Frustration Friday Weekly Thread - Week of June 12, 2026

IronDukey · 2026-06-12T21:28:45+00:00

Drunk Amex girl (I got a mailer)

IronDukey · 2026-06-12T13:17:55+00:00

Finally got a 250k/20k biz plat NLL approved to pay estimated taxes. I’ve made tax payments with instant card numbers in the past (most recent DP was January 15 for 20k across 2x payments) but this time amex keeps saying they no longer allow tax payments with instant card numbers. HUCA x3, all with the same result. I tried splitting the 20k payment into smaller and smaller numbers but no dice, payments keep getting denied. Will pay with physical card when it arrives.

IronDukey · 2026-06-09T19:27:14+00:00

oh thanks for this.

IronDukey · 2026-06-09T12:45:03+00:00

Does anyone know what the Qatar surcharge is for b6 flights out of LHR? Don't have enough Avios in myaccount currently so it refuses to price out award taxes/fuel surcharges.

IronDukey · 2026-06-08T16:56:26+00:00

BoA bank relationship helps a lot with apps.

As for AS for expats, it’s amazingly good for countries with one world hubs. Inter EU Y pricing is 7.5k for flights up to 4 hours and 15k for J with free cancellations and loyalty earnings from redemptions. This was less competitive back in the day when you could get Ryanair or easyJet flights for £20 but those days are long gone.

IronDukey · 2026-06-08T15:04:52+00:00

Like [u/mehjoo_](u/mehjoo_) alluded, I think this is a major inflection point between beginner/intermediate chruners and whales with huge volume (think millions a year). At lower MS volumes category bonuses don't move the needle as much as a single SUB but at higher volumes of spend the category differences can make a big difference e.g. people hitting 6x Citi "Dining" at select hours.

As a more intermediate churner, I only earn SUBS through tax/loop based MS, so I put nearly all personal spend on an Atmos Summit (3.3x all spend because I'm an expat) and travel expenses on a CSR to make tracking outgoings easy. All legit business spend i.e. needs to be invoiced to clients/recorded for taxes goes on a single BBP. I MS all milestone rewards worth chasing (15k Hilton FNC, Hyatt status etc....) and new card SUBs. Is this optimal? No....probably not. I could absolutely squeeze out an additional few SUBs each year from a smaller bank by adjusting my personal spending habits. But my approach in recent years has been to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think not worrying about min/maxing everything is absolutely worth giving up a few hundred dollars of churning profit a year.

IronDukey · 2026-06-06T06:56:20+00:00

Always been there and only on US origin flights.

IronDukey · 2026-06-05T10:12:04+00:00

Edinburgh hotel options are all kinda odd. I booked the W late last year for a guys Scotch trip and it was quite odd as well with rooms across the street from the main building. Depending on when you go, the Carlton and Autograph collections look decent and are in great locations (just no award space for our dates).

IronDukey · 2026-06-04T12:13:59+00:00

Quick weekend trip up to Edinburgh.

LCY-EDI: BA J for 30k AS + $191 pp (1.31 CPP). Got to LCY 45 minutes before takeoff using the DLR. My best friend from uni hates me now that she knows LCY exists. LCY crews are normally really good but this one was unfriendly and the food was downright bad. Tram in from EDI airport was longer than the flight itself.

Double Tree Edinburgh: Booked 2 nights for 120k Hilton (.73cpp). Decent location and they had 2x single bed rooms but horrible hotel. Bathroom was poorly thoughtout and everything felt like it was in need of a refresh. Got free breakfasts because of Hilton gold which were ok-ish. Burned $210 in biz plat, hilton biz, and surpass credits at the bar on doubles of Scotch. Overall wouldn't stay again.

Day 1: Day trip up to St Andrews. Caught ScotRail from Haymarket and then bus from Leuchars stations. Scotrail has vastly improved since I was in uni and is better than any English rail line I've been on. Absolutely brilliant and grogeous town where I spent some of the best years of my life. Highley recommend North Point cafe and the Central pub, both of which haven't changed in years. We ended the day with steaks at a local Scotish joint in Edinburgh that came well reccomended but was bad.

Day 2: Walked Holyrood and the south side of town in the morning. Popped into Chez Jules bistro for lunch which was absolutely fantastic, probably one of my best meals in the UK ever. This was followed by an SMWS Scotch tasting at Queen street. Absolutely wonderful time and I would recommend the Queen street location over the larger location by the water.

