This Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast episode features a trip report on a Las Vegas double birthday celebration with guest Mandi Johnson.
Highlights include maximizing dining and spa credits, leveraging tier matches for free rewards, and enjoying quality dining at low or no cost. Upcoming travel plans, event appearances, and recent credit card approvals are also discussed, showcasing the potential of credit card rewards to enhance and add travel experiences. Learn how to make money, save money, and travel at low cost.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Low-Cost Travel
00:49 Las Vegas Double Birthday Trip Overview
01:20 Announcements and Upcoming Events
03:04 Welcome Mandi Johnson
03:54 Birthday Rewards and Vegas Adventures
04:56 Points Strategies
07:20 Exploring Las Vegas: Food and Fun
08:17 Maximizing Rewards and Benefits
11:26 Wynn and Fontainebleau Experiences
18:31 Dining Adventures and Freebies
26:20 MyVegas Freeplay Success
30:41 Maximizing Grocery Spending with Multiple Cards
31:15 Gift Card Reselling
31:29 MGM MasterCard Rewards and Quirks
32:07 Dining in Vegas at low to no cost
32:39 Caesars and MGM Tier Matching
33:52 Vegas Hotel Stays and Points Optimization
42:30 Phone Army and MyVegas Games
45:34 Recent Credit Card Approvals and Strategies
54:03 Cruise Plans and Other Travels for 2025
59:46 Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts
Show notes:
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Rough Transcript:
[00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you travel the world at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and rewards. Make money, save money, and take advantage of great deals. Thanks for joining me for today’s episode. Las Vegas double birthday trip report with Mandi Johnson.
In September and October of 2024, I met past podcast guest [00:01:00] Mandi. In Las Vegas to utilize two months of birthday rewards, including special offers from tier matches and rewards from my Vegas games. We talk about why my Vegas is an incredible value destination and how miles and points related benefits help you save and have a great experience before today’s episode, some quick announcements.
Early bird ticket sales for Zorkfest 2025, a miles points and gambling event are now live at Zorkfest. travelzork. com. I spoke at the successful ZorkFest 2024 event and hope to see you at ZorkFest 2025 in Las Vegas from December 5th through December 7th. I’m also looking forward to other events in 2025 and had a successful 2024, speaking at events with Award Travel 101, Frequent Traveler University, and both Chicago Seminars events.
If you’re an event organizer and would like to have me speak at your 2025 event, please contact me. Visit meetup. com [00:02:00] slash Philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly greater Philadelphia travel credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are December 15th, 2024 and January 26th, 2025.
Find a link in the show notes for more content between podcast episodes. Follow hurdy gurdy travel podcast on Facebook and X formerly known as Twitter for bonus videos and community content. Subscribe to Dy Gerdy Travel podcast on YouTube. Follow Justin Ula on Instagram For content including trip photos, search dy gerdy travel on subscribe star.com, or become a channel member on YouTube to financially support my efforts starting at the $5 a month tip jar level.
Receive special perks at higher subscriber levels, including private one-on-one conversations and asking podcast guests your questions. Find links and more, including credit card referrals at her Gordy Travel. [00:03:00] On with today’s episode. Welcome back to the show, Mandy Johnson.
Hi, Justin. Glad to be here. We have had a few meetups over the last couple of years.
I’m glad to be back here again, talking about our Double birthday ass.
The double birthday extravaganza in Las Vegas. Last time it was the MSC cruise through Ocean Casino. Not to be confused with Oceans or Ocean apostrophe S of course. Some people are still making that mistake somehow. I’m not really sure why.
We’ve gone to Vegas in previous trips, Atlantic City, we’ve been in the Philadelphia area, and maybe some others.
Absolutely, absolutely. We have a lot more to count to.
The wins continue, and we’ll get into those future trips later in the episode, but first, Las Vegas. So the plan here was my birthday month was September, your birthday month was October, [00:04:00] so why not go at the end of September to get the birthday rewards in September, And the birthday rewards in October at the beginning of the month.
Yeah, because I think we’ve both learned that we can’t eat that much food.
First world problem.
That’s right. Too many grocery
rewards, too much food. Absolutely. So you came out here, you had some more time than usual as you recently quit your full time job.
I did, I did. I decided that I don’t have to work the grueling 7 days on, 7 days off, 12 hour shifts.
And you actually inspired me to basically cut back on that, that type of lifestyle that I don’t have to work like that. There’s so much in the miles and points games and credit card spend and yeah, I was able to turn in my notice. My last day was mid November.
Nice. And of course, poker play is that was part of the Vegas trip as you’ve been [00:05:00] studying, you’ve been practicing, you’ve been doing well, positive results, lots of fun at the same time.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I just finished one of the series, Jonathan Little, The Master Class. It took a couple of months, but I finished that and yeah, it was very profitable. I just returned from a Card Player Cruises Asia tour, actually just a few days ago, and that was a profitable cruise. Yeah. So, paid off.
Nice. So, lots to look forward to, even if it’s just part time work or per diem going forward. Certainly you’re getting the freedom out of the part time ish situation.
Absolutely.
All right. Great. So you were in San Diego before Vegas and you came in?
I did. I worked. That was one of the last places that I worked was this site just north of San Diego.
And I was able to fly in to Vegas from there before going on the cruise. I am an American Airlines girl, and I have been bumped pretty [00:06:00] much 75 percent of my flights. I get bumped to business class with the executive platinum status. Again, through the miles and points on my American Airlines credit card.
Oh, yes. Maybe the longest name in the credit card space. Like the AA, executive, world elite, super plus, double trouble mastercard.
That’s it. That’s it. But it gives me Admirals Club admission too, so that’s beneficial.
Yes, and some shenanigans with getting loyalty points. Like, we’ve seen stuff like, oh, book this really cheap hotel room, or get this SIM card for five bucks, and it’ll give you a lot of loyalty points.
That’s right. Absolutely. And they had a promotion going on the last September, October, November, that if you spent 4, 000, you automatically got doubled in loyalty points for that. That was a big bonus for us. Yeah.
You’ve stacked that with some of the cruise manufacturer spend buying into the blackjack table.
So doubling down in more ways than one.
Absolutely. Yep. I [00:07:00] was able to do that on this one. No fees. So that was very, very helpful. Absolutely.
Alright, so AA has been pretty good for you. You’re able to generate a lot through city card spend, and getting the upgrades definitely makes for a better class or better experience of travel.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And why Vegas? Why has this been such a great destination for you?
