BigCrumbs is offering is offering 2% cash back on American Express Gift Cards today only. That’s not the biggest bonus offered, but shopping portals have been removing Amex gift cards from their rebate offerings so this is the best we’ve had and my guess probably the best we’ll see. (TopCashBack still has them – at 1.5%.) Keep your personal orders under $5000 every two weeks to avoid the hassle of order cancellation, or scale it if you have a tax ID and make American Express for business orders. Citi cards code these purchases as cash advances, so you pay for the privileges and don’t earn points. Don’t use a Citibank credit card to buy American Express gift cards. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up…
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CVS Imposing New Limits on Purchasing Gift Cards In One Week
The Forward Cabin reports on new gift card limits at CVS effective October 27. No more than $2000 total per person per day ID required for purchases of $300 or more Purchasing Vanilla Reload cards with a credit card ended April 4. But CVS has still been a useful place to buy prepaid cards. They’re placing new limits on the purchase of those cards, and it’s pretty clear they’re doing it because of concerns over fraud or federal financial reporting rules. That’s why they’re hard-coding limits of $2000 per single transaction into registers for purchase of prepaid cards, and why the memo to store managers warns about ‘structuring’ or breaking up larger transactions into smaller one. The memo warns that structuring to avoid reporting requirements is illegal, which points to the concern or motivation for…
A Great Rental Car Mileage Deal, and Airline Fee Increase for the Holidays
News and notes from around the interweb: Interesting article on American Airlines’ strategy in Asia 3000 Virgin Atlantic miles per 3 day Hertz rental. Book by November 17 and complete your rental(s) by November 30. Here’s what you can do with Virgin Atlantic miles. 10,000 or 20,000 easy Qantas miles “Winter is Coming” at Spirit — the airline will charge even higher fees over Christmas and New Years Here’s the best worst thing that can happen to you on vacation. How not to carry your neck pillow through the airport Passed along without comment. Apparently from London’s Luton airport. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You…
When Will American and US Airways Finally Become a Single Airline?
Pearls of Travel Wisdom suggests that the American and US Airways frequent flyer programs will be combined by year’s end. That’s 2014. I believe this is wrong. While they could always beat their timeline (although I’ve never known an IT project to finish under cost and ahead of schedule), public statements on integration are: Frequent flyer programs combine first half of 2015 (my bet is end of first quarter, although that could be aggressive — at one point I understood they were looking at late 2015). Single operating certificate in the second quarter of 2015 (target late April) Passenger service system (single reservation system) late 2015. The biggest challenges here are IT/data. I don’t think they actually know when the programs will get merged, they have targets but will do it when the IT is…
Don’t Take Advantage of American Express Transfer Bonuses!
Yesterday American Express came out with a 35% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic. But Virgin Atlantic has the worst miles and hits you with fuel surcharges. Today they came out with a 50% bonus on transfers to Starwood Preferred Guest. Starwood points are awesome, but you’re still only getting 1 Starwood point for every 2 Amex Membership Rewards points. There’s the occasional person that’ll find some value in this offer. But most should hold onto their Amex points. There’s now also a 33% bonus on transfers to Hilton through November 30. Oddly, I don’t see the bonus when using Google Chrome. But it does come up for me using Internet Explorer. In any case, especially after Hilton’s massive devaluation last year (and that was after program changes during the Great Recession that was ‘the…
The First Class of Etihad’s Residence Butlers in the Sky Have Graduated. Here’s Who They Are.
When Etihad’s Airbus A380 takes to the skies, it will include the most luxurious accomodation by far in commercial aviation — in addition to what looks to be an amazing first class, there will be a single three-room “residence.” The residence offers: a single or double occupancy 3 room cabin with double bed, 2 dining tables, lounge room, private shower suite (4 minutes of water) and dedicated butler. The Residence is 125 square feet. The living room has a reclining sofa, dining tables, and a mini-bar as well as a 32 inch television. A door separates the living room from the bedroom and shower room. The bedroom has a 27 inch TV. The Residence can be booked with miles. Cranky Flier thinks the Residence is clever because it makes effective use of otherwise dead space.…
How to Protect Yourself from Ebola: the Dulles Passenger in a Homemade Hazmat Suit Goes Viral
Dulles Passenger in Homemade Hazmat Suit Goes Viral (Get it? ‘Viral’) A photo of a traveler in a homemade “hazmat” suit at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., is making the internet rounds as hundreds of real suits are selling out online. The female passenger was spotted sitting down in an airline terminal and dressed in what appeared to be a full-length white onesie, topped with a blue rain poncho, blue latex gloves and a white face mask. This doesn’t actually seem all that strange to me. Maybe I’ve just flown enough in Asia where it’s common to see a decent percentage of passengers wearing surgical masks. Maybe we don’t need an ebola travel ban. We just need to to practice safe travel. Which strangely reminds me of the old Capitol Steps tune, “Little Doc…
Hilton HHonors Updates Its Rules for Shutting Down Your Account
Hilton HHonors has has updated the section of the Hilton terms and conditions where they describe their right to shut down your account. They can shut down your account for violating Hilton terms and conditions or the intent of the program which isn’t spelled out in the rules. The standard of proof is very low, “if there are reasonable grounds for suspecting, in its sole discretion” — Hilton decides if their own actions are reasonable, and only their perspective matters. While the changes mostly look like one lawyer not liking the way another lawyer wrote some clauses, the major change is to clarify that when Hilton decides to shut down your account that you don’t just lose your points, you lose your elite benefits as well. Which strikes me as funny — someone thought it…
New United Elite Website, How to Cheat on Your Expense Reports, and LifeMiles Forgot to Raise Some Prices
News and notes from around the interweb: Sneaky ways to cheat on your business expense reimbursements Is 7500 American AAdvantage miles for test driving a Cadillac worth your time? Battle lines are drawn. Secretary of State John Kerry’s plane went mechanical. I think this has happened before — recently. What I don’t understand is why they choose to fly him transatlantic in a 757 (hopefully they’ll get him a longer range aircraft for his trips in the Winter, or else he’ll refuel at one of United’s focus cities in Goose Bay or Gander). Someone ought to inquire whether he was booked onto the Austrian Airlines codeshare with United for his flight back to DC, to see if he was compliant with the Fly America Act.. United has a new Premier status tracker on its website.…
American Airlines 777-200 Business Class: Photos of a Great New Product Now in Service!
Last week I flew American’s 777-200 in first class to and from Buenos Aires. It was my goodbye to the Flagship Suite. That’s because American’s new 777-300ERs have a new first class, and the American Airlines 777-200 business class is getting a retrofit with a top shelf product… but no first class. American’s trusty old Flagship Suite will be a thing of the past. That story and review is coming up, but for now what I’m interested in is the new 777-200 business class. I love American’s new business class onboard the 777-300ER. That one was put together quickly, a version similar to what Cathay Pacific offers (and a generational upgrade on the seat US Airways pioneered). The 777-200 business class seat is supposed to be even better. And now that the first redone aircraft…
