News and notes from around the interweb:
- Big bonus: The Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card 50,000 point signup offer expires tomorrow. (offer expired) The bonus is worth $714 in Southwest award travel and is nearly halfway to ‘companion pass’ status.
- Ending opportunity: Plink Rewards will lose Staples as an earning partner March 11.
- Big discount: The Grand Hyatt Mumbai, which I reviewed three years ago, is running a real 50% off sale.
- You could ‘call’ it a discount: Visiting Chile will no longer cost the $160 per person ‘reciprocity fee’
- Where’s my referral credit? I recently rented a $9 Audi from Silvercar in Austin and expected to receive a $25 referral bonus (making money on the rental). Wondering where my referral credit was, I tweeted Silvercar, and they explained:
Referrers and renters will receive payments within 30 days after the end of the month in which the rental was completed.
It’s neither automatic nor instant. So for the reader whose referral link I used when I signed up, be on the lookout later in March!
- Another old but awesome video: I have an obvious soft spot for Stephen Colbert. And somehow I hadn’t seen this before until Clayton e-mailed it to me.. Mysteries of the Ancient Unknown: Denver Airport.
- But is it a secret award chart? Only Christopher Elliott would say he likes the changes to Delta’s frequent flyer program, considering Delta hasn’t even told us what half of the changes are yet. Some consumer advocate, eh?
- They could have had me for the points: It cost $17 million to evict this man from a hotel.
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The Plink news was unexpected and I’m sure we ar all sad to see Staples go 🙁
I’m amused by Elliott calling frequent flyer programs “cynical marketing programs masquerading as corporate good will.” If you think about it that way, isn’t EVERYTHING a business does to attract customers a “cynical marketing program.” I mean, when I walk into a bakery and they’re offering my a sample of their cookies, it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts. They want me to taste the deliciousness and open up my wallet to buy the freakin’ cookies. Are airlines really being more evil than that by having frequent flyer programs? I don’t think so.
It will be interesting to see if Southwest keeps the 50,000 offer even after they pull the referral links. That’s what happened last fall IIRC – the referral links left in October but you could still go directly to the Chase / Southwest page.
Still, better safe than sorry (I signed up for the business card yesterday)
I actually would have picked Chris Elliott as the Co-prophet of the End Times, but that’s just me…
@iahphx Well said. Elliott frequently holds the airlines to standards that don’t apply elsewhere in the economy. He’s certainly not knowledgeable on frequent flyer programs. He does write for a mass audience,99% of whom are not knowledgeable either, and that condition won’t change by reading him. Read Elliott if you want to whine a lot; read VFTW if you want to take great trips to great places.