Well that was much ado about nothing. Amex approved my Delta Platinum card netting me 60k useless Delta Skypesos. It always feels great to get accepted but I will have to be creative if I want to burn these points in style. Most likely I’ll apply for the business Delta next. Perhaps I will wait a year and get the gold too and then try to find availability from FNT to DTW in first class.
Spoiled churner comments notwithstanding, I think I learned something today or maybe I am more confused. At the time of my application I had the following credit cards (not charge cards):
Hilton Surpass
Hilton
Amex Blue
SPG Personal
SPG Business
The rule I thought I broke when I initially applied was that card members were capped at 4 credit cards. Recognizing this, I cancelled the Surpass which had an annual fee to bring me into compliance. But today when I called the agent said that my SPG business counted as a credit card towards the tally forcing me to knock off the Hilton in order to get approval.
So either the agent was mistaken or that is the new rule. Either way I’d like to welcome the Delta Platinum Amex back to my house. I haven’t seen it since my beloved NWA card left US Bank.
Remember that kid in law school who never created his own outlines, was always lurking around for handouts come finals time, and basically annoyed everyone? To some degree I am describing myself but only to a limited extent. In law school I found it more efficient to share my work product with others by becoming a broker of information. I specialized in the area I was interested, others specialized in theirs, and the dissemination of information flowed freely. “I’ll trade you Descendant’s Estates killer outline created by X for my Prisoner’s Rights outline.” Then I’ll trade that for T’s Evidence outline. And on and on it went.
The unspoken rule was that the mooch of information would be frozen out of the mix leaving the bottom feeder to fend for himself. After all, grades were based on a bell curve and giving away all the shortcuts would put those who actively participated in the swap at an unneeded disadvantage. Those that were in the inner circle understood that having an inclusive outline did not mean they would automatically score the highest. They would have to compete with their peers and ultimately the best would score well by effectively parlaying their own skills with the shared information.
The metaphor pairs perfectly in the points game. A certain billionaire who can’t keep a secret loves to disseminate any and all information crassly and carelessly with no regard for those who do the research by finding ‘sweet spots’, ‘two browser tricks’, and travel hacks. Good bloggers pay their dues to the system by making their own mistakes and then share their results with fellow bloggers and avid readers. Opportunistic bloggers troll websites for content then post arbitrage opportunities in big bold letters openly mocking the banks, airlines, pharmacies, bird zoos, and anyone else who is offering something for nothing. The inevitable result is that transactions that used to go through are now hard-coded in registers as impermissible. Churning opportunities for the 49th state that were readily available quickly dry up. And everyone is worse off as a result. Everyone except for the billionaire who makes a killing on affiliate links and is oblivious to the tacit rules of collusion that we all followed in law school.
There is no solution to stop this from occurring apart from speaking in code in deep, dark forums. This would make everyone worse off as collaboration would cease to exist leaving readers who don’t have the time to peruse every thread at a decided disadvantage. At the same time, wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the free riders? Wouldn’t it be nice to stop seeing pictures of a spouse covered with BlueBird Vanilla droppings? Make no mistake all parties that participate in the points game are aware of each other. Chase knows that you switched your Sapphire from Visa to MC just to get the sign up bonus. Target knows about your macaw parrot. And GiftCardMall knows you aren’t that nice to be spending 15k a month shelling out gift cards.
They let these activities transpire because these institutions have a ledger that dictates when an offering goes from profitable to unprofitable. Seemingly this coincides when someone decides to flaunt his success stories via blog post after blog post.
Do you have night sweats from pending credit card apps?
Do you find yourself muttering incoherent explanations as to why you’re opening X card with Y Bank?
If so then you understand the superfluous, exaggerated anxiety of latest application with Amex for a Delta Card that I don’t even want. Today came and went and the promised call from Amex did not occur.
Applying for a card with the worst awards program next to Spirit is as pointless as this post but for some reason I decided to do it.
Now I sit and wait for my fate. I promise that my next churn much like my next post won’t be so worthless.
I have no use for Delta, I have no care to fly Delta or collect their miles. I was one of the lucky ones to burn my points before their 8th devaluation by going to Buenos Aires and Mendoza. So why today did I fall for the ad on my page that said Delta Platinum Card 60k points?
The answer is greed. Why not another currency for the points game, you can never have enough right? Wrong. My recon call went nowhere as the department that reviews my application was closed. Furthermore, I made the mistake of applying for a 5th Amex credit card even though I had four open: Surpass, Hilton, SPG, & Blue. This is the limit for personal credit cards (distinguished from charge cards like the Amex Platinum) so the chances of being approved are slimmer despite cancelling the Surpass post application.
