Category Archives for General.
Earlier today I hosted a ‘blab‘ (video discussion) with Hyatt Gold Passport’s Jeff Zidell.
One tidbit that Jeff dropped during our conversation was that cash and points awards should become searchable on Hyatt’s website either sometime during the four quarter of 2015 or first quarter of 2016.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The biggest long-term threat to rewards credit cards is declining interchange fees, as the cost to process transactions falls each dollar pushed through a card’s network is less valuable and thus less worth incentivizing with miles or other rebates.
And indeed, Chase’s interchange fee income fell 2% in the first half of 2015 despite greater charge volume. But Chase has a deal with Visa that allows it to get aggressive hanging onto partners and bringing new ones on — and it’s highly-incentivized to do so.
Through October 5 Hilton is offering a bonus up to 75% on purchased points.
Hilton usually charges a penny apiece for points, so with this bonus is selling points for a little over half a cent each. They’re selling points for just a little over what they’re worth.
$4.8 million cash severance; vesting of $3.5 million stock; a performance bonus (!); full family benefits for the next 4 years; flight benefits and parking (and cash to cover taxes on those benefits) for life. He also gets to keep his company car.
But there’s a kicker…
For a long time the way to get free United Club access has been to match status to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. They’ve been inconsistent over the years in how they’ve accepted matches (first via email and then via web form), how long they’ve taken to reply (quickly vs months), and what status they’ve been willing to match (sometimes United status, sometimes only competitor alliances, sometimes only top tier status). But it’s status that lasts two years.
It turns out there’s another Star Alliance program offering status matches, and there are successful reports from United and American elites both of getting matches that allow for United Club access.
I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Jeff Smisek is out at United, brought down by the scandal and United’s involvement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He’s not being kicked out by what he did to the airline or its customers, but since United’s problems seem to stem from the top there’s at least some hope today for the future.
Delta launched its Frequent Flyer program in 1981. It wasn’t re-named SkyMiles until 1995.
Avianca LifeMiles is offering up to a 135% bonus on purchased miles through the end of the month. A promotion they’re running in conjunction with a Brazilian blogger gets you an extra 10% bonus (making it 145%). This lets you buy miles at ~ 1.35 cents apiece.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
