News and notes from around the interweb:
- Up to 30,000 American miles for a Citibank checking account
- Apparently selfie sticks cause radiation concerns. And yet – somehow – nude-o-scopes do not..?
- Six things I learned about Singapore Taxis
- Earlier in the month American announced their program to let you buy your way to elite status. At the time they said that the US Airways version of the offer was a few weeks away. Now it’s live.
- New York’s JFK airport finally has some decent restaurants, including steakhouses. So the Port Authority has implemented a new ban on steak knives. Because a customer might take the knife onboard an aircraft (for all the steak they serve in domestic first class these days?). Nevermind that it’s not tough to get things past the nude-o-scopes if you wish..
- Where does your luggage go at the airport?
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Thanks.
Is Chairman’s Trial Preferred still available for non-status US flyers? The old website seems to come up still
Oh yeah, I’ll put $50,000 in a Citibank checking account, use 750 in debt purchases + pay 2 bills for a whopping 30,000 AA Miles plus a 1099 tax form.
Yeah, that I’ll do. Ridiculous.
I’m not entirely sure Citibank still issues 1099’s for this (they definitely did in 2012/2013). Per Doctor of Credit (http://www.doctorofcredit.com/targeted-citibank-offering-up-to-30000-american-airlines-aadvantage-miles-to-sign-up-for-their-checking-products-no-direct-deposit/) and this Flyertalk thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-thankyou-rewards/1610440-w9-form-citigold-checking-account.html). That said I have no firsthand experience to verify this.
The real news (at least for me) is the reduced segment qualification for US Airways Chairman’s Preferred (soon to be AAdvantage Executive Platinum). I will be at 91 segments this year and wasn’t going to attempt to get to the original qualification requirement of 120 segments. But now it looks as though a couple of mileage runs may be in my future…
Here is the wording on the US Airways site:
**Chairman’s Preferred status normally requires 100,000 miles or 120 segments. However, in anticipation of combining Dividend Miles with the AAdvantage program in the second quarter of 2015, we are lowering the segment requirement for 2014 to 100 segments to align with the 2014 AAdvantage Executive Platinum threshold. In 2015, 120 segments will be required for both Chairman’s Preferred and AAdvantage Executive Platinum status.