Oh, Las Vegas, because I love poker, number one, I’m, and I mostly play the low stakes poker games. Bellagio has been really good, the rates. The food! And just, you can walk anywhere you wanted to go. There’s the tram, there’s nightlife, it’s open 24 hours a day.
And it’s easy to get there. Like, all the airlines get there. Yeah, for me, it’s, you’ve got anything you want. Great food, entertainment, the weather is typically good. And like I said, it’s, I love the poker.
And [00:08:00] next to no cost, as we’ll talk about, a lot of the things we do to take the cost down to zero or close to it.
It’s very sad when some others in the miles and points space, Oh, Vegas is getting expensive. Oh, Vegas is tough. But I think with a little bit of effort, as we’ll talk about, it’s Very high on the value side.
Especially when you can get the resort fees waived. People, the resort fees, people paying the resort fees is just, yeah, it’s very expensive.
And getting around, we stayed at Rio as this was part of my quest to secure globalist, Hyatt globalist status. And I’m not as ambitious to walk from Rio over to the Strip. I’ve been taking Uber rides that are usually about 10. And even then we have American Express credits that offset that, I think even some city credits, some other ways to get around, some Lyft partnerships and rebates there.
So we were taking some Ubers to get around, and 10 I think to get from Rio to Midstrip is pretty good, and even from the airport sometimes the rates might go up to 20 or 25, but that’s pretty reasonable, so some low [00:09:00] expenses, but Rio’s nice, and since we stayed, I think the Hash House Ago has been restored, as now the breakfast menu has expanded.
But even when we were there, the breakfast was pretty good.
Oh, definitely filling. You can’t go wrong with Hash House Ago breakfast.
And the veggie hash is back. People, oh, I got so much food. It’s too much food. But before, we were getting the avocado toast, the healthy start breakfast, and some other items that you got as well.
Yeah, the oatmeal, the fresh start oatmeal was like, you could eat a quarter of it.
Lots of oats and meal.
And we also stayed, yeah, we also stayed at the Wynn two nights. We each booked one night so that we could meet the requirements for the Holland America cruise.
Yes, earlier in the year, they had a tier match promotion that we both attended.
It was a limited time, but it was make two non consecutive stays. Which, uh, past podcast guest and fan, Justin Walter, called a [00:10:00] Grover Cleveland stay for those, uh, history or president buffs out there. So we did the two non consecutive stays, and in this case, we both had one night on this trip. We listed each other as guests.
So maybe that made the process a little bit easier, but I think after the stays, we heard back from them pretty quickly about the Holland America cruise offer, the comped cruise with Holland America. And we have that booked for next year, which we’ll get into. Uh, going back to Rio a little bit, so with the Globalist status, it’s the waived resort fees, so you don’t have to pay the 40, 45 a night, the breakfast for two is fantastic, and it’s progress toward the Hyatt Globalist status, so I think after achieving Globalist, the reasons to stay there aren’t as compelling, but on the way there, staying for cash rates for 30, 40, 50.
And we’re also getting a rebate from the World of Hyatt business credit card as they have the annual statement credits for the Hyatt stays.
And you want [00:11:00] to book through the Hyatt website, not the Rio website to get those credits for the Hyatt Globalist.
And these were newly renovated rooms in the Ipanema Tower, if I’m saying that correctly.
So they were very nice rooms. I think Masquerade is a little bit older and they’re going to be renovating that more. Ipanema Tower. Some critical of Rio, but we didn’t play there. We didn’t really dine there aside from hash house ago. So we left and went to the strip and I think that was fine.
Absolutely.
And going back to win part of the incentive to come back besides the comped cruise, we had a 150 birthday credit. So I think the play here was to in September with my birthday month, I used my 150 credit. We both went to the buffet, and then in October, we went back to the buffet with your 150 credit.
And I was skeptical.
I remember I’m the one that was like, please don’t make me eat at another buffet. Let’s just go to a restaurant. And we used your certificate first or [00:12:00] your 150. And I, after we finished, I was like, yeah, we’re definitely doing this again for my birthday. It was fabulous. Absolutely. I can’t say anything negative about it.
It was the amount of the variety, the quality. Yeah, it was definitely a good decision.
Oh, I definitely have some negative things to say in that redeeming the rewards was a little bit of a weird thing. In that we went to the players club to verify that the reward was there and this boothling, let’s say to borrow a phrase from Gambling with an Edge, didn’t really seem to know what they were talking about.
And at one point during our transaction or visit to the booth, They just picked up the phone and they started talking to someone. And I said, what was that? Because when she picked up the phone and started talking, I’m thinking, oh, I don’t think she’s doing this right. Is she calling the buffet or who is she calling to talk to?
What is going on?
I do. Yeah, I remember that. And, and then she assured us that it was correct. And so we go and had our [00:13:00] buffet and the server was like, no.
He said, you’re going to have to go back to the player’s club. Wait, the player’s club. Well, why can’t you just handle this here? And he said, Oh, who did he talk to?
What is this conversation? You see the benefits on there. Here’s my ID, right? Here’s the birthday. What’s there? And they eventually resolved it. I just don’t think they handle it well. And I didn’t think the first person really had any idea of what was going on. So a note to listeners with these, yeah, go to the players club first, verify it, make sure to verify it with the server.
And we told them about it before we actually got any food. So it was handled, but don’t just assume things are there and then you get to the end and then it’s, Oh, you’re gonna have to pay for this. Sorry.
Well, and the other nice thing, though, is you do not have to wait in the line. We found that out as well.
Status. It wouldn’t. You get to skip the line. So be sure and let them know if you decide to use your credit on the buffet, you can skip to the front of the line.
Yeah. And the buffet, I thought it was quality food. Some people lament lower [00:14:00] quality buffets. Like we’ve gone to Luxor and Excalibur. I didn’t think they were anything special, but you get the benefit of just going up, getting what you want, trying things here or there.
They had, what, sushi, they had a caviar bar, they had a stir fry station, soup station. There was a lot to choose from and a lot of really fresh food if you get the made to order items as well. Oh, yeah.
The seafood was out of this world. The shrimp and crop legs. Yeah, very good.
Yeah, and they had clarified butter just in case there was any confusion.
I saw clarified butter. That’s interesting. And that worked out. So you went the first time and you liked it so much that we went back for the second time and got the buffet again.
