get your Amex airline fee credits out of the way, get your airline fee credits in general, Bank of America, Ritz, remember the Ritz card you can use at grocery stores and restaurants, which reminds me that I should have used that at the grocery store last night. Anyway, uh,

cause I still have some to use on that card that I've forgotten about. So, uh, so airline fee credits, that's one. All right, that's a good one. So I have a very obscure one. Okay. I mean, it's one that I think you'll be surprised to hear. Okay. And that is if you have one of those IHG certificates

where instead of extending it to the summer, they issued a new one. So you've got one expiring end of this month. certificates where instead of extending it to the summer, they issued a new one. So you've got one expiring end of this month. Use it, even if you're not going to stay there. Wait, what? All right. So here's why. This came up with somebody I know. They have some Marriott free night certificates that they want to use next year before those expire. They don't have Marriott elite status right now. So what they want to do, Marriott right now, there's no guarantee it'll be available for long,

but right now they have a elite status challenge where you actually get status during the challenge right i think we've talked about that before and my confusion by the way is compounding here because we started with a three-night certificate yeah yeah i graded over to marriott like it was no big deal like the like it was all the same time oh it's it's all gonna circle around it's gonna circle around i'm full circle i hope it will i promise you all right you have a challenge going and when you do the challenge you get the benefits of status right you get the benefits of status so so his plan was and i think that's a great plan is to um start the challenge before his free night

stays so that he'll have platinum status during his stays. And he's not going to worry about meeting the requirements of the challenge. He doesn't care if he keeps it for another year. What he wants is to have platinum status during his Marriott stays. You with me so far? Fair enough. He wants the status for the stays. Doesn't care if he keeps it.

Right. He wants to start the challenge in time to be able to have it. Yes. All right. So I looked into the rules for the challenge in time to be able to have it. Yes. All right. So I looked into the rules for the challenge forum. And one of the things you need to do is, so you can status match from IHG Platinum to Marriott Platinum. And anyone with an IHG credit card, you know, certain ones, the ones with an annual fee has Platinum status from the credit card, right?

And he has- IHG platinum status, which is super exciting because it qualifies here. And that's about the only reason. Because it qualifies here. But one of the rules of the status challenge is that you show account activity in the matching program that has at least one stay in the past 12 months. And so he needs to use that certificate that's about to expire that otherwise wouldn't be used at all to stay somewhere.

I mean, he doesn't actually have to stay. He has to check in though, so that it shows up on his account as a real stay and then he can match to Marriott. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. That's, I mean, and that's really smart because that happens with status challenges in general. Often when you can do a hotel status match,

it's almost always a requirement that you show a stay with the competing program in the last year. And we all know in 2020, there are probably a lot of people that have not had a stay with some of these programs you have elite status with, especially because your status got extended anyway. So you didn't have to stay, right? So yeah, I mean, that's a great, great, brilliant move there. That isn't a post yet on Frequent Miler and it should be.

Yeah, I think I will write that up. But now there is a tiny bit of risk there, which is some people are worried that if you use that free night, that the one that appeared in your account that goes until sometime this summer will disappear because like the thought is maybe they didn't mean to do that. But I don't believe that because the email that went

out directly from IHG about this said, we've added a new free night to your account. And I think if they, if the terminology had been something like we've extended it or, you know, I think it would have been, I would have been a little bit worried about it or, you know, I think it would have been, I would have been a little bit worried about it. But since they specifically said a new one, you know, they're not thinking about it as the same thing. And I'll say, I don't think it's going to cause a problem because we already had a reader who reported, I don't remember if it was an insider or on a post that they used the December expiration one and still have the other one.

So it hasn't disappeared yet. I mean, after the first of the year, I guess it could disappear, but unlikely. I agree with Greg. Probably going to hang around and probably worth having, especially, I mean, in this person's situation, worth doing it because they want this challenge anyway and have to be able to show this day. So might as well try.

