Reader Ted points me to a special one-day offer of 75,000 Amex points after $10,000 in spend within four months for a new Business Gold Rewards Card.

To be eligible to receive the bonus points, you must (1) apply for the new Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN using Bonus ID A2AA prior to termination of this offer, but in no event later than February 29, 2012, and (2) charge $10,000 of eligible purchases on the Business Gold Rewards Card in the first 120 days of Card membership. The bonus points will be credited to your Membership Rewards® account 6-8 weeks after you have met the purchase requirement. Offer limited to 75,000 bonus points per Card account. Existing American Express OPEN Gold Card members are not eligible for this offer

$10,000 upfront spend isn’t insignificant of course, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is significant. I got my own Business Gold Rewards card when they were offering a 50,000 point bonus, and I jumped at that.

If you choose to apply, I would print the offer page, because others have noted occasional difficulty getting Amex to post signup bonus points. My 50,000 point bonus didn’t post, I secure messaged them through the cardmember website and they posted the points without argument (or proof – they saw the relevant bonus code on the account).

The card has no fee the first year, it’s $175 thereafter (so only heavy users will want to keep it), and offers triple points on airfare, and double points on advertising, gas, and shipping.

Personally I’d get the card for the signup bonus if in a position to meet the minimum spend, then use it only for bonusable spend categories, and only if I’m a massively heavy user of shipping and advertising would I likely keep it — for triple miles on airfare I’d then switch to a personal American Express Premier Rewards Gold card or the all-purpose all-around favorite best rewards card the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

(Note that I do not receive any referral credits of any sort for the 75,000 Amex Business Gold Rewards offer, I do however get credit for the Premier Rewards Gold and Chase Sapphire cards linked to in this post.)

Loyalty Traveler reports that Marriott Rewards is making its annual adjustment to reward categories (which hotels cost how many points) — new rates go into effect March 15 — 100 hotels are going down a category and 526 are going up a category.

Marriott is the chain whose economics I’m least familiar with, several years ago it was explained to me that hotels are compensated based on the number of redemptions made during the year — the more redemptions, the more they were paid per redemption. This was how Marriott incentivized hotels to make more rooms available as awards.

I hadn’t paid much attention, and since that time Marriott has changed policies to more closely match its competitors and make award rooms available on points more or less whenever those rooms are available for cash. And I hadn’t thus learned whether their compensation model changed along with it.

You can download a .pdf file with all of the hotel-by-hotel changes.

One interesting tidbit from the document suggests that the hotel compensation model may not have fundamentally changed:

Marriott Rewards has 8 hotel categories which are determined by prior
year redemption volume at each hotel and are not determined by brand, rate, amenities, location, or services offered.

You can also download a .pdf of the full list of hotels by category for 2012 that will be in effect from March 15 onward.

I certainly don’t like to see so many more hotels going up in price than going down, but at least it’s only ~ 15% of properties that are getting more expensive.

Reader Seth is another fan of the United Explorer card and wants to talk through whether it makes sense to cancel his Chase Sapphire Preferred card in favor of keeping United in his wallet.

I have a quick question about Sapphire and Ultimate Rewards….while the card is great, I don’t really want to pay a $95 fee for year 2 (since I already got the 50K signup and am now putting the majority of my spending on my new Explorer card to get another 10K bonus). Has anybody been able to get the Sapphire fee waved? What happens to your Ultimate Rewards points if you cancel your Sapphire card? Do you need to transfer them before cancelling your card? Is it still possible to shop at the Ultimate Rewards mall if you cancel your Sapphire card? Will Chase Explorer or other non-Chase cards work there?

I like the United Explorer card. It offers last seat availability when redeeming standard (double miles) awards, and elite members of MileagePlus with the card are eligible for upgrades on domestic coach award tickets. The card also comes with primary collision damage waiver coverage when renting cars, a benefit I love with my Diners Club card.

But I still wouldn’t choose this card over the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Seriously consider keeping that one on the merits of its benefits and points-earning alone.

• For new cardmembers, the 40,000 point signup bonus is great (no fee the first year, as noted)
  
• Double points on all travel and restaurant spend
  
• 7% bonus on all points earned
  
• Access to the Ultimate Rewards mall, which is often the most lucrative mileage-earning shopping portal
  
• No foreign currency transaction fees.

United Explorer doesn’t match the earning bonus or the no foreign currency transaction fees. If you travel abroad you save 3% on all purchases made outside the U.S. with Sapphire Preferred.

Your travel and dining spend earns 2.14 points per dollar. All other spend earns 1.07 points. That 7% bonus even applies to the signup bonus. It’s a really attractive card, and in most cases it’s a better card even for earning United miles than the United Explorer card is.

Of course points transfer to United – in fact to anyone’s United account that you wish – but they also transfer to British Airways, Korean Airlines, Southwest, Amtrak, Hyatt, Marriott, and Priority Club. I’d suggest keeping and using the card.

