Miles Earn and Burn

EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt is on vacation until at or around January 1, 2026. Until then we have guest posts, today’s post is brought to you by Matt’s longest churning buddy and all around super-guy, Tyler. Special thanks for the post!

Brokers help us leverage our spending game. From gift cards, gold, rakes for SideShowBob, UR points, MR transfers, iPads, Amex offers, buyer’s groups and more, brokers serve as a conduit to buy/sell goods and services. There are dozens, probably hundreds, of brokers who are seasoned veterans with resources, connections, and forums that can help bridge us to more opportunities and a larger network. They are valuable to us in our spend game.

There are plenty of elements when considering which broker to work with.  I present the Broker Point Factor Analysis (BPFA), a proven method (not really) that allows you to evaluate brokers that will guarantee (no actual guarantee) your path to financial success (probably not).  It is a basic point factor analysis method that assigns points based on identified factors.

So how do we use the BPFA? It is a highly scientific model that you must have an IQ greater than your local average city temperature in July. I vacationed to northern Wisconsin to improve my chances when I studied this model. A few components of this model:

• BPFA factors are subjective, so consider factors that are important to you when building your BPFA.
• Points are given based on how each broker is rated in the Broker Point Factor (BPF).
• Total up your points and see which broker best aligns with your factors.

The certified MEAB Business Analyst has put together an example using two hypothetical brokers: Jim and Dwight. *I hope there aren’t brokers who go by this name, there is no correlation intended. File a complaint with the MEAB Fairness Officer if you feel violated. I think his name is Toby, I can’t remember. Below is the analysis:

BPF: Costs, fees and rates – clear, competitive, based on market conditions. 

Broker Jim: Jim posts rates that are competitive, perhaps not always the highest. They post in a consistent format that makes it easy to digest and aren’t afraid to share any hidden costs or fees. 

Broker Dwight: Dwight routinely under prices to competitors, sometimes a decent amount. Terms can seem vague and when questioned, it might be ambiguous.  

Points: Jim – 1  Dwight – 0 

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: We all want top dollar for our products, and brokers also want the highest margin. Some are smaller with more spread, others are larger with more overhead that need more volume. 

BPF: Ease of use – easy UI/submission process, simplicity. Do they limit cap, speed of deal posting and action. Spreadsheets, websites, forms, links that are intuitive.

Broker Jim: Jim has a nicely dedicated format for his deals. His deals go through email/channels in an efficient format that is also mobile friendly. Jim is always one of the first to put out deals and prices. Jim rarely has flaws in his process, and when we see a deal from Jim, we intuitively know the format and what to do.

Broker Dwight: Dwight has a few different inconsistent methods he uses, which can leave users a bit lost. He sometimes uses Telegram, or WhatsApp, or slack, or email, all of which have different functionality and user preferences that can feel discombobulated. Sometimes dates are wrong, there are typos, and it feels a bit sloppy.

Points: Jim – 3  Dwight – 1

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: Larger brokers have more systems and people in place to navigate ease of use. Though, some have an overengineered process that may not align with what you find easy. Nothing should feel overengineered, and more steps can lead to errors.

BPF: Liquidity, reliability, execution speed:  Fast, on-time, consistent payments. Can weather market fluctuations or issues with end users. 

Broker Jim: Jim pays fast. Like, REALLY fast. Sometimes you panic because funds hit your account before you are expecting. 

Broker Dwight: Dwight has reasonable payout periods. Though, he consistently needs to be reminded once he is past his date. In addition, he has had end user payment issues that delay payment processing. Payments come from various sources and time periods vary, so it is hard to track. 

Points: Jim – 8  Dwight –  -2 

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: Payment delays aren’t usually a big deal as long as it is communicated. More concerning, payment delays may be a result of the broker not having enough money. This can be a potential sign for if something goes wrong, the broker may not have the funds for a period that makes you feel uneasy. 

BPF: Customer Service: Type of support and assistance in all phases of transaction: before, during, and after transactions.

Broker Jim: Is active in his community. He responds to people’s questions publicly when asked, and also responds to private DMs. During initial contact, he is friendly and transparent with new members. He is timely, courteous, and has a knack for doing the right thing.