And you don't know, even if you're not planning to do a status match, this will, you know, make you eligible for matches for almost a full for a full year from from your stay. So just in case you end up doing it. And both Wyndham and Hilton have offered similar generous status matches in the past. And so having that stay activity makes sense. Brilliant. OK, so if you have an IHG certificate that is expiring at the end of this month, that's December 31st, 2020, use it now. Book something. Go check in. You don't have to stay. And you don't have to stay exactly. Okay. Got it. All right. So that's another one, another one down off the list of things that need to be done before the end of the year. Okay. So next up then, let me see. Next thing that's got to be done. Well, for me, this one's in my household. And

so this is specific to me, but maybe there's other readers with a similar situation. I talked about this on our Ask Us Anything the other day. We got a bunch of Marriott points in my wife's account because they had all these Marriott spending offers this year. We kept hitting all the spending offers up and earning the easy points. And so now she's got well over 100,000 points on her way to 200,000. And we don't really want the points in her account because she doesn't have status. So if we book something out of her account, then we don't get any breakfast or breakfast coupons if we're at a courtyard or a look of disapproval from the Ritz check-in agent. We don't get anything from anybody. Does she have an IHG free night that's expiring at the end of the month, though?

She does not. Oh, okay. Too bad. No, that's expiring at the end of the month, though? She does not. Oh, okay. Too bad. Because then she could do the challenge, right? She does have Hilton status, hasn't had a Hilton stay. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All that is to say, we'd rather have the points pooled in one pile in my account. And Marriott lets you transfer

100,000 points per year to somebody else. You can receive up to 500,000 points per year as a Marriott member, and if at least one of you has gold status or higher, it doesn't cost anything to move the points over. You just got to call and do it. So before the 31st, she has to call and transfer 100,000 points to me, or hopefully she will call and transfer 100,000 points to me, so that then after the first year, we can move the rest of them over

if and when we want or leave them where they are and have the option to do whatever it is we want. So we're going to move 100,000 Marriott points before the end of the year so that we can move the whole pile if we want next year. Great. That's a really good one. That's kind of an obscure good tip too.

That's not something most people would think about. And yet it is important to do it that way if you want to move them. Quick question for you, in case you happen to know off the top of your head. So is it the receiving person that needs to have gold status or better? Either. The person sending it? It can be either person. Either. As long as one of the other has gold status. Having that elite status unlocks this free transfer.

Yep. That's exactly what it is. As long as one of the two people, doesn't matter whether you're sending or receiving, as long as one of you has gold status, then it's free. Yeah, so, and is the limit, so, okay. So if for some reason you wanted to transfer from one person without elite status to another without elite, could you go through a person with elite?

I mean, I guess you probably could. I mean, it used to be that they had these limits and then you could exceed the limit for a specific reservation. And I don't think that's the case anymore. I think the a hundred thousand is a hard limit now, I think, but yeah, I mean, I guess that would probably work to have an intermediary elite member. I don't see why not. Yeah. So this is how you can move all the points from your wife to your son is through you. Right. Right. Hard pass.

So that's the next thing I'm going to do before the end of the month. What about you? What else? Your turn. Yeah. So I decided not to. about applying, having my wife apply for the platinum, Amex Platinum 100K plus 10X for six months offer and doing it in December in time so that we can collect on the $200 airfare credits,

the $50 sacks, the, you know, it goes on and on, all these credits that are available. And, you know, if we on and on all these credits that are available. And, you know, if we were to do it right now, it'd be possible to triple dip those credits. So get credits, as you wrote about in your post, get credits in December, get credits in 2021. And then in January 2022, before she cancels the card. But I decided as a present to myself, I didn't need that extra stress of trying to, trying to get all of that done. So I happy holidays, Greg.

Thank you. You know, and I think sometimes that's a totally legitimate answer. Something might make total sense, you know, logical sense to go for it and do it now and do it this way. But, you know,

got other stuff going on. And sometimes you just need to say, you know, I'm going to let this opportunity pass. That's not to say she's not going to sign up for it. If it sticks around long enough, we certainly will have her sign up for it. But who knows how long it'll stay around? Yeah, yeah, we certainly don't know. I mean, I think if you think there's a decent chance of applying for it, it makes sense to do it now and get yourself an extra set of credits. However, on the flip side, if you want to extend that six months of 10 exit grocery, US supermarkets and US gas stations, then obviously you would, in your case, want to wait longer to apply because you've already got the next six months covered. So she could, you know, theoretically cover farther into the future than that. So that kind of makes some sense. I see where you're going with that. The other thing I'm going to mention about that is that I thought about it too. And the reason that I haven't done it is because I've got a lot of credits now kicking around. So I have a bump voucher from United that's going to expire

in October of 2021, a $1,500 bump voucher rather. And then I did a bunch of the United Travel Bank loading to use up airline credits. So I got like almost another thousand dollars in United Travel Bank credit. And I just rarely ever fly on paid flights. So I'm like, I know that's valid for five years, but really in the last five years, I haven't spent $2,500 on United flights. So, and I've got enough now between the travel bank that I have and the voucher that,

