Day: January 31, 2023

1. Delta and Hertz have strengthened their partnership, and you know it’s serious because they paid for a stock photo in the press release. The takeaway is that if you’re a Delta Medallion and you rent with Hertz, consider ensuring that your SkyMiles number is linked to your Hertz profile because the earnings rate on Hertz spend is somewhat compelling for higher tiers:
   
   – Diamond: 8 SkyMiles per dollar
   – Platinum: 7 SkyMiles per dollar
   – Gold: 6 SkyMiles per dollar
   – Silver: 5 SkyMiles per dollar
   – General: 4 SkyMiles per dollar
   
   If you have Delta elite status, the linkage will also grant you Hertz President’s Circle (Diamond or Platinum) or Five Star status.
   
2. The American Express Business Platinum card now has a public 170,000 Membership Rewards offer displaying under the right circumstances. As usual, if you don’t see the offer on the first round try:
   
   – Using an incognito browser
   – Connecting to a VPN
   – Switching to another browser
   – Switching between desktop and mobile
   – Hitting the link from a search engine after searching for “amex business platinum”
   – Crying
   
   This link does have lifetime language, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get the pop-up. If you’re approved and have spend capacity, maybe lob in an app for another Business Platinum at a different link because reasons. (Thanks to DoC)
   
3. There’s an IHG status challenge promotion open to everyone for paid stays between tomorrow and April 30. The status lasts through the end of 2024. You’ll earn status based on the number of nights:
   
   – Gold: 2 nights
   – Platinum: 5 nights
   
   IHG status isn’t super-compelling, but I’d register in case you end up at an IHG property anyway.
   
4. I apologize in advance for the vagueness but here we go: If you’ve been using a product from four letter FinTech company to pay a four letter credit union through an intermediary, watch for a mass of charge reversals and refunds for payments sent last week, and double check that anything that should have been refunded actually was because the four letter FinTech doesn’t always handle refunds properly. If you don’t keep track, you’ll almost certainly lose some refund money in the ether. 🪦

Happy Tuesday!