500 Continental Bonus Miles for Co-Branded Credit and Debit Card Holders

If you have a Continental credit card or debit card, you can register by November 30 to receive 500 bonus miles. They’re promoting using your cards to set up recurring payments. Registration is required. Offer valid for Continental Airlines MasterCard Credit and Debit Card Cardmembers only. The 500 mile bonus is a one-time bonus and can only be earned once during the promotional period and will be deposited into the member’s registered OnePass account 6-8 weeks, after the conclusion of the promotion. OnePass number must be provided at the time of registration. Only Continental Airlines Credit and Debit Card Cardmembers will receive the 500 mile bonus and earn miles via recurring payments, per their cardmember agreements.

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Are Frequent Flyer Miles Unfair to the Poor?

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…

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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…

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“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.”

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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…

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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…

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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.

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