Today, Plastic Jungle shut down their shop.  They sent an email to all of their customers announcing that they would no longer buy and sell discount gift cards directly from and to consumers.  Instead of doing business directly with consumers, Plastic Jungle will continue to offer gift card exchange services through their partners (United MileagePlus, FlexPerks, BestBuy, CVS, and Zeevex).  This means that, instead of selling your used gift cards to Plastic Jungle for cash, you can trade them in for miles or points instead. 

Of course, if you want cash for your gift cards, there remain several other options.  Cardpool, GiftCards.com, and ABC Gift Cards are a few examples of services that currently compete with Plastic Jungle and will presumably continue to offer the services that Plastic Jungle is giving up.

Since I began blogging as Frequent Miler in September 2011, many deals I’ve written about have involved Plastic Jungle one way or another.  For example, on September 22 2011, I published “Buy American Airlines Miles for less than 1.6 cents each. No limit.”  In that post I showed how to effectively buy AA miles by buying Sears gift cards via the AAdvantage eShopping portal and then selling the gift cards to Plastic Jungle.  This was back when miles earned from any source counted towards AA lifetime status.

More recently, I wrote often about how to take advantage of TopCashBack’s 4% rebate for Plastic Jungle purchases and sales (which later dropped to 2.5%, then recently to 1%).  Thanks to that extra cash back, it was sometimes possible to buy discount gift cards from Plastic Jungle and to sell them back at a profit.  It wasn’t easy, though.  Plastic Jungle was able to detect if you tried to sell the same card back to them, so it was necessary to “launder” the gift card first by using it to buy a new gift card (stores like Walmart and Target allow this) before selling it back to Plastic Jungle. 

In case you’re interested, here is the text of the email that was sent out today from Plastic Jungle:

The team at Plastic Jungle would like to thank you for your participation in our gift card programs over the past seven years. Since 2006, Plastic Jungle has been a leader in providing you with great deals on gift cards in a secure marketplace.

 

As our business has grown and evolved, we have seen that the greatest potential for Plastic Jungle’s long-term success is in working directly with our business partners. As a result, we will no longer be buying and selling gift cards at www.plasticjungle.com. This change is taking place effective today.

With this transition, there are a few important things you should know. First, all orders currently being processed will be honored with the same guarantee of service and safety that we have upheld for seven years. Second, our website will be available to allow you to access your account and retrieve gift cards until November 1, 2013. Third, Plastic Jungle will continue to offer gift card exchange services to customers through our partners. Finally, our customer service desk will remain open during this period to answer inquiries and resolve any concerns. If you have any questions, we encourage you to visit our FAQs page or contact Plastic Jungle Customer Success at customersuccess@plasticjungle.com.

Thank you again for being an important part of the Plastic Jungle family over the past seven years. We appreciate all of your support as we begin this exciting new mission as a company.

All the best,
The Plastic Jungle Team

An incomplete reservation.  Bottom tier elite status.  No free breakfast.  No free internet.  Would I survive? 

A few weekends ago, I was scheduled to visit Washington DC for the Freddie Awards (Thursday), the Travel Executive Summit (Friday), and Frequent Traveler University (Friday through Sunday).  Before going, I thought that my travel plans were all set.  I was wrong.

On Wednesday night I packed for the trip and then opened TripIt to review my itinerary.  “Thursday morning: Depart DTW to IAD.  Friday: Check into hotel.”  Uh oh.  I was scheduled to fly out on Thursday and return on Monday, but I only had Friday and Saturday night booked at the hotel.

I called Hilton to see if they could extend my reservation to arrive a day earlier and leave a day later.  They told me the hotel was sold out.  Sure, I could have booked another hotel in the area, but I really wanted to stay in one place, so I logged into Hilton.com to see what I could find.

It turned out that there were a number of special rooms available.  All were listed at $300 per night or higher.  Luckily, I found some that I could book for “only” 40,000 Hilton HHonors points per night.  Compared to the $300 room rate, this was a pretty good value for my otherwise devalued Hilton points, so I booked the rooms with points.  Now I had three reservations for one long weekend.  Problem solved.  But, then I had to face the real challenge….

While researching room options, I discovered that I no longer had Hilton Gold status.  I was a lowly Silver elite!  Horror!  No more free internet or free breakfast!  What could I do?

