Lol: Guy Flexes 45 Million Amex Points At Rite Aid

On many levels, this is hilarious.

Rite Aid shopper shocks clerk with Amex points balance

A video of Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy shopping at a drugstore with his card is going to be viewed millions of times.

In the nearly minute long video posted to various social media platforms and now viewed millions of times, you can see Portnoy insert his Amex card into the card reader while buying a pack of gum. The Amex Membership rewards points are not very good for purchases at Rite Aid. The credit card reader shows his balance. It's yow.

The employee doesn't seem to have much context for how much those points are worth She said "you probably could go on a trip", to which Portnoy replied "I definitely can, I have to be a league leader with points"

I value the points at 1.7 cents each, so they are worth 755K. It seems like he has spent a lot of money on his card since it earns 1x points on a lot of purchases, but he doesn't seem to know how to use them.

Does this make Portnoy the master of points?

Barstool Sports calls Portnoy the'master of points'. Does he have a huge amount of points? This is the largest balance I have ever heard of. He's the "master of points" as much as someone winning the lottery is the "master of finance"

There are a lot of opportunities left to maximize points.

• He could have been using a card that offers bonus points on drugstore purchases, like the Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited
• He could have been using that purchase of a pack of gum to reach the minimum spending requirement on a credit card, like the Barclays Aviator Red Mastercard; after all, during their credit card pitch, American Airlines flight attendants remind us that we can earn the bonus on a card just by buying a pack of gum!
• If he’s not going to actually use his points, why doesn’t he use a card offering at least 2% cash back, like the Citi Double Cash or Capital One Spark Cash Plus? Assuming he earned Amex points at the rate of 1x points per dollar spent, he’d have close to $1.5 million cash back!
• If he just wants to use one card for everyday spending, why not earn 2x points instead with the Capital One Venture X? He’d now have closer to 100 million points!

Even though Amex points hold their value better than individual airline or hotel points currencies, you should still take anearn and burn strategy whenever possible. There are so many amazing travel experiences to be had, but you aren't getting any of those with all the points in your account.

If you have 45 million points, you are not hard up. Surely he would be happy with an extra couple of million dollars in cash back.

Bottom line

One of the biggest points balances ever was flexed by a man with an Amex Centurion Card as he paid at a drugstore. The employee at the drugstore told him he probably had enough points for a trip.

What do you think about the video?