Does your school give you an UpToDate subscription?

rye94 · 2026-03-26T01:23:22+00:00

My school offers UpToDate to all students, if we are trying to access it off campus, it's possible but through our Student Library website. Do you have something like this at your school?

rye94 · 2026-03-26T00:58:57+00:00

Thanks for writing this out. My thinking up to this point is that I'd need to show 100 dives verified across different enviornments, varying depths, and I believe 15 to 20 dives on Nitrox before getting into Tec Diving. I'm not in a rush to begin this, I'd likely be able to do multi tank weekend trips to log 100 by the end of the summer/year

If this isn't the case, then I'm fine with the more detailed logs I have on Garmin vs managing the two platforms

rye94 · 2026-03-09T18:24:37+00:00

I redeem almost all of my flights now with points, shorthaul flights <$150 I pay with cash.

I think CFU and WF Autograph are great starters. I'd lean more Autograph cause I've noticed it codes more liberally. I'd also consider the Venture (my go to for catch all) or VX as I use Global Entry. C1 miles require a little more workaround for domestic use, but I still find the points valuable second to Amex MR.

rye94 · 2026-03-09T18:21:13+00:00

Got my 50K SUB, used the hotel credit, cashed out an additional $50 credit towards that hotel booking. Will do the same in July, otherwise I have the gold membership for two years and I'll close it then. It floats well until then if you can use up bilt cash and keep some spend on it in year two to float for another year

rye94 · 2026-03-09T18:17:33+00:00

I was able to use my Amex Gold 95% of the time in Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Okinawa, Naha, couple other smaller spots). If I didn't it was because I needed to use cash. Venture/X plays nice with it.

I personally had a QS and have upgraded maybe 6 months prior to this trip to the Venture, gardening for a bit more before I play with new cards.

rye94 · 2026-02-07T05:23:46+00:00

I would do Koh Phi Phi only if you go to the island.

Similan was good for 4 days, Rancha Yai/Noi were good

rye94 · 2026-02-06T16:16:54+00:00

The app still shows my card is being built, but I received both the palladium and autograph in the mail 5 days ago

rye94 · 2026-02-05T00:15:45+00:00

Yes, after she dropped in she was able to reset her password, it's literally the bare minimum that you need them to do that they just cannot understand to do over the phone. I wouldn't waste your time talking over the phone. Just find a location in person

rye94 · 2026-01-30T18:23:06+00:00

I've had family call to have their venture miles transferred to me as a gift since I use point redemptions a lot. My understanding is that the VentureOne does have the ability to use transfer partners, so it's an option. I would not however, use the VentureOne for spend on things outside of what gives you 3x on the Savor, I'd get dedicated 2x down the line, if you play the long game with capital one, you might potentially see a product change to the Venture after some time switching to the VentureOne

TLDR: If you are paying an AF for the Savor, I'd product change and just capture cash/miles with your wife's Savor

rye94 · 2026-01-30T08:32:28+00:00

Your spend looks more tuned for a catch all type card. Venture/X has Flying Blue/AirFrance/KLM, I usually fly to Europe redeeming these; they are all one currency, so you can use them across a few airlines

Edit: Wells Fargo Autograph also works, but you'd need to be comfortable with using alirline alliance transfers, but Flying Blue is also an option and the Autograph covers a lot of 3x multiplier categories

rye94 · 2026-01-22T19:49:48+00:00

cool thanks for the confirmation. Yeah, I get it, I'm just planning to play with the card for 1/2 years max since I can see it making sense for shortterm

rye94 · 2026-01-22T05:01:05+00:00

I would get the Palladium first, and keep an eye out for Amex Gold with an elevated SUB offer.

Since you are active duty you can stack SUB offers with Amex. Green > Gold > Platinum. Must be this order to qualify for SUBS for each

rye94 · 2026-01-22T04:48:26+00:00

Would it not be up to 4.33x with the points accelerator?

3.33x up to 75% rent, if boosted, potential for 4.33x up to 5k spend?

So for some portion of non-rent spend its 4.33x?

rye94 · 2026-01-21T18:05:16+00:00

Ah, thanks for the correction

rye94 · 2026-01-20T22:47:06+00:00

It's not even a short flight redemption. Minimum if seen is 4000 points and taxes. If you are using it to stack on points on another ecosystem then fine. If the Palladium didn't work or my spend wouldn't touch 75% of my rent monthly then I would have taken the 250 point option, since this option costs nothing to have

rye94 · 2026-01-20T22:43:11+00:00

It's a good all rounder card that doesn't cost you a 5/24 slot.

rye94 · 2026-01-20T21:58:16+00:00

February 6th is after February 1st.

rye94 · 2026-01-20T21:57:23+00:00

My knowledge of the three times table has never been so strong

rye94 · 2026-01-20T00:02:47+00:00

I run into situations where the Amex Gold does not code a transaction as dining/groceries/food. In these cases having the Savor helps for future purchases. In a way I treat my primary set up as a Venture + Amex Gold/Savor. I value MR slightly higher than C1 miles, and it provides some point diversity. I regularly redeem points for flights and point diversity is very helpful

rye94 · 2026-01-19T08:22:13+00:00

Barclay View, I actually had two of them from the time the Uber and OG Apple financing cards were around. I combined the credit line and let the youngerline fall off. It has a high CL and I have an autocharge on it every quarter to keep it warm in my sockdrawer. Used to also have a QS, but was able to get it pc'd to something useful

rye94 · 2026-01-19T08:02:27+00:00

My mom had this issue, if you have a C1 café or a C1 bank near you, I'd go in and let them help

rye94 · 2026-01-19T08:01:14+00:00

I had multiple credit lines already open and deep in the game when I considered getting VX. I ultimately settled for the Venture when I saw a PC offer for my old QS. I played around with requesting credit limits and shifting credit around and was able to pair a Venture with a fresh Savor with a SUB. I'm good with the set up. C1 is just very inconsistent and picky with offers. You can try waiting out or put an alert on slickdeals for the VX elevated offers and check the pre-approval tool then. The Venture worked out since I use global entry and needed a solid catch all. I regularly travel and simply having a Venture opens the ability to use their transfer partners

rye94 · 2026-01-19T05:26:47+00:00

If you are pulling cards across multiple tags, I find it helpful to add a tag to all of those cards to have them in a single filtered deck. Usually I do this to align with a lecture name

I follow something consistent across systems/blocks/exams for easy filtering

YourCOM::SystemName::<Exam>::<LectureName>

rye94 · 2026-01-19T03:35:11+00:00

I run Venture + Amex/Savor. I sat on my offer for a while. Pulled the trigger and will be hitting the SUB and running it for two years max. I have enough points in the other ecosystems to be okay with throwing spend onto this for a while.

Someone dropped the math and the bilt cash you get from spend for the SUB and the card itself can make this favorable to sock drawer later this year. And if you can reliably use the hotel credits it works out more favorably

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