Sure, I could have signed up for free Hilton Gold status by temporarily becoming Australian and making up a credit card number (see this post), but that just didn’t feel right to me.  And, it was far too late to get Gold status by spending $20K on my Hilton credit card or by signing up for the Citi Hilton Reserve card.  What other options did I have?

I remembered reading this LoyaltyLobby post about Hilton status matches.  According to LoyaltyLobby, I could send an email to hhonors@hilton.com to ask for a status match.  I would have to send a year-end activity report from a competing chain where I had status to prove that I was match-worthy.

Luckily, last year I had completed Marriott’s Taste of Platinum Challenge which resulted in my getting Marriott Platinum status that would last throughout 2013 and I had quite a few Marriott stays on the books for 2012.  I couldn’t find anything like a year-end report, but I was able to get Marriott’s website to display activity for the last 9 months of 2012.  I copied that info, along with a screenshot showing my Platinum status to Microsoft OneNote and then used OneNote to save the whole thing as a PDF.  I then emailed the PDF to Hilton along with a request for a match.  I received an automated response saying “Our goal is to respond to all inquiries within a 24-48 hour timeframe from receipt of the message.”  Would I get my status match in time?  Would I avoid having to pay for internet and breakfast?

On Thursday, there was no response from Hilton about the match.  I arrived at the hotel in the afternoon to check in.  The desk agent found my three reservations and click clacked away at the keys for many minutes to ensure that I had one room for the entire stay (which I appreciated very much!).  My Friday and Saturday night stays were booked as Executive Club Floor rooms (which included breakfast, but not internet), but the club lounge was closed for renovations (no wonder they had such a good rate for those rooms!).  Instead, I was given a bunch of breakfast and snack coupons that were valid through Sunday.  This meant that I was covered for breakfast for every day except Monday morning, even without Gold status.  Whew.

On Thursday night I paid for one night of internet service.  I had to work on this blog, after all.  The internet service lasted until Friday evening.  On Saturday, I called the desk to ask if internet was included in my Club Floor room rate.  Nope, but the desk agent offered to make an exception, and she gave me a code for two days worth of internet for free.  Score!

I was all set for the rest of the weekend, but Monday morning loomed ominously ahead.  That was the day I would have to pay for breakfast.  Oh no!

On Monday morning, I checked my email and found a wonderful sight (bolding is mine):

Re: Status Match

Dear Frequent Miler,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding a status match. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

First, we are always thrilled any time a member reaches out to us in an effort to attain our most prestigious Diamond membership level.
As you have reached the highest achievable level of membership with one of our hotel competitors, we are happy to extend a special one-time offer to fast track to Diamond tier level. If within the next 90 days, from today’s date, you record 21 eligible nights at any participating HHonors hotel, your account will be automatically upgraded to the Diamond tier status through March 31, 2015.  In the interim, we have upgraded your account to Gold membership level so that you may begin to enjoy the benefits while working to earn Diamond.

Sweet.  I have no intention of trying to stay 21 nights to get Diamond status, but I was happy to get free Gold status!

So, I got dressed and scampered to the front desk to let them know that I had earned Gold status during my stay.  The desk agent was incredibly gracious.  She told me to go sit down for breakfast and she would bring the breakfast coupon to me.

At the restaurant, I asked about ordering from the menu instead of the buffet and was told that there would be a $7 upcharge with the breakfast coupon.  I was OK with that.  When the coupon arrived, however, I was told that this coupon was good for anything on the menu, for free.  Score!  Breakfast was fantastic.

Background: Million Mile Madness was the mad quest to earn a million points in one month. Throughout March, I did everything I could to earn as many points as possible while keeping within my ethical boundaries. During the month, I tracked all of the points that I expected, and I declared victory when the expected total topped one million.

Final tally… not yet

Yes, I succeeded in earning a million points in one month, but there was another aspect to the challenge: my goal was to keep my net costs below $1000.  That meant that when I bought items to earn points and sold the items to earn back my money, there was very little room for error.  At this point, I still have some items that remain unsold, so I can’t yet give a final tally.  Did I succeed in keeping net costs below $1000?  I don’t yet know.  From my latest projections it looks like it will be close one way or another.

