I love credit cards so much!

[Livelovedance]

Is anyone here a member of the SW Rewards for Opinions panel? I'm not usually into taking surveys for rewards, but this might be one I try to keep up with...

 

[tink1970]

I tend to think these changes will be on the PRG because the PRG already has 2x MR on supermarkets, restaurants, and gas stations, so a bump up to 4x MR for supermarkets and restaurants and removal of 2x MR at gas stations makes sense. The BGR earning structure and bonus categories are completely different, and never included supermarkets or restaurants, and gas stations is only one of 4 other bonus categories.

I agree...since gas, grocery, etc are fixed with the PRG and gas is one of the 4 that can be selected for the BGR it would make more sense to drop gas from PRG and not have all owners of the BGR with gas as their top redeeming category rearrange their 3x MR earning. Of course, this could be wishful thinking on my part and I'm not always clear what's logical to most is logical to the banks.

I hate to advocate panicking- and redeeming under duress. But these changes and threats seem to be coming from all angles now.

True but that said, since I have a dispodcast ABD to figure out flights for in Nov this could be Providence. Cash out for lie flat seats to London and home from Paris and receive 35% of my MRs back AND earn MQMs and skypesos? Don't mind if I do

 

[Alexle2007]

Is anyone here a member of the SW Rewards for Opinions panel? I'm not usually into taking surveys for rewards, but this might be one I try to keep up with...

I was doing the survey sites for DH when I was trying to get together enough points for CP. and I just received an invite today to sign-up for this particular program. They are offering 500 bonus points after your 1st survey so I sis why not.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

W

My problem is our trip is in 8 months so I'm just worried we won't have enough time to get 414,000 points.

Which room type are you looking at? Many are listed as both refundable and non refundable

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I have no idea if it works or not, but you could reserve the room directly through Hilton on a cash ressie (refundable of course) and when you get the points you can call and see it they can convert it to a points reservation. Maybe research that route.

When I tried that, they said no. No way to change amount of points applied.

 

[Livelovedance]

I was doing the survey sites for DH when I was trying to get together enough points for CP. and I just received an invite today to sign-up for this particular program. They are offering 500 bonus points after your 1st survey so I sis why not.

I got that same email. I'm trying it out but it seems way too complicated for me. I tried a few surveys but I was ineligible. I got one survey completed for 3 whole points...

If they actually give me 500 points for that I will be shocked. I don't think I'll be keeping up with this after all lol but I'm working on completing the profile and we'll see how it goes...

 

[kmc8826]

AMEX clawback situation worth following:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/9hecnv/daily_discussion_thread_september_20_2018/e6byryx/

Summary:
This user earned signup bonuses from the AMEX Ameriprise Gold, AMEX Green (personal), & AMEX Biz Gold Rewards cards on 2/15/18, 1/22/18 and 9/30/17 respectively. They have had the MRs sitting in their account since then. They DID NOT do MS (Manuf. Spend) to earn these bonuses.

The 100k points were clawed back (25k, 25k, 50k) with the following wording in an email: “We recently noticed point accrual or redemption activity on your Membership Rewards program account that indicates an effort to obtain or use points in a manner that is not appropriate.”

The user says they recently cancelled their BGR when the 2nd year AF was charged. They did cancel the Ameriprise Gold card after just 5 months (which was probably a dumb move) but that was likely 2 or 3 months ago at this point.

Very odd situation...has me a little spooked since I have 70k MRs and my wive has 190k MRs right now...would hate to have them clawed back.

EDIT: FYI my summary takes into account all of the comments made by this user so you don't have to read the whole string.

Amex has clawed back MR points before; most notoriously with the leaked Thanksgiving 100k MR Platinum link about 2-3 years ago? Amex froze accounts to conduct reviews, and if they found you MSed your points were gone.

It is concerning that the DP says he did not MS. But under more recently added anti-churning terms, the RATs pretty much have sole discretion to determine if you've been "gaming" Amex.

So the lesson I am taking from this is to use all your Amex cards at least once a payment cycle and then think twice about cancelling. And if you do cancel make sure it has been at least a year. It also going forward will make me think twice about applying for a new Amex. I will make sure it is a card that I really want and am okay keeping. I have regret now for applying for the SPG Biz...but at this point I will just plan on using it for gas once or twice a month and keeping it 2 years. Now that I finally have started these MR points I really don't want to do anything to catch the RAT attention.

Has anyone seen DP's of people who have transferred out their MR's (to an airline, cash) where Amex has come after them that way? It almost seems to me that since they have the partnership with the airlines they could in theory take back the transferred miles. If after all in their "sole discretion" they decide they are unhappy with you...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So the lesson I am taking from this is to use all your Amex cards at least once a payment cycle and then think twice about cancelling. And if you do cancel make sure it has been at least a year. It also going forward will make me think twice about applying for a new Amex. I will make sure it is a card that I really want and am okay keeping. I have regret now for applying for the SPG Biz...but at this point I will just plan on using it for gas once or twice a month and keeping it 2 years. Now that I finally have started these MR points I really don't want to do anything to catch the RAT attention.

Has anyone seen DP's of people who have transferred out their MR's (to an airline, cash) where Amex has come after them that way? It almost seems to me that since they have the partnership with the airlines they could in theory take back the transferred miles. If after all in their "sole discretion" they decide they are unhappy with you...

I don't think they can reclaim transferred miles/points. I have seen them still do the clawback in the MR account and put you into the negative. That's like the death curse though: now you have -50,000 MRs so you have to sign up for a card just to get back to 0, it's crazy!

 

[kmc8826]

I don't think they can reclaim transferred miles/points. I have seen them still do the clawback in the MR account and put you into the negative. That's like the death curse though: now you have -50,000 MRs so you have to sign up for a card just to get back to 0, it's crazy!

Thanks. It is all crazy; and a little scary really. Realistically I doubt they would ever approve you for another Amex card (or at least give you a bonus) anyway.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thanks. It is all crazy; and a little scary really. Realistically I doubt they would ever approve you for another Amex card (or at least give you a bonus) anyway.

AMEX has a sordid past in regards to clawbacks... and of course they are the ones that formed the RAT to sniff out churners. I know Chase has recently been on our naughty list...but AMEX was there first, lol. They both have earned their grief among churners!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Could you do a backup SW flight on points that you could cancel if their JetBlue flight goes as planned?

No SW points for me There are never any good SW flights from my airport so I don't keep up with anything to do with them. I love SW, but unfortunately haven't been able to fly them since 2015.

 

[Livelovedance]

AMEX has a sordid past in regards to clawbacks... and of course they are the ones that formed the RAT to sniff out churners. I know Chase has recently been on our naughty list...but AMEX was there first, lol. They both have earned their grief among churners!

I'm glad I only have a cash back card... I'm not a very active player but that is really scary lol.

 

[afan]

I'm watching my SEA to ATL flight closely because there are a lot of empty seats. It's a redeye nov 1 that was mostly full when I took it for the same weekend 2 years ago. I'm fairly certain they'll still fly it as the plane will need to get to ATL. Also watching it because there are at least 15 empty rows of 3 seats. I currently have one and am going to try my hardest to have a nice economy bed of 1 row and upgrade myself to a lie flat bed fingers crossed it works.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Hmm... Barclays Jetblue card has an increased bonus of 50k Jetblue miles for 1k spend... that would be a REALLY good start to flying the 6 of us to WDW next September. Might just pick it up since it's such a low MSR.

 

[Teal03]

Posted this in the gift card thread thought I would post here. JCP is having their bonus cash days this weekend. I purchased a $50 Kindle gift card and a few towels and got $10 bonus cash. Combine with the Wells Fargo offer. Buy $150 worth of gift cards and get back $70 from WF and $30 from JCP. Nice way to get some Christmas gifts.

 

[Lain]

Has anyone seen DP's of people who have transferred out their MR's (to an airline, cash) where Amex has come after them that way? It almost seems to me that since they have the partnership with the airlines they could in theory take back the transferred miles. If after all in their "sole discretion" they decide they are unhappy with you...

I don't think they can reclaim transferred miles/points. I have seen them still do the clawback in the MR account and put you into the negative. That's like the death curse though: now you have -50,000 MRs so you have to sign up for a card just to get back to 0, it's crazy!

Amex can’t claw back points that have been transferred, but they can put a debit on your account that could put you in a negative points balance. When Amex did that to people who MSed on the leaked Plat offer but had already transferred out their points before their accounts were frozen, leaving them with a negative balance, some people just closed all their MR cards to essentially “reset” their MR accounts. Don’t know how long it’ll take for Amex to approve them for another card again though. 7 years?

 

[elgerber]

Amex can’t claw back points that have been transferred, but they can put a debit on your account that could put you in a negative points balance. When Amex did that to people who MSed on the leaked Plat offer but had already transferred out their points before their accounts were frozen, leaving them with a negative balance, some people just closed all their MR cards to essentially “reset” their MR accounts. Don’t know how long it’ll take for Amex to approve them for another card again though. 7 years?

I guess I’d rather do that than lose all my current points?!?! If they clawback all your points you are probably not going to be in their good graces anyway.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Hmm... Barclays Jetblue card has an increased bonus of 50k Jetblue miles for 1k spend... that would be a REALLY good start to flying the 6 of us to WDW next September. Might just pick it up since it's such a low MSR.

I’m interested too but afraid of a “business” with Barclay.

 

[SBWB48]

Well, "DH" just applied and was approved for the Hilton Biz! We are slightly ahead on the 19K MSR we had since August, so I was comfortable pulling the trigger on an Amex Biz card that essentially has no impact on near-term plans and the current offer is solid. But nonetheless, so much for slowing down...why do I do this to myself

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

I did pull one from the rack one time that had the same packaging but different bank. Still worked the same. I will check it out next time...I am just so use to grabbing for the black packaging.

So you recommend the Visa gift cards in the black package not vanilla. I want to try this - I live in stop and shop land but it makes me so nervous!!!