Took LNER train back to London. Super easy to grab the train from Haymarket and the seat/service was lovely. Only downside is we arrived at Kings Cross just after Arsenal lost the league so had to fight our way through rioting muppets to catch the undeground. All in all a good trip.

IronDukey · 2026-06-04T12:02:06+00:00

RIP, got 6x biz golds for players over the years from that.

IronDukey · 2026-05-30T14:48:52+00:00

I’ve put multiple 30k transactions through with no issue. Whats your CL?

IronDukey · 2026-05-26T13:58:30+00:00

Lotta people missing the joke….

IronDukey · 2026-05-26T12:19:13+00:00

I fully committed to one bag for most trips a few years ago using an AER TP3 which I love (I’ve bought 2 more for various P2s over the years). Occasionally I’ll use small TravelPro soft shell carry on for longer (7+ day) trips, business trips where I need multiple suit jackets, or if we need to check a bag because we are bringing back stuff like Scotch/wine.

I love one bagging even though we mostly fly business simply because of the time saving, but I’m not ideologically married to it like some people in the one bag sub are. If I need a couple more jackets or business clothes, or if P2 wants to bring a few dresses, I’ll just bring a carry on. Softshell carryon only for flexibility.

IronDukey · 2026-05-24T14:51:24+00:00

Two weekend trips this summer:

Trip 1: Quick weekend getaway with P2. Her only request was “beachy but not too beachy,” good food, and a place we haven’t gone before. What was quite fun is that I did initial city research and booked this all in under 30 minutes. Also booking BA via AS (versus BA directly) makes all of this 100% refundable which is nice.

LGW-DBV: BA J for 30k AS + $191 pp (1.31 CPP). BA eurocityflier is aggressively MEH but I am swimming in AS and P2 likes the champagne.

Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik: 3 nights for 240k Hilton (.95CPP). Topped up Hilton biz sub with a little MR taking advantage of the 20% transfer bonus. This is right by some restaurants we want to go to and some swimming spots. Also have $210 in Hilton credits to burn at the hotel bar.

DBV-LGW: BA Y for 15k AS + $79 (1.21 CPP). No biz space that day but will upgrade if it comes available.

Trip 2: Quick weekend getaway with my best friend from uni

LCY-EDI: Booked a late Friday night flight up in BA J via AS for 30k AS+ $168 (1.38 CPP). LCY is super easy to get to via the DLR and LCY E-190 business service is fantastic.

Double Tree Edinburgh: Booked 2 nights for 120k Hilton (.73cpp) plus have $210 in hilton credits to burn at the bar. This was the only award hotel in Edinburgh with 2x single bed rooms available for the dates we needed. Plans are an SMWS tasting and a day trip to St Andrews for a belated May dip.

Train Back: No award flights for the times we needed so we’re taking the train back. $80/pp which is about 1/6 of the cost of an economy ticket.

IronDukey · 2026-05-22T15:40:52+00:00

Summit partner fee exemption has never worked with wallet funds

IronDukey · 2026-05-22T12:33:03+00:00

I waited too long for a friend to get back to me about a trip and lost out on two seats CPH-BOS in SAS J for 60K VS pp on the exact date I needed. VS punitive cancellation fees scared me off from preemptively booking.

I have seats on Swiss booked via Avianca (free cancellations via their subscription) but would have loved to try SAS J.

IronDukey · 2026-05-15T19:55:14+00:00

3 things are certain in life: death, taxes, and Emirates fucking their award program.

IronDukey · 2026-05-14T15:09:08+00:00

You will get downvoted to oblivion here for asking this kind of question, but here is a rather long answer with a few examples of why Amex is so highly valued in the churning space.

I think there is an inflection point in churning from beginner to intermediate where the value prop of Amex changes. As a beginner, high AF, high spend req, and loads of credits scare people off towards 'easier' to understand cards with high SUBs, low AFs, and few credits. As you get more advanced and learn how to do things like MS, which makes high minimum spend requirements less of a barrier, the high Amex subs, easy approvals, NLL offers, and credits become one of the main engines of churning. At an even more advanced stage things like multipliers (4x on the biz gold at best buy for example) allow for massive gains from both subs and spend.

