News and Notes from Around the Interweb: New Uber car service members can earn 800 Virgin America Elevate points for signing up. I still prefer using promo code YELPSF to get a $20 ride credit to start with. But, while the website doesn’t make this clear, one may get the 800 points without actually using Uber (at least the offer details just say you need to sign up). So folks who won’t use the service (I do and I love it) may prefer the Virgin America points. Frontier EarlyReturns has cut the cost of a roundtrip domestic award ticket to 20,000 points. Of course, they only raised it from 20,000 to 25,000 back in the summer of 2010. And it used to be 15,000. But I suppose they could use some new use in light…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2012.
United Terminates Qatar Award Space From Their Website Early
Wandering Aramean catches that United has pulled award inventory on Qatar 3 days early. Just weeks after Qatar award space became bookable on the united.com website, it was announced that the United-Qatar partnership was ending and awards would be bookable through September 14 (for travel until the end of schedule as of that time). But in July most phone agents started refusing to book awards on Qatar saying the partnership was over. Availability continued to persist online, and finding a phone agent who knew how to book the space was extremely difficult. (When you booked it online, you still had to trust that it would get ticketed). I set up a Qatar award reservation on the United website over the weekend. But Qatar space no longer shows up there at all. Period. And agents remain as clueless as…
Frontier Will Cut Mileage Earning and Advance Seat Assignments, Increase Fees, Unless You Book on Their Website
Scott Mayerowitz covers the latest salvo in the war between travel providers and online travel agencies in this Associated Press story: Frontier Airlines won’t offer you seat assignments until check-in, will give you only half the frequent flyer miles, and will charge you higher ancillary fees, if you book your ticket through Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and similar websites. It’s an attempt to reduce the airline’s distribution costs, Mayerowitz says that different airlines pay out $10 to $25 per ticket to the online agencies. I imagine that the bigger airlines pay lower per-transaction fees, just as the big hotel chains pay lower commissions than the smaller properties. I understand that the hotel chains pay commissions in the 20% – 30% range, while independent properties may give up as much half of their revenue on a booking.…
Meet $2000 in Credit Card Minimum Spend, Cheap and Easy
If you have an Android phone or a compatible tablet such as Google Nexus 7, you can use the Google Wallet App with a virtual prepaid card that can be funded with any credit card. I do not know whether Citbank would consider this a cash advance, they often consider lots of things cash advances, so absent evidence to the contrary I would avoid using Citibank cards for this. The cool thing about this, and why it’s a great very limited time opportunity is that the Google prepaid card is being discontinued and balances remaining on your card can be returned to you by check. You have to reload the card by September 17, and the card will hold up to $8000. But there appears to be a limit of $500 per day and $2000…
Getting a Hyatt Visa With a $75 Statement Credit is Back
The Hyatt Visa comes with two free nights at any Hyatt in the world as a signup bonus, Platinum Gold Passport members get suite upgrade certificates also, and Diamond Gold Passport members get their two free nights in suites. Those are good offers for the card, and I find the card worth keeping despite the $75 annual fee because of the annual free night good at any hotel up to category four (such as the Hyatt 48 Lex in New York). Unfortunately, the card doesn’t offer a first year fee waiver. Back in April I did find an offer of a $75 statement credit which covered the fee, but that link was since pulled. Today in the comments to my post on best credit card signup bonuses, Murphy wrote: Just an FYI for anyone wanting…
The Federal Government Isn’t Shutting Down Your Small Airport on January 2
It’s time to go all Snopes ‘n stuff on a bad rumor going around small towns over the past 5 weeks: that 106 small airports will be forced to close by federal budget cuts that will go into effect in January. Now, it’s correct that on January 2nd there’s significant federal budget cuts scheduled to take place. No one really thinks this will happen, since almost no lawmaker wants it to happen, but they haven’t yet figured out a way around it. As a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011 signed back in August, unless Congress and the President agree on an alternative there’s supposed to be an automatic cut of $1 trillion in spending over ten years, split equally between defense and non-defense activities (so about $50 billion in non-defense spending in…
75% Aeroplan Point Bonus on Air Canada Domestic Flights (Excludes Tango Fares)
Aeroplan is offering a 75% bonus on Air Canada and Air Canada Express flights within Canada between September 10 and October 21. Registration required. The bonus applies to roundtrips or two one-ways on Tango Plus, Latitude and Executive Class fares. “Tango” fare classes N, G, P, E, and A do not earn this bonus.
Eating Around the Grand Hyatt New York
I was staying at the Grand Hyatt, and as folks who read the review know I had a bit of room service on arrival. So I wasn’t hungry early, but headed out to get a little bit of dinner around 8pm. First stop was Schnitzel & Things, a small restaurant that started off as a food truck with both excellent schnitzel and sides, it’s counter service and a few tables in back. Unfortunately they close at 8pm and were cleaning up as I arrived. So had to go looking for something else to try. That neighborhood has plenty of Japanese restaurants, and wherever there are clusters of one type of food you have competition which gives you a good shot that the food at any given place will be ok. And walking down the side…
Etihad Guest Offers a Poor Use of Miles for My Birthday!
This morning I received a happy birthday email from the Etihad Guest program. The Etihad Guest team would like to wish you a very Happy Birthday! We are thrilled to offer you an exclusive birthday discount on specially selected rewards so you can treat yourself on this special day. Happy Birthday and Happy Shopping! As anyone that’s my friend on Facebook will know, they got the timing of this a little bit off. And they do have my correct birthday on file (oops). But they’re actually close, and that’s not what prompted this note. It’s just what those ‘exclusive birthday discount[s] on specially selected rewards so [I] can treat’ myself are that’s what prompted this note. Oops, guess they should have gotten the birthday even more wrong and sent this my way a few weeks…
Delta Hates its Customers #742: Award Wallet Forced to Stop Helping Members Track Their Skymiles Accounts
Regular readers are familiar with Award Wallet, the service that helps you track all of your frequent flyer accounts — you enter your account number and password once, and with a single click you can update all of your account balances, see which ones have grown or gotten smaller, and also with one click log into your account. I’ve found that this helps me be a more engaged member. I don’t have to keep track of all of my account numbers of sticky notes or e-mail folders, and I can easily stay up to date on my activity and relationship with each program. And I’ve found that the programs I can’t track at Award Wallet (American and Southwest won’t permit access) I am less engaged in. I’m an American AAdvantage Executive Platinum but logging into…
