Bits ‘n Pieces for June 4, 2012

  • Calculated Risk reports on declining fuel prices, futures suggest further price declines. Any bet on whether fuel surcharges will fall alongside? (To pre-empt, no I am not willing to cover the other side of that bet!)

  • Online Travel Review thinks the Etihad Guest award chart has some real values in it, especially useful as the program has become a Starwood Preferred Guest transfer partner.

  • Frequent Miler has a convoluted scheme to buy Chase Ultimate Rewards points for under a penny a point. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to buy physical gift cards from Barnes and Noble. Purchase the cards using an American Express business card with OPEN savings. Then go through TopCashBack to sell your gift cards to PlasticJungle. If each stage of the process works, it’s a value at least if you don’t include the opportunity cost of your time…

  • David Bernstein at the Volokh Conspiracy recommends this blog. That’s most appreciated, because I believe a post on the Volokh Conspiracy was the very first link my blog received back in the spring of 2002. In fact, the blog is older than I thought — I missed its 10 year anniversary last week thinking I had started it in July of ’02…

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. Just like gas prices at the pump don’t really decrease when the price of oil goes down, I doubt the fuel surcharges will go down on plane tickets as well. People get used to paying more for something and get complacent.

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