News and notes from around the interweb:
- New Starbucks refer-a-friend program
- Earning the full 30,000 American mile bonus for a Citi checking account without fees or meeting a minimum balance requirement.
- American AAdvantage elites get complimentary access to Alaska Airlines ‘preferred plus’ extra legroom seating (.pdf)… while Delta elites do not. Next shot in the Battle for Seattle, Delta? (HT: Jim T.)
- Apparently in certain markets, Uber has been successful at attracting more drivers than needed to satisfy consumer demand. And so they’ve been able to up their take out of each ride from 20% to 25%. Now they’re testing a model where they take 5% more from new drivers and reduce their commission after a set number of drives. This incentivizes drivers to stay on the platform, and helps cover Uber’s fixed costs associated with bringing on a driver — but naturally cuts into driver income when first signing up. (HT: tom911)
- Does cabin noise influence the taste of inflight meals?
- A woman began renting through Airbnb and then started accepting payments outside of their system. Thus, she lost Airbnb’s protection. And the renters stayed and didn’t pay. And she eventually had to pay them off to leave. Because, California.
uber = slavery
Is the Citibank offer still available? Is there a link? Thanks!
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/irs-taxable-income-credit-card-rewards-points-gift-1277.php
@Ken I have written about citi tax reporting, interestingly most recent reports I’ve seen are of their not doing it on these accounts
From pointscentric.com:
” Tarheel Traveler on November 26, 2014 at 1:56 pm
I can say last year Citi issued a 1099 on TY redemptions accrued from my checking account. After a lot of fighting, they ultimately gave me a credit for the additional tax hit for the 1099 to one of my credit cards, but were adamant that those types of redemptions are subject to 1099s if you receive a value over $625 (I think). The infuriating part of the process was that there was no set rule on how they valued the redemptions or a way to challenge their valuation if someone thought that they were high. I’ve steered clear of checking account deals with Citi since. Credit card accrued points are fine. “
@Ken – ThankYou points redemptions from checking account-earned points.
Yes, renting outside Airbnb has risks. And while I agree that Airbnb deserve their fair share for the services and protections they provide, some of their policies are outrageous: They charge a 3% currency conversion fee based on the billing address of the credit card, which means they’ll only charge my Sapphire Preferred in USD, pocketing a conversion fee that Chase doesn’t charge…
I complained several months ago, asking them to allow the customer to choose the billing currency, but to date they haven’t implemented such a feature.
“Earn 30,000 American Miles for a Checking Account With No Fees, and More”
Doing it again, Gary…
This time I wasted about 15 minutes reading the linked series of articles before I found out this:
How do you earn those miles? Simple, just sign up by the deadline, which was March 30th. 🙁
It’s really my fault though. At least according to the “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” rule.
These offers come around very regularly.
Just applied by finding a link to apply for a citigold checking account, logging into my existing citi credit card account, and replacing the offer code with the 4Y6KEW8XL3.
re: Citi Bank Account funding
Will funding a new Citi Bank Account w/ a Barclay AAdvantage Aviator card be considered a cash advance?
@dj n – recent data points i’m familiar with are no, purchase