Recap: Monopoly Money, Uber Surge Pricing, United Miles for Hertz Rental & More

 

  • Via Flyertalk, there’s another card-linked app called Spent. It runs on the Empyr network, same as MOGL, Swagbucks, and many others. I’ve added it to our Complete List of Card-Linked Reward Programs. If anyone had experience with the app, let us know if there are any good deals there and we’ll do a dedicated review.

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

13 Comments
newest
oldest most voted

Glenn
Glenn (@guest_409694)
May 23, 2017 19:27

As usual with these United/Hertz type promotions check the regular prices first. Usually I find they’re not worth it, since the miles you get are outweighed by higher prices. I compare to AAA for example. In this case I found that a rental we were going to do anyway will cost us about $30 more using the promotion vs. AAA rates so its worth it for the extra 5,500 miles. Lots of times it isn’t though.

Orion
Orion (@guest_409624)
May 23, 2017 16:15

Uber’s Upfront Pricing is a total scam. Been driving for a couple of months now and I routinely ask my riders how much they paid if they don’t mind.

Uber charges drivers and upfront price that is calculated using the longest and slowest route and pays the drivers only based on the actual route taken.

For example, a rider yesterday paid $64 for their ride, while it showed me that the rider fare was only $40 – of which I received 75% or $30. Essentially Uber kept over 50% of the fare paid by the rider.

Protip: Lyft does the same thing when you put in your destination before requesting a ride. However, if you remove your destination and then request the ride it will only charge you based on the actual fare. I use their pricing as an estimate and then just remove the destination before requesting pickup. I’ve found that this saves me on average 20% versus putting in the destination before requesting the ride.

Orion
Orion (@guest_409626)
May 23, 2017 16:15

Uber charges riders an upfront price* that is calculated using the longest and slowest route.

DaWoodMan1
DaWoodMan1 (@guest_409538)
May 23, 2017 13:42

Installed Spent on my phone, added a credit card and discovered that Spent does not YET have full access to the entire Empyr network. For example, MOGL and Yelp have way more restaurant options than Spent. Will they get full access in the future? I don’t know, but currently I’d say its probably better to use MOGL or Yelp.

Additionally, I discovered that if I try to add a CC that is already in the Empyr network, the Spent app, MOGL, etc. gives me an error saying that the card is already connected somewhere else UNLIKE the Rewards Network where the card is popped out of the other program and into the new program automatically. To make matters worse, I can’t figure out how to remove cards from the Empyr network in the particular program they are in!

Additionally x 2, since MOGL used to be solely Hawaiian Airlines restaurant program partner before they got on Empyr, they used to reward your dining with HawaiianMiles. Now, that they are part of Empyr, and do cashback also, you have to choose between cashback and HawaiianMiles. DEFINITELY choose cashback as 40 HawaiianMiles are awarded per $1 of REWARDS earned meaning that your cashback rewards are used to purchase HawaiianMiles at a rate of $.025 i.e. 2.5 cents/mile, a horrendous price for HawaiianMiles.

Additionally x 3, in Las Vegas, my area, it appears that store owners that participate in the Rewards Network or the Empyr network ALSO seem to participate in the other one network too. I’m noticing a ton of overlap between the Rewards Network and the Empyr network restaurants.

I’m going to post this in Card-Linked Reward programs post too, but it was this article about the Spent app that got me researching so feverishly anyway so I figured I’d post my findings here as well.

MoreSun
MoreSun (@guest_409471)
May 23, 2017 12:01

Gonna give Informed Delivery a shot, sounds like it has potential to be quite useful.

Ash
Ash (@guest_409437)
May 23, 2017 10:18

Anybody knows how to create an account on playmonopoly.us to upload these monoploy codes. It seems the site has an option for existing users only.

Lrdx
Lrdx (@guest_409502)
May 23, 2017 12:58

The registration deadline has passed, you cannot create new accounts any more. The game ended last week..

Ash
Ash (@guest_409503)
May 23, 2017 13:02

Did the game end .. The tokens say you can redeem till 24 May.. Can u share any link that says the registration has ended.

Lrdx
Lrdx (@guest_409513)
May 23, 2017 13:17

Hm, I don’t find this. I thought I read somewhere I have to register the game before they end it, they just give some extra time at the end to scan tickets you got the last time.

Michael G.
Michael G. (@guest_409436)
May 23, 2017 10:17

I got 3 of the $5 VISA e-cards off of the Monopoly online game from codes my parents didn’t want to deal with. They are listed as Fandango prizes so it took me until almost the end of the game before I realized that they could be used for something besides movie tickets.

Redeemed the cards into Amazon credit with no issue.

Game is affiliated with Albertsons owned stores: Acme, Jewel, Safeway, Shaw’s, Vons, etc. 1 ticket earned for every $10 spent plus bonus tickets for buying certain brands/items.

Lrdx
Lrdx (@guest_409507)
May 23, 2017 13:11

In the last two weeks of the promo, the ticket earning was madness.

At my local Safeway, I bought 2 items (2x ~$15) for free (using a previous ‘instant winner’ ticket – $0 bottom line), the items were “extra ticket” items, so +2 ticket, got eligible for 32 tickets as per the dollar value (wtf? more than 1 ticket per pre-coupon $s), so a total of 34, and the cashier was just like screw this, and just grabbed a bunch and gave me 74 coupons. From that bunch, I won a $5 cash price through the collect 4 game, 3x bagel or doughnut, a bottle of aspirin, 2x 1 lbs salt (anyone wants salt?), a $5 off $50 coupon, and $4 off of a package of fresh chicken breasts, 5x “+2 extra ticket” coupons, and numerous 50c off of random stuff.

alvinroast
alvinroast (@guest_409561)
May 23, 2017 14:13

Thank you. That was a fun read. I’ve been too busy or lazy for that kind of madness lately, but it’s always fun to hear about. I think we’ve about finished off the bottle of aspirin from Small Business Saturday a couple of years ago.

I asked my wife if we had plans for the weekend after next so that we could take advantage of the United 5000 mile Hertz deal. She asked if we were going to a Walmart GC convention. Good times!

Luke Bornheimer
Luke Bornheimer (@guest_409652)
May 23, 2017 17:15

On a related note, found a few other “opportunities”:

1) Bolillo rolls at Safeway cost $0.33 each and earned six Monopoly tickets, when purchased by themselves (i.e. six tickets for one roll ($0.33, or $0.055 per ticket).
2) You could purchase one roll in successive, separate transactions and get tickets for each purchase.
3) In the last week of the promo, cashiers were giving 2x (or 3x) tickets.
4) Unopened tickets were selling on eBay for $0.25–0.50 per ticket, before eBay shut those sales down.
5) Compiled 875 tickets in the last week of the promo, then sold them for $275 on Meraki ($241, after seller fees and shipping).

Good times!