Bill payment service Plastiq lets you pay people by check and they charge your credit card. You earn miles, and if you use you a BankDirect checking account then it’s a good way to also earn American Airlines miles ‘on the float’ because the money stays in your checking account longer.
Plastiq has a promotion where instead of their normal 2.5% fee for processing payments, they’ll charge you just 1.75% for rent or mortgage payments.
Mickey H., who shared this with me on Facebook, wrote But officer… “You don’t understand, I have only 1 day left to get my mileage spend in to get my big bonus.”
There used to be an American Airlines Admirals Club on the “E” concourse of the Miami airport. Nearly all of American’s flights out of Miami depart from D these days, so the Admirals Club closed in E. There are still some American flights out of E, and some oneworld partner flights, so the lounge was re-opened several years ago as a shared oneworld lounge though officially it’s designated the “premium lounge.”
However, the American Airlines club newsletter reminded of a recent change to this policy. Admirals Club members can now access this premium lounge which has ample seating as well as better food and liquor.
There’s truly fantastic Virgin Atlantic business class award space between Seattle and London.
Virgin Atlantic takes over the route from Delta on March 26, and will operate it with a Boeing 787-9. Flights are timed wonderfully for connecting from other West Coast cities to Seattle; for spending the full day in Seattle before departure; for connecting beyond London; as well as connecting down the West Coast on arrival back in the States.
A couple of weeks ago rent paying service Radpad announced they would facilitate paying your rent for free with a credit card through end of year using AndroidPay.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that Chase cards didn’t support AndroidPay. So it was great for some other issuers (although Amex cards seem not to be working), but not Chase products.
And just as Chase is about to start working… RadPad pulls the plug.
Marriott announced today that they have a new partnership to allow mileage earning with and points transfers to Korean Air SKYPASS.
This is fantastic on many levels. Hopefully adding partners and features of Starwood Preferred Guest into Marriott Rewards will continue because the merger remains likely to close.
Even pre-Snowden we knew that the government was collecting and storing our cell phone geolocation data. And data mining grocery store discount cards. And using license plate readers on traffic cameras to track our movements.
How would you feel about giving that information to corporations, too, for marketing purposes?
What if they threw you a few miles to do it?
Fares across the Atlantic have been low for a variety of reasons: too much capacity from the major airlines, low fuel prices that support this, and increased competition from low cost airlines like Norwegian and Wow Air.
AirfareSpot highlights fares to Europe starting at $281 but there’s a trick to get the pricing even lower.
Norwegian has their flights from New York JFK to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm on sale during low season of January through mid-March at a super deep discount. You can visit these cities when it’s cheap, or use these flights as a jumping off point to travel elsewhere in Europe. (I’m seeing Paris from $347, still a great deal and I actually like visiting Paris in winter.)
It’s almost impossible to sue an airline except for violations of federal law and explicit breaches of contracts (and they write the contracts). State contract claims like duties of good faith and fair dealing are pre-empted by the Airline Deregulation Act. This was ruled explicitly on with regard to frequent flyer programs two years ago in Northwest v. Ginsburg.
But consumers can complain to the Department of Transportation (even if DOT has been improperly ignoring legitimate loyalty program complaints). They can also sue in small claims court, where pre-emption issues are unlikely to carry as much weight and where the cost of an appeal is likely greater than whatever relief is obtained.
In the UK, though, airlines will soon be able to charge consumers for certain kinds of complaints.
Etihad’s August e-mail account statement highlighted an offer of up to 130,000 Etihad Guest miles when you join a nightclub VIP program.
Let’s face it. I’m not really a velvet rope kind of guy. My Hyatt Diamond stats entitles me to MGM Mlife Rewards Platinum status which offers VIP Line Access to Nightclubs. MGM Mlife Gold gets this too and of course even Hyatt Platinums who get their status via credit card.
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 »