But let’s run through your scenarios in case you do decide to cancel anyway.

Sapphire Preferred is too new a product for there to be a lot of experience with retention bonuses and fee waivers. Chase isn’t generally as aggressive as Citibank with offering statement credits to get you to keep the card. But I would imagine that they treat it the same as their other cards in this regard. I’d love to hear any reader data points. Chase certainly has offered statement credits to keep Continental Onepass Plus cards, they might give a straight $100 statement credit which would cover the $95 fee and then some. They may well be willing to do that for your Sapphire Preferred card. But you’re at the vanguard of the subject, both because not too many people have had the card long enough to be approaching their annual fee and also because it’s such a good card that few likely want to cancel!

This isn’t the only card that earns Ultimate Rewards points, but it and Ink Bold are the only cards whose Ultimate Rewards points aren’t hobbled, if you earn through the Chase Freedom card you won’t be able to transfer to airline and hotel programs for instance (unless you earn via Chase Freedom but also have a Sapphire Preferred…).

So if you are going to cancel you do need to transfer the points out of your account or otherwise redeem them in order to get full value out of them, you won’t be able to keep an unhobbled Ultimate Rewards account balance after having cancelled the card.

Nor will you be able to earn unhobbled Ultimate Rewards points through the Ultimate Rewards mall without a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold small business card.

Again, consider keeping this card and think seriously whether you want that Explorer card as well or not.

Got any more questions? Fire away!

(Do know that links to credit card applications in this post will provide me with a referral credit if you are approved. There’s no obligation to use my links for these cards, but I appreciate it if you do.)

Here’s the link to open a new account at the Platinum level, it says the offer is valid through May 31 but my guess is they will close it earlier.

The offer says it’s intended for Citi Premier Miles World Mastercard holders in the United Arab Emirates. However, as with past offers, this will likely work for anyone.

Here’s how I described a similar offer back in October:

Platinum status generally requires 60 nights (or 25,000 points earned) and comes with a 100% points bonus and then at Sofitel, Pullman, and MGallery hotels: room upgrades that the rules say you specifically have to ask for, 4pm late checkout, guaranteed availability, and a welcome drink and gift.

I’ve always found it odd that A|Club elite status doesn’t get you recognition at Novotel properties, but still being Platinum which is their top tier is certainly better than a hole in the head as my grandfather used to say — especially when the status is instant and free.

Via Jared Blank:

Virgin America is offering a coupon for 20% off a flight Between April 11 and June 13. Here’s how you get the Virgin America promo code sent to you:

1) Go to this page

2) Fill out the short form

3) Get promo code in your email

4) Book your trip

Offer is good until February 29 or until they’ve sent 35,000 codes.

The new Mileage Plus program doesn’t start until the beginning of March, I’ve ranted on this before, but the thing I like least about it (beyond taking economy plus-at-booking away from first-tier elites) is that upgrade priority now factors in how you’re paying for the upgrade even ahead of elite status.

In other words, a general member burning miles they earned from their United Visa trumps a 1K. I’m expecting that to be the death knell for 1K complimentary upgrades on smaller planes during peak business travel times.

But is the new algorithm already in effect? Here’s a battlefield report that makes me think that it is — a 1K and a non-status member are on the same reservation. They don’t clear in advance, though their upgrades had been supported by confirmed regionals. At the gate the 1K is number one on the list (1K on a discounted fare but ‘paying’ for their upgrade rather than waiting for it for free). The non-status member is #14, The upgrade list was over 40 people long.

Historically the United method has been that at the airport everyone is on their own status. A non-status member would have been at the very bottom of the pack. But this non-status member, whose upgrade was being supported by a 1K’s confirmed regional, was in the top third.

Since the changes to the Mileage Plus program have been announced I’ve paid less and less attention to it, and more and more time spent learning AAdvantage and also poking around US Airways Dividend Miles (I live about 10 minutes from Washington’s National Airport where US Airways is the dominant carrier, and they’ve added first class to plenty of their regional airports, there’s a certain attraction to the program now). So I admit I have not tracked the progress of changes to upgrade priority in Mileage Plus as closely as I normally would have. Is the new upgrade priority in effect, and driving this example? Or is something else going on here, like higher priority for companions at the airport than in the past, i.e. 1K companions fall below 1Ks but about Premier Executive 75Ks on the airport list? If that were the case, it would be another change from how upgrades worked at pre-merger United as well.

JonNYC at TravelingBetter.com posted that effective March 1, American AAdvantage will begin adding (modest) fuel surcharges to awards booked on their oneworld partner Iberia.

The YQ fuel surcharge amount is based on the market and varies from 7.50 Euros up to 30 Euros.

