In April Amtrak announced that a new Guest Rewards Mastercard would be introduced in the fall, and that the card would come with a standard 2500 bonus points at signup — but that folks who registered using promo code 42507 would get 5000 points instead.According to a new piece of email marketing from Amtrak Guest Rewards, they’ve upped the ante to 8000 points. registration for the promo (using promo code 42507, you’ll be required to log into your account first) still appears to work.The Amtrak Guest Rewards card is a good no fee card, earning free train trips and points are transferrable to Continental (at 1:1, so in some cases a better option than the costlier Chase Mastercard), Midwest Airlines, and Hilton.

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A couple weeks ago I took a cooking class in Thailand, and decided to make a couple of the recipes from the class last night. Tom Yam Goong (Traditional Thai sour and spicy prawn soup) Ingredients: Medium to large prawns Straw mushrooms Cilantro Cherry tomatoes Small chilis Lemongrass Kaffir lime leaves Galangal Roasted chili paste Lemon juice Fish sauce Chicken stock Sugar Based on my own preferences I replaced lemon juice with a squeezed lime and used brown sugar as my choice of sugar. My local Asian grocer didn’t have any kaffir lime leaves so I left them out. Boil chicken stock Add lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, roasted chili paste, sugar, mushrooms, chilis, mushrooms (if they aren’t pre-cooked) Add mushrooms (if pre-cooked), shrimp, cherry tomatoes Add lime juice and fish sauce Garnish with cilantro…

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Jared Blank reports that 20% of Air Tahiti Nui flight attendants have been suspended for drug trafficking. Information is limited, but it appears that like most things in French Polynesia narcotics are expensive. So there’s tremendous arbitrage opportunities buying cocaine, ecstacy, etc. in Los Angeles and carrying them to Papeete.

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The existing Alitalia frequent flyer program, MilleMiglia, is ending on December 31, 2007. A new program will begin on January 1, 2008 — with all old miles available for redemption only through June 30, 2008, unless you take 2 Alitalia flights between January 1 and June 30, 2008.Details on the new program are sketchy, although one-way awards will be available and premium class tickets will earn miles at a different rate from coach (whether this means fewer miles for coach tickets is as yet unclear, but is my best guess). A real disappointment… expiring all miles and ending the existing program, creating a whole new program with mileage only in the accounts of those flying new flights on the carrier. Sad, and underhanded.

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I’ve give Starwood a hard time lately, because their points devaluation was a pretty big deal. But they’ve taken a step to give back a lot of value to members with changes to the Cash & Points program. One of the better features of the program over the years has been the ability to combine points and cash at a pretty favorable rate towards award nights. So instead of spending, for instance, 10,000 points on a category 4 hotel you could spend just 4,000 points + $60. This was a better option because you were basically ‘buying’ the difference in points at just 1 cent apiece. However, only some hotels would participate each quarter. Starwood would have to solicit them to do so, and most would opt out except for in their slowest seasons. As…

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The Starwood American Express remains my credit card of choice for most purposes, and there’s now a best-ever offer worthy of my ducking into the Thai Airways lounge in Osaka in order to post it — 10,000 points with first purchase and another 15,000 bonus points for spending $15,000 on the card within 6 months. That spending bonus is all gravy, since 10,000 points alone is the usual signup bonus. And as always, first year of the card remains free ($30 thereafter).(Hat tip to boazs)

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