Category: Meta

Introduction

In one of the weirder developments of 2023, a year full of weird developments, American Express temporarily offered bonuses for downgrading its Membership Rewards earning cards to cheaper variants. It happened in late 2022 as well with the Delta cards too.

These offers have surfaced again in the last couple of weeks, proving that 2024 now officially exists in American Express’s mainframe.

What’s Going On?

The offers appear via targeted link in your online dashboard, via targeted email, or as a retention offer when you chat or call a customer service agent. Because these offers were visible to agents, my assumption in the past was that downgrade offers were an intentional decision by American Express to prevent losing card members who might no longer want a premium card.

My new opinion though is that these aren’t intentional, but rather a periodic bug in American Express’s systems because:

  • Their lifespans don’t match other AmEx offer lifespans (they’re shorter)
  • They’re targeting some members that have had the card for years,
  • They’re targeting members a few months after annual fees were paid
  • The T&C language specifically mentions the word “upgrade”
  • They’re only appearing on personal cards false, thanks to Bork

American Express’s technology stack includes a mix of systems that date back many decades, and I’m sure it’s hard to fully predict the outcome of a change in one part of those systems. I hope it’s obvious that in general that’s a good thing for churners.

How to Play It?

If you get one of these offers, I’d note a few things:

  • To avoid pop-up jail, keep the card open for 12 months after accepting a bonus (but only if you earn the bonus)
  • Earning one of these bonuses won’t put a new card on your credit report or affect 5/24
  • You can stack this bonus with a retention offer, assuming one is available after downgrade

Good luck friends!

American Express’s technology interconnection switchbox.

Introduction

Since 2021 or so, an odd brokerage named Moomoo let crafty churners earn several thousand dollars with relatively convoluted promotions and bonuses, the kind that needed a few pages worth of text or 10 minutes worth of talking to wade through; also known as “A Churner’s Delight.”

Moomoo has now become semi-mainstream, so much so that they’ve appeared on DoC three times this year, with less convoluted promotions to bring more funds into the FinTech which is simultaneously part bank and part brokerage.

Safety

Churners are good at probing the most dank, web ridden, smelly corners of the financial world. They’re often emboldened to do so because they’ve got protections like:

  • CFPB for credit instruments
  • FDIC for deposit account insurance
  • SIPC for brokerage account insurance

For most financial products if everything fails, you’ll get everything you’re owed paid back in full thanks to the above.

FinTech Weirdness

FinTechs lean on the perceived safety to give you confidence in working with them, but as the Synapse shutdown and bankruptcy has shown, just because there’s an FDIC or SIPC insured account somewhere, you’re not necessarily protected in the event of failure. A few nuances that you should know:

Remember, “we keep all your funds in an FDIC insured account” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have any protection. Check the FDIC website to be sure.

Have a nice weekend!

Few know that the original Churner’s Delight recipe came from a cafe in Portland. (Thank to Elaine)

The travel blogosphere is an interesting place: Where else can you find a bunch of people with similar interests talking about discount diapers, free Chik-Fil-A sandwiches, overflowing lavatories, first class lounges with Porsche transfers to your aircraft, and ViaSat internet all in the same regime? Nowhere else, that’s where.

At MEAB I try and focus on things that I think will make a meaningful difference in most readers’ lives. I personally value my time at well above $100 per hour, and I assume that you do as well, that means that I draw a line about which things I’ll post and which I won’t. If something doesn’t feel like it crosses that threshold, or if it’s a stretch to call it travel related, you won’t find it here. Instead you’ll only find (I hope):

  • Things that make you money
  • Things that make you miles
  • Things that maximize your money or miles, specifically related to travel
  • Things that make you laugh, but only in direct relation to the previous points

There’s a threshold for when something is interesting, and 500 points for taking a 10 minute survey is really, really below the value that I place on my own time, and by extension your time.

What’s the point? If you’re wondering why I’m not talking about a particular hotel promotion or a bank bonus that you find on other major sites, it’s probably because I think it doesn’t meet the $100 per hour imaginary line, or that it’s not directly relevant to making money or miles. If I miss something that clearly does cross that threshold, please let me know!