Million Mile Headaches

I’ve written before about some of the challenges I had during Million Mile Madness: A setback from Sears and Bumps in the road.  Some issues, though, popped up late in the game and I haven’t previously had a chance to report on them.  Sometimes bad results can be just as instructive as good ones.  Here’s my SunTrust story…

SunTrust Plan

SunTrust offers a debit card that earns one mile per dollar spent on all credit or debit transactions.  This is pretty amazing since very few cards offer rewards for debit transactions and those that do tend to offer much smaller rewards. 

I signed up for the SunTrust card on March 7th with modest goals for Million Mile Madness.  I wanted to earn the 5K sign-up bonus, and I intended to make about $10K in debit purchases for a total of 15K Delta SkyMiles.  This would have made a small, but positive contribution towards my Million Mile Madness quest.  My real reason for wanting the card, though, was for tax payments beginning in April.  Pay1040.com charges a flat fee of only $2.99 for tax payments made by debit card, so this would have been a great (and very easy) way to earn miles while paying taxes.

Signup Process, March 7

To sign up for the debit card, I visited suntrust.com, clicked “Open an Account,” and then clicked “Chat Now” to bring up an instant messenger style chat window.  I told the rep what I wanted, and he setup the new account for me.  He told me that they needed $100 to start the account and that I could pay by debit card.  I tried using a Visa gift card for that purpose (before gift cards had PINs), but I got a call a few days later saying that it didn’t work.  So, I used my Mio debit card instead.

First Contact, March 20

After the sign-up process, I waited eagerly for my new card to arrive.  The first sign that anything was happening was an email on March 20th saying that my online banking enrollment had been activated.  The email included instructions for competing the activation, which I did.  I didn’t yet have the debit card, though.

Funds Transfer Initiated, March 24

A few days later, on March 24th, I received an email stating that I could transfer funds from external accounts.  I logged on to my SunTrust account and initiated a transfer of $7000 from my CapitalOne360 account (formerly ING Direct). 

Card Received, March 25

On Monday, March 25th, I finally received my SunTrust Delta Debit card.  It was the last week of my challenge, so I was glad that it finally arrived!  I was also glad that I had proactively transferred in some funds so that I could use the card soon.

Transfer Stopped, March 26

On March 26th I received an email from CapitalOne360 informing me that SunTrust had initiated a $7K withdrawal.  The same day I received the following email from SunTrust:

For security reasons, your funds transfer request from ING Direct, Savings account to SunTrustBank, Checking account has been stopped.
As a policy, we need to review the transaction. Based on the results of that review, we will either cancel the transaction, or the funds may take a little longer to reach the destination account. We will notify you of the status of the transaction by email.

I thought that was odd, but I figured that they would finish up their investigation quickly and credit my account as expected.

Account terminated, March 27

The next day I tried to log into my account to see if the transferred funds had been deposited.  I only had a few more days remaining in my challenge so I really needed to start using the debit card!  Unfortunately, the system told me that I had entered an incorrect ID or password.  I reset my password and tried again but received the same error.

I called SunTrust.  At first, the rep I spoke with tried to help me with my password, but eventually he noticed a note on my account: SunTrust was closing my account and terminating all business with me.  No reason was given.  I asked why this happened, but the rep was unable to give me an explanation.

Crap.  I had to find other ways to earn 15,000 miles before the end of the month.  Luckily both Amex and Chase came through for me with big retention bonuses (see “Million Mile Madness: Easy points“).  Whew.

“Show me the money”, March 29

On Friday, March 29th, I logged into my CapitalOne360 account and noticed that the $7K I had transferred was still gone.  Crap.  I called SunTrust.  They claimed that there was no record of a transfer into my SunTrust account.  “But, I initiated the transfer from suntrust.com” I exclaimed.  Sorry, they said, but most likely the money will be automatically re-credited to my Capital One account in about 5 business days.  I had no choice but to wait.

No, really, “show me the money!”  April 8

On the first week of April I went on vacation and tried to forget about SunTrust (UnTrust?).  On Monday, April 8th, SunTrust reminded me of my dilemma by sending a box of checks.  Huh?  I distinctly remembered telling them that I didn’t want checks when I signed up.  And, if they terminated my account, why send checks anyway?  Had they re-established my account?  Maybe they realized that the account closure was a mistake and reinstated it?  I tried again to log on, but with no success.  I checked my Capital One account and saw that the $7K was still missing.