Yeah, because we had an agreement. You could spend your hundred and fifty on what restaurant you wanted. And then I would choose on mine.
And yeah, I chose to go back to the buffet. I liked it that much.
And no tax either. So it was exactly seventy five a person. So going out of there, it was zero dollars. So that was nice. They had coffee, other soda, other [00:15:00] beverages. Yeah. Yeah. That were included too. So I probably wouldn’t pay 75 for it. Maybe I’d pay something like 25 or 30, but at that point I would go to MGM locations and use comps, which we’ll get into later, but I think it was a very good candidate for the birthday reward.
I’ve gone to Raid, I’ve gone to Wazuzu and we have the first world problem of, Oh, look, there are too many plates coming out on the table. And that, that can get strange and we end up just taking things back. So one and done buffet, Hey, let’s just skip breakfast and we’ll have a later lunch and we’ll just be full the entire day.
And that’s exactly what happened. Exactly what happened. All right. So Wynn buffet was nice. Another part of the birthday reward was the Wynn spa, wasn’t it?
It was, and it was wonderful. So I was able to use that for a facial at the Encore spa, and I did have to pay. A little more. I see it was 140. I’m not mistaken, but Fortunately, my employer at the time also [00:16:00] gives a certain amount of money each year for wellness.
And I was able to offset that with that promotion as well at work. Yeah, I was able to enjoy a very nice spa day at the Encore.
Yeah. What was it? Maybe a hundred or a hundred fifty credit?
Yes. I think it was a hundred dollar credit for Wynn. And then, like I said, it was obviously more than that. And then I was able to offset it with, with my work reimbursement.
Yeah, the casinos really upcharge it. I was even looking at the massages and it was like, wow, even after the discount, it’s going to be more expensive than going to a place like Hand in Stone. So that’s interesting how much they charge for those. I guess it’s like the whale economy or some compflation going on in that so many people are betting really big on the tables and they’re getting comps and then, oh, I have a lot of comps so I’m just going to get this and then the price.
And then when we were, we also did our match, we did the fountain blue match that gave us an additional, actually, there was a [00:17:00] little more generous. They gave us 150. At their, I believe it’s the lapsus spa. So I was able to partake in two spa days. They had a very nice spa. I actually would recommend it over the encore and I had the massage there and I did have the 150 credit.
So it was a little cheaper overall for that day, but you were able to utilize their, Spa for several hours and they had mini plunge pools. They had a really cool, I didn’t even know this was a thing, but it’s a sauna meister and she is in the sauna and performs with the towels and uses essential oils and things like that.
And it’s, it’s an entertainment while you’re in the sauna. So yeah, that was really interesting. First time I’d heard of that. So it was a highlight. Something
different. And it’s ear matching. It was just showing up with, I think at that time. You presented your Caesars diamond status that was matched from the Wyndham business [00:18:00] earner RIP 2025.
Allegedly won’t be matching for the next year. So January 31 will be the last day of diamond status for many people. I discussed this in a past episode with Darren. What we’re doing to fight this war on happiness. Possible other paths to status. And we’ll also talk about MGM status which I think is the way forward.
In 2025, later in the episode, we’re just going in order here. Yeah. It’s like, um, the dragons are coming. The dragons are coming. Wait until later, but we will get to it. So Fountain Blue, another part was Bar Ito, where it was a food court, Asian restaurant.
Yeah. I didn’t realize you could spend 150 in a food court setting, but you showed me that can happen.
Absolutely. We had boxes of sushi and multiple
sides. Absolutely. Yeah. It was so good too. The best fast food sushi I’ve ever had.
Yeah. And [00:19:00] with the 150, it took the price down to maybe a dollar or two because we went slightly over, which was fine, and I think this was the way to go rather than sitting at some overpriced steakhouse and then end up tipping like $30 or overspending the one 50 somehow.
It was a massive amount of food.
Yeah. We even took some back to the room, if I’m not mistaken, and ate it late that evening. Yeah.
Yeah, these were the hand rolls, so these were a little bit interesting to assemble. You had to take it out of the plastic wrapper, roll the seaweed around it, but after that, we were okay.
We were professional seaweed sushi wrappers.
Alright, so yeah, the tier match got us the 150 free spa credit, the 150 condoms. In food. And then of course the win Las Vegas benefits. So right there, maybe somewhere in the ballpark of America loves math, like 500, 600 in value, maybe more. And the upcoming comped cruise will definitely make an episode.
And I got a special on the go microphone and with the power of AI. [00:20:00] We will remaster, and we will have studio quality no matter where we are.
Yeah, we both made an arrangement that since I got the, the awards and Justin got the awards, that we might as well double dip and take advantage of both of them. So he’s going to be my player two and I’ll be his player two for these races coming up.
Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a way to double dip in this player two mode. So it’ll be a lot of fun in next year. The wins will continue. Absolutely. We had a first world problem, as I think you alluded to before. We had so much food that we didn’t even use your Caesars celebration dinner. You had a hundred dollar comp to use a Caesars.
Why don’t we just save this for another time? We just have so much food this time.
We said we had to postpone it.
That’s first world problems.
Yeah, I had plans to go to Zorkfest and you joined me for that. So I figured, okay, I’ll be staying at Horseshoe. You’re joining me there. So why don’t we just save the celebration dinner for Horseshoe.
And then we’ll just eat. At the other locations with the birthday rewards and eat at [00:21:00] MGM locations using the other benefits. So we ended up at Guy Fieri’s a few months later and that worked out really well.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right. The birthday wins continue. I think we took a strange Uber ride to P.
F. Chang’s and Rainforest Cafe. We went to Rainforest Cafe first. The Uber driver, I just drop off people next to this fence. See ya. You can’t just drop us off at Planet Hollywood. Like, what is going on? But it was right there by the Rainforest Cafe, so I suppose we could have put Planet Hollywood in. But when we put Rainforest Cafe in, you get dropped off at a fence.
Congratulations. But it wasn’t a dangerous drop off. It was just interesting, let’s say.
And it wasn’t that far of a walk. He made it work.
Yep. So Rainforest Cafe is first. And can you remember why it was Rainforest Cafe?
Yeah, because of the Landry’s Select Club, we both get, you turned me on to that several years ago [00:22:00] and every year it just keeps paying it forward.
It’s like a little birthday gift. We get 25 that we get to use every year on our birthday. And we get the free hats. Remember, we got the free birthday hats.