A visual representation of the line.

Opinions lie somewhere on a spectrum in daily life for just about any subject. For example, you’ll find people that tell you the best Mexican food restaurant is Taco Bell, and you’ll of course find plenty of other people with the (correct) opposite opinion. EDITOR’S NOTE: I tried to link to sources for the opposite opinion, but there were so many that it literally broke the internet so I had to revert the links.

In churning, a divisive range of opinions formed about how much sharing is good; all the way from “any sharing will kill any deal” to “everything should be shared so everyone can benefit” and everything in-between. I’ve seen counter examples to sharing absolutism on both ends and I think both viewpoints are wrong. A few examples:

  • “Any sharing will kill any deal”: Obviously this isn’t true. Buying money orders at Walmart has been around since the early 2010s, and buyer’s groups have been around even longer. Both are alive and well despite massive publicity and volume
  • “Everything should be shared so everyone can benefit”: Avianca LifeMiles learned about award chart soft-spots and cabotage through a travel blogger’s DOT complaint and killed plenty of its sweet spots right after; the same thing happened with Emirates redemption on Alaska after too much online press.

There’s a goldilocks zone with most subjective opinions where too much of something is bad, too little of the same thing is bad, but some is just right. What sharing size is right for churning? That depends on the audience’s size, composition, and the topic at hand. If you think I’m not in the goldilocks zone with this blog’s content, please let me know because I’m certain I can always improve.

Tying this back to where we started: While in general the goldilocks zone is somewhere in the middle, sometimes the absolutists on one side are correct: Taco Bell isn’t the best Mexican restaurant (don’t say you never learned valuable life lessons at MEAB).

Exhibit A: A Taco Bell Mexican pizza.

For a quick diversion today, I’ve created a library of free-to-use AI generated images for sensationalist travel blog posts. Feel free to use in any way you see fit, these are public domain and sure to come in handy soon!

Airline tug collides with duck during pushback!

Airline lavatory overflows!

Bedbugs at Lubbock, TX hotel!

Man strips to undergarments for airport security!

Southwest companion pass allows unlimited free travel!

Seatbelt extender breaks mid flight!

Pilot smokes in cockpit and spills coffee on the seat!

The Chase Sapphire Preferred’s biggest ever sign-up bonus ends next month!

Teen Instagram model kicked off of flight for wearing too much makeup!

American Express claws back 93 Membership Rewards!

Cathay Pacific’s amazing business class food spread.

No smoking placard falls off of ceiling mid-flight, pilot saves the day with duct tape!

Herd of goats fly in business class for zoo charter flight!

Senator misses flight, runs out onto tarmac to stop the plane!

Exclusive: Inside look at New York air-route traffic control center’s new janitorial closet!

Kurt Cobain’s estranged daughter plays “Smells like teen spirit” on Spotify for the whole plane!

Disgruntled man secretly cut’s Mr. T’s hair when his hair blocks the in-flight entertainment.

Travel blogger pokes fun at travel bloggers instead of enjoying the beach!

Have a nice day friends!

EDITOR’S NOTE [1]: The feedback I’ve gotten for guest post Saturday has been resoundingly positive. I’ve got a few posts left to publish, but I’m running low. If you’re interested in a guest post, please reach out!

EDITOR’S NOTE [2]: Yes, it’s another DaVinci Code post, sorry not sorry I guess. Stay tuned for a future site rebranding: Miles Earn and Burn, Confusing Beginners Since 2020™.

