Category: manufactured spending

Free Spirit Travel More Mastercard

A week ago, I applied and was approved for the Spirit Airlines Mastercard. I was assigned seat 30B on a flight (literally the worst possible seat) and thought that maybe it could be worth it to get Spirit status since I fly short Spirit flights regularly. Unfortunately, the status match isn’t open right now, and I wasn’t able to status match last year because I had status matched previously.

The credit card actually offers decent bonuses for first year. The first year annual fee is waived, but you get:

45k points, worth roughly $400
$100 companion voucher, worth roughly $80
$100 statement credit, worth $100
Transferred the credit limit to another card with a 0% APR until June 2025. With a 10k limit, this is worth about $500
$100 companion voucher after spending $5000, worth roughly $80

So with zero first year annual fees ($79 after), you get roughly $1160 in value.

Since it is a Bank of America credit card, it should be possible to pay the balance of this card using a debit card over the phone. This should help liquidate excess gift cards and is part of my overall points strategy.

It would take $1000 spend to get the sign up bonus, at $5000 spend I get a companion voucher, and at $20k spend I get silver status. The major (only) benefit of silver seat assignments, including exit-rows close to check-in. I usually fly <2 hour flights, so the value of the exit-row is, according to seatbid, about $5 per flight. The cost of spending $20k on the card, versus a higher earning card, is about $400, so it’s debatable whether it’s worth it and will likely depend how many qualifying points I earn organically. In addition, there have historically been plenty of status match and fast track opportunities so I’m debating whether or not it’s worth it.

Waybetter: Health motivation app

Waybetter is an app where you join fitness and health challenges by putting money in a pool. If you complete the challenge, you get a share of the money. It gives you an incentive to stay active. It costs $70 every 6 months and you need a fitness tracker.

Sample challenges could be:

Contribute $50, Walk 10k steps for 5 days a week for 2 weeks
Contribute $100, Walk 5k steps for 3 days a week for 6 weeks
Contribute $50, Track your food, 5 days a week for 2 week
Contribute $50, Run 30 mins at > 18 min/mile pace, 5 days a week for 2 week

I often stay active and can usually complete the challenges naturally. But some days I walk or run more just to meet the requirements. The game stops me from sitting too much or gaining too much weight.

In 5 months I’ve complete 104 challenges, spent $3440 and profited $408.

You can do 10 challenges at once, which will cost roughly $500 every 2 weeks. They take any type of credit card, including all gift cards, and send you the winnings via paypal. It’s a great way to stay healthy and get rid of gift cards that you have lying around.

How much would most people pay for a business class lie-flat seat?

Many people in the travel space, particularly travel influencers or bloggers, would happily pay $1000 out of pocket for a regular business-class seat on a 10-hour international flight. Usually, 1) their income is significantly above the median or 2) travel is their hobby and it’s a worthwhile splurge 3) they need the seat for work purposes 4) they are used to business class so economy is torture for them.

Most people would not pay $100/hr to be moderately more comfortable going from point A to point B. I would never consider paying $100/hr for a lie-flat seat. My parents would disown me at the mere suggestion of paying $2000 extra for a roundtrip ticket. So what is a reasonable price point for an average traveler? Here are a couple thoughts:

Obviously everyone has their own price point. I’m interested in the price point that is reasonable for people in the middle of the bell curve.
People who travel internationally typically have higher incomes. In fact, most people never fly in a given year at all.
People who post/blog/participate in forums about travel typically have higher incomes and value travel more than most.
Many people in business class aren’t paying for their own ticket.
As a data point, SAS airlines allows bidding for upgrades and bids for $500 (or less) are routinely accepted for 8 hour flights. In other words, a vast majority of people on the flight would not pay $500.
Families traveling with kids would be even more expensive

Based on the above points, I would argue that most travelers wouldn’t pay $50/hr for a lie-flat seat. For most people, business class is an unnecessary splurge that can easily double the cost of a trip without adding much value. It just doesn’t make any sense to spend days of post-tax income to be moderately more comfortable for a couple hours.

Personally, $50/hr is my maximum unless the product is exceptional. Even then, it is a splurge that doesn’t really make sense from a financial perspective.

Beware: Ralph’s tampered Amazon Gift Cards

I recently purchased a $100 Amazon gift card from Ralph’s (Kroger’s) supermarket in Southern California. Being an idiot, I was in a hurry and didn’t check the packaging. I opened the gift card 3 hours after purchase and found that the gift card had been tampered with. They had scratched/scraped off two digits of the claim code so that I can’t claim the balance. The scammers would then periodically check the claim code to see if someone has activated it and claim it themselves.