I called SunTrust and told the rep my dilemma.  The account was still closed.  Supposedly I had ordered checks in the middle of the month and so my account that previously had a $100 balance was about $14 poorer (I don’t actually remember the exact amount).  They still couldn’t explain why my account was closed or where my $7K had gone.  They couldn’t even re-credit my account for the checks I hadn’t ordered because my account was frozen.  They said that I could get my balance returned to me after my account had been frozen for 30 days and finally terminated completely.  It was still unclear if I would get back the money for the checks, but the bigger issue was my $7000 dollars!

I called Capital One and they offered to open an investigation.  I filled out and faxed a form describing the issue.

Capital One comes through!  April 9

To this day, I still have not heard about the results of the investigation, but on April 9th I logged into my CapitalOne360 account and found a wonderful sight:

• 04/09/2013 Withdrawal Reversal    7000.00

Great!

What happened?

I still do not have the $100 used to fund the SunTrust account, nor do I have an explanation of why my account was terminated.  My best guess is that they figured out that I don’t live in one of the States that they serve.  Of course, they knew that when I applied for the account in the first place!

On May 1st, I received a letter from SunTrust’s Enterprise Fraud Management department.  The letter read as follows (bolding is mine):

SunTrust continually reviews its products, markets and client relationships to ensure that we are able to provide the best possible client service while also meeting our corporate business objectives.  There are circumstances where the company will identify a specific account relationship that no longer meets these criteria.  In the interest of our clients and SunTrust, the company will request those accounts be closed.

When you opened your account with SunTrust, you received a copy of our Rules and Regulations for Deposit Accounts, our contractual agreement with our depositors.  The Rules and Regulations stipulate that SunTrust may close an account for any reason without advance notice to the client.

In accord with these Rules and Regulations, and as a result of information we have received after the account was opened or the unsatisfactory handling of the account, we find it necessary to discontinue our banking relationship immediately.  If the account is overdrawn, the overdrawn amount is a debt owed to SunTrust, and we require payment of any such debt within 30 days of the closing of the account.  If the payment of the overdraft is not obtained within that time action will be taken to collect the debt.  You will be responsible for all items, along with any associated fees, that are presented against the account after closure.  If there is a positive balance at the time of closure, SunTrust Bank will make a determination on the disposition of the funds.

We regret that we will not be in a position to continue to provide you with banking services, however this decision is irrevocable.

In other words, “We can do what we want… na, na, nuh, na, na.”

Learn about Million Mile Madness:

• A crazy million mile idea. Should I do it?
• Million Mile Madness, it’s on
• Million Mile Madness: Strategy
• Million Mile Madness: Preparing to buy & sell
• Million Mile Madness: Tracking points and expenses
• Million Mile Madness: The big churn story
• Million Mile Madness: buying, selling Kohl’s
• Million Mile Madness: Banking on Lowe’s
• Million Mile Madness: A setback from Sears
• Million Mile Madness: Pending Success
• Million Mile Madness: Bumps in the road
• Million Mile Madness: Credit scores and pulls
• Million Mile Madness: Easy points
• Million Mile Madness: Success!!!!!
• Million Mile Madness: Which points?
• Million Mile Madness: How it was done

Last Monday, I published “American Express Gift Cards 2.5% cash back. Today only“.  In that post I showed how it was possible (that day) to get 2.5% back when buying American Express gift cards with values of up to $3000 each.  Since the gift cards have flat fees ($3.95 each, plus shipping), the highest value gift cards were the best deal.  Then, about two days later American Express changed the maximum gift card amount to only $500 if you begin your shopping from a cash back portal (luckily there’s a simple workaround.  See “Amex takes away $3K cash back gift cards“).

Because of the proximity in time between the two events, it appeared that the one day 2.5% cash back promotion had spurred on Amex to make the change.  Then came GiftCardMall…

Yesterday I published “Visa Gift Cards 2% cash back. Today only.”  By going through TopCashBack to GiftCardMall it was possible to earn 2% cash back when buying Visa gift cards.  At the time that I wrote that post, it was possible to buy gift cards up to $1000 each.  My post was published Monday morning at about 6 a.m. EDT.  At around noon, the limit changed to only $500.  What happened?

Many in the travel hacking community like to blame bloggers for killing deals.  Undoubtedly the accusation is sometimes true and sometimes false.  When a deal is too good, it is inevitable that it will end eventually.  When it does end there is a tendency to blame the most recent or salient event on its demise.  Sometimes that recent or salient event may indeed be the cause.  Often, it is not.  Either way, we rarely find out for sure.