Fuel surcharges are often $400+ so the amounts here aren’t bad, but it is a worry to see a US airline mileage program extending the practice of hitting members with fuel surcharges on ‘free’ frequent flyer award tickets.

Two weeks ago I wrote an extensive explanation of fuel surcharges added to award tickets. Basically, programs outside of North America have charged them for awhile (though SAS EuroBonus actually stopped the practice a couple of years ago). Aeroplan was charging them only on Air Canada flights until a few months back, and now charges them on most partners. But for the most part US airlines have stayed out of the business of making ‘free’ award tickets anything but free, at the point they add $400 or more onto the cost of a redemption.

The exceptions to this, where US programs have hit members with fuel surcharges, have been the aforementioned American AAdvantage with British Airways awards — priori to the introduction of the American/Iberia/British Airways Joint Business Venture, American didn’t offer British Airways flights from the US to London, but they also didn’t add fuel surcharges. You could book from, say, Canada or the Caribbean to the U.K. and from the U.K. anywhere else the world — just not from the U.S. You could fly transatlantic to London and on to Africa, no fuel surcharges. Now an all-BA award can run you upwards of $1000 per person, even using miles.

But the practice was limited to British Airways awards, until the new news about Iberia. British Airways award availability in premium cabins is so good that I’m even willing to pay the freight, from many US gateways getting award seats is really quite easy. And the Iberia amounts are small. So the worry here is about growth in the practice, not about anything that has been announced so far.

Delta has added fuel surcharges for awhile to many awards originating in Europe, and also to redemptions with specific partners (mostly Asian carriers) and more recently to V Australia (presumably because their award availability was ‘too good’ it was costing Skymiles real money).

The truth is that fuel has little or nothing to do with it, it’s a hidden tax on a captive market but airlines may see immediate revenue from folks redeeming accumulated miles, those members are shocked at the costs and sour on the program at redemption time which is usually the moment when loyalty is most reinforced. It’s a long-term dangerous strategy that may backfire on programs, though presumably the bet is that as more and more airlines add these fees that as long as a new equilibrium is reached where all carriers do it’ll make no difference to loyalty (or if members don’t know about or understand the differences they won’t know where to go).

United doesn’t hit their members with fuel surcharges. Neither does US Airways, their international redemption surcharges are minor as well. Alaska adds fuel surcharges to awards on British Airways only.

I still like American miles best for first class awards, but this strikes me as a dangerous precedent — for American, and that other U.S. carriers could expand in this space as well.

The Wall Steeet Journal is reporting that an investment group may acquire the assets of Mexicana, which ceased operations in August 2010, and bring the airline back to life.

Apparently $300 million is what it’ll take to get the airline back in the skies, with an initial handful of planes and a target launch date of April (good luck with that…) and plans to have over 40 aircraft flying by the end of the year.

This all strikes me as quite speculative at this point, there’s not yet agreement on a write down of previous debt and claims that the airline “has the pilots, flight attendants and ground staff ready to start working” strike me as implausible (not to mention that it could secure gates and slots in two months’ time).

However the idea that Mexicana could eventually return is certainly within the realm of possibility. The airline is still listed as a member of oneworld (for that matter, so is defunct carrier Malev). That linkage alone, if retained, has real value going forward.

My big question, of course, is would I get my Frecuenta miles back?

I’ve been loving American Airlines as a customer since doing their Executive Platinum challenge as part of the oneworld MegaDO. American’s 100,000 mile flyers are truly top tier, in contrast to at United where it’s just mid-tier and the real top elite level is Global Services. American’s top elites clear their upgrades, their international confirmed upgrade instruments are valid from any fare, and the lounges are nicer (albeit with less free food). And onboard wireless internet has changed my life.

American miles are also currently my favorite mileage currency, since my own goal is international first class awards — Star Alliance first class awards have gotten really tough, especially for a North American-based flyer who doesn’t want to fly United‘s first class. While first class awards with American miles are quite doable — Etihad (and I’m excited they’ll be adding Washington DC service next year), Cathay Pacific, British Airways (albeit with fuel surcharges), and even the occasional Qantas A380 seat. And of course American’s award availability to South America in first class is excellent, even if the first class product itself is dated.

American may be improving its product and making real investments geared towards the premium traveler. But there’s one area where it seems to me that they’re really kicking their customers in the shins.

Award Wallet. And of course other services that help you track your miles and points, as well.

American sent legal nastygrams to the online services that help their members track their miles and points, saying that those services were not permitted to access their site on behalf of others and could not store member passwords.

American claims that security was a major issue, they weren’t ok with a third party site storing member passwords and having access to those passwords to access member accounts. Of course, they continued to let Points.com do exactly that. American said they were confident in Points.com’s security, but of course Award Wallet is also a Points.com partner, and that partnership didn’t raise security flags for American… The story didn’t hold together for me.

