Milepoint.com is hosting a live online chat with Suzanne Rubin, the President of the American AAdvantage frequent flyer program, tonight. The chat will be held at: 6pm Pacific 7pm Mountain 8pm Central 9pm Eastern You can pre-submit questions in this Milepoint thread or ask them live during tonight’s chat.
General
Category Archives for General.
The National Association of Railroad Passengers Responds to Yesterday’s Post
I received an email from Amtrak yesterday introducing me to an ‘advocacy organization’ that was ‘involved in launching Amtrak’ and telling me that if I paid to become a member of this advocacy organization I could have a discount on future train travel. It struck me as problematic that an entity 100% owned by the government would give discounts to people paying to support lobbying for more subsidies of its product. And ask whether others felt the same way. The comments mostly strayed from that topic, turning into a good-versus-bad of Amtrak or subsidies generally, a worthwhile topic but one I had hoped would be for another day. I took the train up to New York on Friday. The train was on time. The on-board internet was virtually non-existent. It was fine. Though of course…
If You Support Government Subsidies for Amtrak, You Can Pay Less to Ride the Train
I received an email this morning offering bonus points and a 10% discount on train travel when you join the National Association of Railroad Passengers. Now, the National Association of Railroad Passengers is an advocacy organization founded to lobby for train subsidies. And Amtrak is owned by the federal government. Whatever you think of government funding for train travel in the United States, is it problematic that a government corporation will give people discounts if they pay to join an organization that will lobby the government for more subsidies? Put another way, Americans who pay to support more subsidies get charged less to travel on subsidized trains than those who oppose the subsidies. Two classes of citizens, based on political beliefs, when riding the train? What do you think?
TSA PreCheck is Both Amazing and Useless at the Same Time
As the TSA rolls out PreCheck to more and more airports I’m enjoying the opportunity to use it — shoes don’t have to come off, freedom baggie doesn’t have to come out (though liquid rules apply, and this isn’t a huge benefit since I’ve only been given a hard time about my liquids bag in my carryon on average about once a year for the past three years). Mostly, though, there’s no nude-o-scope (and thus no opting out) and there aren’t that many people in the program yet. Usually there’s no line at all, just a bunch of TSA employees standing around by an unused checkpoint waiting for me to come through. It’s a far more civilized checkpoint experience than what we’ve grown accustomed to over the past decade. It’s almost like… security used to…
Be Careful How You Phone Home During Your Addis Ababa Stopover
Ever since Ethiopian Airlines joined the Star Alliance in December, there’s been great business class award availability to members of United and US Airways frequent flyer programs on Ethiopian’s direct service from Washington Dulles (via Rome) to Addis Ababa, with easy connections from there to the rest of Africa (it serves more destinations in Africa than any other carrier). The government-owned airline ferries plenty more Americans to Ethiopia for stopovers at a minimum than they did before joining the alliance. But Americans may not be aware that they’d better be careful how they call home– since the government there has banned Skype and other voice over internet services, according to al Jazeera. The penalty is up to 15 years of jail time for users. Prime Minister Meles Zenaw says the move is meant to ensure…
Philadelphia TSA Agents Fired for Bribery and Falsifying Results on Proficiency Exams
15% of the Ft. Myers airport TSA workforce were disciplined for failing to actually do screenings they were supposed to perform. Only five were actually fired. Now the TSA is now firing 7 Philadelphia employees involved in a bribery scandal where a supervisor demanded money for passing grades on an annual proficiency exam. TSA management at the Philadelphia airport removed 10 employees from security duties in November pending results of an investigation of bribery by the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General. So it took them 7 months to actually decide to fire these individuals. Instead of, you know, just firing them. That’s not how it works at my place of employment… I certainly wouldn’t be paid for seven months ‘pending results of an investigation’ of my paying bribes to have my proficiency results…
Air Canada Offers Status Matches to bmi Elites
This month I’ve shared my experience getting Turkish Airlines to match my british midland Gold status and also getting Aegean to do the same. My bmi Gold status was valid through December, but no longer a member of the Star Alliance it was not going to be useful to me — no more Star Alliance redemptions, no more cash and points redemptions on partners (there are fewer and fewer bmi flights and I don’t need to redeem on those), no more lounge access for domestic United flying. Here’s what I get out of Turkish: Turkish status lasts two years and they give you two years to re-qualify. Since I do not live in Turkey, the rules are 25,000 Status Miles in year one or 37,500 Status Miles in two years to requalify, and they will…
Introducing the Must-Have Karl Marx Mastercard
And you thought the Chase Sapphire Preferred card made a statement.. I’ve written extensively about the three different types of cards you want — those with the best signup bonuses, those that are best to put spending on (other than meeting minimum spend for signup bonuses), and those that are best for the benefits (that you don’t want to put spend on). But it turns out I’m missing a category of card. Some get their alma maters. Or their favorite charity. They get to affiliate with a cause and express themselves, and their alma mater may get a cut of the interchange fee. Reuters reports on a new card that those with access to East German credit cards may want to consider: the Karl Marx Mastercard from Sparkasse bank in Chemnitz in Eastern Germany. Some…
Three Great One Mile at a Time Posts
Ben was on a tear yesterday: You can book flights on Iberia using Iberia miles without paying fuel surcharges. If your Iberia and British Airways accounts have been open at least three months, you can move your British Airways points over to Iberia and redeem from that account to save on fees. American Express Membership Rewards points also transfer to Iberia, so it’s a way to use Amex points fuel surcharge-free on Iberia travel. The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa is available with 70,000 points after first purchase and fee waived the first year. That’s enough points for two nights at the lowest category Ritz property. The real benefit of the card is upgrades to club level three times a year, Gold status in their loyalty program (which has modest benefits), a $200 airline fee credit similar…
500 Free Delta Miles
Join Le Club Accorhotels with this promotion link by August 31, select Delta Skymiles as your preferred loyalty program in your membership profile, and enter your Skymiles account number. This offer is open to existing Le Club Accorhotels members as well, just use the offer link and change your preferred loyalty program to Delta and give them your account number. Update: the offer should still be valid but appears to be returning an error at this time.