Recently, Visa and MasterCard gift cards were changed to allow PINs.  As a result, they could now be easily converted to cash (see “Gift card PINs“).  Since there are many ways to buy gift cards to earn cash back or extra credit card rewards, buying gift cards suddenly became a very good deal.  In my recent post “The Bluebird Metric,” I wrote:

I don’t know how long it will last, but as of the time of this writing it is possible to manufacture credit card spend for free [...] Sometimes you can even make a profit while collecting points this way.

I suspected that things would soon change because buying gift cards had become too good of a deal. 

Back to the question

Did I kill these deals?  Did my publicity of the opportunities catch the eye of people who run Amex gift cards and/or GiftCardMall?  Or, more likely, did the sudden traffic to their sites cause them to panic and make quick changes?  Or, was it a coincidence?  Were changes in the market already putting pressure on these companies to change, and so they did?

What do you think?  Please comment below, but please keep your comments civil!  For some reason debates like these tend to devolve into name calling.  I’d rather not censor comments, but I will delete profanity and attacks on individuals.

Note that, regardless of the debate, I will continue to publish publicly available deals like these as they are discovered.  I have always held some back, though, and I’ll continue to do so:  Sometimes there is an opportunity that is too limited to make public.  For example, if the deal requires buying something for which there is a very limited quantity, publishing it would only lead to frustration once people discover that they can’t get it.  Another type of deal that I always hold back are the ones that cross my ethical line (see “Drawing the line“).  I also try to avoid publishing deals that would be likely to put companies out of business (luckily these don’t come around very often).

I didn’t start this blog with the intent of earning money.  I started it (and continue it) because I love the game of travel hacking.  I love finding deals and maximizing opportunities.  And, I love learning new tricks from readers who comment or email.  So, earning money is not the reason I write this blog, but I do earn money and that allows me to keep going.  The ongoing struggle I have is in trying to avoid having the money-earning aspect of the blog influence my writing.  I believe that I’ve largely succeeded with this, but I can (and will) do more…

Since I began blogging as Frequent Miler in 2011, I’ve earned money from the blog in three ways: ads, affiliate links, and referral links.  In order to (try to) stay impartial, I don’t include affiliate links in my daily blog posts, but I do often include referral links.  Recently, a reader took me to task for this and argued that affiliate links and referral links are basically the same thing.  I agree.  From now on, you won’t see either type of link in my daily blog posts.

Ads

As a blogger on BoardingArea, ads are unavoidable.  BoardingArea sets up each blog template with space for ads and they negotiate ad rates with advertisers.  When people view my site, the advertisers pay BoardingArea a tiny amount for each view, and then BoardingArea pays me a percentage.  The good thing is that I have no idea which ads are being served up at any given time, so I can confidently state that ads do not influence my writing one way or another.

Affiliate Links

Through an affiliate network, I get links to credit cards and other products which I can display on my blog.  When people click through those links and sign up for cards or buy products, I get paid by the affiliate network.  Beginning December 27th 2011, I stopped putting affiliate links in any blog posts (see “The Referral Backpedal“).  I had tried putting links in posts before then (e.g. “if you sign up now for the Sapphire Preferred card you can earn XXX,000 points!”), but it felt wrong.  I like writing blog posts, but I don’t like writing advertisement pitches.  And, frankly, I don’t like reading them either.  So, instead, I created a few permanent pages on my blog to host affiliate links.  If people want to reward me by using my links, they can find them as follows:

1. Best credit card offers: This page can be found under the “Credit Cards” menu on my site.  It lists all of the offers that I think are worth considering to earn great sign-up bonuses.  I always list the best offer I can find even when it means that I use a public offer instead of my affiliate link.  At the time of this writing, less than half of the listed credit cards are affiliate links.
2. Preparing for Miles: This page lists the credit cards that are best for day to day spend regardless of the quality of the sign up offer.  This page can be found as its own link on my site’s menu bar.  As with the Best credit card offers page, I try to list the best offers available regardless of whether I get paid for them.
3. Credit Cards: To get to this page, click the top of the menu labeled “Credit Cards” on my site.  A table on this page lists all credit cards for which I have affiliate links.  This is an unedited list, so please use your own judgment as to whether the offers are good or not.

Referral Links

Referral links are similar to affiliate links, but usually they are intended to attract new customers to sign up (for something) for free.  Most referral links are available to anyone who wants to invite friends and colleagues to signup for some kind of loyalty program or service.  For example, most cash back portals offer a way to earn $5 or $10 by inviting a friend to sign up and use the cash back service.  Beginning today, I will no longer include referral links in my posts.  Instead, my referral links page can be found on my blog under the menu titled “Resources“.  Or, just follow this link: Sign-Up Links.  The page is currently a work in progress.  I’ll add more links over time.

Last weekend, I published a Club Carlson contest where I asked people “If you had the new Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card, how would you use the bonus points and bonus award nights?”  See “Club Carlson Prizes!“

I’ve found it interesting when reading the entries to see how many people have similar goals or aspirations as each other.  Specifically, Paris and Chicago stood out to me as being extremely popular choices.  If I had to guess, I would have said that 60 or 70 percent of the responses were for Paris or Chicago.  I would have been wrong.

I took the data from about noon yesterday and charted it.  As you can see below, Paris and Chicago were both very popular but with only 18% and 9% of the vote, respectively.  In other words, my estimate was way off.  Other very popular destinations include St. Martin (10%), Fiji (9%), and London (6%).

With this contest, I’ll pick two winners who will each get:

1. A full year of Club Carlson Gold Status, and
2. A $500 Visa gift card

To read full details about the contest and to enter, please go to the original post here: Club Carlson Prizes!  No entries will be accepted after 11:59 PM EDT today (Friday April 5th). 

Note: I’m on vacation this week, so please forgive me in advance for not answering comments.

$500 and elite status could be yours… 

If you read Frequent Miler often, then you know that I’m a big fan of Club Carlson’s new credit cards (see “Club Carlson rocks our world… Again” and “Earn 70 points per dollar at Club Carlson hotels“).  As a result, I was contacted by Club Carlson’s PR firm and asked if I would post a Club Carlson give-away on my blog.  The give-away is designed to celebrate the launch of the new Club Carlson^SM Premier Rewards Visa Signature^® card.  The prizes looked pretty sweet to me, so heck yeah!

Disclosure: At the time that I agreed to host this contest I was not aware of any compensation that I would receive.  Since then, though, I learned that I would receive two free nights at any Radisson property in North America.  This has not affected my decision to host this give away, but it is a nice bonus!

Here’s what you can win…

Two people will be selected to win the following:

1. A full year of Club Carlson Gold Status, and
2. A $500 Visa gift card

In the event that the winner is already a Club Carlson Gold Status
member, the winner will be given Club Carlson Concierge status for one full year, dependent upon verification from Club Carlson.

I bolded the part about Gold members getting Concierge status because I think that’s pretty special.  While it is easy to get Gold status through a status match or by signing up for their credit card, top-tier Concierge status is much harder to come by (it usually requires 75 nights per year or 30 separate stays).  With Concierge status, you get a 3000 point online booking bonus (vs. 2000 points for Silver and Gold members), 75% bonus on base points earned, and free continental breakfast.

How to win

To enter the contest, you must do the following by April 5th 2013 (Friday):

1. Write a comment below answering this question: If you had the new Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card, how would you use the bonus points and bonus award nights? 

Only one submission per person is allowed.  I reserve the right to disqualify comments that are rude or vulgar. 

I will pick two winners at random from all qualified submissions.

Note: In order to accept the full year of Club Carlson Gold Status and a $500 Visa gift card, the individual winner must sign up to be a Club Carlson member, which they can do here. 

U.S. Bank and Carlson Inc. and their respective affiliates are not liable for any part of this contest.

Follow along on Facebook

Since the comments on this page are intended to be contest entries, please visit the Frequent Miler Facebook page to ask questions or discuss this contest in general. 

On Saturday, April 6, I’ll announce the two winners on my Facebook page here.  While you’re there, please take a second to click the “Like” button!

About Club Carlson’s Visa cards

In addition to reading my take on their new cards (“Club Carlson rocks our world… Again“), you can see details at Club Carlson’s website here.  Or, just check out this graphic:

Where to go?

