News and notes from around the interweb: TopCashBack is offering a 2.25% rebate on the purchase of American Express gift cards today only. So I was wrong when I said I didn’t expect to see anything over 2%. (HT: Frequent Miler) Rwanda now requires US passengers to be screened for Ebola (HT: Alan H.) The Atlanta airport’s wifi is unconstitutional 2000 JetBlue points for new members who register and book a flight by November 21 for travel through November 21. (HT: S.) Air France and Delta have offered to give up some slots at New York JFK to satisfy the EU You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s…
Credit Card Bonuses: The Most Alluring Thing on the Entire Internet?
There’s a tremendous volume of spam that this blog attracts, sometimes close to 10,000 comments per day. I imagine it’s because of the search value in the blog, and that it’s been around for more than a dozen years. Much of it is well handled by the spam plugins set up with WordPress. Some of it I have to go through manually. And if I ever make a mistake and mistag a comment that you’ve made, I deeply apologize. It’s rare, I may not know if it has ever happened and I’m generally pretty good about getting that stuff right. But the volume means that sometimes I could make a mistake. Please let me know if it happens to you and I’ll retrieve your comment. Most spam is obvious. I came across the least obvious…
US Requires 6 Percent of West African Passengers Traveling to U.S. to Re-Route to Stop Ebola
For those clamoring for a travel ban, the U.S. has ordered that passengers coming from 3 West African countries are only allowed to enter via five airports. Passengers coming from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea may only enter the U.S. at New York JFK, Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta, and Chicago O’Hare. Those are the airports where $19 an hour EMTs will look for Ebola as passengers turn up. And that’s where 94% of those passengers are flying through anyway. So 6% of passengers coming from those 3 West African nations, who might have planned to, say, fly via some European city to Boston, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, or Seattle will have to re-route. A travel ban is both unnecessary and likely ineffective, but politically it is sometimes helpful to “do something”…
One Last Hurrah in American’s First Class Flagship Suite!
American’s 777-200s are being retrofitted, and the first one is now in service with a brand new business class that looks fantastic but no longer offering first class. Since American’s 777-300ER aircraft got a new first class, that means the old Flagship Suites are being retired. I reviewed American’s first class lounge at New York JFK at the start of the trip. From the lounge I proceeded to the departure gate just as boarding was already starting to commence. And there she was! It’s like a throwback to what feels like an earlier time. There’s great space, even some ingeniousness to the seat. They’ve enhanced the soft product over the past three years. But at its core is a large first class cabin (too large for modern economcis) with a seat that’s been left behind…
Hacking the Lufthansa Strike, Cash for Checking Accounts, and Seeking the Dying 70,000 Point Bonus
News and notes from around the interweb: While they haven’t (yet?) led to lower prices, Here’s how falling oil prices could change airline flying decisions (HT: Alan H.) Yesterday I noted that for several hours after the advertised end of the Chase Ink Plus offer, it was still available on the Chase site. Then sometime in the early afternoon that online application was no longer available. And I asked readers to let me know of any still-working links. There are several in the comments of that thread, apparently folks who had created their own referral links still have those links working. So if you’re interested in the card, check out reader referral inks in the comments at least until that program ends. Suntrust is offering a $300 checking account signup bonus at a limited number…
Why Are Airfares Rising When Fuel Prices are Going Down?
USA Today asks but doesn’t really answer the question of why airfares are going up even as fuel prices are down from their peak. The answer is simple, though the story behind the simple answer is a bit more complex. Airfares are high because planes are full. When airlines are selling most of their seats, they can raise prices. Airfares aren’t really directly related to cost, they’re set based on the supply of available seats and demand for those seats. Of course, the number of seats an airline is willing to provide at a given price point is determined in the long term by its cost structure, among other things (like how easy it is to access gates and planes, which is related both to cost, structural limitations, and government regulation). So the interesting question…
IHG Rewards Club Relents, Will Honor Their Free Nights Offer!
Yesterday I wrote, My offer for IHG Rewards’ “Into the Nights” promotion — the most generous hotel offer in the market by far — has not changed. But others are reporting that the requirements for them to earn free nights are shifting after the promotion is underway. I’ve reached out to IHG to see whether there’s some sort of technical glitch, or something more nefarious going on. IHG Rewards initially gave the wrong — too generous — offer to many members. Their intention to was target different offers to different members, but ‘too many’ (relative to their intention) got the super generous one that I got and still had. Here’s what they were telling folks who complained about registering for an offer, staying at IHG Rewards Club hotels to complete the offer, and then having…
How to Avoid Getting Taken By a Rental Car Company Over Damage
Christopher Elliott thinks that car rental companies are too quick to blame consumers for damage, and consumers too unwilling to own up to damaging cars. Both claims are probably true. As the last renter of a vehicle, a rental car company may assume you caused damage. But a car could have had pre-existing, undocumented damage or may have suffered an incident after the rental was returned. If you ding a rental car, and the company doesn’t say anything about it, are you generally the first to bring it to their attention? Although telling businesses they should stop doing what they’re doing, and consumers that they should behave differently too, is certainly tilting at windmills. I know that I do not look for dings and dents. If they aren’t major, I won’t notice them picking up…
Should the Details of Your Hotel Stay Remain Private? Should They Be Kept Easily Accessible to Police?
The Supreme Court has granted cert in the case of City of Los Angeles v. Patel, meaning they will consider the Los Angeles regulation requiring hotels make guest records available to police for inspection. The lawsuit is a ‘facial challenge’ to the regulation, meaning it argues the regulation is always unconstitutional as a violation of the 4th amendment, rather than the hotel owners bringing suit because their rights were violated in a specific case. The initial court split 2-1 in rejecting the suit arguing that a facial challenge to the law can’t succeed because without a specific fact situation at issue they cannot know that the rule is always and everywhere unconstitutional. (They cite precedent on this, of course, the details of which are beyond the scope of this post or my existing set of…
Opting in for a Targeted Promo, Big New Member Signup Bonus, and Sketchy Changes to a Hotel Promo
News and notes from around the interweb: Some reports of Barclaycard signing up consumers who ask for a targeted spending bonus on the US Airways Premier World MasterCard. 10,000 bonus Qantas points for new members who earn 10,000 points in their first 3 months of membership. United has a 20% bonus for transferring hotel points to miles. Conceivably a decent deal when redeeming Marriott travel packages, but hard to see myself taking advantage of this offer. My offer for IHG Rewards’ “Into the Nights” promotion — the most generous hotel offer in the market by far — has not changed. But others are reporting that the requirements for them to earn free nights are shifting after the promotion is underway. I’ve reached out to IHG to see whether there’s some sort of technical glitch, or…
