News and notes from around the interweb:
- The first Singapore Airlines A350 has left the paint shop.
- Here’s the list of changes and new features that are part of AwardWallet’s new beta. If you want in on the beta for your own account here’s an upgrade link.
- Hyatt is eliminating in-room on demand porn. Just like everyone else is. Of course, they give all guests free internet.
- Hyatt Visa: 50,000 Gold Passport points is better than two free nights
- Leaked Costco memo on the transition from American Express to Visa and Citibank.
- Delta has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that they are New York. As part of that strategy they have sponsorship deals with the New York Knicks, Rangers, Mets, and Yankees. They’ve extended deals with both the Mets and Yankees, paying seven figures a year to each.
- Here’s an amazing 360 degree interactive video inside the cockpit of a Swiss Airbus A320 during takeoff and landing of a flight from Geneva to Zurich. You can drag and adjust the frame of reference. (HT: Paul H.)
So it finally comes out…..Amex will be giving the cardholder list to Citibank. Wow! Not that something like this hasn’t happened in the past, but definitely not expected in this situation. Amex must be feeling major pain!
AMEX will do fine. If I were Citi I’d wonder how I convince consumers to use the Citi Visa and not some other Visa. Saavy consumers will use other Visa methods to maximize earning, at least AMEX had a stranglehold on their own cards (outside of debit cards and checks…)
@Sice,
Using another Visa is exactly what I plan to do. I’ll be using my Sapphire Preferred Card.
This Bloomberg article stated that 10% of all Amex cards were Amex/Costco True Rewards Cards. Over 11 million accounts! Furthermore, Amex is not “giving” Citibank the Costco cardholder list. There will some funds exchanged. Amex stock has gone down thru this brand change. A group of stockholders are suing Amex for not disclosing how big the Costco business is to the total amount of Amex cardholders. Now supposedly Amex is trying to convert Costco/Amex cardholders to another Amex. But, if they can’t use any Amex card at Costco, I wonder how effective that will be. Costco customers are not poor and many probably have multiple Amex cards.
I just wonder what kind of extra benefits this Citibank Costco Visa will have? I wasn’t exactly crazy about Costco Amex Card.