Floyd Norris had an utterly silly piece in Friday’s New York Times and I had intended to ignore it, but several readers forwarded it to me and thought that some comments might be in order. The article begins What would you think of a proposal to create a consumer financial system in which the poor subsidize the well off? The first point is that a store doesn’t get the full purchase price when you pay by credit card, instead the store has to pay merchant fees — the cost of the credit card handling the payment transaction on its behalf (providing payment to the merchant, collecting from the consumer, making automatic funds transfers, providing customer service on the accounts, arbitrating disputes). It’s a value-added service that we often take for granted. The fee structure for…
New Delta Suntrust Debit Card Signup Offers
Delta’s mileage-earning debit cards are issued by Suntrust bank. Sure, Suntrust is based in the Southeast and Delta is based at Atlanta. But for a supposedly national carrier, especially post-Northwest merger, one would expect a banking partner with greater reach. At least Suntrust is aggressively pursuing customers with its signup bonus offers. The Platinum Check Card now comes with 15,000 bonus miles after first pin-based purchase made by December 31, and the business check card does as well. Both types of cards have $55 annual fees — and earn a full 1 mile per dollar which is generous by debit card standards. I’m not a big debit card guy, because I prefer the consumer protections of credit cards and because I don’t like making checkbook entries purchase-by-purchase but rather once a month (and I’m obsessive…
100 Free Continental Miles
Continental is offering 100 free miles for learning about its pet travel program. This is valid through November 30, and the miles will post 4-6 weeks after that.
“We’re Two People Who Get Turned On By Elite Status”
The theatrical trailer for Up in the Air is now out. The earlier teaser trailer and AAdmiral’s Club clip looked great, the trailer looks amazing. It’s the perfect script-based vehicle for George Clooney, and let’s face it for male frequent flyers who could possibly be better to cast as us? I have a feeling the movie is going to be much, much better than the book was. “All the things you probably hate about traveling are warm reminders that I am home.”
The Best Hotel Promo I’ve Ever Seen: 13,500 United Miles and a Free Night for Every Two Cheap One Night Hyatt Stays
One Mile at a Time points to a Flyertalk post made by Hyatt which clarifies that the Faster Free Nights promo is valid whether you choose to earn Hyatt points or miles on your stays. And that means it is combinable with the current United Airlines promos. In addition to the usual 500 points earned for a one night stay, you can earn both a 5000 mile bonus and an additional 2500 miles for every 2 nights (up to 25,000 miles for 20 nights). So that averages 6750 United miles per one-night stay. Or 13,500 miles and a free night for every two one-night stays. There are a couple of Hyatt Place properties out near Dulles airport that I may need to flip back and forth between, as they offer rates around $60 on weekend…
150 Free American Airlines Miles for Watching Online Bose Video
Through October 14, Bose is offering 150 free miles for watching an online video about their new headphones. You can also get 350 miles for going into a store and 1500 for purchasing. Most will just watch the video… This was offered last October as well.
Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights is Back, With Elite Fast Track Kicker
Registration is finally available. From October 1 through January 31, 2010, Hyatt is offering your choice of 1 free night after every two stays (the traditional ‘faster free nights’ offer) or 3,000 bonus Hyatt every stay, starting with your second stay. The free nights are generally more valuable, provided you can use them during the October 15 through March 31 redemption period. I’m sorely tempted to pick up several Dulles airport area Hyatt place stays in the $60 range (frequently pricing for weekends) in order to redeem at Park Hyatts in major cities around the world. But if you don’t have a good clear use for the redemptions, it’s nice that this time they’ve decided to offer a backup choice of banking points. In addition to this bonus offer, Hyatt is offering double stay credits…
Hacking the Priority Club Website to See Your Full Points History
The Priority Club website only gives you an option to see your account history back 6 months. But it turns out the data is all there, the website just doesn’t give you an option to query for it. A Flyertalk member posted a link that will allow you to go back farther. I can see my redemption history back to 2004, and my earning activity back at least to 2008. Here’s the link: https://secure.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/tpaccount?secure=true&secure=true&transaction=4000 Note that you’ll be asked to sign into your account, of course.
30,000 British Airways Miles for Credit Card Signup
Chase has a new offer, which is the best one I’ve seen for a co-branded British Airways credit card: 20,000 bonus miles after first purchase and 10,000 more bonus miles after $750 in spend. The card also offers $50 off British Airways ticket purchases, and it comes with a $75 annual fee (not waived – but still worth it for the 30,000 miles in my opinion).
Cheap Short-haul Award Tickets — As Low as 2400 Points Each Way!
Starwood points transfer 1:2 into LAN. Such generous transfer ratios used to be common, e.g. with Qantas (and the Qantas award chart used to be more generous to boot) so folks would transfer their Starwood points to Qantas and redeem for flights on the Concorde. Starwood transfer ratios have eroded in these few exceptionally generous cases over the years, but the 1:2 ratio with LAN remains. And Starwood doubles their transfer bonus as well, so 20,000 Starwood points yields 50,000 points in LAN. This used to be an exceptional value for constructing oneworld business class round the world awards. But then LAN introduced their new award chart, where they charge for each flight segment separately, and I wrote it off. It’s not longer good for connecting flights, to be sure, so no more oneworld round…
