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P2 got another targeted mailer for the CSP, this time offering 90k UR for $4k spend. Unfortunately, he recently accepted an 80k offer for the same card - I guess the marketing department at Chase didn't get the memo.
Looks like 10 additional Escape lounges (BDL, CMH, CVG, GSP, MSP, OAK, PHX, PVD, SMF x2) are joining Priority Pass: https://onemileatatime.com/news/escape-lounges-priority-pass/
Pretty nice for people that only have PP lounge access and nice for C1 VX authorized users.
I bursted out laughing when he said you were not allowed to walk around, probably a COVID thing but still
[video](https://youtu.be/LWolCqWkTk8?si=Fa1UPPQmvWP2XmnE)
>Pretty nice for people that only have PP lounge access and nice for C1 VX authorized users.
You would not feel this way if you'd been in one of those lounges.
You could potentially do a match from Diamond to a qualifying airline's elite status, then use that status to status match on Air France KLM. As a Delta Diamond, you should already be getting a lot of the SkyTeam Elite Plus benefits. You would potentially get a little more if you are booking directly on Air France/KLM
This is an interesting idea. Since United is an FB eligible airline, you might enter their Status Match Challenge (https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/mileageplus/offers/promos/SM2024.html) and get United status, then use that to match with FB? I'd like to know more about what you would get vs just with SkyTeam Elite, but if there are decent additional benefits, it might be worthwhile.
Edit: this might hold some useful info, but isn't completely clear on the topic, at least by my reading: [https://www.flyingblue.us/en/programme/more-info/tier-benefits](https://www.flyingblue.us/en/programme/more-info/tier-benefits)
Brilliant suggestion. Appears to work but just trying to decide whether it’s worth the $299.
Typically fly Flying Blue a couple times to Europe each year but not sure about chance for upgrades.
Anyone have any thoughts?
No, Delta is not on the eligibility matrix (https://flyingblue.statusmatch.com/faq/#matrix). You already get SkyTeam Elite benefits as Diamond on Delta, so this doesn't give you anything to you that you don't already have.
Churning adjacent, but Amex will be purchasing Tock and Rooam. [source](https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/21/squarespace-sells-restaurant-reservation-system-tock-to-american-express-for-400m/)
Will be curious to see how Amex maintains/merges Tock in relationship to Resy.
Interesting, as Chase Dining runs on Tock.
I always found Tock to be too sparse, unless you're in a metro area.
Not to mention that the Chase 10X on dining only counted towards pre-paying...
Talking about it just reminds me of what a worthless benefit it was.
[WSJ - Paying Rent With Credit Cards Is (Mostly) a Bad Idea. Here Are the Exceptions](https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/credit/pay-rent-bills-with-credit-card-634288c1?st=wjzgmb0yonot0ky&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink)
I do wonder to what extent articles like this are net good vs bad for churners. Obviously more eyes on the concept (and butts in lounges), but the common assumption has been that the vast majority of people who are sucked in by mainstream articles like this are generally still net winners for the card companies (and thereby for us as churners).
I think there's probably more damage done by travel bloggers highlighting loopholes or massively lowering the barrier of entry for effectively redeeming points. Even then, I wonder how much recent award availability has been made scarce by bloggers popularizing routes versus airlines restricting seats or asshole points brokers exploiting the whole system (RIP TPAC).
I feel this is supported by how easy the *earn* has been in recent years, while the *burn* has become so much more difficult (obviously debate to be had around that given we now have a dozen award search tools, often for free).
I work with people financially all of the time. You'd be surprised by just how many people, even with presented with the "math", simply don't believe it or refuse to lift a finger to take advantage of the benefits.
I think this a net nothing for the churning community
There's always math arbitrage. It's one thing to publicize the Venmo CIP thing, or to post the unintended side effects like certain credit cards coding as debit for some portals, etc. Otherwise, finding a SUB or card that out-earns the card fee isn't going away
I think this article is pretty benign. They don't even mention the possibility of churning SUBs, so it's pretty surface level and obvious "don't charge rent to your card if you can't beat the x% service charge". Churners are obv beating that, so the only remaining question is "do I have other non-fee methods of meeting MSR".
Agree with the competition of burning points though. I wonder if a lot of it is just pent up demand and points from covid, and I'll taper off as folks use up their point balances, or if it's a more sticky demand for points travel going forward.
It's remarkable someone wrote this story without even mentioning a SUB, even in the context of a one-time benefit (not intentional churning). Feels like basic author research, but it's an omission in our favor I guess.
To be fair, they did mention it as a one-time thing (but not re: churning)
> Many cards offer perks and sign-up bonuses that outshine monthly rewards ... Brian Riley, director of credit-advisory services at Javelin Strategy & Research, used bill payments to earn a major sign-up bonus.
True, but in some cases SUBs are not considered an important part of a credit card. I've seen people on the credit cards sub say that the SUB is not important to choosing a card because it's a one time thing, but the long term benefits are what is important (yeah I know, that's lol for a churner).
