Here’s the offer, targeted at Visa Infinite cardholders, and it’s been around in one form or another since December. They keep tweaking the website, from no longer accepting the first four digits of Russian Visa Infinite cards to later requiring a full sixteen digits of the card number in order to unlock the form (and validating that the numbers entered could be an actual card, though not verifying the account entered itself). Each time they’ve tweaked the form, enterprising commenters have shared their experiences here. Matt in the comments of my March post writes: Hello all. Just wanted to confirm that as of 9:52PM ET on 05/28/12 this is still working. Here’s what I did. First logged into my Hilton Honors account and changed my country to Australia and my Province/State to AP. I then…
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Category Archives for General.
300 Free La Quinta Returns Points
Just Another Points Traveler says that the La Quinta Returns free 300 points offer from March (filling out a form as a thank you for reading their newsletter) is back and you can earn it again even if you got the 300 points a couple months ago. And if you actually want to stay at La Quinta, Visa offers 10% off through June 30.
TSA Pre-Employment Screening
A former Catholic priest removed over child sex abuse charges is now… a TSA supervisor in Philadelphia. As they say, a few bad apples who in no way undermine the hard work that thousands of men and women at the TSA do to keep us safe, day in and day out.
Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles Added as American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partner
Lucky writes this morning about Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles being added as a transfer partner in the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program. He does a big ‘meh’ arguing that since you can claim the same flights through Amex transfer partner British Airways Avios as you can through AsiaMiles, there’s not much to get excited about. As it stands you can redeem British Airways Avios points for travel on Cathay Pacific (or any other OneWorld partner), and while their award chart isn’t especially lucrative for longhaul flights, Membership Rewards is offering a 50% transfer bonus for British Airways through May 31. Still, even without the bonus their award chart is still more lucrative than Asia Miles’ in most instances. I think he’s missing the boat here, AsiaMiles is a great addition to the Membership Rewards program.…
Lawsuit Filed Against United for Changes to Million Miler Program
Via Seth, a frequent flyer has filed a lawsuit (.pdf) against United for changes to its Million Miler program, and is seeking class action status. Here’s a thread on Milepoint running to hundreds of comments on changes to the MileagePlus lifetime status program, which has plenty of detail. United’s Million Milers have been an unhappy bunch for some reasons that I find persuasive and others that I do not. In general, the complaints are: 1 Million Mile status earns the equivalent of that earned at 50,000 miles of flying. That was true before, and it is still true. But United has since added a 75,000-mile status level. Which means Million Milers are lower in the status pecking order than before — they’re only one up from the bottom as before, but also further from the…
Only Two Weeks Left for British Airways 100,000 Point Credit Card Signup Bonus
British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus The most lucrative current credit card signup bonus is scheduled to be pulled June 7. The public offer is: 50,000 points after first purchase 25,000 points after spending $10,000 on the card within a year 25,000 additional points after spending the next $10,000 on the card within that year There’s a $95 annual fee, spending earns 1.25 points per dollar, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees. The unique selling proposition for putting high amounts of spend on the card is that after $30,000, they award a free companion award ticket – the second passenger travels on an award booked on British Airways flights for no additional points (though both passengers are charged taxes and fuel surcharges). (Some folks have luck making a mock booking on…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 24, 2012
News and comment from elsewhere: Over at Conde’ Nast Daily Traveler I review the best credit cards that offer benefits for having the card as opposed to putting spending on that card. The Wall Street Journal today runs a piece on the challenges of the United-Continental integration. Everyone has their pet peeves (and I’ve found few fans). But we often conflate technical challenges or glitches and changes in policy. On the award redemption side, I love relaxed routing rules and the end of Starnet blocking, and hate no more free holds on awards when your miles are already in your account at time of reservation. I abhor the new policy where full fare tickets trump elite status level. And I hate that when you change a ticket you can’t pay the fee out of the…
United’s 787 Seatmap Updated
In yesterday’s post on United’s new 787 serving Denver – Tokyo, I noted that the schedule was live and thus a 787 seatmap was online that you could access when making a (dummy) booking. But the seatmap looked odd, since it had more seats available than the announced configuration of the aircraft was supposed to hold, and the seatmap didn’t specifically flag economy plus. Seth notes in the comments on that post that overnight United has updated the seatmap, and these problems appear fixed. Here’s the new seatmap: (Click on the seatmap above to enlarge) It’s interesting that there’s no center section of seats in row 16, but that the center section of row 23 is economy plus (while the right and left sides are not), and that the row 27 exit seats are considered…
Feecation.com: Get Up to $1250/year in Reimbursements for $14.97/month Membership
One of the banks I do business with gives away as a premium for opening a checking account a benefit where they’ll rebate you $10 per quarter in exchange for submitting grocery or gas receipts. People usually think this is a way for a marketing company to understand your buying habits. The bank does nothing to dissuade that belief. But that’s not the idea at all. You have to remember to request rebate forms, they don’t automatically send you more. You have to save your original receipts and mail them in. And then you have to hope they actually process it and mail you the check. In other words, they get a top line benefit to market that they’re giving you $40. But most people never get anything, or if they do they get $10…
Up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Transferring in Points from Other Programs
Via Notiflyer, between May 21 and June 18 Aeroplan is offering up to 40,000 bonus miles for transferring points in from other programs (excluding the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program). The bonus isn’t per transaction or per partner, it’s cumulative — the more points you transfer in from various sources, the more total bonus points you earn. Eligible partners are: Credit card programs: CIBC Aventura World MasterCard Card, CIBC Aventura Gold Visa, CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite, CIBC Aventura MasterCard Card, American Express Membership Rewards – Canada, BankAmericard Power Rewards credit card, Diners Club Club Rewards Hotel programs: Starwood Preferred Guest, Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges, Coast Rewards, Club Carlson, Le Club Accorhotels, Shangri-La Golden Circle Award Car rental: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Other: Points.com The highest yield points…
