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Coming Soon: American Express Will Let Platinum Cardmembers Book Sold Out Restaurants By App

by Gary Leff

man eating at asian restaurant
Sep 22 2018

American Express offers its Global Dining Collection program to The Platinum Card from American Express cardholders and to Centurion (Black Card) customers.

These are top restaurants where American Express has an arrangement to set aside some tables for cardmembers. You’ve had to make bookings through their concierge service. They’ll be launching searches for reservations, including special set-aside availability, through the American Express mobile app first in the UK starting next month and then in the US next year.

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Two Points Currencies Have 30% Transfer Bonuses to Virgin Atlantic at the Same Time

by Gary Leff

virgin atlantic
Sep 01 2018

Virgin Atlantic miles aren’t worth as much as other miles. However they do have strategic uses and I believe the single best one is ANA first class roundtrip from the Central U.S. and East Coast for just 120,000 miles per person. (San Francisco and Los Angeles is just 110,000 miles roundtrip, while business class runs 90,000 or 95,000 miles depending on the city.)

Another strong use of Virgin Atlantic miles is Delta business class between the US and Europe for 50,000 points each way, which becomes an amazing deal witht he 30% tansfer bonus. There are other award chart sweet spots, like Australia and New Zealand.

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Priority Pass Raising Lounge Per Visit Fee Effective October 1 For Some US Cards

by Gary Leff

priority pass select card
Aug 28 2018

Priority Pass is a card that gets you into lounges around the world. You don’t have to belong to an individual lounge program, this program works to have lounges in most of the places you go.

There are over 1000 airport lounges that a Priority Pass will gain you access to, most of those are spread throughout airports around the world. Around 60 options exist in the U.S. and that increasingly includes airport restaurants.

When you have a Priority Pass card it may come with visits for you as the cardholder, and it may come with complimentary visits for guests.

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The Paranoid, Cautious Approach to Transferring Points and Booking Awards

by Gary Leff

man in suit looking at computer screen
Aug 26 2018

Yesterday I helped someone with an Air China first class award. Air China certainly doesn’t have the best first class, and you might think it’s not worth the miles.

This is the story of an award booking that appeared to fail, but where perseverance got it ticketed. However there’s a better approach that takes some of the risk out of award booking.

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