News and notes from around the interweb:
- Million Mile Secrets says that through Monday, November 26th this link will still work to get 50,000 points as a signup bonus for an American Express Business Gold Rewards card (after $5000 spend within 3 months, no fee the first year). [Offer expired]
- Mr. Pickles recounts how you used to be able to buy diamonds at costco.com with Visa or Mastercard, and then return them in-store for cash, in order to earn miles. And there’s still an incredibly generous return policy at Costco for used and beaten up items, apparently.
- Joe Brancatelli has basic principles for selecting an airport hotel: choose the one that’s connected to the terminal (avoids delays of the shuttle bus), choose the newest one (since one-night stays generate much more wear and tear), avoid non-chain hotels, and full service properties are worth it for an airport stay. Read the whole thing.
- OneSimCard.com will have a 50% off Cyber Monday sale. While local sim cards for each country generally provide cheaper rates, the sim cards they’ll sell you do a great job in a wide variety of countries (and avoid your leaving leftover money on a card when you leave a country, plus having to swap out each place you go). And they now give miles, too.
I dont know if the Costco move is for me. I dont like to buy stuff knowing Im going to return it. Not judging others but that doesnt seem like its for me.
The whole buy to return thing is very, very bad and one reason some people assume point collectors are all “scammers”. Don’t do it.
@walrus k – I don’t think I ever wrote about it while it was still live. (Or about any merchants that may not take back points when they process returns.)
I agree w/ commenters above. I’m all for maximizing miles & points opps, but a line is crossed when it entails acting in bad faith (and in my book, things like that Costco “strategy” entail bad faith). Jeez, are people *that* poor?