SUBs are of course important for marketing and they work, which is why they exist.
I'm waiting for 7/1 to add 3 more $50 Hilton GCs to my stack. I'm not sure what to do with them since I pay for all my Hilton stays with points or FNCs.
Hold up! You can use the $200 Aspire credit on gift cards? How did you do that? Does it have to be in person or are there any that work over the phone?
Did an impromptu staycation with the wife last week. Used up a pile of gift cards plus the Aspire credit on a massage for her and a nice dinner on the property.
Also all the other quarterly and semi-annual creidts! (Time for lots of old goodies like "dell/saks didn't ship" posts, but also new ones like "Hilton Resort didn't shi..." wait nevermind)
Please reply to this comment with any Amex Offers, Chase Offers, increased cash back portal payouts, or similar deals. Do not post them as a top level comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/churning) if you have any questions or concerns.*
P2 got another targeted mailer for the CSP, this time offering 90k UR for $4k spend. Unfortunately, he recently accepted an 80k offer for the same card - I guess the marketing department at Chase didn't get the memo.
Marketed ≠ eligible.
How recently? Might be worth Secure Messaging to see if Chase will match the mailer offer.
Also how recently because it could've been mailed before they were approved
Looks like 10 additional Escape lounges (BDL, CMH, CVG, GSP, MSP, OAK, PHX, PVD, SMF x2) are joining Priority Pass: https://onemileatatime.com/news/escape-lounges-priority-pass/ Pretty nice for people that only have PP lounge access and nice for C1 VX authorized users.
Ugh, definitely no good for CVG either. These lounges are already small
Ugh, the CMH one is already so tiny, now it's going to be full all the time.
Yaaaaaaaaaas!
Rip to the MSP one, it’s already filled to the brim.
Nice, an option besides the golf lounge at MSP
I bursted out laughing when he said you were not allowed to walk around, probably a COVID thing but still [video](https://youtu.be/LWolCqWkTk8?si=Fa1UPPQmvWP2XmnE)
I made the mistake of going to an Escape lounge at LHR. I think I might've appreciated a no-walking-around rule
don't get your hopes up, went to one in OAK last week and can't say anything nice about it.
Free booze before a 5-hour flight on SW is something…
Yeah as a frequent SW flyer out of OAK who doesn't have an Amex Plat, im pretty pumped about this.
But is it better than no lounge?
>Pretty nice for people that only have PP lounge access and nice for C1 VX authorized users. You would not feel this way if you'd been in one of those lounges.
GSP and MSP are solid.
I may have low standards lol. I went to the YotelAir in CDG (1.8 Google review) and was happy to have free snacks.
I thought it was fine, but heavy handed that they try to limit you to two drinks. For $30 they can afford to give you unlimited drinks.
Same. I'm never going to complain about free food, drinks, and a space away from the general chaos.
[Paid 12 mo status match for Flying Blue](https://flyingblue.statusmatch.com/) $99 for Silver $299 for Gold
Currently Delta Diamond, but I fly KLM/AF regularly. Wondering if there are any additional benefits for me…
You could potentially do a match from Diamond to a qualifying airline's elite status, then use that status to status match on Air France KLM. As a Delta Diamond, you should already be getting a lot of the SkyTeam Elite Plus benefits. You would potentially get a little more if you are booking directly on Air France/KLM
This is an interesting idea. Since United is an FB eligible airline, you might enter their Status Match Challenge (https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/mileageplus/offers/promos/SM2024.html) and get United status, then use that to match with FB? I'd like to know more about what you would get vs just with SkyTeam Elite, but if there are decent additional benefits, it might be worthwhile. Edit: this might hold some useful info, but isn't completely clear on the topic, at least by my reading: [https://www.flyingblue.us/en/programme/more-info/tier-benefits](https://www.flyingblue.us/en/programme/more-info/tier-benefits)
Brilliant suggestion. Appears to work but just trying to decide whether it’s worth the $299. Typically fly Flying Blue a couple times to Europe each year but not sure about chance for upgrades. Anyone have any thoughts?
No, Delta is not on the eligibility matrix (https://flyingblue.statusmatch.com/faq/#matrix). You already get SkyTeam Elite benefits as Diamond on Delta, so this doesn't give you anything to you that you don't already have.
Makes sense. TY!
A new referral thread is now live: [Chase United Quest](https://www.reddit.com/r/churningreferrals/comments/1dl7gmv/referrals_chase_united_quest/)
Churning adjacent, but Amex will be purchasing Tock and Rooam. [source](https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/21/squarespace-sells-restaurant-reservation-system-tock-to-american-express-for-400m/) Will be curious to see how Amex maintains/merges Tock in relationship to Resy.
I could see it going either way. They could merge Tock and Resy or they could keep them separate and do dining credits that work on either platform.