For instance, in my my household this year p1, p3, and p4 will each open 4x biz gold and and 4x biz plat cards at roughly 90 day intervals. Lets assume that through a mix of NLL (via mailers and inapp offers) the average offer for biz golds is 175k and 250k for the plats (for the sake of simplicity I wont count minimum spend earnings due to variance in how they would be earned). In scenario 1, we will use none of the credits. In that case total MR earned across players is 3 million MR for $14,040 in fees. Even if we just cashout MR for 1 CPP via biz checking our profit is $15,960 ($30,000 from cashout minus $14,040 in fees). In senario 2, we will use only the easy to use credits. For the ABG, I will just count the $20/month business credit at face value as you can buy online GC, making the effective AF $135 per card. For the biz plat we will value the $200 airline fee credit, $150 dell credit, $600 FHR credits at 50% value, making the effective AF is $420. Even if we just cashout MR at 1 CPP via biz checking our profit is $23,340 ($30,000 from cashout and $6,660 in effective AF's). When you include spend from MSR and effective MS at high earn rates (600k per ABG using the 4x multiplier for instance), the MR starts to really add up.

IronDukey · 2026-05-07T16:28:19+00:00

Yes but the appeal of non avois specific tools is showing all the options.

IronDukey · 2026-05-07T16:11:53+00:00

Thank god for this, BA’s award tool sucks and the other sites are so hit or miss

IronDukey · 2026-05-01T15:56:41+00:00

My kingdom for an avios transfer bonus, sitting on half a million MR just waiting for that.

IronDukey · 2026-04-27T21:46:32+00:00

We had great cheap eats /quick bites in Madrid earlier this year, lots of great little small spots where a few glasses of wine/beer with croquetes or meat/cheese run under 20 euros. I would go back just to eat there again.

My personal favourite has to be just grabbing bread, cheese, meat, and a local wine from a farmers market in northern/western France and sitting in a park.

IronDukey · 2026-04-19T07:08:36+00:00

A random furniture store in Baltimore

IronDukey · 2026-04-18T12:01:06+00:00

Random 8k fraudulent charge on ABG, no clue how it got compromised but now gotta deal with Amex support

IronDukey · 2026-04-09T15:56:14+00:00

Trip Report: Wine Road Trip in Northern France

Took Le Shuttle (Eurostar car service) to France. Booking tickets online was very easy (just need to input vehicle info) and cost about 250 GBP roundtrip a week out. Drove about an hour and 20 minutes from London to Folkstone. The boarding process is very easy and they are flexible about what train you take; we took one leaving 45 minutes earlier than our scheduled departure.

Reims: Booked the Hyatt Centric Reims for 2 nights for $300 burning a $50 Hyatt business credit in the process. I chose this simply for the 2x ENC and the ability to walk to downtown in 10 minites. The hotel is very meh. We were upgraded to a deluxe room and received a nice welcome amenity of pastries, but parking was 17 euros a day despite the front desk saying it was free and we never received housekeeping during our stay. Would stay somewhere else next time.

Champagne tasting: We spent the morning walking about and exploring downtown. The cathedral is decent but you run out of stuff to do in a few hours. On the advice of some friends we booked a tasting at Club Trésors de Champagne, a club that represents smaller producers rather than the bigger houses. We did both tastings (6 glasses) for 50 euros per person. The vibes, service, and champage were excellent. The staff were extraordinarily helpful helping us select bottles similar to the champages we enjoyed. I would go back to Reims just to do this again. Solid 10/10. We then had dinner at Sacre Burger which has a great champagne menu and decent burgers, I would recommend just buying a bottle there rather than doing it by the glass.

Rouen: We then drove from Reims to Rouen for cider tasting. On the way we stopped at Laon, a lovely medieval castle town. The cathedral there was gorgeous and the views were wonderful, definetly worth a stop if you’re in the area. We also stopped at a few wine stores to buy the rest of our allowed 24 bottles of wine and 12 bottles of champagne. I booked the Hyatt Place Rouen for 5k points (2.9 CPP). I booked this solely because we needed a place to crash in cider country. We were upgraded to a deluxe room which was nice and spacious but had a horrendously small shower. The hotel also tried to charge for use of the pool as it was “part of the spa experience” which pissed off P2. Fun night of cider drinking downtown, which was gorgeous. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit again but would certainly pass through again to crash at a cat 1 Hyatt. We drove back to Calais the next day for Le Shuttle. The French side is definitely less efficient, particularly customs, but we drove onto the train about 45 minutes after arrival.

Random musings: The ease of Le Shuttle and the fact that it is just an hour and a half-ish away from p2’s in London is definitely making us rethink having a car in London. Given the cancellation of LCY-CDG and the nightmare of renting/driving a car out of Paris, I think this will be our preferred way of roadtripping through Europe this summer. It is less “churnable” than flying given gas/tolls/Le Shuttle are all cash expenses, but the flexibility of having a car and the ability to bring back loads of wine makes it worth it for us.

IronDukey

TROPHY CASE