This past weekend, I had the opportunity to use my wonderful free AMEX Ameriprise Platinum card to go visit the delightful Centurion Lounge at SFO. My wife, Daria, was flying out for a tech conference in NYC in the afternoon, and a good friend was flying out to Switzerland later that night, so I figured it was worth a trip out to the Centurion Lounge even though I wasn’t flying myself. Free food, free alcohol, and a great workspace for the day.

A little while after Daria left, I was sitting by myself working on my laptop when someone comes up to me, noticing my t-shirt.

“Hey – I couldn’t help but notice your Hack the North t-shirt. I was there too!”

I’d been wearing a hackathon t-shirt Daria had picked up the past weekend in Canada, and it turned out Roger had been there too. So we started talking – and lo and behold, it turns out we were actually friends on Facebook and classmates at Harvard, though we never had the occasion to meet in person just yet.

More than that – he had actually read my blog, and that was the reason he was in the lounge to begin with. Turns out he saw one of my HCC posts on Facebook a while back, read about the AMEX Ameriprise Platinum, opened it, and this was his very first time in the Centurion Lounge – and as fate would have it, I just happened to be there too. As he later pointed out, it was very fitting that we’d meet, of all places, here.

We kept chatting through the night, and the story just got better from there. He had read about the AMEX Platinum, read some more on travel hacking, and promptly went zero to hero on this stuff, going so hardcore into it he’s more well versed on certain travel hacks like fuel dumping than I probably ever will be.

What’s even more amazing is that he started with a ~600 credit score back in June, and was able to start hacking his credit score and opening amazing cards like the AMEX Platinum in just two months.

So yeah. If you think your credit score is too low or you can’t pull something, think again. This guys is living proof that this shit is possible, and that being able to take advantage of this incredible opportunity is well within your short-term grasp.

Unfortunately – we got carried away talking and didn’t have the chance to take a memorializing picture together before the lounge closed at 11, but yeah: this really happened, and it’s quite the honor to hear about someone actually having found value in this blog and actually going out there and taking action on this stuff. Mad props, Roger.

Roger was also kind enough to write a case study of exactly how he pulled this off. Below:

Hi Ben!

It was such a blast seeing you Friday at the Centurion lounge. Again, thanks for your blog because it helped me some great offers and got me started with the art of churning.

Let me give you a little bit of back story and explain how I got into all of this.

About 9 months ago, I got my first credit card, the VISA Travel BankAmericard with 1.5% cash back on travel..I had a bank account with Bank of America and they offered a free card with my checking account so I figured why not. I thought it would be a way to start building credit so I signed up. I knew the BofA card wasn’t anything special so I kept an eye out for better next credit card and started doing some research..

Of course, given my personality, since I knew I want to maximize my rewards from my cards, I started googling and finding really detailed threads on Reddit (/r/churning) and FlyerTalk describing the best credit card offers out there. I quickly realized my credit history and credit score would not be enough to get the best offers so I kept lurking in these forums for a while.

About a month or so later, I came across your blog hackcreditcards.com. Unlike Reddit where the best content is hidden in a haystack of useless threads, your blogs had four high-quality content pieces right on the front page. Without even realizing it, your blog posts on hacking credit scores were solving the roadblocks I didn’t realize I had. While my parents didn’t have good enough credit, I did manage to lower my utilization raising my credit limit and opened three more checking accounts at various credit unions. I logged on to Credit Karma and quickly followed your advice to boost my credit score from 602 to 709 in one month of work.

My next step was to sign up for the Amex Platinum Ameriprise, which I would have never considered without finding your blog. Even though my credit score was questionable for a Platinum card, after reading your post on the reconsideration line I took the plunge–the perks were too good to give up.

Before you know it, I received an Amex Platinum card in my mailbox.
I quickly took advantage of some Amex offers, Priority Pass, applied for Global Entry, enrolled in all the free gold memberships, and used my airline reimbursement credit. Those benefits alone made the card worth for me, well before I ran into you at the SFO Centurion lounge.

While reading your blog, I reached out to some friends of friends and found others in the MS community. We started exchanging tips on find the best dates, the best credit card signup offers, and more. Turns out most of them didn’t know about the Ameriprise offer.

In September, inspired by my first experience with Ameriprise, I decided to apply for an App-o-Rama with four cards. I was looking to cash out on specific airline routes so I applied for the jetBlue, United, Hilton cards. To maximize cash back I also got a Discover it card. To my delight all the applications were accepted and now my Apple Pay wallet is getting pretty crowded. I have met the minimum spend of three out of my four cards this AoR season and I am close to finishing off my last credit card minimum spend.

Among my various churning adventures, the best surprise has to be this weekend. I was curious to try the famed Centurion lounges with my credit card. On my trip to New York I made sure to depart out of SFO terminal 3. I was pleasantly greeted by reception, and immediately shown the open bar, wine tasting display, and lounge areas (this is starting to sound like a TPG review). I walked around to get a sense of the general layout. On my tour, I noticed the crowd was mostly adults. When I came across you in a hackathon T-shirt, I had to introduce myself. After all I was headed to a start-up conference. Little did I know, I was introducing myself to the very person responsible for my time at the Centurion lounge. You know the rest of the story from there, Ben.

Thanks again for the blog which proved invaluable and I am excited to meet up soon!

Cheers,
Roger