Oh, we’ll get into that. So initially you pay 25 to join Landry’s Select Club. There’s a physical card, digital card. You pay the 25, but you get 25 back in dining credits almost immediately or the next day after you sign up, they might’ve changed it.
And then it’s another 25 every birthday month. So there was a little bit of a war on happiness moment in the past where we went to Trevi inside of Caesar’s palace. That’s now closed, and this might be one of the reasons why. We tried to use both 25 credits in the same visit, and they said, Oh, you can’t do that.
Like, what? It’s Mandy’s birthday. What do you mean? But we found a little loophole in that. Yeah, we walked outside and then we just went to the happy hour area. It was great.
Turned everything into the [00:23:00] other area, yeah. Wait,
wait, what? We can’t use two credits? You’re not even selling checks or something? But this time we just had one to use, so we didn’t have to fight the rules a little bit.
Cashier’s just making up rules, right? Server’s making up rules. Oh, no, you can’t use two credits on your birthday. Oh, no. You got your
25 worth, plus you got Uh, dessert, if I’m not mistaken, didn’t they bring you a cupcake? I think they brought you a cupcake as well.
Yes, we went to Landry’s. We let them know that we both had it and that we were coming back and they gave us these like really tacky birthday hats that were pretty funny past podcast guest.
Adam Bauer might be a little bit disappointed in the hat quality, but we made do and they, yeah, they, we got the, what was it? The appetizer adventure, was it?
Yeah, I think, and it had, uh, yeah, three or four different, there was, uh, mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers and spinach artichoke. Yeah. Yep.
Yep. Yeah.
And I think, uh, we shared that. And then the other time I might’ve gotten the [00:24:00] anaconda pasta. You did a lot of options. Maybe the prices were a little bit on the higher side. I think it’s because it’s the more immersive experience. As a lot of the press releases say, there’s all this like animatronic stuff going on every few minutes.
It was all the noises of the rain forest as the cafe was named.
Yeah, it was a
lot of fun. I really wanted to meet the mascot Cha, I believe is some sort of frog, but unfortunately Cha was not there, even though they were advertising, some locations would have the mascot.
You would think Las Vegas would be one that
Yeah, so we don’t always participate in these promotions.
Oh, okay. All right. Thanks for the birthday stuff. So, we just paid tip and paid basically zero because we signed up for the 25 years ago and got the 25 back in the form of food. So, zero annual fee on Landry’s Select Club may be one of the best deals in birthday rewards. So, we walked outside of Landry’s Select Club.
We walked downstairs basically to Planet [00:25:00] Hollywood as it was, uh, adjacent. So downstairs or down an escalator or whatever was happening, the unreliable Vegas escalators. But anyway, inside, we also had credits for PF Chang’s that we use. I think it was just an outright starter or appetizer.
So we went in and had our appetizer and yeah, we were pretty full for the rest of the day.
Yeah. Between splitting at Rainforest and splitting at PF Chang’s, I think that made one, Um, meal, we’re full from that, and I think the Asian lettuce wraps won the day there.
Yes. The veggie lettuce wraps. Yeah. It was very good.
Yeah. So that was a total freebie at PF Chang’s, just signing up for the email program.
We got a little bit of fake news as the server told us that we also had Chang’s cash. But then after taking the order with the Chang’s cash, then the server told us that we had to make a minimum purchase. So I think they just messed up on that. I don’t think it was like a 50 thing to spend money. But it was like, Oh yeah, you get 20 back on [00:26:00] spending 50.
Like, all right, we were just at Rainforest Cafe and we got food here, so we’re good. So that’s some easy wins. And I guess some people might space those out by different days, but it was a little bit of a different area. We ended up walking the street and going to Bellagio after that. So there wasn’t too much walking to get there, but this was definitely in a little bit of a different area than we were.
So apart from those birthday rewards, we then deployed the capital dollars, the other loyalty points from the my Vegas games, auto spinning to win the phone army was successful. And you were successful in lots of free play rewards with the Mykonami free play.
Yes. And I have to admit, I was not a fan of the spin to win.
I wasn’t until I won.
And until you ordered extra phones from HSN and QVC.
No, that’s right. That’s right. I did get that. There’s just [00:27:00] something about spinning to me. But now that I’ve seen the benefits of it, like I had FreePlay. It was a 25, if I’m not mistaken, FreePlay. We scouted out like multiple slot machines and you don’t want the progressive.
You want to pick the slot machine that doesn’t have a progressive on it. Doesn’t work on the
progressive
machines. Right. And then we also wanted one that had the dollar or the max spin was a certain amount so that we would at least get a few spins out of it.
Yeah, I was hoping for the classic games that would just be like 1 spin, max credits 3, so they’d just be 3 spins.
I think those have a better return to player compared to the penny slots. And there were some machines we saw that were like 5 one credits. So if you were to do a three credit game, then you’re getting two spins. That’s about it. So that’s very high variance for the 25. And other games that would have 10 credit spin, 5 D NOMS.
Wow. This is getting [00:28:00] really expensive. 50 a slot spin and we’re only getting the 25 free play. So let’s try to do it with maybe 3 or 5 a spin.
You found one that was like a pinball machine. Yeah, that was near the players club at. Aria. Yes. Yes. And we both said, okay, let’s try this one. And the first time my card didn’t work, I had to get a new card and then we got it to work and yeah, it was like a few, once the wheel spun, mine landed on the pinball.
And I was like, what in the world is a pinball? And then it gave me like five pinball pulls. And, uh, yeah, it was really cool. I wound up with a 114 profit, I think, on that one. So, yeah, huge, huge fan of the MyVegas replay.
I think the other ones went pretty well. I’d have to look into the picture archive. But I think one of them you got maybe 40, the other one was maybe break even, but Hey, between the three premium reward [00:29:00] slots that you get per visit, getting 75 in free play.
Yeah, I’ll walk around a little bit. We’re going to Bellagio anyway. It’s on the way, or we took the tram on the way to other locations. So super easy to activate and use the free play.
Absolutely. And then the dining, we have made such use of the dining at the different places, the 20 off of 40 and Diablo’s Cantina, that’s a very good option.
Yeah, definitely stacking the MyVegas rewards with the comps that we earn through the MGM MasterCard. So we can use the 20 off of 40, the buy one, get one, whatever we use. And then use comps to pay for the rest of it. There was a little bit of war on happiness at the MGM grand buffet a year ago or so, where they told me, Oh, you can’t use comps to pay for the buffet.
