Why I Went ‘All In’ And Earned 7 Million American Airlines Miles With Their Year End Promo

by Gary Leff

Jan 02 2022

When American Airlines ran a holiday promotion in conjunction with Mastercard on their joint venture SimplyMiles website, I went all-in. They offered sextuple miles on all offers, and the most lucrative was unlimited 40 miles per dollar donating to Conservation International – a charity Mastercard was raising money for.

That meant earning 240 miles per dollar, or buying miles at $0.0042 apiece. I did 7 million miles. That’s hardly ‘the most’ anyone went for. I know of several readers who did more than me. One reported earning 12 million miles with this promotion.

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Who’s Paying For All Those Bazillions Of SimplyMiles?

by Gary Leff

Jan 01 2022

SimplyMiles lets you earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles for transactions with a variety of merchants when making the purchase using a Mastercard that’s been linked to the site. They host numerous ‘Mastercard Offers,’ sort of like Amex Offers. But Mastercard doesn’t have the direct consumer relationship that Amex has with its closed loop. So they’re going after American AAdvantage customers.

I earned 7 million miles with their latest promotion. Other readers earned more. And I’ve had several people ask me about the economics of these offers.

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U.S. Air Travel Melts Down On New Year’s As Employees Call In Sick

by Gary Leff

Jan 01 2022

Cancellations are abundant across airlines at this point, and are already spreading into Sunday and even Monday, despite incentives for employees to show up. Some may come into work sick, others may be calling in sick for the usual New Year’s reasons (with Covid meaning there aren’t the extra crew available to pick up those shifts). And schedule turmoil extends because planes and crew wind up out of position and airlines take time to recover from that. Meanwhile, while it’s possible that Omicron spreads so fast we’ll be peaking soon in parts of the country, the number of people unavailable to work appears to be growing.

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United Airlines Kicks Passenger Off A Flight For Wearing A Mask That’s Too Good

by Gary Leff

Dec 31 2021

United Airlines reportedly kicked off a passenger over mask compliance. That’s hardly anything new in 2021. In fact, the number of unruly passenger complaint reported to the FAA this year – by far – involves masks. What makes this situation unique, though, is that the passenger was kicked off over a mask that affords too much protection.

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