Porn Stars Shut Down for Credit Card Perk Abuse, and the Future of PreCheck and Inflight Internet (Bits ‘n Pieces for April 29, 2014)

News and notes from around the interweb:


About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. I checked my SPG account after reading this, and I got the same goodwill adjustment too. Which probably means they’re giving it to everybody. Now I wonder why.

  2. I got the same adjustment too. I did call on Sunday. I thought it was related to that, but apparently not.

  3. @Nick – hadn’t even occurred to me, since this is a mainstream paper I’m linking to albeit a UK one (and sensibilities tend to be different there).

  4. The banks are not shutting down porn stars for perk abuse. They are getting squeezed out under a directive from the Dept of Justice in an attempt to shut down businesses that the DOJ wants gone. A direct govt action would run into legal problems, but private businesses are not so directly handcuffed.

  5. Gary, I’m getting tired of your more frequent posts with sexual innuendo and often sexual content. This article is not related to travel and it’s reinforcing porn and reinforcing the degradation of women. The photos are not needed to get the news/issue out to the public. Please reconsider your value system and if the increased traffic to your site is worth degrading women. I keep hoping its a ins time thing. I will have to follow select BA blogs and not the entire group.

  6. KOMO: Hey, let’s interview an economist.
    Gary: “blah blah blah incentivize blah blah.”
    KOMO: Crap. Now we have to translate for dumb people.
    KOMO: “Gary said airlines willfully put children and old people in danger.”

  7. Very sorry to point this out but the juxtaposition of your picture next to the words “overweight” (bags) made me decide to go outside and get some exercise.

    Spirit should have some balls and charge for overweight passengers.

    P.S. Not ashamed to admit that the word “porn” hooked me!

  8. @Anon – I didn’t post the link for the pictures, the story of Chase shutting down cardholders is of inherent interest (I thought), if I was doing it for the traffic I’d have the pictures on the blog which of course I didn’t do. Of course, appreciate the feedback. Best, Gary

  9. You are misinformed. The porn stars did not have their credit cards closed down due to perk abuse. Nothing in the article you provided points to that. Their bank accounts, not their credit cards were closed down. Chase is closing down both business and personal checking accounts for many people. But not credit cards. What is perk abuse anyway? You charge, you earn and you redeem. Is it perk abuse to be a porn star and do this?

  10. I checked my SPG account after reading this and realized, damn! I don’t have an SPG account! No wonder Marriott always wins everything.

    @ Gary: On a semantic note: you should consider separating the words ‘me’ and ‘overweight’ by more than just one little ‘on’.

    “runs a piece with me on overweight carry on bags.”

    Perhaps: “runs a piece on overweight carry on bags that I was featured in” 🙂

  11. So…..Now I know Chase shut down my accounts because I’m a 250 pound male porn star.

  12. Isn’t it funny, how some “anons” have gotten to believe in their god-given right to dictate the bloggers what news articles they are and are NOT allowed to link to!

    On a sadder note, no SPG soup for me, either.

Comments are closed.