Boston-area Marriotts are offering 500 points in exchange for signing up to receive information. Submitting your name, email and Marriott Rewards number is all that’s required. (Via Lucky.)
Are Checked Bag Fees Good for Consumers?
Gabriel Okolski makes the unpopular case that checked bag fees are good for consumers in the long-run. His suggestion is that as a result of paying for checked bags, customers will demand better baggage handling. Now, one possible contrary data point is that Delta is the airline with both the highest revenue per passenger from checked bags and also the most baggage problems per passenger. If Okolski was correct I would expect to see airlines reaping more revenue from checked bag fees performing better in baggage delivery. But fair enough, perhaps this is a process where performance will improve over time and Okolski references innovations that are just now being made to make his case. So we’ll have to wait and see empirically. Although in the current environment, with how tickets and services are priced,…
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.
Hilton Finally Offers a Promo: Double Points or 25,000 Bonus Every Four Stays
Register to earn the bonus on stays through December 31. If you select 25,000 bonus points for every four stays there’s a maximum bonus of 75,000 points (after 12 stays). (HT: Lucky.)
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…
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.
