US Airways has posted its new award charts. There’s a separate oneworld award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of oneworld airlines and a partner award chart (.pdf) for travel on any combination of non-oneworld partner airlines. Redemption prices remain the same at least at first look. So US – North Asia (including Hong Kong) remains 90,000 miles in business class. You can now fly US Airways or American to a Cathay Pacific gateway city (New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver) to Hong Kong and back in business class for that price, and fly Cathay’s outstanding business class product. And instead of paying 110,000 American AAdvantage miles for the privilege, it’s just 90,000 Dividend Miles. I do not expect this price to last and it will certainly go up…
Getting Offers to Hang Onto a Card You Planned to Cancel
Reader Mike passes along his experiences cancelling a Citibank American Airlines credit card. Hi Gary, Wanted to thank you for all you do on your blog! I read it several times a day and have always found useful info even though I don’t travel as much as most if your readers. I wanted to share my recent experience trying to cancel my Citibank AA card this past weekend in case it would be helpful to anyone else. I called to cancel after annual fee came due and they gave me the following offer: $95 statement credit to offset annual fee + 1000 bonus miles each month I spend $1000 on the card for the next 16 billing cycles (basically earning double miles for first $1000 in spend) Thought I’d pass along. Thanks again for your…
Should a Ukrainian Family Be Forced to Pay Thousands in Change Fees to Avoid Travel to Russia?
Several folks — with varying perspectives — sent me a link to a story about a Ukrainian woman whose family has a trip planned to Europe this summer. She wanted to change her tickets to cut out the visit to Russia given current tensions there, but Finnair directed her to the online agency she bought the tickets from to make changes and the online agency wanted several hundred dollars per passenger to make the change. Marina Spor, 45, was born in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, about an hour and half drive from the Crimean peninsula. She immigrated to the United States with her parents at the age of 7. Spor’s husband is of Norwegian stock, so the couple thought it would be fun to let their kids get a taste of their roots…
My Favorite CVS Still Takes Credit Cards For Vanilla Reloads — And Doesn’t Plan to Change
Just a quick update to my post earlier today about the rumored demise of Vanilla Reload cards being sold at CVS and paid for by credit card. We certainly know that many stores have received a memo from the corporate headquarters that they’re interpreting to mean that Vanilla Reload cards can be sold for cash only, effective tomorrow March 31. But not all stores know about the memo. I stopped at one of my two favorite area stores that always have a rich supply of the cards and permit the purchase of up to $5000 per day via credit card. I spoke with the shift manager who knew the $5000 rule, hadn’t heard anything about planned changes, and assured that they hadn’t received any memos about similar products over the past week. Now, that only…
Today May Be the Last Day to Buy Vanilla Reload Cards with a Credit Card at CVS
Lots of discussion across the blogosphere on this and I haven’t had a chance to get into my neighborhood CVS, but once I’m done with my travel day I do plan to stop by one of the ones that has been both well-stocked and willing to sell $5000 per person per day with a credit card in a single transaction. Vanilla Reload cards are one of the tools people use to fund cards like Bluebird, MyVanilla Debit, and the JH Preferred Prepaid Visa. There have been lots of false reports and early declaration sf death for the Vanilla Reload card. Office Depot used to sell them and stopped. Many individual stores, and even regions, declared them cash only. But there was no chain-wide policy against allowing the purchase with a credit card. Apparently now there…
Possible 15 Free Starbucks Stars
Via Dan’s Deals: Login to your Starbucks account and …enter in the following codes will each give you 5 free stars: MCATALINM MCATALINH MCATALINL You can only use 2 codes per day. I used 2 of these last night and the 10 stars are already in my account. They say the stars can take up to 24 hours to post. I entered in the 3rd code today and expect to see those stars by tomorrow. Enter the codes here once you’re logged in. This is not working for me, so your mileage may vary. However, since Dan posted this and he’s really quite reliable, I pass it along in case the problems are specific to me or my account. In case this does work for you, 15 Stars is halfway to ‘Gold’ status, which doesn’t…
Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – New York JFK: Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
25% Off Award Tickets to Japan, Your Packing List, Where Tourists Go (But No One Lives).. Bits ‘n Pieces for March 29, 2014
United is offering a 25% discount valid for United economy roundtrip saver awards between the 48 contiguous U.S. states, Alaska, and Canada and Japan booked by April 17 for travel between April 1 and April 30. A checklist of things to do before your next long trip. Countries with more tourists than residents. No one beats Vatican City, but France ranks pretty well. What to do if CVS stops taking credit cards for Vanilla Reload purchases You can join the 30,000+ 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 free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Lots of Miles and Points Deadlines This Week: Act Now
US Airways Dividend Miles US Airways’ last day in Star Alliance will be Sunday, March 30 and first day in oneworld Monday, March 31. Here’s some information on how award tickets will work with the oneworld transition and also here. And here’s my guide to booking awards with US Airways miles. If you want to fly to Europe, especially without fuel surcharges, act now (though bear in mind that any changes made after Monday won’t be able to include Star Alliance airlines). Star availability to Europe is much better than with oneworld, and the largest carrier over the Pond British Airways incurs fuel surcharges. Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Meanwhile, be sure to book any Southwest awards by Monday as well before Rapid Rewards reduces the value of its points when redeeming for the cheapest (“Wanna…
Anthony Bourdain is Bringing a Singapore Hawker Center to Lower Manhattan
From 10 Questions for Anthony Bourdain: Everyone is anticipating your new, international food market in Lower Manhattan. Care to dish on what’s coming — venue, concept, offerings? It’s about what turns me on. I’m a huge fan of Singapore and Hakka centers and the Asian-Hong Kong and Dai pai dong and the way that Singapore has been able to keep the integrity of their street food in a modern, germophobic world. I think it’d be very cool to have that in New York and I hope to riff on that model. I hope to have some great Singaporean and Southeast Asian and South American vendors and craftsmen bring in the kind of delicious food that many other people around the world see as a birthright and for one reason or another we really haven’t had.…
