Reward Point Earning - programs, stipulations, DP, etc.

[DONZI]

My first experience with reward points has been with amex and the platinum card. Since it has limited options for earning bonus points my understanding is tainted with the amex approach.

EG: 5x points = hotels via amex travel only & airline direct or via amex travel

I am now trying another (TSYS Loyalty) reward program for a synovus travel rewards card.

This card seems to operate outside of the 'Purchase Perks' redemption and shopping portal using merchant codes. I am guessing that the TSYS back-end is responsible for digesting merchant codes and determining "qualifying purchases"...

Hence, while it may be easier to predict bonus multiplier spend in TSYS Shopping, it's not required... Correct?

I'll be experimenting with more purchases over the next months but was interested if there is any existing threads with various reward programs DPs already?

My very short history (~10 days) with TSYS is limited to obvious bonus transactions on my more rewards card and some "Maintenance" from the dynamic category on the synovus travel card.

A couple fringe NFCU MR DP:

Soda machine = dining

Walmart Neighborhood Market = groceries

Synovus "Maintenance" Dynamic Earn:

Advance Auto Parts

Firestone (Service Center)

Stand-alone Car Wash (part of a small ent. biz with driving range, goofy golf, arcade, bar & restaurant)

WeatherTech (.com mainly auto mats & accessories)

Quick Oil Change and Lube Biz.

Synovus "Business Services" Dynamic Earn:

Long-Term Airport Parking (TPA pre-paid)

Home Mover & Storage Company

Namecheap (domain registrar)

Office Max (TSYS @ NFCU)

Synovus "Retail" Dynamic Earn:

Lowe's -- figured that would fall in Maint.

DG Hardware (ACE)

Wal-Mart Super Center

Costco

Cigar/Tobacco Store

Netgate

Big Lots

Bath & Body Works

Ollie's Bargain Outlet

Synovus "Utilities" Dynamic Earn:

Progressive Insurance (Auto)

AAA Life Insurance (TSYS @ NFCU)

Frontier Communications (ISP, etc. @ NFCU)

County Solid Waste Facility (Landfill)

Synovus "Gas" Dynamic Earn:

Wawa (inside store, snacks, etc only)

Synovus "Other" Dynamic Earn: NOTE: 1 point per $1 catch-all, not a 3x category

Steam (online game store)

Classic Barbers (think they use square, maybe some other CC auth service via cellphone reader)

If anyone has any DP to add for the NFCU Flagship or Synovus Travel Rewards cards that would be of interest to me personally, but feel free to post any rewards DP here if you like.

[Taurus22]

I think @JNA1 has the Synovus Travel Rewards.  We are both in the southeast US. Maybe he will see his tag and chime in for you....

[credit_is_crack]

I have the Synovus cash rewards card but don't have any experience with the Travel rewards. I think either @Remedios or @CreditCuriosity have a Synovus card, but can't remember if its the cash or travel. Could be neither - sorry! Synovus is fairly generous and broad though with their categories. I found this in my dynamic earn section but they didn't put much effort in listing examples out. 

I found this stuff here Cash Rewards and Travel Rewards 

The ones that stand out with most travel cards is dining within a hotel. Marriott tends to have a 3rd party permanent restaurant inside their hotels so when I charged the bill to my room, I got credit for "travel", but when I paid the bill directly in the dining area, it doesn't trigger the travel category. Same would apply for vendors in an airport (parking, luggage, upgrades = travel; dining, shops, entertainment within airport = not travel).

[CreditCuriosity]

Cash rewads here

[GatorGuy]

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

The ones that stand out with most travel cards is dining within a hotel. Marriott tends to have a 3rd party permanent restaurant inside their hotels so when I charged the bill to my room, I got credit for "travel", but when I paid the bill directly in the dining area, it doesn't trigger the travel category. Same would apply for vendors in an airport (parking, luggage, upgrades = travel; dining, shops, entertainment within airport = not travel).

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I just stayed at the Disney Swan hotel (run by Marriott) and Shulu's and Il Mulino inside the hotel both coded as Marriott travel although neither are owned by them. 

[credit_is_crack]

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@GatorGuy wrote:

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

The ones that stand out with most travel cards is dining within a hotel. Marriott tends to have a 3rd party permanent restaurant inside their hotels so when I charged the bill to my room, I got credit for "travel", but when I paid the bill directly in the dining area, it doesn't trigger the travel category. Same would apply for vendors in an airport (parking, luggage, upgrades = travel; dining, shops, entertainment within airport = not travel).

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I just stayed at the Disney Swan hotel (run by Marriott) and Shulu's and Il Mulino inside the hotel both coded as Marriott travel although neither are owned by them. 

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Nice! Were those places under the "Disney" umbrella by chance? I know my flagship counts places like that as travel because it has an "entertainment" segment built in. If Synovus is doing it too, this leads us back to their broad coding, which is a win for everyone

[JNA1]

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@Taurus22 wrote:

I think @JNA1 has the Synovus Travel Rewards.  We are both in the southeast US. Maybe he will see his tag and chime in for you....

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I have found that most all car related charges coded as maintenance, as well as two different swimming pool related businesses. I have used my card at a couple of different auto parts stores and I used it for a pretty big charge at an auto repair shop and they all coded as "maintenance". 

[GatorGuy]

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

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@GatorGuy wrote:

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@credit_is_crack wrote:

The ones that stand out with most travel cards is dining within a hotel. Marriott tends to have a 3rd party permanent restaurant inside their hotels so when I charged the bill to my room, I got credit for "travel", but when I paid the bill directly in the dining area, it doesn't trigger the travel category. Same would apply for vendors in an airport (parking, luggage, upgrades = travel; dining, shops, entertainment within airport = not travel).

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I just stayed at the Disney Swan hotel (run by Marriott) and Shulu's and Il Mulino inside the hotel both coded as Marriott travel although neither are owned by them. 

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Nice! Were those places under the "Disney" umbrella by chance? I know my flagship counts places like that as travel because it has an "entertainment" segment built in. If Synovus is doing it too, this leads us back to their broad coding, which is a win for everyone

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Nothing showed related as Disney. It came in under Sheraton Dolphin dining. If it was Disney I think I would have only gotten 2x for regular travel/dining.

Good to know about Flagship counting that. 

[DONZI]

@JNA1-- one of my next Synovus Travel Rewards experiments is for a monthly car wash subscription and/or random gas station car washes.

I hope both stand-alone car wash biz and gas station washes turn up as maintenance, but wouldn't mind if the gas station washes code as gas.

[JNA1]

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@DONZI wrote:

@JNA1-- one of my next Synovus Travel Rewards experiments is for a monthly car wash subscription and/or random gas station car washes.

I hope both stand-alone car wash biz and gas station washes turn up as maintenance, but wouldn't mind if the gas station washes code as gas.

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That will be interesting to see. I'd had some odd things code as maintenance before through TSYS's rewards. I bought a Christmas tree at a local nursery when I was trying to meet my SUB spend on my BBVA ClearPoints card and that coded as maintenance.