News and notes from around the interweb:
- One Mile at a Time highlights that United Airlines has largely stopped making business class saver awards available to non-elite members who do not have their credit card, even for empty business class cabins at the last minute.
And this also means that partner airline programs don’t have access to these awards. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Air Canada gaining some access in the coming months, though, albeit at higher price points.
- Register for Chase Sapphire Preferred dining credit at participating restaurants
- Massachussetts wants to make some private beachfronts public on Martha’s Vineyard even at the Obama home.
- Airport Dad Mode has become a thing on TikTok
Airport Dad Mode is a hyper-organized, slightly bossy travel persona that kicks in under the fluorescent lights of the terminal. Typical behaviors include:
- Getting the whole group to the airport hours early.
- Clutching passports, boarding passes, and snacks like sacred cargo.
- Power-walking to the gate, even if boarding is still an hour away.
- Running constant checks on gate numbers and departure times.
- Narrating the process (“Laptops out! IDs ready!”) through security.
It’s part drill sergeant, part travel agent, and—deep down—part doting caretaker.
- Getting the whole group to the airport hours early.
- Tokyo Haneda airport security staff arrested for stealing ~ $10,000 from passengers
- IHG One Rewards is offering double points on your second stay and triple points on your third and future stays, up to 70,000 bonus points, for paid stays booked direct between October 1 – December 31, 2025. Registration required.
Double points is worth registering for, triple points is pretty good, they just don’t want oflks to stumble into bonus points if they’re not really a frequent intentional guest – that’s an expense to them with little benefit – hence bonus points don’t start until the second stay.
- How banks tailor their images (HT: Marginal Revolution)
This paper examines how banks strategically develop brand images and how these efforts influence franchise value and the transmission of monetary policy. Analyzing TV advertisements via video embeddings, we measure banks’ images along three dimensions: pricing advantages, service quality, and building trust and emotional connections. Banks with high local market shares highlight service and trust. Banks lacking pricing or service advantages lean on emotional appeals. Banks tailor images to demographics, increasing minority representation in targeted areas. A border discontinuity design helps identify that banks’ images affect deposit growth, spreads, and loan demand, leading banks to respond differently to monetary policy.
If true (that card members are the only ones with access to Saver Business Class awards), for once, those Chase United cards may actually pay off… I mean, other than churning each of them every several years and raking-in the sign-up bonuses…
Gary, do you think what UA is doing will be copied by other programs? Especially non-US programs?
For many people seriously into the miles game, including you I think, the strategy is often focused around collecting transferrable bank points, then using those by transferring to non-US airlines for one-off or occasional business class redemptions. If those seats are unavailable except to elites or card holders of that specific airline, wouldn’t that mean an overall big devaluation of points from Chase, Citi, Amex, Cap One?
Meh. That horrible translucent blue plastic trim on their business class seats is too garish and tacky to have to endure for more than ten hours anyway. No great loss.
I’ve got 400k united miles stick and I’m 5/24 with chase. Even though I am a great chase customer and have never churned THEIR cards.
I’m f’ed.
@Dave — Oof. You’re not ‘playing the game,’ sir. Rule #1, don’t hoard points. Rule #2, sign-up bonuses are the prize. Two strikes!
@Gene — Rule #3, WFBF.
In before someone comments why United screwing their loyalty members at will, is a great thing or not as bad as it could be.
Is it possible United is “saving some seats” for when they integrate with B6 later in the year and let trueblue members use trueblue points to book UA metal?
I think it’s more likely they’re just generally restricting partner access, but I wonder if B6 will get any preferential treatment at launch at least…
I’ve had a UA card for a long time, but what I have pretty consistently found is that saver business awards on partner airlines, particularly LH group, are available much earlier than UA releases theirs, which is fine since I prefer them and like to book trips far in advance. In fact, the last two times I flew UA TATL, the (1) IDB’d me off the direct flight to a connecting flight – as boarding began – and (2) when my SN flight was cancelled and I switched to a UA one on the day before. Also, with a card, the price is 80k rather than 88k. Anyway, using point.me, I find lots of TATL saver business awards using MileagePlus points, just on partners, not on UA. Definitely not worthless.
And airport dad here. In my defense, if it was up to some members of my family, we’d miss most of our flights.
I’m happy I burned most of my UA miles on 80k IN saver seats last summer. I’m resigned to traveling coach in the future, but even there UA’s international pricing is not the best. I now use UA miles for short-notice domestic travel only. That’s the only sweet spot left.
That stupid Airport Dad drill sergeant trope makes me glad I avoid TikTok. “Sacred cargo”? Who came up with that?