I mean, I'm sat on paid United flights. And then when you consider on top of that, that we mostly fly Southwest domestically because of the companion pass and we have plenty of Southwest points right now and i have plenty of points everywhere else i just don't really see needing the additional airline credit right now in my situation so it's like ah it's a great opportunity but you know similar but slightly different i just i don't really see my i don't know what i'm going to use what I got. So yeah.

Right. Right. Right. How about you? Anything else that you absolutely have to get done this year? You know, absolutely have to by the 31st. Yeah, I know there is. Somebody said something and I saw, I need to add that to my list of things to do by the 31st and now it's escaping my mind right now.

I don't know. Do you, is that it? Is that all of the must-dos? I feel pressure on some of the things that don't have to be done by the 31st, but in terms of must-dos, is there something else that comes to mind for you? Well, it's sort of on the edge of a must-do, but I had forgotten the Uber credits that you can use for Uber Eats. So it's, what, $35 this month. Normally it's $15. So that's pretty compelling. And I, I sort of vaguely thought I'd

already used the credit. But because of your post, I went into my Uber account and checked. And then I saw, oh, wait a minute. Yes, I used about $30 of the 35, but I had another $35 credit because I forgot I have two platinum cards right now because of the new, you know, that new deal and I have the Schwab platinum. And so I've got about $40 left over, which not the end of the world if I don't use it, but you know, I might as well do a Uber eats order and, and get basically a free meal out of it. Why not? Yeah. I mean, I bet you might as well. Certainly you don't want to let that go by the wayside.

I saw some discussion in frequent miler insiders this week about, is there any way to kind of harness that for future use? And I'm just not aware of any way to harness that for future use anymore. There was some discussion about things that worked in the past that don't anymore. Is there any way that you could, that you know of in order to be able to keep that for future use if I'm not going to use it in time? Yeah, I mean, you could, you could open up a restaurant and, and place orders from yourself. Right. So, so so essentially essentially use it or lose it use it or lose it yes yeah i think so i mean yes there are there are like i'm sure there are sneaky things that that would be sort of across the line of what i'd be willing to do but um yeah um i i i think of it as sort of like free

um free uber eats each each month whereas pre-pandemic, I thought of it as free rides each month. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, one thing I'm feeling pressure on to do is to create a plan. And it's not something, so this is one of those things that it doesn't necessarily have to be done by the 31st of the month. But I really do need to create a plan for my free night certificates, because you brought up the fact that you have some more time, you don't have to use them quite yet but like i'm just i'm looking at a bunch of them and the radisson ones in particular like itching at me like what the heck can i do with these radisson free night certificates that expire in the middle of the summer i mean i need to make a plan and find out what it is i'm going to do with those because i also want to be able to get good value out of all

the rest of them and so i don't even think it's necessarily a matter of picking the hotel, but at least kind of setting out a game plan, like this is around where and when I think I'm going to use each of these and setting up reminders for myself. I have a couple of concrete examples of why it is important to get going on those. So, you know, last weekend I did research into what are the best like 35K Marriott options. And I had that published Monday morning. Monday morning, right after it published, someone wrote and said, well, you know, there were a couple in Virginia Beach that were on my list. And this person said, no, on that date, there's everything. Virginia Beach costs 40K or more, not 35K or less.

And I looked up and sure enough, he was right. And so those things are changing by the minute. Other people reported similar things. And then I had something similar happen, IHG. I found there's a particular IHG I'm really interested in staying at. And I looked across a whole month to see was it available during that month. And for 40k or less, it was usually actually more. But I found a few days that only that had 40k or less. I didn't book it right at that moment. And I came back actually this morning, and only one day of the whole month was available. So I snagged that one one day but i was hoping to actually book a couple because i have more than one anyway go to it sooner the better it's it's definitely not like you know 12 31 isn't a concrete date on it but there's no question sooner the better this summer um competition for hotels and resorts in the United States is going to be insane.