Broker Dwight: *crickets*

Points: Jim – 2  Dwight – 0 

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: It is easy to be a good broker when things run smooth, though customer service should be top priority. 

BPF: Conflict management: How they navigate problems, disputes and errors. Identifies, addresses, and resolves disagreements in a constructive way that minimizes negative outcomes and maximizes positive ones. 

Broker Jim: is direct in his communication and timely. If there are errors, you are notified immediacy, know what is wrong, and what to do. He offers to support you (not hand hold) with words of guidance as he brokers see more conflicts than buyers do. 

Broker Dwight: Immediately puts blame on his customers. Blames them for errors, makes assumptions, and is belittling to customers in a snarky way. 

Points: Jim – 3  Dwight – 0

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: It isn’t about eliminating conflict, sh!t happens, yet it’s about managing it in a way that leads to growth and better outcomes in the future. “It isn’t what you say, it is how you say it.”

BPF: Terms: What are risks for each party, and do they hold all parties to terms within reason. Clear, defined, yet not overly engineered or heavily unfavorable for one party over another.

Broker Jim: Has terms that are reasonable and even has a clause that protects buyers from fraud. There is a limit on when to submit, how long risk is for products (cards, fuel points, bookings, etc.).  

Broker Dwight: has very long risk periods for his buyers. Essentially makes them accountable no matter what. They almost seem intentionally vague. In addition, he randomly posts updated rules in his forums and channels while not updating his primary terms.  

Points: Jim – 4  Dwight – 1

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: Of course we need rules, this isn’t Nam. focusing on the intent and spirit of the rules more important. In addition, one should always be able to find a brokers terms easily. When in doubt, always ask a brokers terms. Don’t be afraid to constructively suggest changes to terms that are equitable and reasonable.

BPF: Communication: Timely, clear, reasonable in all methods: 1:1 conversations, through chat, to their channels and audience. 

Broker Jim:  has an innate ability to nearly know all of his buyers. He isn’t overly goofy, has fun when appropriate yet still has a business oriented demeanor. When you message Jim, he responds promptly. When a question comes up on a deal he posted, he responds timely or his other buyers chime in to help. 

Broker Dwight: doesn’t engage much. He posts deals and allows his channel to become overwhelmed with fodder. At times, he even contradicts himself with his own guidelines. His brevity at times leave much to be desired.

Points: Jim –  5 Dwight – 2

MEAB Business Analyst rationale: A predictable broker is a good broker. Predictability follows a regular, reliable pattern that makes future events or actions easier to foresee. They anticipate problems before they happen and are clear in their interactions.

Total Points Jim: 26 points, Dwight: 2

The point is obvious: work with brokers that have a value proposition that aligns with yours. I don’t think there are inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ brokers. There are brokers that have different modalities by which they operate. If something feels off with a broker, it probably is. Diversify your business among different brokers. Work towards a win-win with your brokers. Treat them with respect and they will return the favor. In conclusion, there are multiple factors that should be considered when utilizing a broker. So do as Kenny Rogers says: know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.

– Tyler

Pictured: Tyler’s broker decision tree.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt is on vacation until at or around January 1, 2026. Until then we have guest posts, today’s post is brought to today’s post is brought to you by DucksRising, a reflective and reluctant heavy hitter. Special thanks for the post!

Introduction

During the pandemic, I was recruited to join a group manufactured spend (MS) play. This play involved hundreds of users and mimicked the operations of a large buying group. Already familiar with the rest of the credit card optimization landscape, I followed the predictable arc of every other user – initial small investments, followed later by larger purchases, eventually climaxing into a scale that seems unrecognizable at this point. Among certain apex predators, the profits from participating in this group were stratospheric. I have no doubt that the anecdotes of a few noteworthy purchases helped normalize the prevailing attitude that one should always be pushing higher, farther, and faster. Much like Karen Hill observed during the wives gathering of Goodfellas – it all seemed so normal when you were surrounded by it. I distinctly remember “don’t be poor” becoming part of the lexicon at some point in time. My own returns exceeded some of the users who participated at the minimum level, and generally provided more than what I would have gotten paying taxes and buying Visa gift cards, but thankfully I never reached the upper echelon, for reasons that will become clear.

