PointChaser provides an overview of Simon Mall Visa Gift cards. I bought my first gift card from them in person about 8 years ago. You can buy them in person with a credit card at Simon Malls locations or you can purchase them online. In person they cost $2.95 per $500 gift card. Online there’s a $5.95 shipping fee instead, but when you buy one you get a $2 off code for your next purchase. That means buying (2) costs $9.90, or about 1 cent a point if you’re not earning a category bonus. That’s $4 more than going to the mall to buy them, but there’s one advantage to buying online which is that you are asked for the gift card recipient’s name, and that name gets printed onto the card. Having a card…
About Gary Leff
Is it a Scam to Charge Gold Elites for Extra Legroom Seating?
An American AAdvantage Gold elite member complains that the airline wants to charge her to reserve exit row seats. “I’m a frequent flier with American who has gold status because I have been commuting every 2 or 3 weeks between Miami and New York for the past year,” she says. “Each time in the past I made a reservation and purchased a ticket and I was able to obtain an exit row seat for no extra charge.” But the last time she tried, American said nuh-uh. “I was informed that I had to pay $19 extra for each leg of my trip if I wanted to reserve such a seat,” she recalls. So is she being scammed?
Take Your Whole Family to Paris on Points – First Class Awards Wide Open on American!
First class is going away on American’s Dallas – Paris flight. But from late summer until that happens they’ve opened the floodgates on first class awards. American is going to be removing first class on plenty of routes, as they reconfigure their Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 767 aircraft to new business class (and remove first class from the 777-200s). First class cabins will remain only on the 777-300ER aircraft which fly to destinations like London and Hong Kong. Starting around August 21, American has released tons of first class award availability on its Dallas – Paris flights. That’s 125,000 miles roundtrip per person, and no fuel surcharges (since it’s on American metal). Here’s a calendar of availability for two passengers in first class, August 28 through September 26: Although some dates have only a single…
We Should Have More Government Investment and Lower Taxes. And a Pony.
Chris McGinnis points to a survey by the US Travel Association arguing that people avoid flying because of delays and cancellations, which they suggest are because of lack of government investment in airport infrastructure and air traffic control improvements. They argue that 38 million domestic plane trips were avoided in 2013, for a total airfare loss of ~ $9.5 billion. And piling on, just like advocates for sports stadiums, they argue that this means a broader loss for the overall economy of $35.7 billion through lost hotel bookings, rental cars, dining out, and recreation. Because anyone who doesn’t take a plane trip sits at home. In the dark. Without heating or air conditioning. And doesn’t eat. (Which would suggest they save, which might be a good thing, although the positive effects of a higher savings…
American Closing Systemwide Upgrade Loophole
American AAdvantage gives out 8 confirmed upgrades per year valid on any American flight (both domestic and international) to their 100,000 mile ‘Executive Platinum’ members. They also give out these certificates at million-mile thresholds. The rules of the certificates are that they have to be used to travel by the expiration date on the certificate. But it wasn’t actually enforced that way. If you had any certificates that would be valid into the future, you could use your earlier expiring upgrades, because the system was set up to pull the closest-to-expire upgrade certificate first. This meant that it was possible to use systemwide upgrade certificates for travel beyond their expiration date, stated rules notwithstanding. JonNYC writes at TravelingBetter about an American AACoRN system update propogating later this week that will make some changes to how…
1000 Bonus Miles, Changes to a Tool for Generating Transactions, and Points for Getting Rid of Paper Receipts
News and notes from around the interweb: 1000 bonus United miles for making shopping transactions totaling $250 or more by June 30 through the MileagePlus portal by June 30. Amazon e-gift cards are a way to generate low cost transactions on a credit card, or get nearly every last cent off of a gift card. Doctor of Credit reports that they’ve raised their minimum transaction amount from 15 cents to 50 cents. He also notes that Amazon’s UK website still sells these in amounts as low as £0.1 (~$0.17). American’s small business program will award you Business ExtrAA points for using TriNet’s online and mobile expense reporting system. Certainly better than tracking paper receipts, this is a competitor to Expensify. (I’ve always wondered why Chase develops their own tool for their business cards – Jot…
The Best Showers in Any Airport and Pretty Good Free Food, Too!
After arriving in Hong Kong from Kuala Lumpur in Cathay Pacific’s business class, I had about 3 hours in The Wing first class before my flight to New York. Previous trip report installments Introduction: Maldives and Malaysia in First Class, How I Booked It and What it Cost Etihad Lounge and First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi Premier Inn Abu Dhabi International Airport Etihad’s Abu Dhabi first class lounge, and business class Abu Dhabi – Male Maldivian Domestic Lounge, Flight, and Boat Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Boat Transfer, Maldivian Domestic Flight Kooddoo – Male, and Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Male – Kuala Lumpur Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur Why Kuala Lumpur is One of My Favorite Food Cities Malaysia Airlines First Class Lounge, Kuala Lumpur and Cathay Pacific Business Class…
Screaming Deal: North Korea’s Air Koryo $9 All-In Mistake Fare is Systemwide, and Even Works for Business Class
North Korean state airline Air Koryo’s $9 all-in mistake fare was first discovered on the Pyongyang – Vladivostok route. It turns out that the fare sale is much broader. In fact, it’s systemwide. All routes, and classes of service. You can fly between any of the cities they currently serve: You can book Beijing – Pyongyang roundtrip, in business class even for $0 plus online booking fee or $9 all-in. Let’s take a closer look: Now, you may be skeptical that this fare will be honored. After all, no DOT rules require it. And even if they did, North Korea has nuclear weapons. Let me reassure you. Air Koryo’s online web bookings are reliable. In fact, Air Koryo is proud of its comprehensive online booking capability. You can make a convenient reservation on Air Koryo…
$10 Air Koryo Mistake Fare!
I wrote about North Korean state airline Air Koryo at least as far back as 2007. They first introduced online booking to their website about a year and a half ago, and it’s a good thing they did! My favorite thing about Air Koryo is that the communist state airline offers more than one class of service. Lucky loves that they will sell you up to five extra seats if you are fat (even though they don’t have more than 3 seats in a row). In the comments to his post, it was pointed out that their online booking tool has a mistake fare! Now, Air Koryo doesn’t publish its fares through the traditional distribution systems. Search for fares on this route, I don’t come up with the mistake. ITA Software doesn’t find any service…
United Lifts its Flight Attendant Alcohol Ban, Smuggling Cookies, and the Most Sexist Airline Ads
News and notes from around the interweb: United ends its short-lived ban on flight attendants carrying unopened alcohol in their luggage. One (legitimate) criticism of Airbnb. Top 5 Sexist Airline TV ads (HT: S.) Uber is threatening the value of taxi medallions (which is a good thing). US Customs seized a batch of cookies containing 3 pounds of cocaine. Apparently the cocaine had the munchies after consuming a batch of pot brownies. 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 can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