That's my hard prediction that I feel a hundred percent confident about that. It's going to be crazy. And so you got to book soon. I agree. No, I think you're totally right about that. Competition is going to be high. Forget about it. Even for your certificates, just cash or wise, you know, so everybody's going to be high. Forget about it even for your certificates, just cash, dollar-wise. Everybody's going to be staying at these. The chances of getting a good rate even, if you're looking for a paid rate, are only going to decrease as we get closer to the summer.

That's right. Not the rates that are going to decrease. The chance of getting decreased rates is going to decrease. Exactly. Now, backing up to Amex cards for a second, something else that popped into my mind. This is not on my list of things that I need to get done by the end of the year, but it might be on somebody listening's list. So apply for the Amex gold card. And the

reason I say that is because this year will be the last time that you'll be able to double dip or the only time you'll be able to double dip between the $100 travel credit and the Uber credit that is going to be debuting in January. So next year, they're going to have both benefits on the card. But in future years, an Uber benefit, a $10 a month Uber benefit is going to replace the $100 airline incidental credit. So last two chances to get that card with that benefit right now. And I say last two chances, because if you were to apply now, you could get $100 in airline and external credits before the end of this month and the next couple of days,

and then another $100 in airline and external credits next year along with the Uber benefit. So if you value the Uber benefit, you don't want to go after the platinum card for some reason. You don't want to spend the money on the platinum card. Gold card could also be worth a look for now so and it's worth it now over you know several weeks from now for that extra hundred bucks in your pocket so yeah yeah right so that's no that's that's a really good one yeah i don't know when they're going to stop offering i know that next year the card is still going to have

the hundred dollar airline external credit but i don't know when they're going to stop offering that to new applicants like i mean is it when they're going to stop offering that to new applicants. Is it possible they're going to stop offering that for new applicants sometime before the end of the year? I really have no idea. That seems very unlikely to me. The way Amex works is they usually have those kinds of benefits as concrete, unless they are like Amex offers where you have to sign up. There you go. right winding down i feel like there was something else that was just on my list like earlier today and i've forgotten it and that's why i should have written it down yeah well i'll give you i'll give you a free pass if you want to like interject i will or you want to trade in your post roast for this thing that you suddenly remembered

you can do that i probably will not do that. Speaking of which, let's move into the post-roast time, right? Let's move into the post-roast. That's right. So I'm going to hop right in this week. So this week you wrote about one of the most compelling cards to launch on the market in recent memory. So you wrote about, of course, everybody knows that I'm talking about the Verizon credit card, right?

And you said that if you were a Verizon person, you would be kind of interested in this. I can't remember the exact wording actually just escaped me, which is too bad because I was really hoping to roast exactly that wording that if you were a Verizon customer, that maybe you would go after this card. You would find it intriguing and you're not. And you lamented the fact that you're an AT&T customer.

And if AT&T had an option to save 10 bucks a month with a credit card, you would totally be on the AT&T credit card train. So you said you'd be tempted. If I was a Verizon customer, I'd be tempted. Now this card, this Verizon credit card offers Verizon dollars. So the signup bonus on this card is $100 paid as monthly credits over two years. So 24 months, you're gonna get your like $4 a month for the next two years for signing up for the card. And I'm just signing up for it. I don't think there's any spending requirement.

And then the equivalent- Well, actually there's not a spending requirement, but you have to pay your bill with the Verizon card each month in order to get that credit. Right, right, right. So in order to get... That's why I didn't even mention that bonus in my post because that seems so trivial.

