The Senate passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act without the Credit Card Competition Act from Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) included, pushing off risk of new rules driving down interchange rates in the near-term. To placate the Senators, Senate leadership promised a future vote on their long-running quest to deliver a gift to retailers at the expense of card issuers.
While it can be useful for the average consumer to search flights with Expedia or the like, it’s not usually a good idea to buy travel from them unless they are able to construct complicated itineraries at a lower price than booking directly. Instead, find the flights you want and then go straight to the airline to buy your ticket.
Aviation watchdog, whose sources inside airlines are generally impeccable, says that there are murmurs of a closer relationship between oneworld carriers American Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific. This would be surprising to me.
The TSA has been working to end the ‘skip showing ID’ process for people identified through CLEAR, citing a security incident last year. They wouldn’t end skipping security lines, just not showing ID which is something you can’t always count on now to begin with.
We finally know what happened.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
I recently had the chance to catch up with Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Bilt Rewards. He’s a serial entrepreneur, having sold connections tool Humin to Tinder; became their Vice President of Product (he’s rumored to have created the separate celebrity version of Tinder); and helped launch a company that solves the cashflow problems renters face from security deposits.
And he’s created the first loyalty program for renters which underscores that the single largest expense for most people wasn’t covered by loyalty marketing before. It’s such a no-brainer that Bilt became the fastest company to hit a $1.5 billion valuation, just over a little more than a year after public launch.
A reader from Montana got a new drivers license. They were given a paper printout as a temporary license, and the state takes a couple of weeks to send out plastic ones. His passport is out of his hands, getting renewed in the long priority queue at the State Department. Fortunately you can fly domestically without ID and without too much difficulty.
Away from home, he turned up at the hotel he’d booked using the American Airlines Rocketmiles site on a prepaid rate for the Loyalty Points. But they would not check him in.
Spoken.io is a furniture price comparison shopping website, and they promote a number of life hacks to save money – like how to get a free upgrade on a flight. And this particular tip is… a little weird?
In a video posted recently, they suggest that if you have a short layover, ask for an upgrade with this simple script.
Former South Carolina Governor and Trump Administration U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is running for President. Her long shot campaign has her flying commercial. She took to twitter to share her excitement at being delayed by American Airlines.
This is supposed to make her seem grounded, but her travel experience was very unique.
10,000 Marriott points don’t go very far on their own, so this isn’t something to stretch for. But if you have a Marriott card, or more than one (I have two, generating 40 elite nights per year), you might as well register. And if you spend money on these cards more points are far better than fewer points.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
