Check out the posts from the week that include things like how a popular fitness app revealed military and black sites around the world, great cards for non-bonus spend, a fantastic deal you missed out on for Etihad business class tickets, and much more!
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend as we roar into the start of the school year for many! For others, it is the fall race season so I hope your training is going well for that!
Really Frustrated with Ethiopian Airlines!
On my side of travel this past week, I had the unfortunate experience of trying to deal with horrible customers service in attempting to book a group reservation with Ethiopian Airlines. In case you ever need a group reservation, definitely avoid dealing with Ethiopian! I may do a post on it down the road but I have never had a problem having an airline take money from me before – until now! I had the reservation held and over $20,000 ready to pay to them (not from me but the group I was helping!) and I could not, for the life of me, get them to respond and take my money! Very poor customer service and relations.
Anyway, here are some of the posts you may have missed over the past week or so!
Miles, Points, and Deals
- New Hyatt App Update Makes Finding Points+Cash Options Easier – Hyatt introduced an app update that brought the ability to save the magic 51440 code for Points+Cash for searches. Unfortunately, it does not give the option to save multiple codes. Oh well, maybe another update.
- Different Goals, Different Values – Dustin did a great post in showcasing one of the reasons miles and points are so great – they give us the ability to travel the way that works best for us! That first class Emirates award may sound awesome and be a great value when compared to the cost but for many of us, that same amount of points could also give us several trips or trips with others that we may not have been able to do.
- After Strava Heat Map Revealed Military Sites, Fitness Tracking Bans Are Issued to Active Duty Military – This came out earlier this year – the popular app Strava inadvertently revealed military and black sites around the world, thanks to the fitness-minded servicemen and women that uploaded their workout data! Now, many will no longer be able to use such tracking.
- A Small Change that TSA Could Make that Would Be Great for Precheck – TSA Precheck remains one of my favorite travel programs but it is really suffering in smaller airports or in some international terminals. This small fix could make it a whole lot better!
- Use Marriott Points for 2 Roundtrip Etihad Business Class Tickets + 5 Nights at NY EDITION Hotel [Expired] – This deal has expired but I wanted to bring it up to show again what an incredible value these packages can be! This package went for 362,000 Marriott points. In the “old” SPG points, that would have been 120,000 Starpoints. That amount of points gave the lucky winner some incredible value with 2 roundtrip tickets in Etihad business class from Abu Dhabi to NY and 5 nights at a luxury hotel in NYC!
- New Miles Promo: Get Up to a 50% Bonus When Buying Alaska Miles – Alaska continues to have one of the best award programs for premium award redemptions. If you are short Alaska miles, make sure you check out this promo that could get you a 50% bonus on purchased miles!
- New Nationwide Southwest Sale Starting at $42 – Good For Travel Into February, 2019! – Nothing new but another chance to save money on an existing reservation or book new travel for less! This sale runs out Thursday so check it out!
- The United Explorer 45,000 Miles + $100 Credit Offer Is Still Available – Here [55K Mile Offer Also] – This offer was supposed to have died but it is still here! If you had missed it before, check it out now to see if it works for you!
- Score NFL Ticket Packages From Just 30,000 Marriott Points – Even Kick a Field Goal! – There are still some packages available so if you are a NFL fan, check them out!
- Last Day: 3 Reasons to Get the New Southwest Priority Card & 1 Big Reason NOT To Apply Now [Expired] – This offer has now expired and the bonus sits at 40,000 points instead of 65,000 points. All is not lost, though! Make sure you read what the “big” reason was to not apply before the offer dropped!
- American Airlines Announces Great Route Plans for Europe – American Airlines shook up their route map a bit in regards to Europe and now we have some new routes that should cater to more people, especially in the midwest of the US.
- Top Cards For Non-Bonus Spend – Most of us know which cards to use for bonus categories but Dustin takes a look at some top cards for non-bonus spending.
- The Brand New Amex SPG Luxury Credit Card Link Is Live! – Yep, the Marriott/SPG attempt in the premium card market is live and offering fewer points than many had thought. However, that could change down the road!
- Review: American Express SPG Luxury Credit Card – Check out this review of the newest card out to see if this works for you.
- The Best Car Rental Promo Is Back Again! Earn Free Rentals with National’s One, Two, Free! – This is definitely the best car rental promo around and it is back again for another year! Complete the easy stuff to earn points and start working towards those free rentals!
- A Simple Gmail Trick That Can Help With Multiple Travel Accounts – If you manage multiple travel accounts for family members or have other uses for using a single e-mail address for multiple purposes, check out this simple Gmail hack. Also, commenters left some additional great hacks that could be even better!
- Upgrade Offers for the Amex SPG Luxury Card Now Available – From Nothing to 100K Points – From “meh” to “yeah” – find out what your upgrade offer is on the new SPG Luxury card.
- The “2017 Best Credit Card” Really Needs an Upgrade – The “2017 Best Credit Card” is likely not any single card you would think of – but thousands of people that participated in the Global Travelers awards picked this one! While I disagree with that selection, my picking on it has really nothing to do with that – it just really needs an upgrade to be able to command a $450 annual fee!
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Adds JetBlue As a Transfer Partner – Kind of “Meh” – Chase and Korean Air parted ways and Chase brought on… JetBlue. There are some good reasons to have them onboard but, overall, I find this addition a little bit underwhelming.
And that is it for last week or so! Hopefully you have a wonderful week ahead and enjoy the last breaths of summer! Thanks for reading and being a part of this discussions – both in comments and e-mails!