If you run around any private groups, quasi-private groups, or even reddit.com/r/churning, you probably know that PayPal Bill Pay massacred its targets yesterday. This could matter because:

  • We don’t know how much the app that rhymes with booze was relying on this volume for its ongoing cash-flow, revenue, and profitability. We do know that there was a staggering amount of volume pushed through this channel though, and most of it dried up in a flash. Is this an issue? I have no idea, but it’s another good time to re-evaluate your risk assessment and tolerance with the platform.
  • Anything that still works on PayPal Bill Pay will probably see a huge increase in volume as players shift toward what works, ultimately causing those things to die more quickly too (probably).
  • We’re likely entering a new era of discovery in manufactured spend, so research and networking is likely to be more fruitful for the next month or two than normal while we search for the next big thing.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this still matters to you because this is a great opportunity to read between the lines and learn about what’s worked in the past; the object lessons here are lucrative and that knowledge will almost certainly help you in the future.

Happy Thursday!

Work in progress: The app that rhymes with booze’s logo, but in ripples.

One of the tenets of common sense that transcends travel hacking, miles and points, and churning is “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is“. To an untrained eye, it’s good advice and will probably keep you out of a tight spot.

If however you’re skilled in a particular field, the general advice can fall flat on its face and hold you back. In travel hacking and churning, there are currently and there have been plenty of examples that you’d miss out on if you thought they were too good to be true, like:

– Earning 24% back when buying Visa gift cards at home
– Earning tens of millions of Delta SkyMiles for buying money orders with a real bank debit card
– Getting enough cash to buy a new Subaru for adding employees to your account
– Paying a credit card’s bill with another credit card
– Flying to Europe in business class for 15,000 miles
– Buying airline miles at or below 0.5 cents a piece, in seemingly unlimited quantities
– Getting millions of AA miles with rapid card churning without paying annual fees

So, don’t let the idea of too good to be true prevent you from running a few tests when you’re a subject matter expert, instead, protect yourself and always be probing. Also, try not to visibly wince like I do when someone says “if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is”, it’s bad form.

Frat boy Chad said that Flamin’ Hot Cheeto cheeseburgers were too good to be true, and this, err, exists.

EDITORS NOTE: In 2024, I’m going to try and have a guest post on Saturdays. Today’s guest post is from Johnathan, who has gone from zero to heavy hitter over the course of a year. He’s humble and soft spoken, but carries a large manufactured spending stick.

My journey into the world of rewards began last March, kicking off what I’d call my ‘hobby/work’. The challenge? Juggling several American Express Platinum cards, each with its own lofty spending threshold to hit for maxing out rewards. It was my mentor’s encouragement that nudged me to take the plunge. At first glance, the spending requirements seemed crazy, almost impossible. But having a mentor by my side was a game-changer in navigating this financial labyrinth.

As a newbie, churning felt like being pushed off a plane in the middle of a Chinese metropolis without any friends, trying to learn how to live. It quickly turned into the most unusual hobby I’ve ever taken on, packed with moments that had me thinking, “This can’t possibly work,” defying all logic.

A year in, I’ve learned that success in churning isn’t just about the number of transactions; it’s the people you meet along the way that make the difference. It’s the conversations, the stories shared, and the personal connections that really matter. And, boy, does it save time! When I was just starting, the thought of buying money orders made me anxious, and I’d be driving all over town. But by bringing a personal touch to each interaction and really getting to know the people I met, I could easily handle 15-20 money orders while engaging in genuine conversations. That changed everything, saving me an invaluable amount of time.

I owe so much to my mentor for their guidance and support. Going it alone on this journey is something I can’t even imagine. Having someone in your corner to discuss all the churning escapades is a godsend. They’re the ones you can call up to vent about every hiccup—the roadblocks, claw backs, sketchy gift cards, dealing with Incomm’s customer service—you name it. And if you’re pushing the limits, you can bet things will go sideways. Like Matt says, “If you haven’t been shut down, you’re not pushing hard enough.” I had my first shutdown this year with the GM card. How on earth does a company that produces Buicks cut you off?

What’s more, having a churning confidant is priceless. Trying to explain this world to anyone else is like an alcoholic attempting to explain to a casual drinker the reasons behind their long-term
drinking. You’re met with confusion and questions like, “I don’t get it, why don’t you just stop?” or “Why put yourself through all this effort?” But it’s the collective experiences and all the comical
mishaps that have happened along the way that make it so enjoyable.

– Jonathan