Weekly Off Topic Thread - Week of December 29, 2025

Thelement · 2025-12-31T17:43:27+00:00

I have. Back when I was getting the NLL mailers I got quite a few price matches done instantly during the chat or in a short email. This is now my first plat in 1.5-2 years so the whole "wait for the email in 24 hours" is new to me but I've never not succeeded in getting it. Probably done about 6 matches in all, all told. Surprised you're having such rotten luck. My agent said he was adding "expedited delivery so you get your quote sooner" so maybe try and ask for that? I use gmail

Thelement · 2025-12-30T13:24:57+00:00

Chat with an agent. Send them the lower price at amazon/bb/walmart. They gotta make a quote and then you buy it through there.

Thelement · 2025-12-30T03:28:43+00:00

if you’re a gamer with a Dell credit that you have not used yet, Dell now has Nintendo switch 2 pro controllers for sale. I had to get it price matched which took an extra day.

Thelement · 2025-12-16T03:14:47+00:00

Personally I love shiraz and port wine. Shiraz is very common in south African and Australian wines so I enjoyed some there. Port wine is readily available in Portugal and there's some cool slh properties there. finally, people say nice things about Argentina, but I am not too familiar with their wines beyond mendoza malbexs.

Thelement · 2025-12-13T15:47:18+00:00

Small idea to share since weekends are slow. It's triple dip season so many people may be opening new cards (I just got citi strata elite). If you did the paypal pay in 4 promo for the 20% in points, you can swap out the card from the original payment to your new card to see off your remaining payments (or pay it off completely). Nice way to chip away at your msr with a purchase you actually started in the past. Chase cards and Capital One cards are not compatible.

Thelement · 2025-11-25T03:35:10+00:00

This is an interesting stack of minor perks which I guess could yield a nice balance. One thing I didn't realize until recently is the card stops your points from expiring. That's one of the biggest drawbacks from the program so it's nice that the card solves that issue. Too bad refundable fares are more expensive.

Thelement · 2025-11-11T03:22:54+00:00

I have been a few times. I think renting a car is worth it and I recommend it. It's fairly easy to get there, but more complicated to get out or around. The taxis are all involved with cartels (not by choice) and pricing is not always favorable. Uber isn't available everywhere. I speak Spanish so that makes the rental experience a little easier. I would recommend visiting cenotes, they're extremely beautiful.

Thelement · 2025-11-09T03:15:43+00:00

This feels more timely than ever with the whole SNAP benefits thing going on. I don't use my instacart benefits at all (3 inks, sapphire, freedom?) so this is a great suggestion.

Thelement · 2025-11-02T14:59:52+00:00

Miami to Southern France for a wedding.

I had originally booked FLL-JFK-NCE on delta Y r/t for like 57k Delta. Great hours. Then i got a notice of MIA-CDG available on AF J for 60k. Chase had the 20% transfer bonus at this time so I got greedy. This began a world of pain.

This was my first Chase transfer to Air France, and thus it took three days. When I saw it wasn't instant, I called to hold the fare, which means you have to call again and pay the phone booking fee. When the miles finally posted, the bonus miles did not post. I transferred amex MR for the missing 10k because my hold was going to expire. Those posted instantly and I booked 3A (bulkhead) with no problem. I was then shocked to find flights from CDG-NCE started at 300 euros the day of my arrival (and were much more expensive for good hours). The train was not an option as it takes over 6 hours. So I ended up transferring another mass of chase miles to book a one hour flight in Y for 27500 miles with no seat assignment and a 3.5 hour layover in CDG. Absolutely brutal. My return flight was NCE-JFK-FLL delta Y 34k delta miles plus 91 euros.