Like, what? I’ve never heard that before. Oh no, it’s cash only. And the cashier got like really assertive about it and brought someone else over. Oh no, they changed the rules. So I don’t know, they’re making up rules or [00:30:00] what’s going on. But they told me I couldn’t use cash, or sorry, couldn’t use comps, they couldn’t even do a room charge for the buffet at MGM Grand.
So I said, alright, let’s forget the buffets, let’s go to these other places, we know they accept comps, and all will be well.
We had a really good dinner at Moneyline, at Aria, where we used, I think it was a 20 off a 40. And then we were able to use comps for that. And with the MGM MasterCard, we both have a very high MGM comp balance just from the spending.
Using it for a lot of grocery spend, buying gift cards and prepaid cards, giving 2x tier credits and comps. So before you’ve qualified for status, I think it’s one of the most powerful grocery cards, easy for those who are frequenting Las Vegas, Borgata, MGM National Harbor, and other places where we have cards like the Amex Gold card giving 4x membership rewards on grocery spend.
This is giving the 2x tier and the 2x comps. And with [00:31:00] my volume of grocery spend, I’m splitting the spend across multiple cards so as to not, as the Milenomics podcast might say, fastball, 500, and just like jamming on the same card and that could possibly lead to adverse action. So we’re spreading it out on different cards with our grocery spend.
You got involved in the gift card reselling as well in Krogerland or the various affiliates. So you were able to gin up a big balance there, buying, reselling gift cards, getting fuel All that that we’ve covered in other episodes. So it’s funny with the MGM MasterCard. It’s a little quirky in that your statement closes and maybe a day or two later, it shows up as free play or slot dollars in your account.
But it’s easy to go to the rewards desk and they’ll transfer it over for you. But like you said, it doesn’t really hurt to leave it in this slot dollars until you need it. You’re not going to lose anything,
but It’s gotten to be so bountiful that I’ve actually used a good chunk of the rewards for free play because it’s Do I really need more than 3, 000 in comps in my account when I’m [00:32:00] stacking my Vegas and each meal maybe is like 20, 25 ish?
Yeah. For a whole trip, maybe a few hundred is appropriate. I get it. And again, not looking at going to steakhouses and spending like 100, 150, and why would we ever do that when we could just use the MyVegas rewards and bring the cost down to almost zero and use fewer comps?
Exactly.
Yeah, Dave Ramsey said that we’re going to be spending so much money at restaurants and we shouldn’t see the inside of a restaurant if we’re in debt.
That’s a direct quote there. Uh, of course he’s never educated his listeners how to take advantage of these deals. And even things like, uh, Rainforest Cafe, just getting an outright free meal. There goes Dave for you.
And it looks like the MGM, because they aren’t, it looks like MGM is going to be the way to go now for other tier matches with the Wyndham.
The death of Wyndham matching. The Wyndham match, my heart was broken. My heart.
Some people are even considering cancelling the card. Oh, I have to pay this annual fee and I don’t [00:33:00] really plan on staying at a Wyndham property and I don’t plan on being back to Caesars now that they killed this. So they’re considering cancelling the card.
I’m going to keep it. I’ve definitely stayed at some places before cruises where I arrive at maybe 10pm and I just need one night. But you know what, okay, here’s a La Quinta, I’ll stay there overnight. The furniture may or may not be from 1970, but whatever.
I will tell you, there is a very good resort in Dominican Republic that I’ve stayed at a few times.
That’s, it’s a T. R. S. Turquesa’s, but they have a sister, I think it’s like multiple resorts in one. You take like a tram to go from one resort to the other. And your Wyndham points are good at one of those resorts. It starts with the Bravada, I think is the name of it, Bravada. Yeah, it is a very good, um, resort to use your Wyndham points and with 8X gas.
I’m gonna keep it like I definitely, and you and I found too that in Vegas they have the Wyndham [00:34:00] property that offers the weekend rates are very reasonable and it’s walking distance to Aria at that resort. So you’re trying that out, I think coming up this next year. Right?
That’s, you’re gonna be staying there January?
January, February. Vegas trip. I’ll definitely be staying there on the weekend. And usually the weekend the rates can get pretty high. So having the. Let’s say variable points chart, it’s not based on the cash rates, it’s just giving you a points rate. So even if the cash rates might be 300, the points rates are, I think, somewhere around 10, 000 points.
And the credit card is also giving a discount on the points booked rates. And yes, 8X gas, many of us flusing to the finish line. You got into flus recently, but unfortunately you don’t have access to one of the features to maximize, let’s say, the Wyndham card, but hopefully in the new year, your New Year’s wish will be granted.
To unlock the full potential of the Wyndham Business Earner Credit Card. Issued by Barclays, who may or may not ask you for all this crazy documentation. It’s still [00:35:00] worth it. The answer to everything is still more credit cards. So yes, using all these credit cards to lower the cost of Vegas, to improve the quality, have these nice meals.
Certainly lots of dining choices throughout Vegas. You mentioned Diablo’s Cantina. Julian Serrano was an interesting one too. At Aria as, Oh, you want this, uh, veggie paella. Okay. It’ll be ready in 40 minutes. We’re making it just for you. It
was so worth
it.
It was so
a huge plate of rice. I know the waiting time is so much.
So usually what I do is I go to the restaurant first and say, okay, this is my order. I’ll be back. I’m going to go to the players club to activate my reward. So rather than going to the player’s club first if I’m coming from one direction, I’ll just go to the restaurant first. I’ll be back. I’ll leave my hat at the table and just hold it for me.
It’ll be okay.
Definitely
worth the wait. Any of the other restaurants that were appealing to you from the MyVegas list?
We talked about Moneyline. Oh, remember the one that we did? I think there was a [00:36:00] special going on. It was Cap at Excalibur. The three for 33? Yes. That was phenomenal.
And I think we had to get it to 40 or 50.
So even though we had three, I was a starter, an entree and a side. I believe. That was a lot of food. A lot of food.
Yeah, we had to add more to it, if I’m not mistaken.
Yeah, and sometimes the drinks are like, Oh, you want ginger ale? It’s going to be 7. Or, what I heard at ARIA Moneyline, what I ordered got it slightly under.
