Based on feedback via emails and comments I have collated the most frequently asked questions about the Tournament. Please see them below, and feel free to use the comments section to add more questions you might have if you are a player, or prospective player. Please start by reading the initial post that outlines the concepts of the tournament and deals with several questions and concepts itself.
FAQs Thread
In addition to the outline of the tournament, we have found the following Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. Do credit card signup bonuses count?
A. No
Q. Do Spend Bonuses Count?
A. Yes, the following will be counted:
- Large Spend Bonus (such as with the Amex Gold, spend on such a card will start from zero for the tournament. If you get 50% of the way to the bonus or more it will count in a pro-rated fashion, less spend will not.
- Rotating Category Bonus multipliers such as from Discover, and Freedom Cards
- Random Bonuses (multiplier or fixed amount based upon non-signup spend)
Q. Will you be sharing all the secrets of Manufactured Spend?
A. No, part of the job of judging and moderating the tournament is to verify that spend tactics are genuine, but they will be shared with the Judges confidentially, and if they meet our approval as being legitimate they will qualify for spend, without revealing the secrets. Individual Bloggers will decide if they want their tactic to be made public, and to what degree.
Q. Why not share all the secrets?
A. Many of the techniques used were shared in confidence with the bloggers/players and we do not intend to break that confidence.
Q. Do all points/sales need to post in March?
A. No, there will be preliminary results posted at the end of the tournament, however the true Champions will be announced once all points have posted, and all goods have sold, in order to balance up any portal shopping that did not post through correctly, or goods that couldn’t be sold at expected price.
Q. What Credit or Debit Cards can I use?
A. You can use any card that has your name printed on it.
Q. What if I do something that the rules haven’t covered?
A. We expect this to happen. If you are unsure of something and its ‘legality’ within the rules just email Frequent Miler and myself to ‘pre-approve’ it.
Q. Can I use other (non Credit/Debit) cards that are not in my name?
A. Yes, but don’t forget the ethics scoring, if you are using cards in the name of minors, or aged relatives or pets without their approval, you will be marked down.
Q. What is the T+1 rule?
A. We are using trading day +1 to speed up cycles and make it a more interesting game. Your money will cycle back faster than normal. For example, if you buy $5K of Vanilla Reloads, the next day you will have a $1K credit to your bankroll for each method of liquidating the reload cards.
Q. What if I am holding goods at the end of the tournament?
A. Anything not liquidated will be assigned a Fair Trading Value at the end, all points and miles earned will be converted to cash value, and your final score will be a cash amount.
If you have any more questions that aren’t covered, or require clarification on the above, please use the comments section below.
The only interesting part of the contest to me (and probably most readers) was seeing how they win. Just knowing Mr A got 100k and Mr B got 150k is barely interesting.
I forgot to add – spectators enjoy competition to see the action. It wasn’t nearly as interesting to see a list of who won ski medals in the Olympics. Seeing the actual event as one person is in the lead and then someone else gains the lead, etc is the only interesting part.
There will be plenty of action, but that doesn’t mean that every secret will be laid bare. We are seeking that fine line between completely boring, and blowing up everything. I hope that we can use our collective talents to do that.
Can I get a waiver on the name issue for using cards that I just opened for my wife in an AOR? Not looking to claim the bonus miles, just the purchase miles on her new cards, along with those of mine that I’ll be playing with. I will be doing all of the purchasing with them, just as I did all of the applications.
Nope, but authorized user would count.
Chicago rules would allow you to use cards in the names of dead people. I claim discrimination against those from the Midwest. 😉