More Bad Hyatt News, Easy Bank Bonuses Are Back & Mark vs. a Skunk

MTM Travel - The Fun Side of Points & Travel!

The episode begins with a personal anecdote about a skunk encounter before diving into the latest updates in the travel rewards space. The h

Key takeaways

• Bilt is reducing Hyatt transfer ratios from 1:1 to 4:3 effective January 1st.
• Q4 credit card 5% categories are heavily concentrated on dining and grocery across major issuers like Chase and Discover.

Main topics

• Bilt and Hyatt transfer rate devaluation
• Q4 Credit Card 5% categories

Notable quotes

I'm trapped by a skunk.

Conclusion

The episode highlights a broader industry shift where loyalty programs

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) More bad Hyatt news going back after bank bonuses. Audible's deal has returned and the new quarter means new 5 % categories, targeted offers, all of that coming up right now on MTM Travel. Speaker 2 (0:13) I have another animal story too, not involving turkeys this time. Speaker 1 (0:23) So happy Thursday, everyone. And let's start off with Mark's story. This time it's not a turkey. What kind of wildlife escapades do we have going on up in Michigan? Speaker 2 (0:32) Yeah, so, I mean, we get all the animals in our yard, even though we're in the city, right by Busy Road. I don't understand, but deer, rabbit. Speaker 2 (0:42) raccoons, possums, all the stuff. And I go outside this morning. I'm going to fill up my wife's car. We have a couple of gas cans because when you go to Speedway, if you redeem points, you want to max out the 25 gallons to get the best deal. So if we only have one car going, I'll fill up some gas cans. And I wanted to be the nice husband. I was like, all right, it's 630. I'll go out there, add some more gas to her car and get that rolling before she leaves with the kids to take them to school. And I go over, we have like a shed on the side of the house that I put them in and I go to open that up. And I, for whatever reason, it was pretty dark. I'm like, I'm gonna wear like a headlamp flashlight thing. And just in case, you know, sometimes when you go back there, that's where the garbage cans are. So sometimes there's like raccoons messing around back there. I'm like, I want to be able to see what I'm doing. So I go in, open the shed, grab the two gas cans, turn around and like three feet away in the bushes right next to the Speaker 1 (1:32) walkway is a skunk. So did he spray you? That's the big question. I've never, you know, the only time I've ever smelled a skunk is driving by like on the highway or something. But I can't imagine that would be any fun. Speaker 2 (1:45) Yeah, so I looked at it and my flashlight went right into its eyes, which I don't know if was good or bad because skunks hate light. So maybe that freaked it out. But I also was like, oh, crap, it's going to like retaliate at this point because it's scared. That's not the best. But I guess. After doing some reading, they usually try to warn you first or give you some time to get away because if they spray, then it takes them like a week or two to get all that back built up. So I just looked at it and I was like, all right, I'm going to the backyard. So I'm carrying these two gas cans and I run into the backyard because I want to get as far away as possible, go around the corner. But now I'm kind of trapped in the backyard and the only way out is back where the skunk is. So I'm like, crap. I'm looking through this sliding glass door. Nobody's in the living room or kitchen. So I can't do that. I know my wife had just gotten in the shower. And so, okay. Well, my daughter's bedrooms right there. She's not awake yet. She should have been, but she's not. So I start banging on her window, which is probably the freakiest thing you can do. Skunk skunk. So I'm knocking on the window. She's not getting up. So I just start banging on the bathroom window. waiting for somebody to come in. My daughter had ran into the bathroom to tell my wife because she's freaked out. And then my wife's a little freaked out. She looks through. I'm like, just have somebody open the door. And finally she comes over and opens the door. And I was like, dude, I'm trapped by a skunk. I just want to get inside, get away from this thing. So I went out like 10 minutes later and I didn't go over to that area, but filled up the car and then went back later when it was daylight and it was gone, thankfully. Speaker 1 (3:19) I mean, it could be worse. It could have just been a bee chasing you around and you're banging and screaming and the family, you know, that may or may not be me every time a bee flies by me in the backyard. I don't know. I just don't like bees. Speaker 2 (3:30) Nobody wants to be Macaulay Culkin, so I understand that. You didn't get that reference, did you? No, I mean, I just was guessing Home Alone, but I'm guessing I'm wrong. No, My Girl, where he knocks the hornet's nest down and gets stung and ends up dying. I mean, probably the saddest kid movie ever. I mean, the good kid is Speaker 1 (3:50) pretty much up there, too. Speaker 2 (3:52) Are you saying the good son? Do Speaker 1 (3:54) you mean? Oh, the good son. Speaker 1 (3:56) Here I try to be smart. All right. So should we talk miles and points today? I think we have some few things to talk about. It's October, and that means new 5 % categories for all of the cards. So you guys should activate them. And if you like to eat out, I think this is the quarter for you. Yeah, it's like dining and grocery for every freaking Speaker 2 (4:15) card. I don't know when they all became in lockstep. It used to be somewhat okay where they would be like cascading, where it would be like. Freedom has dining first quarter, second quarter, Discover has dining third quarter, City has dining or whatever it be. Like they used to kind of not overlap each other, but it seems like now every single quarter, they're basically the same thing, which isn't a big deal if you only have like one of these cards or the cards from one of the banks. But if you have a couple of Discover cards and you have a couple of Freedom cards and now you're like, oh, I can only eat out so much, like $1,500 cap. Yeah, if groceries involved, that makes it a bit easier. But these ones that are mainly dining, it's like, what are we doing here? What happened to Amazon in the fourth quarter for shopping or anything along those lines? It's kind of crazy. All gas is falling together and all Speaker 1 (5:07) that. We used to complain, though, when it was always Amazon in the fourth quarter. Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:11) I Speaker 1 (5:11) hate Amazon. I do. So they got a little bit. You know, Chase, they have dining grocery stores and then American Red Cross. So, I mean, like you said, at least it's dining and grocery. Discover restaurants and entertainment, but also utilities. So depending on what qualifies for that, I guess that could actually be good. So there is a little bit of variation there. But, yeah, just lots of opportunity. Chase also sent out the My Bonus offers. I got a few on the Hyatt cards. was like spend 1,000, get 1,000 bonus points for each month for three months. So 3,000 bonus points for 3,000 spend. Not the huge thing, but, I mean, it does double the everyday spending, I guess, on the card. Speaker 2 (5:48) Yeah, and these offers are great if you're, you know, let's say you have the high card and you still have to hit that 15K free night cert spend. This just gives you bonus points along the way. If you're just... doing it like you already earned that and you're just doing it to spend not as sexy but the last couple quarters i had gotten the spend three thousand get three thousand and that was just like over the whole quarter not one one thousand a month which i like that offer better and it happened to be line up while i was doing the 15k spend so i got an extra six thousand points while doing it hey perfect uh there are some other ones that are like 10x on certain categories up to a thousand dollars. So that's a little bit more enticing. That's probably worth chasing. If you get it, pun not intended, if you get it on like the IHG card or something along those lines, United, things like that, but it's always worth checking each quarter. And then even if you get not available, come back like a week or two later, they seem to