Monthly Archives

Apr 12 2016

Chase has always had a hard time explaining the value of the Sapphire Preferred Card in simple terms to consumers that aren’t as sophisticated about points and travel as blog readers.

They’re now sharing a video with new cardmembers that tries to humanize the product — it tells the story of a couple who want to travel to Paris; they earn double points on their dining and travel and they can use their points for air and hotel.

Even so, the fundamental value of the Ultimate Rewards program doesn’t get communicated here: it’s that Chase Sapphire Preferred’s points transfer 1:1 into a variety of airline and hotel programs.

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Apr 12 2016

Citi appears to be changing its rules for welcoming back past cardmembers with a signup bonus.

They’re basically following Chase’s approach here (although not to the best of my knowledge also clamping down on approvals for the products themselves), and not going in the direction of American Express limiting customers to one bonus per card product in a lifetime.

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Apr 12 2016

Qantas is selling Los Angeles and San Francisco – Auckland, New Zealand roundtrip for as low as $225. That’s the cheapest I have ever seen a ticket to New Zealand!

This is available for trips that begin July 1 through September 1, and October 28 through November 30. You can fly either a Qantas codeshare on American’s new Los Angeles – Auckland flight, or you can fly Qantas to Australia and connect across to New Zealand.

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Apr 11 2016

Yesterday I wrote about a twist on the sub-$600 Australia roundtrips that could bring the price down to $385. These were from several US cities, predominantly Delta hub cities.

If you didn’t jump on these and wish you had, it’s not too late, because Los Angeles roundtrips have joined the party! United is now selling Los Angeles – Australia roundtrip itineraries for $566.

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Apr 11 2016

Starting tomorrow, IHG and Coca-Cola are back with their ‘Share Forever’ promotion. We don’t know the details of the promotion yet, though it will presumably be similar to last year’s.

Last year’s promotion offered between 68,500 and 115,500 bonus points plus a maximum 58,500 bonus points to share or keep.

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Apr 11 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Apr 11 2016

airberlin is a oneworld airline, partner of American and British Airways, that’s largely controlled by UAE-based Etihad.

They have a great business class product for long haul travel, and they do not add fuel surcharges to their fares. That means when redeeming miles, even British Airways miles for travel across the Atlantic, there are no fuel surcharges.

airberlin award space isn’t searchable at aa.com. You can search for it on the British Airways website and the Qantas frequent flyer site, then call American if using AAdvantage miles.

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Apr 10 2016

Yesterday I wrote about some amazing airfares on United Airlines between the US and Australia.

The fares were ~ $550 roundtrip from many of Delta’s hubs — not a mistake fare, but clearly a fare war aimed at Delta. Those fares are still available. And you can get the fare down as low as $380 by starting in any of these cities and returning to Los Angeles.

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Apr 10 2016

Oh, Air India. Your pilots refuse to fly unless you send them women. You fire co-pilots that have already quit. Your catering carts have rats, and you feed customers from them anyway figuring it’s your passengers that are the bigger problem anyway.

Bus gates are the bane of your existence. So it should really come as no surprise that when it was time to retire an old Airbus A320 to a training facility, they decided to use a crane that apparently couldn’t withstand the weight of an aircraft.

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Apr 10 2016

Back in February I detailed Starbucks plans to gut their rewards program for many customers. As is the trend in the airline loyalty game, Starbucks is moving to a revenue-based program. High-spenders will mostly break even. Folks who just buy a cup of coffee will see their rewards slashed drastically.

Starbucks is informing members that the IT work for the changeover starts tomorrow, with new earning going into effect on Tuesday.

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