I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Mile Madness get-together here in Charlotte on Saturday, and here are my notes and observations.
- Overall verdict: Great! I learned a lot of good stuff, and it’s fun to meet people who are into this odd hobby of ours.
- I got to have dinner with Frequent Miler on Thursday–great guy, super nice, knows his stuff.
- Congratulations to the Miles Professor for winning the Mile Madness challenge! In her talk she gave some good pointers on how to use Paypal and Square Cash.
- You meet some interesting people at these things and get some good tips. Thanks to Adam for pointing me to a site called extremehoteldeals.com which does, in fact, have some extreme hotel deals.
- On a similar note, thanks to Sam for sharing this letter with me:
- It’s nice to see that Wells knows how to treat its heavy hitters! I forgot to ask Sam, but I think that letter is for the Wells Fargo card that earns points instead of cash. If you can get a $525 ticket for 30,000 points, are we looking at an 8.75% travel card (for the first six months)? Does anybody have any info on this? Am I missing something?
- Some of the people at this thing are doing insane levels of spending, well above both my comfort level and my available time level, but I really enjoy hearing the stories.
- Marathon Man was awesome. If you’re into this stuff and have a chance to hear him speak, go for it! Hopefully you’ll get to hear about the Soviet tank. He also posts on Mileage Update every now and then.
- Bengali Miles Guru, who posts on Hack My Trip, was tremendous. As folks get older they tend to succumb to the Golden Age Fallacy, the belief that things aren’t as good as they used to be and the world’s going to hell in a handbasket. Seeing somebody like BMG–who is still in college–is a good antidote to that sort of thinking. And his partner-in-crime Amol did his first award booking when he was nine years old (!) by taking advantage of the Healthy Choice promo, which I think is the same one from L’Affaire Pudding Guy.
- Phil from MilesAbound shared an exceptionally lucrative local-only deal he stumbled upon (though it was offered by a national company) and stressed the importance of keeping your eyes open and looking for your own deals.
- Gideon the Freequent Flyer gave a thoughtful talk on travel-hacking ethics.
- We also heard from a mysterious figure who’s employed by the Pentagon.
All credit to Matt for organizing this, it was both more intimate and more advanced than the typical FTU type of get-together, or at least that’s what I was told by folks who’d been to FTU conferences. (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yes?) It was great seeing so many world-famous bloggers in person, and it was also great to meet some readers as well.
Its the Signature points earning card, that also allows for cashback redemptions, which I had done w/o issue for the first 3 statements. I reached the $50,000 spend prior to the 2nd statement, but didn’t receive the letter until after the 3rd statement. I have already redeemed a round trip flight at a 43% discount.
Thanks Sam! It was great meeting you in Charlotte. So then am I correct that this is a 8.75% card if you redeem for travel?
Specific to flights, as there doesn’t appear to be any discount for hotels or car rentals, but I don’t know officially regarding the 8.75%. The letter caught me by surprise.
Thanks for the write up! I’m sad I missed out on the CLT DO
Me too! Wish we could have had you down here.
Hey pfdigest, was great sitting next to you at the event. Keep up the good work!
Likewise Adam, I enjoyed chatting!
Hi Sam,
I’ve heard that you should have an existing relationship with WF (checking and/or saving account) otherwise they will give you a very low CL, which is not very useful for MF. Was this the case when you applied for this card?
I can’t speak for Sam, but my datapoint: I have no WF product but my wife does, and her CL is $5K higher than mine.
I have a checking account and a mortgage with them, but when I applied last June I only received a 2.5K CL. When I signed up my wife in January with a pre-approved offer she got a 20k+ CL, and that is with just having the mortgage, as she has no bank account with them. It would appear that having a relationship with WF is helpful and preferred, but still not a guarantee to a high CL.
Call after a few months and ask for increased CL.
I went into the Wells Fargo branch to open a checking account and while I was there they said I was preapproved for the credit card. No existing relationships. 8000 CL with a 775 credit score.
I got the same letter after I hit the 50,000 and spends. I stopped redeeming my points for cash and decided to hold onto them for flight redemptions. Even at 1.5 cents per point it is still a better redemption then my thank you points with the premier card.
Hi Stephen/Sam
Do you guys get hardpull while opening the checking account with them?
I don’t think so.
I enjoyed our brief conversation on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for the tip on places in CLT for gas bonuses. Next time I leave Asheville for Charlotte I will take advantage. Thanks for what you do.
Thanks Bret! Really glad we had a chance to meet.