$100,000 Challenge: Week 3-7 (May Recap)
Said goodbye to some points this week.. in exchange for business-class travel
Summary
After the first few $100,000 challenge posts, I’ve realized that I re-use a lot of the successful plays. So to keep the content fresh, we’ll switch to monthly summaries. I’ve got some summer vacation plans (airfare and hotels paid fully on points, of course), so I won’t be dedicating as much time to the points game the next few months. As always, I’ll still continue to include number of hours spent so you have a clear reference for how much effort this all takes.
This month we managed $23K in spend, with $4.6K in earnings.
The highlights:
Hit the $6,000 minimum spend requirement to get the 150K sign-up bonus for P2’s Amex Platinum ($3,000 value). This spend was done at zero cost!
Scaled up the $25K grocery spend for 9X Amex points, earning $1,658.36 in Amex points this month
Got up to $15K / $30K on Amex Delta Reserve
Spent (!!) some points for business class flights for an upcoming vacation to Norway
Challenge Recap
If you’re new here, you can learn more about our 2023 $100,000 manufactured spending challenge here. In short, I am trying to manufacture $100,000 of spending this year, which will earn over $20,000 of value in credit card points. All the techniques and methods used will be transparently shared on this blog series!
With that, let’s dive into our specific updates from this month:
Amex Platinum 150K Sign-up Bonus (P2)
Earnings: $3,000 value (150K Amex MR Points)
Minimum Spend Requirement Progress: $6K/$6K
This sign-up bonus required us to spend $6,000 in 6 months. This was knocked out in 1 month entirely with Buyer’s Groups. Specifically, I purchased Apple Watches from Walmart, and shipped them directly to PointsMaker warehouses, at zero cost. A risk with shipping to Buyer’s Group warehouses is that shipments get lost. Fortunately, I had no issues this month!
Now, Walmart did limit my account after I bought 10 watches in one day. However, I was able to get around this by creating a new account with a new: IP, Email, Phone number, Name, and Billing address (Hint: Only the ZIP code matters!).
Amex Gold: 9X points at Grocery Stores
This Week’s Spend: +$9,213.14 (Earns me 82,918 Amex MR Points or $1,658.36)
2023 Spending Goal Progress: $15,275.95/$25,000
This play is a continuation from previous weeks. I actually only did one outing this week, but I’ve increased my confidence from last week, and have started completing 3 separate transactions of VGCs at one self-checkout machine per store. I make sure to go to the store during the evening rush, so the self-checkout attendant has better things to do than focus on me. I have also found 2 separate Kroger stores near each other where I can successfully complete this play. This means with one outing, I did 2 stores * 3 transactions * 3 VGCs per transaction * $500 per VGC, which is $9,000 dollars of spend! As always, I add on extra items (like a pack of gum) to each transaction, to keep the transaction volumes unique, which helps avoid raising any red flags with your card issuer.
What I really want to convey here, is that anybody can achieve massive amounts of VGC spend with a relatively small amount of time spent, if you can find the right plays and methods.
I expect that I should be able to close out the $25K goal in the next month, if my current pace holds!
Amex Delta Reserve: Aiming for Diamond Medallion Status
This week’s spend: $8,417.54
2023 Spending Goal Progress: $14,226/$30,000
Boring, but most of my spending for this month came from the same PointsMaker Apple Watch deal that I mention earlier in this page (that I used to hit my Plat sign-up bonus). This netted me $5.5K in spending.
The remaining $2.9K came from signing up for a US Bank checking account. Upon account creation, they allow you to fund up to $3K with a credit card, including Amex cards! There aren’t many bank account funding opportunities available with Amex, so hurry with this one while it’s still available! US Bank also often offers bank funding bonuses for new customers, so keep an eye out for those too!
Spent points for a first class flight!
Yes, you’ve heard that right, we have already earned enough in the last few weeks that we are already spending points on flights! I’ll save the details for another post, but P2 and I were able to redeem Amex miles for a mixed class flight to Norway in the winter.
Amex is transfer partners with Air France, and Air France operates a route from the West Coast to Norway, via CDG. On top of this, Air France was running a 25% Amex transfer bonus.
I’m especially excited to be transferring through CDG, since I’ll be able to access Air France’s lounges (hello unlimited croissants!), which are limited to business+ class passengers, and airline status holders. Even though my return leg is economy-plus, I will be able to access the lounge through my soon-to-be-earned Delta Diamond Medallion status, assuming I can hit my $30K spending goal on the card.
Now, finding award flights was a real challenge, until I discovered Point.me. This is a simple tool that aggregates award calendars across most airlines and point systems. The downside, is this costs $12/month to subscribe to. Since this is such an invaluable tool, I’m thinking to include access to this in the Churner’s Lounge, so everyone can access this for free with their membership! Stay tuned for more info on that!