So I asked the server, Oh, could you just add mushrooms to the sandwich, or extra mushrooms? Oh no, sorry, we’re not allowed to do that. We’re only allowed to add extras if you order a pizza. I’m like, what? I can’t give you more money. All right, I guess I’m settling for the 7 ginger ale then. Add, maybe add some Jack Daniels that I got from Zorkfest as a commemorative gift.
We’ll see what kind of interesting gifts come in 2025. Yeah, that
was a really nice gift. I was very impressed. Like your [00:37:00] photo was etched on the back of the Jack Daniels bottle. So that was really neat.
Always lots of fun in Vegas, even when things are strange that we can’t get extra mushrooms. I just want it to be a fun guy, but unfortunately that there wasn’t an option in this case.
And the other thing we didn’t mention was the Venetian match. They had that.
There was a lot of hype, but it was probably mostly a stinker.
Yeah, I was pretty let down. But we did get, I did get one of the, was it 250, 000 was an option and I clicked, that was one of my first spins. And even the, the representative that was at the desk, her face got really big too.
She was like, Yeah, she was like, you get 10, but that was, uh, yeah, we still got a free play out of that.
Yeah, some free play and it’s possible in some world that you can match Venetian status somewhere else. So even if there’s no initial huge [00:38:00] benefit, like a free dinner, comp cruise, whatever, maybe you can leverage that against another program.
But yes, with the MGM MasterCard, as we mentioned, it’s a lot of grocery spend. It’s the 2x on grocery and fuel spend. So prepaid gift cards, other gift cards for resale purposes or personal use can really add up, especially that we’re using them with online blackjack when in the great state of Pennsylvania and sometimes in Jersey and Michigan.
So I think a lot of spend on that. And we’ve seen some promotions on the MGM MasterCard. Where you could load funds to bet MGM from the credit card. You can use credit to gamble, which is fantastic. And you’re getting 3x tier and comps. So that’s a mandatory for past podcast guest, Jack Gibson, mandatory.
He likes when I use that word mandatory. That’s mandatory max credit limit, 15 K credit limit. You’re getting 45 K tier. So you can do that twice in one promotional period as the promotional periods usually last a month. So we’re getting 90k tier in one [00:39:00] month. That’s gold status in a month. My play with that, and that’s been really nice.
And even not in the great state of Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you’ve still been able to spend your way to MGM gold status.
That’s right. That’s right. I did a lot of the grocery credit card deals with Ralph’s, Kroger, Smith’s. I think they’re all the same, depending on where I was at, uh, for work.
Yeah, I was able to buy the 500 gift cards, multiples actually, in, in the same trip. Really? Didn’t, I had one problem, I think with the Lululemon card that when I activated it, it showed that it was, the money wasn’t there, but it was, it took a little bit of work through Kroger, but they resolved it. And actually they wound up crediting my credit card back the 500 and I got to keep the fuel points.
That’s
always nice. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of hassle, but so yeah, lots of opportunity to spend your way to status, which is really [00:40:00] nice. Thanks. Yeah, Primrose, another nice breakfast slash lunch place. Best Friend, another nice Korean place. So lots of food options in Las Vegas, finding all kinds of different cuisines, even trying with buffets, trying with different types of things like paella, which was that huge veggie and rice plate.
Actually talked you into the gelato this time.
Oh yeah, the gelato at Bellagio that had really early hours. And then we got it at Aria as well. It was the patisserie at Aria near the gift shop in the Uber area. So those were other rewards, buy one, get one, gelato. So those were nice. And of course we have all the comps.
So at this point, like, why not for the 8 or 9? And maybe pair that with some of the birthday rewards too. That could be an option.
Yeah, it
was very nice. So lots of success with this trip. We also played lots of poker. I think this time we were, we played poker at when [00:41:00] we stayed at Wynn. And we played mostly at Bellagio, so the low stakes or mid stakes.
We were able to use the win poker rate this time. If you play six hours, I believe, you get a special poker rate at the win. Or I believe you can enter a tournament and that will take, take the price of it. And I think it’s like 139 during the week. And then on the weekend, it’s a little more expensive. I think it was like 199 or something like that.
But compared to the prices of a win night, regular rates, they’re 400 or 500 a night. And then we offset that with the cruise that we got. So we felt like it was worth it to get that free
cruise. And there are other tools to try to offset that with maybe Purchase Eraser from cards like the Capital One Venture or other cards that have similar features.
Altitude Reserve might come into play [00:42:00] there. Sometimes there are Amex offers for discounts at Wim Las Vegas. So it made sense to do that. And I think there’s more value on the weekend stay even if it’s, as you said, 30 or 40 more dollars. What’s your alternative? You can use those Wyndham points or if we get weekend stays and we could pay like 20 at Wim Las Vegas.
If you’re a Caesars property user, pay the 30 at Rio, then maybe it makes more sense to stay at Wynn during the weekend and not use all those Wyndham points and also have a good experience as I think it’s one of the better quality hotels. Oh, yes, absolutely. All right. We have a listener question about the Phone Army running all these MyVegas games.
So you’ve seen it. You’ve seen me deploy the Phone Army and I walked you through it. What did you think? Thank you.
It’s incredible the way the phone army, I, how many phones do you have, like 30? No, no, I think only about eight. Only eight, but these are full size cell phones that he will put in his suitcase and travel everywhere.
That’s the first thing [00:43:00] that he sets up, and they’re all like on the desk, and he continues to get them rolling. And, but it’s actually amazing at how quickly the points add up. Like I start, I think, what, less than a hundred thousand and I’m already up to 1. 2 million in a matter of a month and a half, so it’s incredible how it, and your big thing is like, when you’re walking, you’re like, do you have your videos playing, do you have the videos playing on Tetris just to make sure you get your seven 50 LPs.
You’re definitely a multitasker.
Yeah, thanks. The Tetra is super easy. It’s just a dead time. We’re just walking between casinos. So I’ll just pull the app up on my main phone, click the collects, watch a 30 or 60 second ad. Some of them are a little bit silly with royal match, but I just aim to reduce my phone volume when I do that, of course.
So yeah, I’m just walking somewhere. It’s dead time at between destinations or I’m in a parking lot, [00:44:00] like close to home. I’m walking through a parking lot, so let’s just. Pop up Tetris, maybe a Konami ad or a Blackjack ad to get some extra chips and LP from that. So the savings each trip, 75 in free play.