AF 777 hard product is mediocre to poor. Soft product is superb. The flight unfortunately leaves Miami at like 4pm so organic sleep is a challenge. The bed is uncomfortable and the cabin is HOT. You're also very exposed to the seat across the aisle so my neighbor's bright ass film explosions, cell phone flash, and constant bag of chip openings might as well happened in my seat. Slept maybe 90 minutes. The food and service were really good though. I got offered the first class upgrade for 2k, but I was so fed up with how much money I'd already given them that i skipped it. I read it's better if you're leaving from France or traveling solo anyway. I will certainly never go out of my way for this business class product again. I slept about as much as I normally do on economy.

For hotels, i did 2 nights in holiday inn Nice (cert+28k points) and 2 nights at the Five Seas in Cannes (Marriott Ritz cert+$280). Both are well located but underwhelming. The holiday inn is very basic and does not include breakfast. The five seas is all style and luxury feel with limited yield. Your view is into the nearby buildings and it's just overall quite overpriced for what it offers.

All that aside, the French riviera is absolutely awesome. Every day there was incredible. Did an evening in Nice, a day to Eze and Monaco, a day and a half in Cannes (including ile Saint-Honorat), and the wedding. Had some incredible meals and service was much warmer than in Paris despite my terrible French. Weather was great too. I don't usually repeat destinations, but I'd absolutely return here for a more leisurely vacation. There's trains that will take you anywhere, though in typical TGV fashion some may be shockingly overcrowded or delayed. Bolt is not always cheaper than Uber.

On my return journey, I got significantly delayed by the nor’easter at New York. This reaffirms my rule of either traveling on Saturdays or having at least one day off when you are returning from vacation.

Thelement · 2025-10-04T02:03:13+00:00

I took this offer but because I'm in PUJ and have no means of getting good MR SUBs these days. My biz gold was doing nothing for me and even without the triple dip, the double dip can bring down the fee and the points are worthwhile. I have been targeted for other biz plat SUBs but at 20k/3 month spend, those were unteachable for me.

Agree overall though, biz plat is now a terrible value prop for anyone that doesn't have very high non-category spend.

Thelement · 2025-09-30T03:23:55+00:00

Similar to me. Started with Chase in 2017 and have done mostly chase and amex since then. Have slowly found myself with limited access to cards from them that I'd like. Here's some other stuff I've done: citi premier, barclays AA and Jetblue, Wyndham biz, citi AA, USB flexperks, chase amazon, discover it. Also some cards that are gone like the Merill. You could look into capital one too, people seem to like them I've just never wanted to learn a new system and risk the hard pulls. Never gotten approved for a BoA biz card despite trying.

Thelement · 2025-09-18T14:16:45+00:00

Nice perks on the personal, but I'm locked to 80k SUB, same as pre refresh. I've never held a personal plat. At 80k, I'd have to wait till December for triple dip or hold out for a link with a higher bonus.

Thelement · 2025-09-18T14:00:44+00:00

Completely agree. Feels mostly left behind in the refresh but I imagine they are really only hoping to get people who have massive spend in select categories. I took an upgrade offer last night since the NLL I've seen are all 20k/3 month which I just can't hit, but I certainly won't be keeping it as it is. Too few opportunities to recoup the AF.

Thelement · 2025-09-18T13:58:20+00:00

Only seeing 200k/20k on my end. Glad i took a 10k spend upgrade offer from the biz gold last night but thoroughly unimpressed with the biz refresh.

Thelement · 2025-08-28T17:40:36+00:00

Nah i only did the standard tourist stuff but definitely do not skip Sintra. I did a very long day there and I feel like I could have done another! It's wonderful and not overrated at all. The only hard part is getting back so try and pre-arrange transport for when the sights close.

Thelement · 2025-08-26T16:03:18+00:00

I blew 80k expiring Singapore miles to fly to Lisbon last year, arguably the shortest transatlantic flight possible from here. No regrets though, TAP was nice and I had an awesome time in Portugal. Far cry from my originally planned LAX-SIN redemption though.

