Back in December 2011 I wrote about earning big miles for funding brokerage accounts. At the time you could earn up to 50,000 miles from your choice of either American, United, or Delta with a deposit of $100,000. But the trick was that you could cycle the same money in and out of the account and all that mattered was that the sum of the deposits needed to total $100,000. I did just that. I put money in, took it out, put it back, took it out, and so on in order to earn 50,000 American miles. Unfortunately ‘cycling’ no longer seems to be possible to earn signup bonuses from Fidelity brokerage accounts. If you want the full 50,000 mile bonus, you actually have to deposit $100,000 into the account (cash and/or securities). On the…
If At First You Aren’t Approved: Getting Credit Card Reconsiderations… Online
Dan’s Deals gives some good advice on credit card ‘reconsideration’. With most card issuers you don’t need to be approved right away or automatically in order to get a card. You can be denied initially and still wind up with an approval. The best bank for reconsideration in my experience is Chase. If you have existing credit lines with Chase you can usually horse trade — either cancelling an existing card to get approved for a new one, or offering to shift some credit from an existing card onto the new one. The basic principle here is to demonstrate that you aren’t increasing the bank’s exposure to loss by their approving you for a new card. In the case of cancelling an existing card or shifting credit from an existing card, that usually comforts Chase…
What’s Downloaded For Your Inflight Movie Queue?
Most shows I watch on my laptop — I do DVR a few things but mostly I watch television and movies on airplanes. I also never rely on an airline’s inflight entertainment to keep me occupied. I’ll download who seasons of shows and watch good chunks of them on long haul flights (and then resist the temptation to continue watching when I’m back home — these are for flying only!). When I spoke at an aviation conference on a panel with Scott Kirby of US Airways, I heard his boss remark later in the day that all airlines curse the person who invented inflight entertainment. They’re a huge cost center and they provide no opportunity to make any money. The context here was US Airways’ decision to install internet across its fleet — they knew…
Lufthansa’s Shrinking First Class Cabins and What it Means for Award Space
Lufthansa currently offers a first class cabin on 94 out of 100 planes in its long haul fleet. They will be shrinking that down to 75% of their fleet. Already Lufthansa has been reducing the average number of first class seats in the cabin. Their 747s used to offer 16 first class seats and the retrofitted ones now only offer only 8 (albeit in the same amount of space on the upper deck, with a seat and separate bed for each passenger). Fewer planes with first class, fewer seats in first class. And they’ve been making efforts to sell those seats rather than letting them fly empty, offering discounted and two-for-one first class fares. All of which makes it more difficult to get those seats on points. And it has been tougher. Even on routes…
Bits ‘n Pieces for March 18, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: $300 of a Westin Heavenly Bed. Comparing like-to-like the W Hotels bed is a bit cheaper, discounts are larger and much more frequent. And shipping on the Westin bed isn’t free. But some prefer it.. Loyalty Lobby summarizes free signup offers for Regus Gold membership which gets you free access to cubicles at their office locations worldwide. Australian merchants widely add fees to credit card charges, and consumers there pay more for their cards, receive less in return, and haven’t seen lower cash prices as a result. Now new rules allow credit card companies to limit the fees charged by Australian merchants, and Visa plans to cap the fees at 1%. Fascinating that Australia is learning from experience, while the U.S. has been willfully blind to their example.…
In South Florida They Order Their Drugs By the Truckload
Driving down Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, I had visions of a rockin’ weekend.
5000 US Airways Miles for Every 3 New York/DC/Boston Shuttle Segments
Through May 31 US Airways Dividend Miles is offering 5000 miles for every 3 New York/DC/Boston Shuttle flight segments, registration is required. That’s three one-way flights which earn 5000 miles, three roundtrips would earn 10,000 miles. You can earn up to 50,000 miles (equivalent to 15 roundtrips). The bonus applies to all US Airways shuttle segments, even when they are part of larger itineraries, such as Phoenix – Washington National – New York LaGuardia generates credit for the DC – New York segment.
Do You Steal Hotel Bath Amenities?
Hyatt actually invites you to steal their bath amenities. This reminds me of Holiday Inn’s towel amnesty But presumably Hyatt’s permission here means ‘take the ones with you that are in your room’ and not, however, ‘raid the housekeeping cart which they’re in the supply closet’. Do you take hotel bath amenities with you? Which hotels offer the most theft-worthy ones?
The Airline Mobile App Features of the Future
American opened its travel API to developers at the SXSW conference earlier in the week. They hosted a contest for the best hacks that folks could come up with. This is what could be done in 30 hours, not an ongoing development project. But I was interested to see what folks would come up with, as a quick window into what creative folks could do if unconstrained by the corporate development process — and what might be possible for airline apps to deliver in the coming years. So I was intrigued by the winning entry: First Place – AirPing: Won $10,000 to split amongst the team and 25,000 AAdvantage miles for each member. AirPing provides users with live updates for flight changes or delays, and estimated travel time to the airport. The app also provides…
Doing Well By Doing Good: Making Microloans Available and Generating Credit Card Spend
Lots of folks have used micro-lending site Kiva as a way to earn miles and generate credit card spend to achieve signup bonuses. The idea is that Kiva lets you fund an account by credit card, and Paypal waives the processing fees. You may a microloan, and once it is paid back you withdraw the funds. You generate spend and get your money back. Of course there’s some risk of non-payment, but the vast majority of loans repay (and since those loans are generally small, each exposure is small). You do need to be able to float the funds though for several credit card statements. Now competing micro-lending site Zidisha is temporarily waiving credit card fees as well. There’s lots of discussion on Milepoint about Zidisha. I really like doing well (miles) by doing good…