Sometimes we use the two comp nights and we could do them back to back as well. They used to have the free nights at Bellagio, the comp nights at Bellagio, I believe we’ve stayed there. Yeah. So you can get four, four nights comped in two player mode and you can get the resort fee waived with your MGM gold status through the MGM MasterCard.
So that’s really
fantastic. So say you get the four comp nights, you get the 75 in free play each and you get all the food credits. So easily, I think I’ve done this in some trips, I’ve used all the food credits in the same visit and that’s easily 200, 300 in savings.
And very good quality food, like very nice restaurants.
This isn’t like you’re in and out.
Nice food, all fresh, all good. Even Moneyline exceeded my expectations. It’s bar [00:45:00] food. Tap in Public House, like, eh, it’s bar food, but it’s good food.
No, it was actually really good food.
And lots of healthier options too. As we talked about the veggie sandwiches, they had the spinach artichoke dip.
Maybe that can be on the healthier side rather than french fries or Some other like greasy options that they might have there. So usually we’d get that or the Caesar salad I’ve seen it many places. All right. So we’ve talked a lot about Vegas and the double birthday extravaganza. So let’s move on to some catching up questions here.
How about some recent credit card approvals on or around December of 2024?
I just applied for the Hyatt personal card and got approved. I was, I’ve always had the Hyatt business card for work purposes, but I have found that I have been globalist for several years now, just from organic stays. I decided that, This [00:46:00] next year, since I’m not going to be working as often or as much, that it would be beneficial for me to double dip with the Hyatt personal card just because of the tier night advantage.
I think you get five tier nights, correct me if I’m wrong, Justin. The five
qualifying nights for outright having the card on the renewal year, I believe. And then for every 5k spend, 5, 000 spend on the card, it’s. Two extra qualifying nights
that will help us for the globalist status of the 60 nights, especially with spend Yeah, that’ll work in that scenario.
It’s four nights per 10k on the personal card, but five nights per 10k On the business card, so a little bit more bang for your buck on the spend. And there’s also a high spend goal on the Hyatt Personal Card. That’s the spend 15, 000 in a calendar year, and you get a free night certificate with the World of Hyatt [00:47:00] Personal Card.
Ah, yes, the World of Hyatt Personal Card free night certificate. And that works, is that a category one through Four, category one through four. On that, which we find useful at the cruise terminals before going out, we have been very successful in finding really nice Hyatt’s close to most of the Miami Fort Lauderdale area that that have been beneficial
and one coming up in L.
A. as well.
We do have one coming up in L. A. We also have a milestone coming up, or I have a milestone coming up. I’m going to hit 100 nights in December with Hyatt. So I’ll be able to use my category one through seven. We’ll get an extra one through seven on that tier as well as that membership tier. And there is, is it Mirov, the Hyatt, Mirov, Mirov, Mirov, Mirov.[00:48:00]
Mirabal, I’m super interested in that. You get a free night there with the Hundred Nights as well, and I was looking at the rates for that. That’s the all inclusive. I think they have three locations here in the United States. And one being in Austin, Texas, the other one I think is Arizona. And I think there’s one up North somewhere, but I think they average about 45, 000 points per night.
So you’ll get that as an extra bonus on the hundred night with the Hyatt. So that would
be,
that’ll be a nice bonus as well. And any other recent credit card approvals? I’m about to get ready to gear up for the U. S. bank triple cash.
Yeah. It’s looking like a 750 cash signup bonus. And 3 percent back on office supply transactions.
So I think that’s going to be particularly helpful with FLUZE. Yes, I agree. And lots of stacking opportunities, of course, taking us to [00:49:00] the finish line.
Yes, I’m very excited about FLUZE and what all doors that’s going to open for me.
Yes, the FLUZE future is looking bright. And I’ve ordered another phone, believe it or not, to add to the phone army.
So an Apple phone from Straight Talk Wireless is on its way, as that was a Black Friday deal. I’m waiting for the Flues functionality with Apple Pay. So another phone to add to the phone army.
That’s incredible.
And hopefully more chase cards in 2025, or what’s it looking like in early 2025?
Yeah, I do think I have one chase card left.
And then I really want to focus on the MGM MasterCard for the spin goal. I want to try to knock that out early this year. I waited until the last minute just hitting that 75, 000 tier this month, actually. So, I want to try to get that focus taken care of early because I do feel like [00:50:00] MGM Gold is going to be the gateway to getting our tier matches for the following years.
And you got the card kind of mid year, as far as I remember. So you didn’t have the full calendar year to spend towards status. And then of course, work commitments had you away from grocery stores. So now you had more time toward the end of the year. You’ll get that gold status on the December statement close.
You made sure to do that and you put some extra spend on there just to be sure. So I think that’s all going to go well. And next calendar year, 2025, you’ll have the total year. And maybe you can join my interesting extra credit spend goal for the MGM platinum status. Another comped cruise, 600 flight rebate, 200 more in comps.
You can go from 75k tier to 200k tier, especially if you can get action down on BetMGM. I think it gets to a point where you just fly to PA or New Jersey just to maximize that 3x promo. Hey, you’re flying in, let’s just go to [00:51:00] Atlantic City and play on BetMGM PA and New Jersey. We’ll cross state lines.
It’ll be great.
Yeah, I think I did that a couple of months ago.
Do it again.
After the birthday, after the birthday extravaganza, I actually flew in to Philly for two nights at Mount Laurel, just to do the blackjack spin.
Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Yes. In a free breakfast. It was actually really nice. So yeah, it worked out.
All right. And. You got some American express cards, or maybe you tried for some of the no lifetime language cards that came out recently.
I did. I did apply, but I was in Bangkok, Thailand. So I think there may have been an issue with the VPN. So I didn’t want to push my luck, but I did not get the pop up for me was that I am not targeted for this offer.
So I did not pursue [00:52:00] it.
It has. I know. I got lucky this time around. They sent me the card in the mail. I got it last night and it said your pay over time limit is 60, 000. Wow. So maybe it’s a lot of fuel purchases, let’s say. So we’ll see how we get that up and how we can liquidate those points. But that’s a story for another day.
And a private one on one conversation. That’s one of these subscriber perks. The goal is 60k.
Congratulations.
Yeah. America’s Funnest Bank, as the Milenomics podcast had said, and you had a business platinum at one point, so you went through the Dell credits and the airline and CINAHL credits and some of the other things and had a healthy.
Welcome bonus. And I think you were having some VPN fun with that one too.
