U.S. Bank isn’t the easiest credit card issuer to get approvals from, they’ll deny cards on the basis of too many card inquiries regardless of credit score and demonstrated ability to repay and even if you do not have any open cards with them. They’ve also been fairly tight-fisted with signup bonuses in the past. I’ve reviewed the five best cards they offer and two things were apparent: that they have several non-U.S. airlines as partners (as a smaller card issuer they lack the heft of a Chase, American Express, or Citibank and get crowded out of the market but they’ve been creative) that the most attractive card they offer is the Club Carlson Visa — largely for elite status in the Club Carlson program and for offering a free night with every award redemption…
About Gary Leff
How to Book a Business Class Award to India Using Delta Miles (in Front of Hundreds of People)
One of the things I try to do on this blog and in presentations is explain how to make the most of points, not just earn them. That’s why I walk through the best tools to find available award seats, and point y’all to the routes with the best premium cabin award availability for a whole family. At Frequent Traveler University this past weekend in Tampa, Lucky from the One Mile at a Time blog and I team-taught a session on the basics of award booking and then we put on another session together that we called Theory to Practice: How to Find Award Space and Construct Your Booking. What we decided to do was to challenge each other to book a complicated award over the phone with an agent, live in front of a…
El Al Produces a Bizarre Video: Unboxing a New 737
Via David H., El Al is very excited to be bringing Boeing 737-900s into their fleet, which will begin service at the end of this month. There are 4 rows of business class and 26 rows of coach. It’s a modern aircraft to be sure, though El Al is hardly the first to operate it. And that’s an amazing amount of packing peanuts. You can join the 30,000+ 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. Don’t miss out!
US Airways Mileage Redemption Rebates for Credit Card Holders
US Airways sent out emails to credit card holders today with an offer of a rebate on miles redeemed for award travel through November 30th. These are targeted offers, with the rebate percentage varying by cardholder. The rebate is on all of the miles redeemed during the promotion period, and not just a single redemption, but is capped at 30,000 miles credited back. Award travel must cost a minimum of 20,000 total miles with travel complete by March 31, with the rebate to be credited 3 to 4 weeks after travel is complete. Upgrade redemptions qualify. I received an offer for 10% back. Necessary Indulgences sent along a copy of a 50% rebate offer. Meanwhile reader Yong G. sends me a 25% version of the offer. There’s no registration involved, so if you received this…
100% Bonus on Transferred Avianca Lifemiles Through October 15
Last year I explained Why You Want to Get Started With the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Program Right Now. LifeMiles is one of the best programs in the Star Alliance. There are some frustrations, like inability to book flights in more than one class of service on an award. But they sell miles cheap, their award chart is reasonable, they offer one-way awards, and the website is decent. Plus there are no fuel surcharges. I consider the better non-U.S. programs a great hedge and refuge against the risks of revenue-based frequent flyer redemption changes. And the AviancaTaca LifeMiles program regularly offers 100% bonuses on purchased miles and then lets you effectively buy miles at a deep discount again with their cash and points awards (where you need just 40% of the miles required for a given award…
Why Today’s American/US Airways Merger Developments Don’t Change Anything Legally But Could Still Influence the Outcome of the Case
Today’s American Airlines-US Airways merger news started with the government asking the trial court in the anti-trust case to stay the proceedings due to the government shut down. As a pure layman that seemed like the government’s best argument yet to push things off. The government after all has long wanted a much later trial, which would likely mean they’d win by default (since large companies can’t really remain in limbo indefinitely)Nonetheless the judge wasn’t persuaded and proceedings move on. Then come 3pm Eastern the Texas attorney general announced that this office would be pulling out of the government’s anti-trust suit which seeks to block the merger. When I first heard that a press conference had been scheduled with the Attorney General that seemed the only possible outcome. But what persuaded Texas to withdraw? Texas…
American Express Platinum Offers Non-US Cardholders Elite Status with Hertz
The American Express Platinum card comes with Starwood Preferred Guest Gold status (late checkout is the key benefit) and National Car Rental Executive status (choose a better car from the Executive Aisle rather than the Emerald Aisle). They advertise Avis and Hertz benefits as well, but for US cardmembers those are not meaningfully better than what someone gets from those providers on their own. Head for Points reports on a new Hertz benefit — their first ‘elite tier’ “Five Star” for Platinum cardholders. This benefit is only for Platinum card members resident outside the United States. The benefit page for this offer (which has a “GB” at the end of the website URL, presumably for ‘Great Britain’) allows signup of new accounts at the Five Star level. That the terms and conditions say cancelling a…
Bits ‘n Pieces for October 1, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: The Department of Justice is asking for a stay in the American-US Airways merger anti-trust trial in light of the government shutdown. We do not know how long the shutdown will last. The Department of Justice wanted to push things off into the future anyway and this gives them probably their most persuasive reason to do so. I’ll be interested to see the airlines’ response and how the judge rules. (Update: The judge denied the request to stay the trial schedule.) There are some travel concerns that, as a man, never even occur to me. TAM will leave the Star Alliance March 30th and join oneworld on March 31. Getting premium cabin awards between the US and South America on TAM is nearly impossible, and intra-South America space…
Diners Club 30% Transfer Bonus to British Airways
Reader John S. points me to a posting by the much-respected ‘mia‘ who writes that the US Diners Club Club Rewards program has brought back a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways through November 30. When I first got my Diners Club card a decade ago there were regular summer transfer bonuses of 100% from the Club Rewards program to British Airways. That bonus was cut in half to 50% around the time that the benefits of the Diners Club card were cut as well (e.g. elimination of two billing cycles to pay, increased foreign currency conversion fees, elimination even of the Diners Club dining program). British Airways has long been the partner they run the most promotions with and now 30% seems to be the new level at which they run promotions even as…
20% Off JetBlue Tickets Purchased Today
JetBlue is offering 20% off the base fare of roundtrip domestic tickets and 15% off the base fare of roundtrip international tickets that are purchased today for travel October 15 through November 20. The discount code is OCTOBER1 and the itinerary cannot include any Friday or Sunday flights. (HT: Stephen M.) You can join the 30,000+ 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. Don’t miss out!