During 2023, it became rapidly clear that the bottom was falling out of our joint venture. After a few days, leadership posted a message that they were lawyering up and severing all communications. Whether it’s social anxiety, an attitude of “F*?k The Bank” at all costs, or traditional narcissism, I have noticed for quite some time that every award blogger or noteworthy figure in this hobby seems deeply flawed at best, troubled at worst. Some of these figures are so awful they have spawned parody social media accounts. The culture and leadership of this group was more or less on this level.

Leadership attempted to nominate a replacement, an imbecile (probably seduced by the ideas of collecting the same administrative fees the original leadership had collected) who lasted exactly a day before loud-quitting via group message. Eventually it would turn to 3 people who made a reasonable pitch at righting the ship – they too would fail, although their effort seemed genuine – it is difficult to say how much was ever in their control. Original leadership’s only actual parting gift was organizing the hundreds of users into collections of individuals who had participated at a level similar to their own. Some of these groups were active, most were not, and in the end there ended up being two groups – those who had participated at a large level, and everyone else.

Money Talks, Bulls*#t Walks

Much like the pandemic showed that humanity’s natural instinct towards retreating into tribes is undefeated, these groups formed diametrically opposing viewpoints. The smaller group who demonstrated significant spend always seemed to have more information and always be one step ahead. They also generally looked down upon the larger group, referring to this group as “the masses”, “the poors”, etc. The larger group seemed more diverse, more outspoken, and at times significantly more unstable. Screenshots from each group occasionally made it to the other channel, igniting controversy. Regardless of these dynamics, it was clear after 1-2 months that a significant percentage of initial investments were not returning to anyone; they were lost.

One of the great fallacies of our hobby is optimization – the idea that you should be extracting as much money from the banks as possible at all costs. This is only partially true. You should only be grabbing as much low hanging fruit as possible. Even most award bloggers lose sight of the fact that spending time banging at Rakuten, shopping portals, etc. is generally a net negative. Seeing the entire picture is paramount.

Blitzkrieg

Again, during 2023 the entire picture trying to recoup tens of thousands, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars, seemed daunting. Some users of the group experienced a profound mental health crisis. Some seemed unbothered. Most landed somewhere in the middle of this. The outside perspective was difficult to deal with – rival buying groups and moderators from varying subreddits openly cheered on the demise of the group and encouraged suicide. Some tribes are… built differently than others. Amidst this chaos, and with the perspective of time, the landscape view showed something different – while American Express was the biggest problem for almost everyone, many had positions spread across anywhere from 2 to 7 banks.

Another factor: financial institutions are filled with incredibly stupid people, and simultaneously do not give their employees an opportunity to help. It rapidly became clear that fighting your own personal lightning war against the banks was the path toward success. Certain departments within a handful of specific financial institutions quickly were overrun and approved the return of credit card purchases en masse before eventually applying speed gates. This would repeat later with Paypal. The days of the PayPal Mafia are long gone, but in a deeply ironic twist, despite being outshone by their hotter sorority sister Venmo while also having outsourced all of their customer service operations abroad, PayPal was the only company to be proactive: running a query, sorting by spend, and apparently calling various whales of the group attempting to figure out why $17 million in payments were being returned. Simply put, many of these institutions rely on lowly-paid customer service grunts to flag and elevate issues, although the exact procedure for larger banks is likely a bit more proprietary and nuanced. The smaller the bank, generally the more generous, and generally speaking after 3-4 months the majority of users had all or the majority of their investment recouped. There were some individuals who were out $10,000-$20,000 here and there, or for whom it took 6-12 months to become whole, but the common denominator in this group was garden variety incompetence. Shutdowns came and went, some were actually defeated by what seems like a handful, and in some cases are still progressing to this day.