But yeah, go ahead. Right, right. So in order to get your $4 a month, you need to forego earning five points per dollar to get your $4 a month, right? So that's, I so so that's i mean that's already i'm i'm i'm like come on come on you're not gonna waste a slot on a card like but but then you go another step beyond that and you say okay so what does the card offer it offers

verizon dollars that you can only use at verizon so it's like verizon funny money and and the the category bonuses four percent grocery four percent gas come, Greg, would you really be all that tempted by 4% grocery and 4% gas? Do those not pale in comparison to the cash back you can already earn? I know you have Bank of America Platinum Honors status. So you have the cash rewards card, you get 5.25% back on gas for up to 2,500 spend a quarter with that. Who are you kidding? You'd be tempted by 4% Verizon funny money. Come on. Would you really be tempted by this card? If it were the AT&T card with all the same stuff, would you go after it? I would with a big caveat. So first of all, I had to amend my post because of reader comments, which I was told, and I believe the reader is telling me this, that the $10 a month you save per line by having this card and putting it on autopay is the exact same $10 a month savings you get if you pay with a debit card or with your bank

account. And so I didn't know that when I first wrote the post. So I wrote an update. But getting back to your question, if it was AT&T who doesn't have a $10 discount by paying with a debit card. Would I get a card that has the same features? And I would be tempted because let's say you have four people on the AT&T account, which I think is what we have. Then that's just having the card and putting on auto pay. I'm just saving automatically $40 a month. It's just a set and forget. It's like, I'm getting that automatically $40 a month. It's just a set and forget. It's like I'm getting that savings every month automatically. And I love things like that where you don't have to do any more work.

You just set it up. Boom. I wouldn't use it at grocery stores or anything because, yes, I have other cards that offer more spend. I would use it only for the AT&T bill only because it gives those savings. And yeah, I'd be losing out on 5X, but $40 a month would be way better than 5X rewards for my in cash. So yeah.

Right, and that's true. And if it were really saving you $10 a month, then okay. But as it turns out, of course, the card is not really saving you anything because you could already do that same. I guess, in fairness, you get 2% back on your Verizon bill, right? So I guess you get the extra- So it's a little bit better than paying with a debit card, but it's not. Again, if your bill is $200 a month, we're talking about four bucks a month. So here's another four. You can toss that with the rest, guys.

Right. One other thing to mention, though, is the earning Verizon bucks or dollars, whatever they're called, I don't think is that bad of a deal for people who are spending, let's say, over $100 a month anyway on Verizon because those dollars can be used to pay your bill as well. And so it's close to real cash, I think, in that way. Anyway. Close to real cash, but not even great category. I mean, they're good category bonuses-ish, I guess,

if you don't have any other cards that offer category bonuses. The grocery one, I guess, 4% is not bad if you don't have anything else that offers a grocery bonus. That's actually pretty good for the grocery store. You know, there's nothing else that's uncapped at grocery stores. Yeah, there you go. It's possible, I guess, that Synchrony isn't going to shut people down for going overboard on that.

I don't really know. But, of course, you can't. But you talk about going overboard. You can't really go overboard because your bill is only so much per month, right? Well, you could buy phones. You could buy iPhones and Samsung phones or whatever. I can't only use them. Okay. All right. All right. All right. So I take that back. All right. So anyway, that was kind of a fun roast for me because Greg asked me to write, he said, you know, Hey, there's this new card. We should

probably have a post about it. And he sent me an email like three times telling me that I should write about it. And I kept forgetting to write about it, but he did. So he got roasted. Whereas I know it would have been the other way around. So that was just a kind of a fun roast for me, because it should have been me in that seat. But there we go. That's my roast. I thought the Verizon card is a total snoozer. But you convinced me that maybe in an alternate universe where it actually saved money, it would be not a total snoozer maybe yeah okay so for you i have a meta roast a meta roast oh you never met a roast more scalding than this one uh-oh uh-oh i'm gonna roast last week's roast so last week let me tell you what happened last week.

I don't actually remember. I remember what you roasted last week. But let me tell you what you didn't roast is I gave you a holiday present last week. I wrote a whole post about how you could save five or 10 bucks here or there at CVS. Thinking the whole time that this is going to be great for Nick because I teased him

about his cash app post where you could save five bucks here or there. And what would be a more fitting counter roast than Greg writing about CVS? I mean, come on. How could you miss an opportunity like that? You know, I did have it. And I don't even remember what I roasted you about because I did have it in mind that, oh, my goodness, this is definitely post-rush fodder here. I mean, we're talking about, you know, paying five to get 10 at CVS every month. Yeah. But you kind of convinced me as I read through it. I was like, you know, maybe I ought to get that CVS membership. it. I was like, maybe I ought to get that CBS membership. And then I was like, oh my goodness, Greg,

