Every time in the past two years that a co-brand deal switched banks they also switched payment networks, That underscores the surprising role that Visa and MasterCard play in putting together your rewards card deals.
If you have a lot of money sitting around, or investment assets, you can earn miles. Basically just about anyone will reward you with miles for your business and when a lot of money involved so are a lot of miles.
Here are three ways your money can work for your mileage balances.
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’ve seen the argument that changes to Hyatt’s loyalty program going into effect March 1 violate the Gold Passport terms and conditions.
The implication is that since this is a(n adhesion) contract with members, it’s a contract violation, and should be legally actionable.
I had just an overnight in Abu Dhabi. Normally if I’m getting in late at night and leaving the next morning I’ll stay at the Premier Inn attached to the airport. It’s a bit dorm-like but it’s clean and close.
However this time I was landing before 1pm and it was Valentine’s Day. I wanted something a bit nicer and didn’t mind heading farther afield since I had a layover of about 19 hours. I settled on the St. Regis Abu Dhabi.
So while it should be obvious, a new paper by the University of Chicago’s Dennis Carlton and several co-authors finds that the Delta-Northwest, United-Continental, and American-US Airways mergers haven’t been anti-competitive at all.
Priority Pass Prestige memberships come with unlimited visits and usually retail for $399. They do not come with free guests.
The Priority Pass Select card that comes with Chase Sapphire Reserve includes unlimited guests (subject to limits imposed by any individual lounge) so is ‘worth’ even more than that.
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.
United invited elite MileagePlus members running in the New York City marathon on a first come, first serve basis to join a fuel up dinner tonight — the night before the race — at Del Posto restaurant in New York for a special carbo-loading on Mario Batali specialties. Olympian Meb Keflezighi will be a special guest at the dinner.
United has a VIP race start tent tomorrow morning with special bib pick-up station to avoid lines and private bathrooms. They’re also providing personalized medal engraving, post-race massages, and snacks.
As an official policy, American switched to offer 24 hour refunds when purchasing travel a week or more in advance and eliminated 24 hour holds — but continued offering holds as an option on the website, indicating this would go away at some point but didn’t specify when.
American is less generous than Delta or United who allow 24 hour refunds even for purchases made within a week in travel, however this is not required by the Department of Transportation.
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 »
