I’ve been having a (private) love affair with fixed-value airline miles over the past few months, and I even went so far as to sign up for the JetBlue credit card in wake of the ridiculous promotion they were offering (from which I netted 75,000 JetBlue miles for a round trip flight that cost me $75). Doctor of Credit explains it well, but the appeal for getting the card was the combination of an (unlimited) 10% points rebate as well as the opportunity to earn Mosaic status after spending $50,000 on the card in a single year. Mosaic status offers unlimited free cancellations of both cash (refund to voucher) and award flights, which is amazing for planning domestic travel since I can speculatively book flights without fear of either not being able to take the flight or finding cheaper flights later on.
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Asking for an upgrade to business class… and getting it!
Okay it wasn’t as brazen as the post title suggests. But yes, it’s a real life datapoint of asking for an upgrade (that was probably deserved) and getting it!
Back at the end of January, when AA opened up premium award space to Europe pretty widely, I jumped on it to book a business class class ticket to Ibiza, SFO-JFK-LHR, LCY-IBZ as part of a summer Europe trip. My friends were going on the same trip, so I encouraged them to do so as well. Except for the first statement on their Citi AA cards hadn’t closed yet so they didn’t quite have the miles!
Trip Report: Singapore Airport and Lounge Reviews
Singapore Airport is incredible. It’s like the ultimate hangout spot, if it only didn’t require a boarding pass to get in. I could imagine people wanting to get their friends together and hang out for a day here. I was on my way from SIN to TPE via Tigerair Taiwan, and since I had to check luggage and the counters weren’t open more than 2 hours prior, I wish I had more than 2 hours to explore. I will definitely allot more hours next time I’m there. It’s these Asian airports that make me realize how paltry our American lounges are in comparison!
An update to the Discover egiftcard codes trick
A reader notified me that the script to grab all egiftcard codes from Discover could be cleaned up and simplified a bit. Also I noticed that WordPress was mangling the code making it error out when pasting it into your console. I’ve fixed the original post but just posting an update as well. Here are updated instructions:
- Open up your Javascript console. You can access the Javascript console on Chrome with the following methods:
- Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + J (Mac) or Control+ Shift + J (Windows/Linux).
- Select > More Tools > JavaScript Console.
- Go to this site and paste the displayed code into the Javascript console:
You will then see the e-gift card codes and PINs printed out to your Javascript console.
United is testing out some new award availability calendar UI
Just a small detail, but I’ve been playing around with the United award search tool for the last couple of days and have been noticing that they have been playing around with some UI changes with the award availability calendar.
The new UI that they rolled out sometime last year looks like this:
Days with only Economy availability were yellow, days with only Premium economy were Blue, and days with both were green.
GiftCards.com now charging if your shipping and billing addresses are different
GiftCards.com has been one of my favorite ways to meet minimum spend on my credit card due to how easy it is and the low cost if you factor in portal cashback. It looks like there has been a recent change to charge a $4.75 fee if your billing and shipping addresses are different, if you select USPS Priority Mail or above as your shipping option.
I tend to have different shipping and billing addresses as I rent but my parents live nearby. I don’t like giving my rental address as my billing address, and I don’t know when I will move, but I know my parents will be still at their address and not too far away.
Trip Report: Taipei Lounge Reviews
This will be a photo-heavy post because I assume that in cases of trip reports, people are generally more interested in seeing photos than reading text! The photos should mostly speak for themselves…
Terminal 1:
- Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone D) – Priority Pass
- Transasia Legend VIP Lounge – Priority Pass
Terminal 2:
Trip Suggestions: Singapore
I just got back from a work trip to Singapore, but I had enough time to do some sightseeing, given that the city is small and most of its attractions are all very close to each other. It was my first time in Singapore, but it has been on my travel bucket list for a long time. In my mind, I had Singapore on a pedestal and expected it to be extraordinarily clean, have beautiful architecture, have tons of amazing cheap food, and have strict rules. Well, I found Singapore to be everything I expected, plus more.
Did You Know? Bank of America Preferred Rewards Edition
Last year, Bank of America started heavily marketing their “Preferred Rewards” program, whereby you can get increased rewards rates on credit card spending by holding certain balances with Bank of America and Merrily Edge. Doctor of Credit goes into all its gory detail (linked below), but roughly, you get bonuses of 10%/25%/50%/75% for having balances of $0/$20k/$50k/$100k.
Confirmed: Fidelity Visa is a Flexperks card…with a catch
A lot of hoopla has been made over the fate of the Fidelity Amex card, whose portfolio was bought by Elan Financial Services (a US Bank subsidiary), with the cards being reissued as Visas. In particular, many wondered and speculated that the card would earn (or be convertible to) Flexpoints, US Bank’s pseudo-fixed value rewards currency. Doctor of Credit has a great explanation of them here, but I’ve included the award chart for reference: