Bored as usual, I scanned my AwardWallet balance to see what was new. My Club Carlson went up by 7500 points. I logged in and found the following:
The bonus has only shown up so far in one of my accounts, either the personal or business. While it doesn’t do much in restoring the free night benefit that was shamelessly taken away, who is going to refuse free points? Others have written about filing a claim with the BBB to get the annual fee refunded but I have yet to try that. Maybe I’ll call to complain for more points since my new balance is 26k which is basically useless.
It’s been a down and down month for TPOL. First, I got the royal rejection by Amex for the Delta bonus. Then Wells Fargo refused to credit my account my payment without faxing in proof. Finally, BOA said that there was no record that my application for the AlaskaEmirates Shower Class card included a $100 statement credit after spending 1k in 3 months.
Instead of arguing, I spent the 1k and am glad to see the credit reflected in my statement. Still, I have to advise to take screenshots for everything because no one is to be trusted!
Get this offer, grab that offer. Maybe I bit off a bit more than I could chew in the last app-o-rama last round of applications. However, I am happy to say that I have come out on top thanks to a few ill-conceived purchases, too many trips to the pharmacy, and Nino Brown purchases at the grocery store.
If you look back at the history of manufactured spending, you’ll agree that it is more challenging than ever to spend without spending. Today we are left with few options to hit those pesky mins and more fees in order to get there. Sure you can purchase Amex gift cards on topcashback then try your luck at purchasing Vanilla Visas at your local drugstore. But is that really worth the hassle of it not working or the $5.95 to simply buy the card outright? If you’re a cheapskate devout frugal traveler then the answer is yes.
My situation is a bit different. My closest Target is 100 miles away meaning I can’t risk jumping through the hoops of buying this card, waiting for that card, and then hoping that it all goes down without a hitch. I have to unload $7500 on theBIRD all in one day because of the pain of getting to Target.
Although I’m not happy at the amount of fees I had to pay, I rationalized that the 45k I previously spent for free before little Red died offset the costs this time around. Furthermore, the benefits I receive from completing this MS will far outweigh the incidental costs. Finally, as I alluded to in the opening, not all my spending was manufactured. (see membership at the country club.)
Here are the cards, the, mins, then the rewards that TPOL +1 collected.
In the past, I’ve written about the top places to get pho in the world. Now, I am inadvertently beginning to compile a list of the world’s most disappointing. Those include New York and Mongolia and even this place in Saigon.
Missoula may have great burgers but it doesn’t have good pho, at least that was my takeaway from dining in at the Vietnam Noodle Restaurant.
I don’t enjoy writing bad reviews especially when it’s a mom and pop business but as the pho king I owe it to humanity to tell the truth. So what happened?
The Spring Rolls
The spring rolls came shrink wrapped. They tasted pretty fresh but it was obvious they had been refrigerated. There were cold spots within the roll that threw off the taste. The peanut sauce was runny and not appetizing.
Shrink wrapped?
The Price
A good hint that a pho restaurant won’t be great is if they specialize in all sorts of Asian cuisine, Chinese, Thai etc. Either live and die for pho or make takeaway Chinese food. Another tell-tale sign that a pho restaurant won’t be good is the price. Though I would pay $20 to have pho from Hanoi here in the United States, my experiences have proven that more expensive means less quality. Here, the bowls were around $10, a bit steep for broth and undercooked meat.
The Bowl
The Sprouts: They lacked life.
The Broth: If the broth is opaque, try the steak, said the former pho king, Johnnie Cochran. The broth was dark and tasteless. It got better as the bowl went on but truly great bowls go from great to epic, not from bland to meh.
The Steak: Cheap cuts, lacking flavor.
The Noodles: Not the right taste either.
Can’t see the bottom, not a good sign.Looks can be deceiving.
I’ve been trying to get my hands on an Amex Gold Open because it provides 3x points for advertising spend. One of my twelve jobs is online marketing for business professionals making this card worth getting. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I hit refresh the only offer I see on the Amex page is a 25k welcome bonus (a few times it did say 50k). In need of that hot 75k offer, I dug into forums hoping the savvy experts would show me the way to get the targeted offer. Though a few posted links, none of them worked.
I came across some people who were willing to sell their invite code for $50, $75, even $100. I think it would be worth the expense to pay $50 to get such an offer but something is off-putting about a random stranger profiting because they were lucky enough to be targeted.
That’s why I’ve went back to hitting refresh and hoping that the cardmatch tool one day gives me 100k MRs after $25 spent.
Four weeks of training is done for the Athens marathon and in order to keep myself honest and motivated, here’s my weekly diary of all things marathon.
Here’s what happened this week:
I ran 12.25 miles ate a pace of 9:26/mile and ate a bunch of pasta after.
Why? First, take a look at the struggle to get the Propel card. That should tell you all you need to know about the bank. That post describes the hoops I had to jump through for a simple credit card with a whopping limit of $2500 and a bland rewards program. To get the $400 sign up bonus customers have to spend $3000 in 3 months. From there the level of rewards depends on how much money you have in your checking account or something to that effect. But that’s not why Wells Fargo is the worst. Here is why:
I spent $2470 of my $2500 limit as quick as I could to reach the minimum spend and avoid their antiquated online banking system which they hype as a free feature for banking customers. I immediately paid my balance two days ago and was ready to top off the rest of my account. However, each transaction no matter how small kept getting declined. Frustrated, I called the bank to ask if there was a fraud alert on my account. They said there wasn’t but added that my available credit was only $30. I told them that the online system showed a payment for the balance so that doesn’t make sense.
“Although we see the payment, we cannot free up your credit until August 21st when the funds are cleared. Alternatively, you could fax (that’s right they said fax) proof from the institution that they released the funds.”
Has anyone ever heard of something so stupid? I paid my bill with my checking account and they want proof that the funds are on their way. Why are they acting like the year is 1985 and that I’m presenting an out-of-state check? This is a national bank not a mom and pop convenient store. Surely they cooperate with other banks on much larger transactions than this.
Thanks to Running With Miles for reminding to post that due to the Gyros crisis, elite runners may not be running in the Athens Marathon this year. The prize money has been removed providing less incentive for top runners to show up. That means that I will have a much better chance of winning the whole thing provided that I can get a hold of Uber during the race.
Bank of America is a liar. I’ve had it with them. A couple of years ago I applied for the business Alaska Airlines Card that said $100 statement credit with 1k spend. I got a letter in the mail acknowledging this and I threw it away because I believed they would honor their commitment.
This time I applied for an Alaska Airlines personal card that also had $100 statement credit so I could once again fly on Emirates Shower Class. Today I was chatting with an agent to pinpoint exactly when I would have to spend the $1000 in order to redeem the offer.
The agent said that they had no record of such an offer then had the damn nerve to refer me to Alaska Airlines. Luckily, I’m not as stupid as I may seem. This time I kept the damn letter and I can’t wait for my screaming call to ensue.
SkyMall, now bankrupt, was a wannabe inventor’s worst nightmare. “I came up with that, damn you SkyMall,” every passenger would say as they perused the magazine for its worthless treasures. A few weeks ago, Point Me to the Plane posted a link for BAUBAX: The World’s Best Travel Jacket. Instead of being annoyed or lying that I came up with the idea, I became intrigued with what they were selling. Yesterday I pledged money for their kickstarter campaign and can’t wait for this perfect travel accessory to arrive. With a perfect packing list and the perfect travel coat, you too will be ready to travel the globe.
![[Manufactured] Spending $44,000 in 3 Months](https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/unnamed-768x432.jpg "[Manufactured] Spending $44,000 in 3 Months")
