Some musings & a “retention bonus” points update

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Blogging is fun. So is my “real” job in tech I have done for 17 years. It is true what people say that if you enjoy what you do you never work a day in your life. And, for the most part, that is true for me. I love earning all points, especially Delta points. But when it comes to earning points, I would say that for most there is some threshold when we tend to draw the line. Apparently requesting (or begging) free loyalty points from a credit card company is such a threshold for some. As an AMEX card holder of some flavor for the better part to two decades some “rebate” points every few years are nice and much appreciated.

Now do I have a threshold where I draw the line? Absolutely! For example, there are some who buy things from a store with a points card with no intention of using or keeping it, just to return it for a check back and net the points. To me, this is just not right and I would never even consider doing this. I will carefully read T&C’s, click through links to get a % back or deals, use coupons, find ways to avoid S&H, work the “loopholes”, resell items for a small loss, and as long as I have been honest and upright along the way, score and enjoy the points!

There are other ways to earn points I think some will not like. What examples? The “art” of complaining about your trip to get points when things don’t go perfectly or some little thing is wrong with your seat or entertainment system or whatever. Or maybe it is taking advantage of an obvious fare mistake and booking 5 trips just to rack up the points. Some will call the airline and point out the mistake and that is when the deal dies because they feel this is an obvious mistake and it is not right to book that kind of ticket. Then again is it right to book a ticket when say SW Air has a ticket of $59 each way, and Delta matches that price and fly’s for a loss, when the price is normally $159 each way, or do you wait until the deal is over and the price goes back to normal.

Back to how I did from my retention calls and post from last Saturday. As a dyslexic blogging is scary, and now and then I will make a mistake with numbers or logic! I do wish I had included my “edited” words in the original post but live and learn! So what about the points. My points from C1 and Chase posted almost instantly. My Delta points posted recently and they were not what I was told they would be as you can see:

Yep, they were double. So, I scored 36,500 points all-in and that does motivate me to use my DELTA AMEX for my personal spend for a while so I guess it worked! Not only that but by starting at the Skymiles shopping site I got 3x points at Lowes plus 1x per dollar on the DELTA AMEX card itself !

I did call Citi and was offered the same spend challenge as   fellow blogger MichaelW  for $5000 over the next 6 months to get another 10,000 bonus points. So my score is now up to 46,500 and with spend over 50,000! This without a single credit pull! Since I have completed all my spend from my last round, it will be nice to have a card to put my business spending on for a while. Also, I will officially be 91+ days for my round end of the month but am waiting to see what deals are on the way or what cards to go for next.

Enjoy the weekend and may your bumps be “a plenty” and the points fall into your accounts like spring rain – René
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Editorial Note: This content is not provided by American Express. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express.

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