Gene Hackman to Tom Cruise in The Firm: The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is (a) whatever the IRS says, (b) a smart lawyer, (c) 10 years in prison, (d) all of the above. There are a lot of grey areas in miles and points, and those grey areas are largely the making of the programs themselves. They are large and complicated and the people who manage them don’t always understand or remember the rules they’ve created. What Rules Are We Obliged to Follow and When is it Ok to Push the Envelope? When it comes time to write terms and conditions for a promotion, they don’t always do a full and complete job thinking through the implications. US Airways Dividend Miles used to be notorious for sloppily written terms. And so millions…
Airports Will Let You Pet Dogs to Relieve Stress, Private Jet Standards, and How the Tax Code May Have Stolen Costco Away from Amex
News and notes from around the interweb: From my award booking partner Steve Belkin, aka beaubo, comes a new project. Was Citibank able to obtain the Costco co-brand relationship because it had lost so much darned money in the recent past? Abercrombie & Fitch’s private jet. Mr Jefferies, who was pushed out in December amid slumping sales, once had near 50-page “Aircraft Standards” rulebook for those who worked as his crew. Male staffers had to be clean-shaven, wear a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, flip-flops and boxer briefs. They also had to have a “spritz” of the company’s cologne. It specified which music to play and stipulated staff will wear black gloves when handling silverware and white gloves to lay the table.Several airports are rolling out comfort dogs… that you can pet to relieve the…
40% Bonus When You Buy Alaska Miles (Allows One-Way Partner Awards With Stopover)
Alaska Airlines is offering a 40% bonus when you purchase or gift miles. That’s actually a pretty good deal compared to other airlines with similar bonuses, because the starting price on their points is lower. Through April 3, there’s a tiered bonus in place. At the top end you’re buying miles for 2.1 cents apiece. This isn’t an uncommon offer (see for instance here) but it’s as good an offer as I see. Key things to know: You can buy up to 40,000 miles per transaction. But you can make as many transactions as you like — there’s no limit to the number of miles that Alaska will sell you, or to the number of bonus miles you can earn with this promotion. But you can only use the same credit card up to 4…
1000 Free Points from Club Carlson Hotels
Club Carlson is giving away prizes to people who register and follow them on twitter. The giveaway on twitter happens March 19th. I’m sure I won’t have that front of mind on the 19th. But you get 1000 points just for registering, and you can do that now and forget it. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The #HashtagHotelPromo Sweepstakes is sponsored by Carlson Hotels, Inc. Open to legal residents of fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada (excluding Quebec), Guam, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland, United Kingdom, the Bahamas, and Chile, who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. Sweepstakes begins on March 19, 2015 at 11:00:00 a.m. EDT and ends on March 19, 2015 at 10:59:59 p.m. EDT.Official Rules. (HT:…
What Are You: Bulkhead or Non-Bulkhead?
Here’s the seatmap for a flight I just booked. You’ll see I selected an extra legroom aisle seat, and opted not to select the bulkhead row. This is an American Airlines MD80. Bulkhead seats often have better legroom than even ‘main cabin extra’ or ‘economy plus’ types of seating. At a minimum you don’t have anyone reclining into your space. As a result, bulkhead seats are very popular. On the other hand, I avoid bulkhead seats when I can for three reasons: They’re narrower. They usually have tray tables in the armrests, so the armrests don’t move. Carry on bags have to go in the overhead, not at your feet. That means you may need to board earlier to ensure you get convenient space. Since you can’t put any bags at your feet, larger electronics…
What ‘No Foreign Currency Transaction Fees’ Really Means (and What it Doesn’t Mean)
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…
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…
