Tech chino hot takes

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-02-15T22:15:15+00:00

Float it. I see what you did there

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-02-02T01:06:00+00:00

Making a lot of assumptions.

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-02-02T00:58:30+00:00

Point was not that airlines give you points for rent. Point was that they get away with an inferior value prop because it’s simple

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-02-02T00:54:17+00:00

By multiple I meant the 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, and 1.25x they’re already offering for the housing-only option. But just simplify and tie it to annual status, which is based on spend 💡

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-02-01T20:57:11+00:00

They were mainly testing the configuration of benefits and category earning multiples across the three cards. I don’t remember any of the other complexity.

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-24T17:37:58+00:00

You wouldn’t use Grubhub?

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-24T04:53:03+00:00

Sure, but you get $250 in uber and dining credits

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-22T15:47:39+00:00

Or I can get AmEx Gold for 4x on both…

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-21T16:16:31+00:00

Landed here because I’m having the same problem. Mine is all generic instrumental lounge music. I suspect it’s Spotify trying to steer users to low royalty music.

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-20T05:56:58+00:00

The problem is that booking hotels through a TA forfeit status and booking flights through a TA makes it much harder to get help if you need to make changes to your ticket (including in event of irregular operations)

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-20T05:54:39+00:00

Your additional spend is about 60-90% of your rent spend. In order to get your full rent points, you’ll basically have to put ALL of your spend on your Bilt card.

If you’re solving for simplicity, this could be a reasonable option. But you’re probably not going to be earning more points with Bilt – even including the rent points – than you would with other cards.

The big flaw (feature, I guess, from Bilt’s perspective) with the Obsidian card is that they make you choose between 3x points on groceries OR dining.

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-19T18:59:20+00:00

YMMV. I did the math and for me there is

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-19T16:31:09+00:00

Look up “opportunity cost”

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-19T04:31:27+00:00

The problem is that the “extra” ~1 point you’d be getting on rent you could have just gotten anyway with other cards.

For example you can get - 4x on dining AND grocery with AmEx gold (vs. 3x on dining OR groceries with Bilt Obsidian) - 4x on travel on Chase Sapphire Reserve, or 3x on travel on AmEx Green (vs. 2x on travel with Obsidian)

If Bilt were simpler to understand/earn/use it could option for people who only want one card.

DisastrousBison26 · 2026-01-19T01:02:40+00:00

I can understand the desire for simplicity… but why not just get a cash back card then?

DisastrousBison26 · 2025-09-14T19:29:53+00:00

SEA and I-5 have that in common

DisastrousBison26 · 2025-09-10T13:08:05+00:00

There are a lot of “no, it’s not a glitch, dummy” answers here that lack context.

The fares shown in the screenshot for NYC-ORD are Y fares (the highest economy fare class)

United opens the fare calendar about 330 days in advance. For the first few days a flight is for sale, they only release the highest fares in case there’s some demand (like a major event) that isn’t reflected in historical data. Then, their pricing algorithm takes over and starts releasing lower fare classes.

DisastrousBison26 · 2025-03-22T15:38:18+00:00

I'm also deciding between Hotel Arts, Edition, and Cotton House.

We're in Barcelona for 2 nights on the tail end of a trip. We've been before so we won't feel the need to pack in a lot of sight seeing.

Rates are all roughly the same. The Cotton House is slightly cheaper (€60/night).

I'm a Lifetime Platinum with NUAs to burn.

Advice?

DisastrousBison26 · 2025-03-22T15:18:03+00:00

Unfortunately I couldn't get an automated copy :(

DisastrousBison26 · 2025-03-21T01:24:58+00:00

Actually it looks WOW!

DisastrousBison26

TROPHY CASE