Key link: British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus The most lucrative credit card bonus this year gets pulled July 18. The offer is: 50,000 points after first purchase 25,000 points after spending $10,000 on the card within a year 25,000 additional points after spending the next $10,000 on the card within that year There’s a $95 annual fee, spending earns 1.25 points per dollar, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees. After $30,000 in spend within a year they award a free companion award ticket – the second passenger travels on an award booked on British Airways flights for no additional points (though both passengers are charged taxes and fuel surcharges). And of course there are plenty of ways to goose your spending to get there. (There’s also good discussion in the comments to this…
Starwood Introduces Cash & Points Awards for (Some) Top Tier Category 7 Hotels
Starwood cash and points awards are a great way to stretch points, especially at the category 3, 4, and 5 levels. You spend part cash, part points or put another way you buy back points at a discount. A category 4 hotel costs 10,000 points for a regular award night, or $60 and 4000 points. So you’re effectively buying 6000 of the points you need for the night for $60, or 1 cent per point. Up until now, Starwood’s top redemption category 7 didn’t include a cash and points option. However they announced today that some category 7 hotels would begin offering cash and points award nights. During ‘low’ or regular season a category 7 room is 30,000 points. Cash and points runs 15,000 points plus $275. So you’re buying the remaining 15,000 points you…
MegaDO Seat Auction and Frequent Traveler University Raise $25,000 for LIVESTRONG
Ed posted on Milepoint: A HUGE THANKS FROM LIVESTRONG! And from me personally on behalf of Randy, Tommy, Gary and all the members of Milepoint that make such things possible. Randy and I just got done dropping off a $25,000 check from Milepoint for funds raised during the SMD4 seat auction and Frequent Traveler University. LIVESTRONG didn’t know we were bringing the check. Needless to say, they were a bit surprised! This is just a few months after presenting a $50,000 check to Komen.
TSA Agent Mocks Deaf Man, Steals His Candy, Eats It
A TSA agent in Louisville gave the following experience to a deaf man returning from a National Association for the Deaf conference. While I was going through the TSA, some of them started laughing in my direction. I thought it might’ve been someone behind me, but I found out otherwise. They went through my bag (for no reason), and found a couple bags of candy I brought. I was told I wasn’t allowed to fly with that (wtf? I’ve flown with food before — these were even sealed still because I brought them right in the airport). I was then asked if I would like to donate the candy “To the USO”. Since I know the airport there has an Air National Guard base, and I figured it would go to the soldiers, I (annoyed)…
Will U.S. Merchants Soon Be Able to Add Surcharges to Credit Card Payments?
@edbyu points me to a Wall Street Journal article on a possible settlement in a legal case that would end Visa and Mastercard rules against merchants charging consumers more for using credit cards. According to the piece, we generally don’t see surcharges on American Express and Discover cards because their rules allow surcharges but only on equal terms with other cards accepted by a merchant. So a store accepting only American Express could impose surcharges now. But if that store also accepts Visa and Mastercard, they cannot add surcharges to purchases made with those cards, and thus cannot also add surcharges to Amex charges. Thus ending the contractual prohibition on Visa and Mastercard surcharges would effectively and the practice of also not adding surcharges to American Express and Discover payments. The Durbin Amendment to the…
$350 Roundtrip Fares, West Coast – Tokyo
Korean Airlines has apparently filed a cheap fare of $120 plus tax each way from the West Coast to Tokyo, it appear possible to book cheap tickets on the Korean Los Angeles-Tokyo flight from any city that Alaska has non-stop service to LA from. he exceptional value in this fare, and what will not last, is that the fare seems to have been filed without fuel surcharges so with all the taxes we’re looking at around $350 in some cases all-in. I did a search on ITA Software’s website for October travel from several West Coast cities and found several dates where cheap fares were available: Here’s how the cheapie fares compare to what’s available on other airlines — $350ish compared to $800 – $1400 for all other options. I clicked on a flight schedule…
Starwood’s The Nines Hotel, Portland Offers Great Food, Friendly Staff, and a Room Downgrade
I booked a room a ‘Deluxe Corner Room King’ at The Nines in Portland for this past weekend. It was a cheap rate, and coupled with the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program I’d get a late checkout (duplicated by my Starwood status which is, alas, only Gold — and which I also wouldn’t need), daily Continental breakfast (which the hotel offers as a $34 per room credit each day for rom service as well), and a $100 food and beverage credit in addition — as well as an upgrade to the next room category subject to availability on arrival. Wireless internet is free for all guests, though that too comes with status. All in all, it was a pretty good deal for a hotel that’s supposed to be the nicest offering in Portland.…
With All This Excitement, Will the Next MegaDO Get an Even Bigger Plane?
Yesterday’s general ticket sales for the Star MegaDO 4 charter flight sold out in record time. All the available seats were in shopping carts for checkout in under 5 minutes. It was suggested the price should be higher, and certainly how quickly the event sells out suggests that folks believe it’s exceptional value, I don’t think there are folks going on these events who believe they aren’t getting many orders of magnitude more than their moneys’ worth. But the idea is that — above a certain threshold, of course — money shouldn’t be the reason that frequent flyers don’t get to participate in these trips of a lifetime. Star MegaDO 4 is the first widebody charter for one of these trips. It has significantly more seats that previous trips. And the bigger the plane, the…
1000 Free Choice Privileges Points for New Members
Via NotiFlyer, new members of Choice Privileges can receive 1000 points just for joining. The link URL (http://choiceprivileges.com/signup/inflyer) appears to be a promotion they’re running with Inside Flyer, presumably it embeds an offer code that will sweep for those points in the coming weeks.
Star MegaDO 4 Tickets Are Now On Sale!
Booking for the Star MegaDO 4 domestic charter flight is now open at megado.com. Book your tickets here. It’s the ultimate frequent flyer adventure, where 150-200 enthusiastic folks get together, charter an aircraft, and go on behind-the-scenes tours of airlines and aircraft, while picking up swag and tons of miles and elite status along the way. The last event, Oneworld MegaDO, sold out in under 20 minutes. But there’s a widebody aircraft this time, hopefully the trip will be able to accomodate more folks and won’t sell out nearly as quickly.
