At the beginning of the year Evolve Money evolved into a great way to pay bills using gift cards you purchased with a credit card to pay off bills with vendors who don’t accept credit cards (or charge fees too high for it to be worthwhile). In that way, you could earn miles for paying bills. Evolve Money was one of the easiest ways to earn lots of miles at very little cost. The usefulness of Evolve Money for liquidating gift cards crashed down when they limited you to paying each vendor one time per month. No more serial payments using a bunch of gift cards to cover your mortgage! They don’t have all or even that many vendors in their system, but many mortgage providers are. Their limits remain in place, so no more…
About Gary Leff
Claims About Flight Attendants I Wish Were True
A piece in the Daily Mail claimed that there’s only one hotel in Nairobi that they can put crew up in, and that the hotel has so many complaints about raucous flight attendants that they’re at risk of losing their contract. Thus BA is going to have to stop flying to Nairobi unless their flight attendants become less wild. It’s a three year old article that came across my Facebook feed this morning. British Airways bosses fear having to scrap lucrative flights because of mounting complaints about raucous cabin crew parties at luxury hotels. Topless air hostesses and champagne-fuelled pool parties have prompted a flood of protests about wild behaviour. Now BA has warned its captains to control their crews during overnight stops – or the airline may be forced to abandon at least one…
British Airways Offering 50% Off Award Tickets, and You Still Get Hosed!
British Airways is running an award redemption sale through November 17 for travel through January 31. The sale is for economy travel between London and specific destinations, though there are quite a lot of them, and travel dates vary for a handful. Here are the cities that are 50% off US East Coast and Chicago are normally 40,000 miles. With this promotion they’re 20,000 miles roundtrip. Dallas, Houston, Denver, and San Diego are normally 50,000 miles. With this promotion they’re 25,000 miles roundtrip. Abu Dhabi Austin Bahrain Baku Bangalore Beijing Beirut Buenos Aires Cairo Calgary Chengdu Chicago Dallas Denver Dubai Houston Jeddah Johannesburg Kuwait Mexico City Montreal New York (JFK or Newark) Philadelphia Phoenix Rio de Janeiro Riyadh San Diego Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Tel Aviv Tokyo (Haneda or Narita) Washington (Baltimore or Dulles) These…
I’ve Heard of Xenophobia, But This is Ridiculous
Last week I reviewed the American Airlines Admirals Club in Buenos Aires. The club itself is gorgeous. The food offerings are far better than I would have expected. I thought the lounge wasn’t big enough for the number of guests at peak times, and I found it strange that a new-build lounge for an American flag carrier wouldn’t have North American-style power ports. Comment Agnel said, If I remember correctly, the US style outlets are prohibited by code in Argentina. My mom was doing some renovations in her condo and they couldn’t put them in. I managed to confirm this with American. American did want to put in these power ports, but were not permitted to do so. There are loaner adapters available in the club. Just ask an agent to borrow one. I think…
The Program With the Single Best Award Chart, Aeroplan Award Pricing Mistake Update, and Delta Fixes Online Award Booking
News and notes from around the interweb: The frequent flyer program with the single best award chart. High-end all-Audi rental car company Silvercar (see $9 Audi Car Rentals from Silvercar and How I Made $12 On My Audi Rental Car and How You Can Too) has increased their referral offer to $100. Here’s my referral code. You’re welcome to leave yours in the comments. Virgin Australia and Alaska Airlines award space appears to be back on the Delta.com website. So rather than a plot to prevent members from booking seats (either to keep Skymiles members off frenemy Alaska, and save money on Australia awards) it does look to have been a temporary glitch. There is so far a single report that Aeroplan may not be honoring it’s amazing award sale, where you could book travel…
The Second Worst Miles Just Became Even Worse
I tend to think that Spirit Airlines has the worse miles. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can meet the 90 day requirement). Some airlines have close-in redemption fees. Spirit’s fees start within 180 days of travel. They do not have redemption partners. The reward for traveling on Spirit is… more travel on Spirit. Although – at least – you can redeem miles for magazines. I think of Virgin Atlantic as having the second-worst miles. We can debate this, of course. Icelandair miles, post-elimination of their Alaska Airlines partnership, are pretty useless (but not completely useless). And there are few programs I dislike dealing with more than Aeromexico’s. But among mainstream programs that US…
Introductions to Miles, to Credit, and to Buying and Selling Merchandise for Miles
News and notes from around the interweb: Great guide for beginners in the hobby: My friend Mommy Points has launched an introductory series of e-books. I previewed Hawaii for Nearly Free in the draft stage and think it’s a really good place for beginners to start — it’s a clear explanation of many of the concepts of miles and points, and shows you how to think about putting together a trip to a real world destination, how to earn the miles and how to use them. If you’re new to miles and points, check them out. How average age of accounts is calculated and affects your credit score. I also offer a fairly in-depth discussion of how your credit score works when you apply for credit cards (and why applying for cards can sometimes even…
Free 8000 Spirit Airlines Miles Still Available, and What You Hate Most About Airlines Revealed
Back in July Spirit Airlines launched a promotion that only they could pull off. You could tell them what you hate about an airline, and they’d give you 8000 free points for it. Of course, 8000 miles in the Spirit program isn’t 8000 miles as you usually think of them. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can meet the 90 day requirement). Some airlines have close-in redemption fees. Spirit’s fees start within 180 days of travel. They do not have redemption partners. The reward for traveling on Spirit is… more travel on Spirit. About the most valuable thing you can get for them is magazines. Of course, Spirit Airlines credit card holders can use…
More Details Revealed About American AAdvantage Program 2015
I asked American for clarification on a few things that readers wanted to know about the new AAdvantage program, when Dividend Miles gets integrated into AAdvantage during the second quarter of 2015. The new program will keep American’s “stickers” or e-upgrades for domestic travel. Top tier elite members get unlimited complimentary upgrades, while Gold and Platinum elites get unlimited complimentary upgrades on flights up to 500 miles and will earn free upgrades based on their flying for use on longer flights. Historically there’s been a ‘grace period’ so that flyers wouldn’t have to use an extra certificate for ‘going over’. It’s been discussed that the grace period goes away, and American confirms this. I asked Whether 500 mile e-upgrades will no longer have a “buffer” (a 508 mile flight will require 2 certificates) and whether…
Sneak Peak: Inside the Pre-Opening of the San Francisco American Express Centurion Lounge
The new American Express Centurion Lounge San Francisco airport is ready and will open tomorrow (as was leaked last week). I had an opportunity to see the lounge last night and try the food since I was invited to the pre-opening party and dinner there. What American Express has created is a stylish, comfortable departure lounge with good food and drink. I actually think this is the most gorgeous, sexiest domestic lounge American Express has built to date. The entry is dramatic, the lighting is great. At ~ 8200 square feet it’s about 10% smaller than Dallas while substantially larger than New York LaGuardia. It features a kids room like Dallas and Las Vegas, and it has a shower. There’s no spa, but its ‘plus’ feature is a self-pour wine wall with real premium wines.…