If you’d like some suggestions of aspirational properties to visit once you rack up points, here are some ideas (courtesy of Club Carlson):

Radisson Blu 1835 Hotel and Thalasso, Cannes:

Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton, Johannesburg:

Radisson Blu Resort Fiji Denarau Island:

Radisson Blu Resort, Marina & Spa, St. Martin Pool:

Quick update: In the recent post “Gift Card Churning Deals” I said that TopCashBack would offer 2% back for American Express Gift Cards bought today (March 12th).  It turns out that they are experiencing technical difficulties with Amex.  As a result, the promotion has been delayed.  I’ll report back once the issue is resolved and a new date has been set.

Kiva is a nonprofit organization that facilitates micro-loans to enterprising individuals around the world so that they may earn their own way out of poverty.  By making loans through the Kiva website, you can be part of the solution to poverty AND earn points and miles (because you can use your credit card to finance loans).

Two years ago, the Kiva Lending Team started up on Milepoint and quickly began breaking records left and right.  Despite our relatively small size, we are ranked 2nd among all Kiva teams in terms of amount loaned! 

You can help us celebrate our 2nd anniversary by joining the Milepoint team and making a loan on our anniversary date: Tuesday Feb 12.  The team captains have pledged to match every loan up to $17,500 made on this day.

Since we have members all around the world, we will use a Milepoint Kiva Day – starting at midnight Feb 12th Samoa time; ending at Feb 12th 11:59 p.m. Hawaii time. Regardless of your time zone, make a loan on Feb 12th and the Milepoint Kiva Captains will match these loans up to $17,500 in new money.

If you’re interested in joining us, click here to join the Milepoint team on Kiva, and make a loan on Feb 12!

Related Posts

• How to maximize points and virtue through Kiva loans
• Join the alliance!
• Minimum spend requirements? Kivalens to the rescue

Join me as I travel in style to Bangkok and back.

By the time I realized I had made the wrong decision, it was too late.  All I could then do was pray for my life, and if I lived, pray that my wife didn’t kill me when I returned home…

Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons

The evening began simply enough.  My mom, who is also in Bangkok right now but not at my hotel, emailed to tell me where we were meeting for dinner.  I plugged the name of the restaurant into Google Maps and identified the closest SkyTrain stop.  About half an hour before the scheduled meet up, I headed out. 

I made it to the SkyTrain stop without any trouble, and walked the rest of the way.  The walk seemed longer than I had expected, but I still made it in time.  I told the restaurant host that I was there to meet others.  “Thai?” He asked.  “American,” I said.  He nodded definitively and led me through the restaurant.

He took me to an American family that I didn’t recognize.  I’m sure they were perfectly nice, and probably would have made excellent dining companions, but I told the host that they were the wrong group.  That was, arguably, my first bad decision.

It turned out that there were multiple restaurants with this same name in Bangkok.  I was at the wrong one.  I asked the host what was the best way to get to the right one.  The SkyTrain would work, but it would require a lot of walking, backtracking, and a train change.  He told me that a taxi would take about an hour because of Bangkok’s impenetrable traffic.   He suggested that a motorbike would be the fastest option.

I walked out of the restaurant undecided about what to do.  I started in the general direction of the SkyTrain, but directly across the street was a line of motorbikes looking for passengers.  I decided to give it a shot.

Moments later, I was on the back of a motorbike, flying towards the intended restaurant.  The reason motorbikes go faster than taxis or tuk-tuks in traffic is that they can ride with ease between the cars, trucks, and tuk-tuks.  I knew that, of course.  What I didn’t know was how fast these motorbikes could go.  We flew down one road after another, between cars and trucks at what seemed to me to be highway speeds.  I was terrified!  Here is roughly what went through my mind:

-What the f#&%!!! was I thinking?!!!!

-The driver has survived many rides through the city so far (I assume), so I should be OK, right?  No!  He’s wearing a helmet!  I’m not!  Crap!

-Should I ask him to stop?  I can get a taxi.  Do I dare distract him at all?  No!!!

-I wonder what Thai hospitals are like.  I hope I don’t find out…

-My wife’s going to kill me.  Please God, get me through this so that my wife can kill me at home!

-What the f#&%!!! was I thinking?!!!!

In what seemed like hours, but was probably more like 10 minutes, we made it to the intended restaurant.  I was pale, shaking like a leaf, but unharmed.  I entered the restaurant and told the host I was there to meet others.  He showed me to a table full of people I didn’t recognize…