News and notes from around the interweb:
- Man pleads guilty to hacking United’s systems in order to steal travel vouchers
- 300 Sodexo employees working as Heathrow lounges have had their airside access badges suspended. It seems to be related to theft and not terrorism. (HT: @danluttrell)
- Google Flights now offers email price alerts.
- United flight attendants are going rogue and re-using illy coffee packets. They’re apparently trying to make it taste more like the Fresh Poo (and I don’t mean kopi luwak) customers were used to.
- DEA gets airline employees to inform on passengers and may even be accessing TSA secure flight data though the program was sold with the promise of a firewall against use for any other purpsoe than detecting potential terrorists.
The program leads to confiscating life savings from passengers without even charging them with a crime. And good luck ever getting your money back because all the government believes they need to justify seizing your assets is information on where you’re traveling. Flying Chicago – Los Angeles is suspicious enough to take whatever you have.
- The second quarter Points.com financial results highlighted this new pending project:
Imminent launch of a leading North American retail coalition loyalty program with more than 10 million active members, that will see members earning points when making worldwide hotel bookings via a program branded web site.
If it’s a US program, it’s presumably Plenti. If it’s a Canadian one, then one imagines it’s AIR MILES. The Canadian program already offers a shopping portal where you can earn points with direct hotel bookings.
airmiles.ca is THE worst program out there. At many places, you earn ONE MEASLY MILE per $20. The problem with that is that when you spend $39.99, you get ONE MILE. I don’t even bother putting the card in my wallet.
^^True, Ben, but then you can get many return short-haul flights for less than 1000 Air Miles, so every point is worth much more; you don’t need several (tens of) thousands to redeem them. Whereas I value an Aeroplan point at somewhere around 1.5¢, I value an Air Mile point at over 10 times that, and have gotten redemption values of over $1 per point in some instances. True, my typical Air Miles redemption is more in the 20-25¢ per point range, but I’ve hit 83¢ per point and $1.02 per point on two particular cases, and I’ve learned with time what Air Miles are *especially* good for. I also earn 1 AM for every $10 on my credit card, so accumulating them is somewhat faster than you suggest, and some retailers (Safeway, for example) actually rollover your “unearned” surplus over to your next purchase — so I might spend $35 on day and get only one point, but if I spend $25 the next day, I get two points.
In short: Like any awards program, you’ve gotta learn the program rules in detail, and think creatively about how to apply them to get the best value.
Also: I’d be surprised if Air Miles had 10M collectors in Canada. That would be just under one out every three men, women and children in the country, and that sounds high for any card in any wallet. My bet’s on Plenti.