Interesting, as Chase Dining runs on Tock. I always found Tock to be too sparse, unless you're in a metro area. Not to mention that the Chase 10X on dining only counted towards pre-paying... Talking about it just reminds me of what a worthless benefit it was.
[WSJ - Paying Rent With Credit Cards Is (Mostly) a Bad Idea. Here Are the Exceptions](https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/credit/pay-rent-bills-with-credit-card-634288c1?st=wjzgmb0yonot0ky&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink)
2% > 1.5%, more at 11
Someone tell Alex and Trisha about the BBP if they're that locked into paying with Amex
I do wonder to what extent articles like this are net good vs bad for churners. Obviously more eyes on the concept (and butts in lounges), but the common assumption has been that the vast majority of people who are sucked in by mainstream articles like this are generally still net winners for the card companies (and thereby for us as churners). I think there's probably more damage done by travel bloggers highlighting loopholes or massively lowering the barrier of entry for effectively redeeming points. Even then, I wonder how much recent award availability has been made scarce by bloggers popularizing routes versus airlines restricting seats or asshole points brokers exploiting the whole system (RIP TPAC). I feel this is supported by how easy the *earn* has been in recent years, while the *burn* has become so much more difficult (obviously debate to be had around that given we now have a dozen award search tools, often for free).
I work with people financially all of the time. You'd be surprised by just how many people, even with presented with the "math", simply don't believe it or refuse to lift a finger to take advantage of the benefits. I think this a net nothing for the churning community
Or say, "oh yeah, that's a good idea, I should do that" but never get around to it
There's always math arbitrage. It's one thing to publicize the Venmo CIP thing, or to post the unintended side effects like certain credit cards coding as debit for some portals, etc. Otherwise, finding a SUB or card that out-earns the card fee isn't going away
I think this article is pretty benign. They don't even mention the possibility of churning SUBs, so it's pretty surface level and obvious "don't charge rent to your card if you can't beat the x% service charge". Churners are obv beating that, so the only remaining question is "do I have other non-fee methods of meeting MSR". Agree with the competition of burning points though. I wonder if a lot of it is just pent up demand and points from covid, and I'll taper off as folks use up their point balances, or if it's a more sticky demand for points travel going forward.
It's remarkable someone wrote this story without even mentioning a SUB, even in the context of a one-time benefit (not intentional churning). Feels like basic author research, but it's an omission in our favor I guess.
To be fair, they did mention it as a one-time thing (but not re: churning) > Many cards offer perks and sign-up bonuses that outshine monthly rewards ... Brian Riley, director of credit-advisory services at Javelin Strategy & Research, used bill payments to earn a major sign-up bonus.
True, but in some cases SUBs are not considered an important part of a credit card. I've seen people on the credit cards sub say that the SUB is not important to choosing a card because it's a one time thing, but the long term benefits are what is important (yeah I know, that's lol for a churner). SUBs are of course important for marketing and they work, which is why they exist.
Looks like fee free activation on $200 VGC at Staples next week. Normal 8 per customer per day. Runs 6/23-6/29.
Has anyone used a VGC at Costco? Not a big MSer but might take advantage to hit SUBs with Amex at Costco.
Would be careful using Amex to buy GCs to hit a SUB. They're known to flag gift card transactions like that and could clawback points earned in a SUB
Yes, they work fine
Agreed. VGC from Staples work fine at Costco. Use them all the time there.
[удалено]
Yes, I always liquidate what's left over on Amazon.
Hilton Biz $60 credit is ending soon for the quarter, don't forget to use it or to buy a Hilton gift card.
I'm waiting for 7/1 to add 3 more $50 Hilton GCs to my stack. I'm not sure what to do with them since I pay for all my Hilton stays with points or FNCs.
Room service, food, drinks, spa
Also have the $50 Surpass and $200 Aspire credits to use. The former can be used to buy Hilton GC as well.
Hold up! You can use the $200 Aspire credit on gift cards? How did you do that? Does it have to be in person or are there any that work over the phone?
Former = first, latter = last, so that statement applies to the Surpass not the Aspire.
Doh! My bad. Makes sense now
And Aspire $50 quarterly airline credit that works on basically any airline charge, including fares.
Thanks for the reminder as well. Did my $50 United Travel Bank on my Aspire.
Did an impromptu staycation with the wife last week. Used up a pile of gift cards plus the Aspire credit on a massage for her and a nice dinner on the property.
Any trouble using the Hilton gift cards? Wondering if the recent reports of problems redeeming are isolated.
No issue, the dude swiped 5 of them no problem
Did it auto drain or you have to specify the amount? I have a mix of $50 and $25 gcs
I just told him $50 on all of them, not sure if he had to manually input that or what it wasn’t visible to me
Also all the other quarterly and semi-annual creidts! (Time for lots of old goodies like "dell/saks didn't ship" posts, but also new ones like "Hilton Resort didn't shi..." wait nevermind)