I went back to the store and they gave me a phone number to call. Apparently gift card fraud is so prevalent that they make a hand-out when it happens. In the 3 hours since I left the store, the manager had independently already found over a dozen other Amazon gift cards that had been tampered with.

I called the Kroger customer service line (866-544-8062) and they looked up the transaction. They were able to confirm that the gift card was activated and told me to call the regular Amazon customer service line(888-280-4331). I went through the prompts (I said “gift card” to the automated system) to get to a human. They asked for the 16 digit number card number on the gift card and was able to apply the claim code to my account. Luckily, only about 4 hours had passed since I purchased the gift card so the scammers didn’t claim it yet.

If the scammer had claimed it before I called, I’m not sure Amazon would be willing to do anything. If not, my only recourse would likely be a credit card chargeback.

Lessons

Check the gift card for tampering before purchase.
Open the gift card before scanning and paying at the register
Check the balance on the gift card as soon possible
If it’s an Amazon gift card, contact Amazon ASAP, Ralph’s cannot help you

Waybetter and Healthywage: Health wagering apps

Waybetter is an app where you can join health challenges by paying a fee. The fees are combined and then divided among those who complete the challenge. For instance, you might bet $50 to walk 5k steps, 4 days a week for 2 weeks. They offer different challenges for strength, running, walking, exercise, and mental wellness.

The fee is $70 every 6 months, allowing you to join 10 games at once. The priciest games last for 2 weeks and cost $50 each. Over the past few months, I’ve won around 13% of the money I’ve spent on entry fees as prizes.

For the $140/year, I get:

Incentives to keep active
$13k spend a year, I personally use up any smaller denomination gift cards
Roughly $1500 in profit from the game

You do need a fitness tracker to track your activity and I typically spend 3-5 minutes a day uploading proof of activity completion. The challenges aren’t too difficult for me to complete in an ordinary day.

Healthywage

Healthywage lets you bet on losing weight. Their main challenge requires you to lose at least 15% of your weight, but you can only do it once or twice. There’s a yo-yo rule for the main challenge, where your starting weight for the second challenge can’t be higher than your ending weight for the first challenge.

Healthywage also has smaller challenges like Waybetter that don’t follow the yo-yo rule. They collect the fees from a specific challenge, deduct a processing fee, and divide the rest among the winners. On average, I join about 6 challenges every 2 months, spending about $100 on each one.

In addition to the primary benefit of keeping my weight in check, I spend about $4000 a year from gift cards and earn about 10% back in return.

Paths to MGM Gold Status

Now that the Hyatt and MGM partnership has ended, getting MGM gold status is significantly harder and more expensive. So far, I’ve found the following ways to get MGM gold status:

Earn MGM Gold Status via gambling. This requires 75k tier credits, or 2 days with 20k points per day with their accelerator. At an estimated 8 points per theoretical dollar, it would cost around $5000 to get status this way.
Folio spend counts towards MGM status at a rate of 4 credits per dollar. This works with the tier accelerator and will require $5000 of spend for two days to get gold status.
Bets on the betMGM sportsbook rewards TC, around 20 TC per $100 wagered on even bets. It will take $375k in bets and if the typical hold on an even bet is around 5%, this would cost roughly $20k.
You can spend $37500 on the MGM rewards card at grocery stores or gas stations to earn 75k points. For most, this method requires manufactured spending. Since you’re sacrificing a higher earning rate at grocery stores, this costs around $1200.
Loading the betMGM app through the MGM rewards card earns 1 TC per dollar. In some states, this isn’t coded as a cash advance. It may be possible to arbitrage with other betting sites to minimize risk. However, they are very strict and any suspicious activity (like repeatedly depositing and withdrawing) will get you shut down.
You can status match from other casinos. For example, Caesar’s diamond elite will match to platinum for 3 months but it is once per lifetime.
MGM has a partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises and their Emerald status matches to MGM Gold. Emerald status requires 55 nights with Royal Caribbean. However, Emerald is a lifetime status and should net you MGM Gold as long as their partnership remains. Even comped cruises count towards the night requirements, but there are still taxes and gratuities. You can also get additional nights by paying the solo supplement or by booking a suite. At a bare minimum of $50 per night, this method requires at least $2750 spend and a lot of free time. addendum: myVegas sometimes offers free cruises, and your out of pocket would be around $35 per night for double occupancy.