Author: Gary Leff

IHG’s Your World Sale Up to 30% Off Hotels and Partner Bonus Points

Advice, Travel

You can frequently buy points for $0.006 or less, you’re better off doing that than transferring Chase points or pushing for bonuses. The IHG Rewards Club program is great for top tier elite member rebates, weak on elite benefits, weak for its inability to redeem anything other than a base room. Pick up bonuses for stays you’ll make anyway, but the low per point value is something they count on members not understanding when it comes time to putting actual spend on one of their credit cards or choosing their program over another for partner points-earning.

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Chase Adds 2 Transfer Partners: Iberia and Aer Lingus

Advice, Travel

Chase has just added two transfer airline partners. These are both Avios programs, and you already could transfer from Chase to British Airways and from British Airways to Iberia or Aer Lingus, however to do so your Iberia or Aer Lingus account had to have been open for 90 days and have had some points-earning activity.

No longer.

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American Holiday Partner Promo Up to 50,000 Bonus Miles

Advice, Travel

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a good partner promotion. These can be fun, picking up activity credits and earning progressively more miles, trying to do it at the cheapest cost by finding eligible partners you can buy something from for very little month — or partners you can transfer points from and earn credits — all while generating a big bonus.

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Citibank Just Added Star Alliance Member Avianca LifeMiles as Points Transfer Partner

Advice, Travel

Citibank keeps adding airlines as transfer partners for the ThankYou Points program so that your Citi ThankYou Premier Card and Prestige Card’s points are getting more useful. They don’t have any of the major US airlines as partners, but those are diminishing in value, they have niche carriers which offer value if you pay attention and look.

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Even Some Great Credit Cards Aren’t No Brainers to Get Anymore

Advice, Travel

A couple of days ago I wrote that Hyatt cardmembers can now get 10,000 points for successfully referring friends to the card. I think it has a nice signup bonus, albeit arguably not as nice as when they offered 2 free nights at any property, and the annual free night with renewal is worth the card’s fee. And all reports are that it isn’t subject to 5/24 for getting approved.

But issuer restrictions on card approvals and signup bonuses that have been introduced over the last couple of years make us pickier about which cards to get, and more strategic.

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Man Dumps Food in the Aisle Instead of Waiting for Flight Attendant to Pick Up Tray

Advice, Travel

The passenger apparently ate what he wanted and decided he wanted to read without his meal tray in the way.

I think what impresses me most about this incident is that he dropped this on the ground but his cup of water is still full. It’s a miracle of modern physics.

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Scantily Clad Woman Steals Uber Driver’s Tips and Taxi Driver Snorts Cocaine During Ride

Advice, Travel

18 year old Gabrielle Canales was filmed inside a New York Uber — many Uber drivers do film their rides — stealing all the money out of the driver’s tip jar.

Meanwhile a taxi driver headed from the Madrid airport into town snorts cocaine during the trip using “the permit taxi drivers require for their job” as the tray for the coke. That’s on video, too.

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Buy United Miles for 1.88 Cents Apiece

Advice, Travel

Over the summer United offered to sell miles for 1.88 cents apiece, I believe for the first time. What’s interesting is that selling miles cheap was the US Airways strategy that came over to American Airlines, and now that former US Airways and American President Scott Kirby is United’s President they’re doing it too.

He knows that the airline is in control of their cost of redemption, and that any miles sold above that cost generates profit.

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Flights Evacuated at Orlando Airport Today After Camera Battery Exploded

Advice, Travel

A lithium ion camera battery exploded in a suitcase before security at the Orlando airport Friday evening. Some passengers reported that it sounded like a gun shot, however it appears to have been an accident and not an attack of any kind.

The TSA ordered that all passengers who had cleared security had to evacuate the terminal and be re-screened. And all passengers that were onboard planes that had not yet taken off returned to their gates to get off, leave the terminal, and be re-screened.

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Singapore’s Flight Attendant Training is Amazing But Rubs Me the Wrong Way

Advice, Travel

While I was in Singapore for the unveiling of Singapore Airlines new cabin products I visited the carrier’s training facility.

I’ve had better crews on Singapore and some less good crews on Singapore but on average I find their service to the best in the industry — high level, precise, and mostly consistent. It doesn’t surprise that flight attendant training is the longest in the industry.

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Unprecedented: American Express Transfer Bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan (Targeted)

Advice, Travel

You won’t see this offer unless you’re logged into your American Express Membership Rewards account, but some people at least are targeted for a 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan and I do not recall ever seeing an Aeroplan transfer bonus before though no doubt readers will correct me if my memory fails. I’m targeted myself.

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7 Simple Ways to Meet Minimum Spending on a Credit Card Without Breaking a Sweat

Advice, Travel

There’s no quicker and easier way to earn a large amount of miles quickly than with a new credit card.

It’s not super complicated and you probably have access to more spending that you can put on a credit card than you think — so it’s far less daunting to meet credit card minimum spending requirements than you think in order to earn a signup bonus.

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