Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs,

and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher than average expenses to travel the world.

I'm your host, Stephen Gimbleimble and I believe that your expenses are your

greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world

of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often.

Let's get started.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Point Me to First Class Podcast.

If you're listening to this episode relatively in real time, it's

the beginning of October 2023, which means we have officially entered the last

quarter of the year. And I don't know how you all generally feel about the end of the year, but I will tell you this at the time of year where we in the Chicago area enjoy approximately 11 days of beautiful fall weather before rapidly transitioning into six to seven months of Arctic

freeze in winter that never ends.

Once the time changes, it gets dark here on 4 p.m. and it seems like everything goes through progressive stages of dying

until we hopefully emerge sometime around May or June. Suffice it to say, this is not my favorite time

of year weather wise, but it is my favorite time of year points wise. And that's because

Q4, the last quarter of the year, presents some incredible points earning opportunities which

at least partially make up for the sole crushing doldrums of a Midwestern

winter. So today we are going to be talking about one of my favorite most lucrative

points earning methods that is actually available year round but that gets even more rewarding in the

upcoming months. And that is the magic of earning boatloads of American Express membership

rewards points through the online shopping platform, Rakuten.

But before we dive into that, I do want to give a brief shout out to any of you listening who

are Chase Freedom Flex credit card holders and remind you if you haven't already activated your freedom

...