The lesson is not that Delta is the worst currency around or that you should not let greed inhibit better judgment. The lesson is know that you’ve learned your lesson and not to keep repeating it.
If you are thinking of applying, TPG provided a good list of where you could go with your newly acquired pesos. Fortunately or un, I don’t think it will apply to me.
As much as TPOL loves Shanghai and Hong Kong, sometimes it is nice to get off the beaten path and explore somewhere new. It makes for a great adventure and more interesting writing. The mission this summer was to find somewhere new to go for the 4th of July. Since the Southwest Pre-devaluation bookings weren’t feasible, I was forced to be more creative in making my selection. The two choices that I settled for are certainly unique and definitely worth seeing.
The first is Glacier National Park which is located in an isolated part of northern Montana. The other is the Calgary Stampede an annual rodeo event in Canada.
With no good flights to either, the best option is to drive. A couple of nights will be spent without the perks of platinum camping in the national park and the other nights will be free nights at the Hyatt Calgary which was worth the stay certificate and 12k points given that the price per night is 500CAD.
Along the way there will be wine tours, breweries, and who else knows what. a-live play-by-play will be served so long as there is Wi-Fi.
Any guesses where the Wi-Fi is the worst in the world?
Is it Myanmar? Undoubtedly, one of the worst places for Internet is Burma.
Is it China? Without question, the firewall is more than an inconvenience.
Is it Mongolia? Actually not, though everything else is dysfunctional there, the Slingbox (click to read the best story) worked quite well.
Is it America? How can the land of the free and home of the brave be home to the worst Wi-Fi? The answer is if you happen to be in Montana where the great outdoors are great because you have no choice but to go outdoors.
Anger aside, I find it unbelievable that this great country doesn’t have manifest destiny Wi-Fi and 4G from sea to shining sea. Forget roads and bridges, build more Wi-Fi. How else can TPOL bring the world of TPOL to the masses without 21st century communication capabilities.
I could write a full op-ed on the topic but now that I have Wi-Fi back, I need to catch up on the life that has been going on beyond these mountains majesty.
I value SPG points higher than any other form of hard currency because they are difficult to accrue. Besides staying at hotels or having a BIRDred on your shoulder, there is no way of effectively collecting SPG points. Even when I did pay for SPG rooms abroad, I still used other cards because of the 3% fee. Today, Amex finally got rid of those pesky fees making this card even more worth having. It remains to be seen if Amex will offset this advantage by upping the reasonable annual fee of $65.
In addition to this benefit, here are a couple more benefits for existing cardholders:
Complimentary, Unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi
Sheraton Club Access — If you have the Starwood Preferred Guest Business card, you’ll get free access to Sheraton Clubs when you book rates that are eligible to earn Starpoints.
In conclusion, go out and get the SPG card, both personal and domestic so you can go here with your points:
WOW Suite, W FIFA (Doha)
SPG needs to sponsor TPOL because of the great publicity that I am happy to share.
Credit card companies are handing out free global entry reimbursements as a perk like they did when ‘free first checked bag’ was a big deal.
I paid for global entry, gave away one to my parents, and am now in the hands of yet another. TPOL has decided to pay for a lucky reader to receive global entry if he or she does one of the following:
1. Follow me on Twitter and retweet this.
2. Like my page on Facebook and like this post.
3. Follow my blog on WordPress or leave a comment.
As soon as I get a combination of the above equating to 100, the cost of Global Entry, I will randomly select a winner.
Thanks to everyone for reading and making the month of May TPOL’s best ever.
TPOL has embraced the rancher’s lifestyle during his times on the range. Following the Bucking Horse Sale a few weeks back in Montana, my love for the rodeo has grown.
That is why this 4th of July I’m contemplating making the trek up to Canada for Calgary Stampede. It’s a rodeo party that appears to get out of control.
My preliminary search of SPGs and Hyatts have validated that if there ever is a time to go to Calgary it is during Stampede Week. Rooms at the Category 3 Hyatt go for $500/night and rooms at the Aloft are over $200. The cash and points option for a stay at the Westin for 6000 points + $110 (compared to the going rate of $500) is a bargain on its face till you see that off peak pricing for the hotel is only $140/night.
With a dozen more stays till I requalify for platinum I am tempted to book the Westin but doubt, given the popularity of the event, that I will receive an upgrade. The alternative is to use my Hyatt stay certificate which is good for one night in a Category 4 hotel and burn 12k GoldPassport for the rest of the nights.
To the TPOL faithful the question is:
Does Canada deserve my points on my favourite American holiday?
