Flying another American Airlines Miles Card... Because I Can

I recently opened another American Airlines partnered credit card. I say another not because I already have one but because I've had this card many times in the past. In fact this is my 6th Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Card account, going back 12+ years.

Why open another one right now ? Well, because I can, frankly.

Back in the day, credit card churners would churn the ever-loving hell out of this card. I was never so greedy. Once a year was enough for me. 😅

Then several years ago Citi adopted a 48-month exclusion period on the sign-up bonuses (SUBs). You couldn't earn a SUB if you'd owned another account of the same type within the past 48 months. I closed my previous copy (number five) of this card in 2020. That made me eligible to apply for a new one several months ago.

And I did apply several months ago. But Citi rejected me. ...My credit score is 860, WTF are they looking for?

I applied again a few weeks ago. This time they approved me. And with a credit limit that seems like a bazillion dollars. Seriously, four months ago I had a well-paying job and was persona non grata, and now I'm retired with, like, half my previous annual income (yes, I provided accurate numbers), and it's like "Take our card... please!" 🙄

I'm actually glad those Citi clowns (or was it Citi AI?) turned me down several months ago.That's because the bonus offer I found last month was better. I'll earn a bonus of 80,000 points after $3,500 of charges in 90 days. Hitting that level of spend is trivial. I could've done it in a single charge when I paying quarterly estimated state taxes. Instead I'll hit it in 2 when I charge a car insurance bill next month as I split my tax bill halvesies on another card I'm working a bonus offer on.

What do I plan to do with those points? At the moment, nothing... except add them to the mountain of AA points I already have. I already have just shy of 900k AA points. This new card bonus will put me within spitting distance of one million.

Mosquito Hawks

This evening I was attending an HOA meeting in our community clubhouse. As the clubhouse has no AC, and with it being quite hot despite being nominally still Winter, we had all the exterior doors open. This meant as twilight set in so did a bunch of insects. A huge moth posted up on one of the walls, then what looked like a humongous mosquito flew near me. Here's a stock picture of the insect:



When a neighbor sat down next to me I pointed to the insect just a few feet away from us and asked, "Is that a mosquito?" I don't know why I asked because I was nearly sure it was. But it's good I did ask— maybe it's that 1% of doubt I held— because I was wrong. All my life I've thought these bugs were giant mosquitos. Today I learned they're mosquito hawks.

"What's a mosquito hawk?" I asked my neighbor. I was a bit dismayed when he pulled out his phone and said, "Hey, Google...." followed by repeated my question. I mean, I could have just looked it up on my phone. I asked a fellow human because he seemed confident in his identification and I wanted to understand the reasons for his confidence.

Technically this insect is called a Crane Fly. "Mosquito hawk" is a colorful common name that's actually inaccurate. It's related to neither mosquitos nor hawks. Nor is it a "Skeeter Eater", another common name that's inaccurate. Crane Flies do not eat mosquitos. They also don't bite or sting humans. They're basically harmless. They're just as unnerving as all hell when you see them bouncing around next to your porch light or getting into your house.

Update: Wait 'til you see what AI thinks mosquito-hawks might look like.... Nightmare fuel! 😨