Yesterday I posted a deal for possible free Starbucks ‘stars’ which are credits towards free drinks and elite status. Most people reported it wasn’t working, and indeed I noted in my original post that it didn’t work for me. But since Dan’s Deals had success with it, I passed it along in case it was useful to anyone. Then today Ivan Y posted in the comments, Thank you! Didn’t have any stars in my account and 1st & 3rd codes worked 🙂 P.S. This was at 5:30 pm CST on 3/31. So I went and tried it again myself, the first code didn’t work for me but the second and third ones did. No guarantees it’ll work for you, but could be worth trying again. The very quick instructions and codes here. You can join…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for March 2014.
American Airlines JFK Flagship Lounge and New York – Washington National: Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
Using a Credit Card to Buy Fee Free Stocks, Earn Points, and Generate Spending Towards Bonuses
I’ve seen plenty of discussion of the idea but haven’t covered the ability to buy stocks with a credit card (and earn miles, as well as generate spend towards signup and threshold bonuses) without a transaction fee. That’s because the particular company offering it, Loyal3, doesn’t execute orders real-time, so you aren’t buying in at an ex ante known price. So there’s some price risk. Plus it’s not really a costless way to earn miles since there’s both upside and downside in the pricing of the investments you’re buying. I tend not to invest in individual stocks. There are very smart people who do that full-time and they get killed on it half the time. As a casual observer, even in industries where I have great familiarity, I consider myself at a disadvantage. Instead, I…
Amazing TAM First Class Award Space Still Available Now That They’re Part of oneworld
Whose Miles Can You Use Now for TAM First Class Awards to South America? TAM was a Star Alliance airline until yesterday, and you could book award seats with United or US Airways miles. They were also a partner of American Airlines and you could use American miles for the space. Today they’ve transitioned to oneworld. And they’re bookable using US Airways miles (which also transitioned to oneworld today), American miles, and British Airways points (as well as other oneworld airline points). How Do You Search for Space, and How Much Space is Out There? Up until yesterday you could search for space on the ANA or Aeroplan websites. Today you can search for space on the British Airways website. Last week I showed just how good the award space in first class on TAM…
SUCCESS! Still Able to Purchase Vanilla Reloads With Credit Card at CVS!
Since word went out that CVS was changing its policies to no longer allow the sale of certain prepaid and reloadable cards with credit card, I made one of my local, reliable stores my first stop on the way back from the airport yesterday. I bought my usual $5000 in Vanilla Reloads with a credit card in a single transaction there, and the shift manager did not know anything about pending changes to these cards. This morning I made another stop at CVS on my way into work to see whether anything had changed. There were still plenty of Vanilla Reload cards on the rack (surprising, given the run on these cards that must have happened over the weekened…). I first took just one card up to the register to see what would happen. The…
US Airways Is Now Part of Oneworld: What It Means for Booking Your Award Tickets
US Airways has posted its new award charts. There’s a separate oneworld award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of oneworld airlines and a partner award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of non-oneworld partner airlines. Redemption prices remain the same at least at first look. So US – North Asia (including Hong Kong) remains 90,000 miles in business class. You can now fly US Airways or American to a Cathay Pacific gateway city (New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver) to Hong Kong and back in business class for that price, and fly Cathay’s outstanding business class product. And instead of paying 110,000 American AAdvantage miles for the privilege, it’s just 90,000 Dividend Miles. I do not expect this price to last and it will certainly go up…
Getting Offers to Hang Onto a Card You Planned to Cancel
Reader Mike passes along his experiences cancelling a Citibank American Airlines credit card. Hi Gary, Wanted to thank you for all you do on your blog! I read it several times a day and have always found useful info even though I don’t travel as much as most if your readers. I wanted to share my recent experience trying to cancel my Citibank AA card this past weekend in case it would be helpful to anyone else. I called to cancel after annual fee came due and they gave me the following offer: $95 statement credit to offset annual fee + 1000 bonus miles each month I spend $1000 on the card for the next 16 billing cycles (basically earning double miles for first $1000 in spend) Thought I’d pass along. Thanks again for your…
Should a Ukrainian Family Be Forced to Pay Thousands in Change Fees to Avoid Travel to Russia?
Several folks — with varying perspectives — sent me a link to a story about a Ukrainian woman whose family has a trip planned to Europe this summer. She wanted to change her tickets to cut out the visit to Russia given current tensions there, but Finnair directed her to the online agency she bought the tickets from to make changes and the online agency wanted several hundred dollars per passenger to make the change. Marina Spor, 45, was born in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, about an hour and half drive from the Crimean peninsula. She immigrated to the United States with her parents at the age of 7. Spor’s husband is of Norwegian stock, so the couple thought it would be fun to let their kids get a taste of their roots…
My Favorite CVS Still Takes Credit Cards For Vanilla Reloads — And Doesn’t Plan to Change
Just a quick update to my post earlier today about the rumored demise of Vanilla Reload cards being sold at CVS and paid for by credit card. We certainly know that many stores have received a memo from the corporate headquarters that they’re interpreting to mean that Vanilla Reload cards can be sold for cash only, effective tomorrow March 31. But not all stores know about the memo. I stopped at one of my two favorite area stores that always have a rich supply of the cards and permit the purchase of up to $5000 per day via credit card. I spoke with the shift manager who knew the $5000 rule, hadn’t heard anything about planned changes, and assured that they hadn’t received any memos about similar products over the past week. Now, that only…
Today May Be the Last Day to Buy Vanilla Reload Cards with a Credit Card at CVS
Lots of discussion across the blogosphere on this and I haven’t had a chance to get into my neighborhood CVS, but once I’m done with my travel day I do plan to stop by one of the ones that has been both well-stocked and willing to sell $5000 per person per day with a credit card in a single transaction. Vanilla Reload cards are one of the tools people use to fund cards like Bluebird, MyVanilla Debit, and the JH Preferred Prepaid Visa. There have been lots of false reports and early declaration sf death for the Vanilla Reload card. Office Depot used to sell them and stopped. Many individual stores, and even regions, declared them cash only. But there was no chain-wide policy against allowing the purchase with a credit card. Apparently now there…