you ought to work for CBS because why am I thinking about paying $5 a month for CBS? Get out of here. Come on. Yes, you're right. I should have posted that, but I didn't. So I'm very disappointed in you about that. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. But you were saving some money, right? I mean, you did show some opportunities to save real money. I absolutely save money, but it absolutely fits in the same category that's where i roasted you before it's it's you're talking about a little bit you know spending a lot of time learning a new system and spending and and learning you know saving a bit here and there and it's not it's not a lot you know it's only if you enjoy the thrill of the hunt if you enjoy the thrill that's true and i think that a lot of people in this game do and so if you do you know it's kind, it's not a lot. You know, it's only if you enjoy the thrill of the hunt, if you enjoy the thrill of the hunt. That's true.

And I think that a lot of people in this game do. And so if you do, you know, it's kind of fun. I think that's the way I looked at it. I was, I looked at it and I was, when I first read the first paragraph, I was like, wait, I was writing about pharmacy rewards? Like that should be my territory of anybody's. And I'm not even interested, right?

So I didn't think I was going to read the whole post. I got through the first paragraph. I was like, there's no way I'm going to read this whole thing about CBS. Right. And then I started reading it and I was like, Oh, the 40% really five for 10. I mean, Hey, and so I kept reading it and I was like, actually, that sounds kind of interesting. So that's why I didn't, I guess that's why I didn't roast you. Cause I was like, Oh,

there you go. There you go. It's the name of the game. All right. Yes. Yes. You gave everybody a present with that one. You gave them a way to save a little money on the stuff that they actually need to buy. That's right. I mean,

there's, yeah, it's real savings. So, you know, and you don't have to do much work. It's not that it's not actually that hard. I mean,

although people, you know, in the comments are like, well, you save more if you go in store and you could do this and that. And, and, you know, so you can make it a lot of work and you could save huge amounts. And one person like gives all this stuff to like a charity, which is fantastic.

But sort of my point was like, you could do very minimal work and just order stuff from home because it gives you free shipping. And that's my approach to it is like minimal amount of work. That's what I want to do. That's how you drew me in. Cause what, what always bores me about pharmacy rewards is I live in the middle of nowhere. So I don't have a, there's no CVS anywhere near me. So I'm not going to get all invested in this program where I got to drive out

of my way somewhere to go try and find a CVS to once a month to be able to use it. But, but that was what got me. I was like, oh, well, I'll do this from home. And you come out basically ahead because you're paying $5 for $10 each month. So even if their prices are pretty marked up, you're at the very least probably coming out even each month on what it's costing you. And then if you're able to also leverage one of those coupons, I mean, hey, it's fun. Yes.

Bravo. Thank Yes. Bravo. Thank you. Bravo. All right. And then if you then, if you use your Cash App card loaded with a 10% back at CVS to pay, huh?

Huh? Yeah. I was curious about that, whether the app had any CVS. You know, I'm pretty sure that it has. I'm going to pull it up right here while we're talking about it because I'm pretty sure that I saw a CVS one in there.

I know Walgreens has been on there left and right, but maybe not CVS. Nope. Just saying Walgreens. So. That's too bad because this would be a good show. If we just spent all our time, like you looking at apps and saying,

Oh, look at look at what's there. Everybody would, everybody would vote us right up the charts, the charts. All right. So that brings us then to question of the week. And Dale asked a good question that I know you already saw,

but I think it's a question that he's not the only person who will have at some point. And I think this is a really good one to answer. So Dale asks, anyone know of a way to quickly get a few membership rewards points? I was waiting on mine to post, just signed up for the first Amex card in a long time. The statement closed today, but no points posted. In Amex chat, I was told they do to post, just signed up for the first Amex card in a long time. The statement closed today, but no points posted.