El Fin

With the benefit of hindsight, there are too many other lessons learned across too many parts of one’s life to expand on. I learned that the line between playing a small role and medium role in a joint venture can be rapidly crossed with little to no thought outside of the financial rewards. I learned applying large stress tests to a financial institution comes with a considerable responsibility – being able to bullsh*t dynamically, reading T&Cs, leaving your job for an hour at a time perhaps several times a day. I learned that “Flight or Flight” within humans extrapolates congruently with pressure exerted, real or perceived. I learned that, as Gen Z says: when people show you who they are, believe them. Looking down the road – I have no doubt that other plays will emerge (or perhaps already have in other communities), and decisions will again need to be crossed, this time with the benefit of experience. This hobby is unlike most others in so many ways, we’re all mostly wandering without a map at times. As someone much smarter than I once scrawled on a picnic table: There is No Fate But What We Make

– DuckRising

The PayPal mafia: 2025.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt is on vacation until at or around January 1, 2026. Until then we have guest posts, today’s post is brought to today’s post is brought to you by @MForch, a hardened churner turned advantage player turned future real estate baron. Special thanks for the post!

We all know the holy grail of this hobby: CPP (Cents Per Point). We obsess over whether that Hyatt redemption was 2.1 or 5.5 cents per point. We brag about the $15,000 First Class flight we bought for 80k miles.

But there is a much more important metric that almost no one in the churning community talks about: CPH (Cents Per Hour).

If you spend ten hours a week chasing a $200 bank bonus or driving to three different grocery stores to find the one cashier who still allows certain transactions, you aren’t winning. You’re just working a second job for minimum wage.

Laziness Backed by Science

If you’ve ever read a self-help or business book, you can summarize 90% of them with one concept: The 80/20 Rule. 80% of your profits come from 20% of your activities. Usually, that’s high-level scaling a specific play that actually moves the needle. Yet, most people in this hobby spread themselves thin, spending time on every brilliant Amex Offer, hotel credits they could just do from a Vegas pool and every convoluted shopping portal stack. Reading all the blogs, message boards, slacks and discords(the emoji month later).You are falling into the rabbit hole because your return on time is abysmal.

Scaling vs. Scavenging

I recently had a conversation at a MEAB meetup with one of the many Davids in our corner of the internet. David is a hustler, saw some of myself in him—he was doing a little bit of everything. He had ten different plates spinning, most of them decent sized but not a real wage replacement.

I asked him point-blank: “Why aren’t you focusing on scaling what you’re actually good at?”

He was doing what most of us do: scavenging for crumbs because we’re afraid to miss out on any new play. I told him to pick the one play he saw as truly scalable and go all-in. He took the advice. Fast forward to today: he has 100x’d that single play and now has a Plum situation most of us are jealous of.

He didn’t find a new secret; he just stopped doing the small stuff so he had the bandwidth to scale the big stuff. That is pure gold.

My Shift: From Points to Property

Lately, I’ve been focused heavily on my Real Estate business. Why? Because for me, the return on time is simply better. A single successful property acquisition or a well-managed renovation yields a profit margin that makes a $500 referral bonus look like pocket change.

However I haven’t forgotten my churning tools to increase the ROI of my real estate plays.
The advantage player (AP) mindset doesn’t stay in the credit card world. I apply the same social engineering and optimization tactics to my real estate business:

• The Stack: Buy a gift card with a dash of this or an uber discount to fund renovation materials. Coupons for huge off or become a cash back monitor to squeeze some extra juice out of the deal.
• Social Engineering: Negotiating discounts with contractors(would you take credit card?) and stores using the same persistence we use with reconsideration lines for open or damaged items. Finding a friendly cashier for your shenanigans.
• Arbitrage: Finding the gap between what a property is worth and what I can get it for, just like finding a mispriced award seat.
• Taxes: Beating the fees while paying your taxes, Even prepaying just to get it returned days later at closing.

Know Your Worth

The Points and miles lifestyle isn’t about working harder; it’s about burning the least amount of your life energy for the most amount of profit.

If a play takes you four hours and nets you $40, your CPH is $10. You’re better off working at a Cracker Barrel and buying the points.

Stop spreading yourself thin. Look at your spreadsheet. Identify the one play that has the highest scalability and the lowest time commitment. Don’t stop paying attention just focus that attention. Your 80% isn’t my 80%- we all have different advantages in the world.

– @mforch

Pictured: @mforch