I did. So I was in Hawaii actually when, when the increased first came out and I heard little chatter about the 190, 000 and then I heard that there was a 200, 000 and I think someone said 220. It’s like an auction. It [00:53:00] was, and I kept trying when I was in Hawaii and it wasn’t working.
And so then I heard of the 250. I heard some chitter chatter about a 250 K MR, and I had just flown in and I think my layover was Phoenix. So I literally, the first thing I did when I landed in Phoenix was to try to get the American express and turn up. It popped up for the 2. 50 and I got it immediately.
So yeah, that was quite beneficial. So I complain, I can’t complain about not getting this 200.
The travel hacker’s dilemma continues. Oh, I’m in Thailand. I don’t think I can get this Amex card. Oh, I’m on a flight right now. I can’t apply. You have like people just using cash and debit for everything and complaining about, Oh, inflation, this and that.
Oh, no matter who’s president, no matter what the economic conditions are, we’re going to do things to improve our situations, make money, save money, and travel at low costs.
That’s right.
Take
[00:54:00] action.
Yeah, and I think we are taking action. How many cruises do we have booked for this 2025?
I will say I have eight cruises on my list for 2025, and I could have cruised in December.
But I made a business decision and said, okay, I think I have a lot coming up. I’m just gonna not go on the December cruise and let’s take all these cruises in 2025. And the December cruise was also an interior cabin. Boo, interior cabin. We’ve, cabin, we’ve been so spoiled getting ocean view and balcony rooms.
But definitely many others coming up with Holland America, Virgin Voyages, MSC again, and many others.
I did the Virgin Voyage Comped Cruise in August with my girlfriend, Barbara, and it was, it far exceeded any of the other cruises that I have been on. I’ve done the MSC a couple of times with the ocean match.
And don’t get me wrong, MSC was great, I enjoyed it. And that [00:55:00] is completely free. The Virgin Voyage, we did have to pay port fees and taxes. And due to time constraints, I was only able to go on a four night cruise. So, it was still worth it. I think we wound up paying less than 200 in port fees, taxes, gratuities, all of it.
Um, was less than 200 per person, and it was just a high quality cruise. We had the balcony cruise, balcony view on that one, or balcony room, and
Wi Fi included, I believe, at Virgin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ll have your first Virgin Voyage cruise in January. And if I’m not mistaken, I begged to be your partner on that
one.
You’re playing. Oh,
no, I said, no, we’ll chop it up. We’ll continue the shopping. It’ll be great. But you were definitely enthusiastic to come on the cruise. I think I owe you one from when Waldorf Astoria didn’t fit into your travel plans. First world problem. Too many travel offers. I’m in another [00:56:00] country.
Oh, I can’t be there.
Waldo Fristoria is still one that I have not stayed at before.
And yeah, it’s in the, it’s in the future for sure. So yeah, some cruises we’re going to be going to Atlantis with Caesars, which may or may not be your final opportunity to get a comped or mostly comped Atlantis stay. It’s looking like more Vegas after that.
It’s looking like along the beach in February, a cruise out of LA. We’re going to be back in Vegas, of course, because if we’re going to go to LA, we’re going to go to Vegas. That’s going to be great. And yeah, the Holland America cruise in March, a celebrity cruise in March. We had to do two cruises in the same month.
I didn’t want to do that. But we couldn’t figure out other times to book them. It’s really wild. April flying to The UK and I’m taking a princess cruise out of the UK, going to Poland, May 20th, Newark to [00:57:00] Poland, going to Krakow or Krakow and Warsaw. So that’s going to be nice. Vegas again, looking in June, Palm Springs in June, the Amsterdam cruise in June, San Francisco cruise in July.
We have possibly Chicago seminars, both events. Thanks October, November, we’ll see how that shapes up and definitely Zork Fest in Las Vegas, December 5th through the 7th. So what a 2025 and that’s just getting started.
Absolutely, yes. Very nice. What the
chances that another cruise will somehow add to that list?
Oh, I think it’s gonna happen. I still haven’t. Nine cruises in a year. I haven’t matched the Margaritaville to, you got your Margaritaville match, and that’s where the suite came into play. The Grand Terrace. Yeah. And we had a hard time trying to figure out when we were going to do that. We had to push it out into December, like late December.
And then the other [00:58:00] was, yeah, so I didn’t want to apply because I didn’t want us to be. Save it for
later. Too many comp cruises. Yeah. Critics, Oh, travel’s so expensive. I can’t travel. All right. But with a little bit of effort, there is a big reward.
Absolutely. Yes. Thanks.
Yeah, it’s really life changing stuff, even so much that it inspired you to transition from full time to part time slash per diem, part time ish.
And I am, I have not regretted it one bit. So yeah, this is definitely gonna be a game changer.
Yeah, nice to have you on board as we just happened to meet at a poker table. You mentioned something about credit cards. And we followed up after that. Most people are like, Oh, I don’t know. Sounds like too much effort.
Oh, sounds like a lot of work. It’s not. You gotta.
Not did that much work. Yeah. And you can do it at your own pace. Like you don’t have to do the phone army with 10 phones. Maybe only
three or four then.
Exactly. [00:59:00] You’re still going to get the points. You’re still going to get the rewards.
I think it’s just going to be a very sad day if they introduce a way to cash out the points and then oh, I should have played more.
Yeah, if I’m going to be able to cash out 25 million LP for 2, 500, I will take it immediately. There was a brief window for Amazon gift cards. Yes. Branded merchandise, but then that died.
I was able to partake in that. Yeah, I think there were Starbucks, Target, Bank. They offered those gift cards as well.
All right.
Very good. Anything else you’d like to add?
No.
Thank you. All right. Thanks for coming on once again and see you in January. Yeah. Sounds good. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. Early bird ticket sales for Zorkfest 2025, a miles points and gambling event are now live at zorkfest.
travelzork. com. I spoke at the successful Zorkfest 2024 event. I [01:00:00] hope to see you at Zorkfest 2025 in Las Vegas, December 5th through December 7th. I’m also looking forward to other events in 2025 and have a successful 2024, speaking at events with Award Travel 101, Frequent Traveler University, and both Chicago Seminars events.
If you’re an event organizer and would like to have me speak at your 2025 event, please contact me. Visit meetup. com slash Philly miles and points. To RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Growth, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are December 15th, 2024 and January 26th, 2025.
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