In Amex chat, I was told they do not post on current statement, but on the next statement, which is strange. Points post always a month behind. Like that doesn't make sense to me saying. I delayed some Amazon shopping until I had membership rewards in order to use the discount because anybody who's been paying attention knows that Amazon has been offering these deals where you use one membership rewards point, you get like, you know, 30% off, 40%, 50, 60% off even for some accounts. So you say you delayed some Amazon shopping, even ask the rep if there was a way to just give them a few points. Can you just give me

two or three points so I can use one of those points at Amazon and get the discount hoping for some goodwill? And they said, no. So what's the secret, Greg? What can you do if you're like a few points short, whether you need those points for the Amazon discount or you're like, you know, six points short of what you need in order to book a valuable award or whatever else, what do you do? Right. So you probably know the answer better than me. If I recall, someone on Frequent Mileage Insider suggested that he go ahead and pay the bill

early and that would trigger the points to come and apparently that actually worked am I remembering that right you absolutely are yeah that's exactly it when your statement cuts if you haven't paid the balance off you're not going to get the points until you pay the balance at least that's been my experience with MX all along and as soon as you pay like that next day or so or later that day maybe even probably the next day, the points post. So that's the way to get the points to post from your statement cut. You don't have to wait until the next statement generates.

You just have to pay it right away. Right, right. Okay. So, you know, and I had offered advice before I realized that there was better advice on there because I didn't actually know that. What I said was he had tried, I think, if I remember right, calling Amex and was told there's nothing they could do. I don't think he asked to speak to a supervisor because in my experience, the first line people literally can't do anything about it, but a supervisor can issue goodwill points. And I would think that if you get a supervisor on the phone, he has for one point, they'll probably

throw like 500 points at you or something. But, you know, that seems to me a likely outcome as well. But paying it or paying it off is a much better solution. Well, that's a quick solution. Yeah, exactly. Whatever you've spent paying it off. And that's not going to work mid cycle, to be clear. It's going to work after your statement is closed and you have, you know, whatever it was, you spent $2,000 statement closed, you owe 2,000 on the next payment or whatever it may be. At that point, after the statement is closed, paying the bill is going to make the points post. But it's not like Capital One where, you know, a couple of days after you make the purchase, the points post to your account.

That's not typically the case. Although if you're on that new Amex Platinum offer, then the grocery bonus points do post to your account right away. And an Amex offer that you use, those points post within a day usually of making the charge. So that's another thing to keep in mind. If you had an Amex offer for, you know, spend $50, get a thousand points points somewhere or the extra 8x at Amazon, buying something cheap, that'll also cause those points to post within a couple of days, because the bonus points from Amex offers and the bonus points for the grocery and gas bonus on the platinum card, the temporary bonus on those, those do post within a day or two. So that's, that's a great tip. Yeah, very good. So that's another thing to keep in mind. And then like Greg said, definitely supervisor should be able to give you some points. I mean, I'm kind of surprised that they didn't just offer to give you

a couple points, you know, not a couple, probably 500 or a thousand or something. I once had an offer I wasn't able to add online. It showed as available in my account. When I hit add, it just gave me an error every time. And I spoke to somebody and they tried to see and there was nothing they could do. And they said, I'll tell you what, I'll just give you the points as a courtesy. And you promised me you're actually going to spend the money at whatever store it was, right? I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I should make that charge right now. So they did give me the point. So they can't give you points. Right, right. And Amex also has a way I, if I remember right, of paying for the extra points you need paying like two and a half cents each for the extra points you need, but for an award, like, so you have to

be redeeming if I'm remembering, right, I could could be wrong. But I think it's that it has to be like you're trying to do something like transfer points to an airline partner or, you know, use points for some specific purpose that you could look at and you could tell them, all right, see, I need this many, and they can sell you those points. So I guess you could probably call and say, I want to buy this $1 thing on Amazon, so I need 100 points. Can I buy them? You know, maybe that would work too,

but I think all the other things you mentioned, I would try first before. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that would work. And Amex has the points advance on the Delta cards, right? Where you can basically get a loan on your points ahead of time. Is that a good deal?

I don't think, I mean it's it's only on the on the delta cards i think right i mean it's not a bad like i think as long as you earn those points within a certain amount of time on your card then you don't end up paying anything to borrow the points so so you know i think it's a fine deal from that point of view i think it's a bad deal if you fail to because then you have to pay more than you want it for Delta miles. All right, there you go. So that was the question of the week. So that my friends brings us to the end. So thank you guys for being out there listening with us this week. We always enjoy it. If you have enjoyed what you've been listening to, and you want to read the posts as soon as they come out, you're going to get on our email list

and follow us on social media. You want to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe. Again, that's frequentmiler.com slash subscribe in order to get on our email list. Thank you guys all very much. And we will see you again next week. Thanks, everybody.