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Last week Greg and Nick popped onto Facebook for episode 44 of “Ask Us Anything, Live”, this time trying to stick to 1-minute responses. They broke their one minute time limit for a particularly interesting topic about who you should tip at hotels (24:20) and how to mimic Nick’s special “$20 sandwich tip” (39:34) to ask for upgrades in Vegas.
Watch the whole episode below (or on our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook page), or click the timestamp links below to navigate directly to a specific question in YouTube.
2:05 – If you can only have one credit card for the rest of your life. Which one would it be and why?
4:04 – What summer trip are you most looking forward to and why?
6:25 – Does a Goldbelly gift card trigger the AX Gold credit?
6:53 – Greg, what is your son’s credit card strategy now that he’s graduated? Is he following in your footsteps? Does he not care much about the points and miles game?
7:29 – Can you book Delta premium select via Amex?
8:30 – Can you explain the downgrade path for the Amex platinum business and personal to avoid clawbacks?
9:52 – Is having a balance on all of your credit cards bad for your credit?
10:46 – Which points would you pay a lot more than RRV for because of outsize value opportunities? How much would Greg pay for Hyatt points?
13:11 – Can you transfer Capital One cashback from my spouse to my Venture X in order to convert the cashback to miles?
15:02 – What’s the best personal Mastercard to sign up for now?
16:32 – Would you sacrifice one of your five AmEx cc slots to downgrade Delta Gold to Delta Blue and stay on AmEx’s good side instead of cancelling after year 1 to collect more Hilton points?
19:24 – Does it hurt my teenagers credit score (both are under 18) if I cancel their authorized user cards?
20:51 – Sign-up bonus question: Submitted my application for the Bonvoy Business in November while they were advertising 125K points and 2 50K night certificates. Card was applied for on the last day of that offer but approved after that offer expired. I was surprised to find 75K points deposited in my account after hitting a lower spend threshold (the new offer). I have screenshots of the landing page before and after the application. Is Amex supposed to honor the signup bonus at the time of application or time of approval?! Any thoughts?
22:52 – When you cancel a flight on Amex travel with business platinum and receive a credit, will Amex claw back the 35% points rebate?
24:20 – Who do you tip at hotels and how much?…do you tip front desk if you get an upgrade? Do you tip front desk before you have a room in order to get an upgrade? People who make your room? How do you know who to tip? Valet when they take your car or when they bring it? Room service after all those fees are added or not?
28:18 – Do you recommend point & miles enthusiast track there own redemption history to track their own personal average redemption values?
29:33 – If I got United Explorer card 2.5 yrs ago amd product changed it to the United Gateway card, I’m eligible for a new United Explorer bonus, correct?
30:39 – Can you tell me if there’s an easier path to OW status through a program that I’m missing?
32:11 – What are your favorite properties to use Hyatt TSUs at after the recent peak pricing and category changes?
33:32 – Are you guys still excited about the AA loyalty games?
34:52 – Any suggestions on which credit card program or specific airline miles to concentrate on for biz class flights from the Northeast (DC, NYC, Boston) to Japan and Korea? Ever since Chase dropped Korean Air, the best I’ve found is redeem AA miles for Japan Airline awards, but are there others? Redeem Virgin Atlantic (or AmEx or Marriott) for ANA award flights?
36:28 – I can think of 4 sources of stackery on each purchase. Points earned from airlines/hotels, points/statement credits earned from card spend, shopping portals and Visa/MC linked offers. Am I missing any?
38:12 – Any suggestions to use avios for aa and still select seats in advance?
39:34 – Could you show me the motions of how you do the $20 sandwich tip? Are you shaking their hand and planting it in their palm? Placing the bill on the counter while you make a request?
41:37 – I have a no fee Hilton and an Aspire and wanted to upgrade the no fee card to have 2 Aspires. I received a laughably low 5000 skymiles upgrade offer to upgrade my Delta Plat to the Reserve
43:15 – What redemptions are you most looking forward to?
44:38 – New to the AMEX ecosystem, who are the best transfer partners for each of the 3 airlines alliances to use for domestic flights?
46:51 – Do I need to have my AMEX account closed for 7 years before I can receive another SUB or merely let seven years pass since my last signup bonus?
49:41 – Can he apply for this second business platinum with another business we have and not the one he already has the platinum with?
50:19 – Have you used your $50 Travelbank credit from the IHG card?
51:15 – Can one hold 2 Capital One Venture cards?
53:25 – At what point do you need to give Chase a break in getting new cards, even if still under 5/24?
57:28 – Do you know if it’s possible to transfer the cashback from my wife’s Spark card to my Spark card?
58:54 – Was finally successful in reclassifying my Quicksilver from a platinum MC to a World Elite master card. Is there any path to then convert it to a venture or preferably a franken-venture x?
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On the last question, why would someone want to upgrade a no-fee card to venture in the first place? You miss out on any potential bonus and pay the fee immediately. I can only think of someone who downgraded and wants to go back, but that doesn’t sound like the listener’s case. Or maybe to use it for a MC-only feature like SimplyMiles, but I’m not sure that’s worth it. I probably overlooked something.