When you use a standard credit card, and make a purchase outside of your home country, there’s generally a fee. If your purchase is in a foreign currency, you’re subject to your payment network’s foreign exchange rates. Your your card imposes foreign transaction fees, they’ll charge you those — often as much as 3% on top of the amount of the charge. Even if your card does not impose foreign transaction fees, and if your transaction is in a foreign currency, you’re still going to have the purchase converted to your home currency. And the payment network is likely to make money doing that for you. You’re still going to be better off with, say, Visa or MasterCard doing it for you rather than a restaurant or hotel — you’ll get a better. But make…
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Category Archives for General.
The New Air France Process That May Prevent You From Booking an Award
Six weeks ago I wrote about the frustrations of a frequent flyer program fraud detection unit gone off the rails. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue shut down the account of someone who simply transferred points in from American Express Membership Rewards and redeemed those points for a ticket. The American Express account, Flying Blue account, and tickets were all for the same person. (American Express no longer even lets you transfer points to other people any more.) I learned about readers who had had similar experiences and I also heard from a fraud unit employee who actually claimed they wouldn’t permit transferring in points just to book awards. [T]he use of our frequent flyer accounts as boxes opened to transfer miles with our non air partners won’t be allowed anymore. Air France is adamant that…
Atlanta’s Airport Calls You Out, Lyft Wiggling Out of $1000 Offer, and Boeing’s Red Dot Special
News and notes from around the interweb: Important Issue of the Day: The Atlanta city council is really mad at how you’ve been referring to their airport. By a 14-0 vote they want the airport’s general manager to report to them on how they can get you to call use Hartsfield and Jackson when referring to the airport. Those two names refer to two past mayors of Atlanta, and the city thinks they deserve to be respected. Delta.com award booking gets incrementally better: Awards on Gol are now bookable at Delta.com. Boeing’s Red Dot 787s: Ten early production Boeing 787s were made overweight, reducing their range. They’ve been sitting, unwanted and unloved. But now Air Austral and Ethiopian Airlines may buy them, at a deep discount. (HT: Alan H.) Reward Your Mileage Account With Some…
Marriott Behaving Very Badly in its Handling of Denver Mistake Rate
Airlines Get the Focus of Consumer Protection People hate airlines, which means it’s good politics to attack airlines. The Department of Transportation, which regulates airlines, has spent a lot of time over the past six years micromanaging how airlines display their pricing and how they display ancillary fees. There’s even discussion of regulating how flights can be displayed in a search, and imposing mandatory disclosures when an airline isn’t included in search results (such as because that airline won’t pay the fees necessary to be part of the distribution channel). The DOT implemented rules that required airlines to honor mistake fares, didn’t like the results, and so they essentially ignore those rules. Hotels Have Been Able to Act Deceptively and Disingenuously With Impunity There’s a ton of hand wringing and teeth gnashing over airlines, and…
Compensation for a Cancelled Flight (And I’ve Moved Halfway Across the Country)
I’m Living in Austin! Instead of traveling to Austin at least once a month, I’m now traveling to DC at least once a month. I haven’t changed jobs, I’ve only changed a bit of my area of focus and where I’m working from. I lived in the Washington DC area for the past 18 years, so it’s certainly strange to become a Texan (trading in my Virginia drivers license, anyway). That’s the Hyatt Regency across the river Austin’s absolutely fantastic, in some ways of think of it as San Francisco in the middle of Texas. And the food — not just barbecue — is uniformly great. The concerts here are non-stop. I’ll miss the bulk of South By this month though, working from DC. Sunday’s Flight Home from DFW Was Cancelled I was flying Emirates…
5000 Free Singapore Airlines Miles Just for Registering (Attention United MileagePlus Refugees!)
Singapore Airlines is offering 5000 miles just for joining their KrisFlyer program and another 5000 miles if you credit a Singapore Airlines flight to the program by September 30. The signup bonus offer if valid through March 31 and requires registering with an Australian address. This is of unique interest to me since I have family in Australia and have been traveling there for better than 25 years. I was just there, and will be back this month. Of course, I’m already a KrisFlyer member. To take advantage of the offer, open an account and enter promo code KFACQPU (the box to do so is in the ‘communications preferences’ section fo the form). Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a very interesting program to me for several reasons: They are a points transfer partner of Chase Ultimate…
20% Rebate on Hyatt Award Redemptions Posting Much Quicker Than Promised
Hyatt is 20% of your points back on redemptions through July 31 if you have the Hyatt Visa. You have to register by March 31 then you’ll get 20% of your points back on redemptions with stays completed by July 31. While the rules made it appear this was for new bookings only, it isn’t, so there’s no need to cancel and rebook While the rules were clear that the promotion was for existing Hyatt Visa cardmembers only, in fact you can still get the Hyatt Visa and be eligible And since Hyatt is a Chase transfer partner, even folks who aren’t existing Hyatt members could get the Visa and transfer in points and really take advantage of getting 20% back on all redemption stays (including cash and points and upgrade awards) through July 31.…
Target Redcard Shutdowns: a Hoax?
Earlier I posted about emails forwarded to me from readers who claimed to have their Target Redcard accounts shut down. There’s also a thread on Flyertalk discussing this. Frequent Miler wondered if it’s a hoax. I certainly think the emails look strange — they’re quite specific about the activity that caused the shut down, mentioning specific dollar amounts. I wouldn’t expect an email letting a customer know their account is shut down to be so specific about the activity that caused it. It’s also interesting that the second version of the letter forwarded to me mentioned other amounts. It’s strange to see letters so customized. So… is this fake? Some commenters say they’ve been shut down as well. It’s more common than most realize to find misinformation posted in the comments on blogs, and on…
How Air Force One Can Defend the President from Attack
Business Insider has a piece on the how the President’s plane can defend itself. Air Force One — technically whatever plane the President is onboard but currently a Boeing 747-200 (and eventually a new 747-8) — costs over $200,000 an hour to operate. Speaking of ‘operate’ there’s an onboard operating room staffed by a doctor whenever the plane is inflight. Etihad’s ‘The Residence’ has nothing on Air Force One, whose President’s quarters includes not just sleeping quarters and a shower but also a gym. There’s 4000 square feet of interior space. The President has an office, there’s a ‘situation room’ and a staff quarters. Air Force One has the following defense capabilities: “Mirror-ball defense technology in the wings scramble infrared missile guidance systems” “Electronic countermeasure defense systems…jam enemy radar” “Flares hidden in the wings..to confuse…
American Express Shutting Down Target Redbird Accounts
Reader J. who asked not to be further identified forwarded this email that he received, shutting down his Redcard account. (It’s often referred to colloquially as ‘Redbird’ rather than its proper Redcard name because of its similarities to the American Express Bluebird cards co-branded with Walmart.) American Express apparently decided they didn’t like his loading the card at a Target register using a credit card (to earn miles and meet minimum spend requirements) and then immediately pulling the funds off the card.