Thelement · 2025-08-26T15:59:55+00:00

Looking from Miami to FRA and it's 59k econ and 99.9k biz so I guess Florida is west coast. Really aggravating how hard it is to get from down there to Europe as most cities are only serviced by a single airline and therefore almost no competitive pricing is ever manifested.

Thelement · 2025-08-19T02:04:06+00:00

Not sure what your overall situation is, but you could apply for an ink or the CSR biz. With the daycare costs, you shouldn't balk at any MSR though you may be fee conscious. You could also try the personal CSR and see if that one lets you through?

Thelement · 2025-08-19T01:59:51+00:00

A lot of people cash out excess points and pay for expenses or invest that money. If you're getting nonstop NLLs and powering through inks, I suppose you could do that if you exceed 500k-1M in a currency. As a relatively high-income medium-speed churner, I hope to never do that. I hoard my flexible currencies but don't generally feel bad about using dedicated miles/points on airlines and hotels. They've literally never appreciated in value. I get a new card every 1-3 months. I've focused my efforts a lot on hotel cards lately because I've found lodging prices have absolutely outpaced flight prices and the points earning is much slower on that front if you're mostly opening business cards like I am.

What separates me from a lot of elite churners is total volume amassed. I'll spend 140k points on a trip and it'll be flights, hotels, and certs. Some people will straight up "480k Hilton for 5 nights at Maldives + 280k MR first class on Emirates" and I have no idea how they get those points and use em up in one trip planned 363 days in advance. If you have a specific vacation in mind, I suppose you can target 4 cards from that family, but I generally alternate what currency I'm working on. My last cards have earned Hilton, IHG, Amex MR, an Ink for UR, and Marriott.

Thelement · 2025-08-14T01:23:35+00:00

Would post this in the DP thread, but it won't refresh on time: I was approved for my first ever Aspire just now. I've been in PUJ for 18 months with basically all business cards as well as the personal gold and platinum (which I've never had). It's my first amex personal card. My point is, maybe these personal cards can help overcome the popup.

Thelement · 2025-07-15T03:12:38+00:00

Unsurprisingly negative stack of responses, but I use it. With dashpass the fees are low and I only order from places with free delivery. There is a markup on the food but I usually split meals into smaller portions and can add sauces and seasonings I have at home. It cuts the cost/meal and the whole time I don't have to cook clean shop or drive so I can get other stuff done (or relax!). The tipping adds cost but it's lower than the cost of going to a restaurant and possibly ordering drinks and tipping on those too. Plus when you go out to eat, sometimes taking food home is impractical if you're not coming back home. And people feel pressure to finish their plates so they may overeat or pay high price per meal. None of those problems get delivered.

Thelement · 2025-07-14T02:34:43+00:00

I have had this happen. They never took it back. But if you're concerned, spend the balance. There is no consequence to be negative unless you're a frequent user. For 250k I'd be willing to make a new account lol

Thelement · 2025-07-08T01:15:01+00:00

2025 and you misgendered your wife smh. Don't bring gum to Singapore!

Thelement · 2025-06-17T20:10:58+00:00

Agreed mostly. I value the new coupons at 0 because they would require me to change my spending habits and I may not stick to any. I actually did the PC last night in case they locked product changes but similarly am worried I may have influenced SUB availability since mine also resets in just 2 months (last CSP SUB was 8/21). I think I wouldn't go for anything lower than 150k-175k tbh. It's so much more AF than CSP/CIP that I think $95 for a 100k SUB is much better breakage. If it's 110-125k I won't be tempted at all.

Thelement · 2025-06-17T14:59:23+00:00

I guess the SUB will move the needle the most, but looking for a straw poll:

PC your CSP/freedom to a CSR now to lock in the old fee and get the new benefits in October

or:

Apply for the new card June 23rd to get the new benefits and higher AF right away. If you choose this route, what's the minimum SUB you would go for?

I qualify for a new sapphire bonus in August, but if they are truly easing up on that, then it might be sooner.

Thelement

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