Award Wallet developed a browser plug-in so that their website and servers would never have to contact American’s. Members entered their own passwords into their browser, and their own browser accessed American’s website to check member account information. The information was all stored on the member’s computer, and not passed through to Award Wallet’s servers. That seemed like it would be the end of the objection — no more sharing passwords with a third party, no more third party access of American’s website, their stated concerns would appear to have been met.

Unless the stated concerns weren’t the real concerns, I’ve imagined it was more about control over the product and customer experience than about security. If American’s members don’t go to American’s website, then American’s members can’t be sold ancillary products and services and can’t otherwise be marketed to through that channel. And American likely believes Award Wallet means fewer eyeballs for them.

Award Wallet now reports that due to American’s objections, they’re having to withdraw the browser plugin. Here’s the Award Wallet announcement:

We regret to inform you that we will be discontinuing support for the AwardWallet browser extension on February 25, 2012. This means that you will no longer be able to track your American Airlines related information (balance, status, etc.) on AwardWallet.com.

 We have been forced to take this action by American Airlines’ stance toward AwardWallet. We created the browser extension in order to address American Airlines’ concern that AwardWallet was collecting customers’ mileage data. We believe the extension addressed this concern because it simply collected your mileage data and stored it locally on your computer. American Airlines, however, objects to the extension. It’s position appears to be that AwardWallet is prohibited from providing any software tool that facilitates the ability to track the customer’s American Airlines’ mileage information. We think this is unfortunate.

I reached out to American, and their spokesperson got back to me within the hour. I wanted to know from their perspective why they were doing this, and if they thought there was a benefit to their customers. They described their position as upholding American’s

…long-held stance on how third-party websites access proprietary AAdvantage member details… Because travelers’ AAdvantage account numbers and passwords can be used to claim AAdvantage mileage awards out of their accounts and access personal details, American will always protect this information.

We simply cannot permit websites that have not satisfied our security requirements the access needed to track AAdvantage balances or any other function that is otherwise secured behind AA.com login credentials.

I did seek more information on exactly why Award Wallet’s browser plug-in wasn’t acceptable, but didn’t get very far with that line of questioning.

Nevertheless, American did say that they’re “in the process of qualifying a number of other mileage tracker websites.”

Now, if true it could well prove that they really do have security concerns. And that my sense that their stance is anti-customer is wrong.

Time will tell, because they wouldn’t say which websites or offer any sort of timeline for members to be able to use third party sites other than Points.com (which I do not find to in any way be a reasonable substitute for Award Wallet).

By shutting down website access to AAdvantage accounts that their members want to use pits the airline at war not with Award Wallet but with their own customers. Award Wallet actually helps to engage customers and reinforce the value of AAdvantage miles.

Members use Award Wallet and track their miles obsessively, they watch their balances grow and identify small changes in their account balances which allows them to follow up on missing points. I know that Award Wallet draws me to the AAdvantage website fare more often than I would otherwise go — every time there’s a change in my balance I log in to see the details. Each and every transaction is more valuable with AAdvantage when it’s easily tracked.

And AwardWallet keeps members engaged, MommyPoints observes that this is especially tough for families but AwardWallet lets you track multiple accounts on a single page and since its premium membership (a whopping $5 every 6 months) also displays expiration dates right next to account balances it helps prevent customers from falling away from the program.

Ultimately any product or service that makes it easier for customers to be customers is a good thing for both sides. Making your customers’ lives more difficult, making it harder for them to engage with you, raising the transaction costs of being an engaged member cannot be a long-term profit-maximizing strategy.

In fact, mileage programs that you can conveniently track in one place, whose expiration dates are easy to see there, and where balance changes are seen on a simple basis become that much more valuable. The easier a program is to engage with, in the way that you want to engage with them, the more valuable their currency and better the relationship you have with them. Award Wallet is a relationship tool that enhances the loyalty between program and member.

If indeed they’re “in the process of qualifying a number of other mileage tracker websites” then they’d better hurry up. And I’d hope that they would be open to ‘qualifying’ the ones that consumers actually find most useful.

Via NotiFlyer, Virgin Atlantic is running a “two for one sale” on economy award redemptions (must be logged into your account to access the details).

The offer is valid for travel through May 31, 2012, although their Vancouver route will allow discounted redemptions through October 27 and Cancun through July 3.

Sample prices: JFK-London is available for 29,500 miles roundtrip, San Francisco-London is available for 47,500 miles roundtrip.

The rub? Virgin adds fuel surcharges onto the cost of awards, which means that you’ll pay over $500 in cash as part of the redemption.

That’s why it’s almost never worthwhile redeeming economy award tickets with mileage programs that hit their members with fuel surcharges. You still wind up paying much of the cost of a paid ticket, while spending miles rather than earning them. You don’t get all that much for the miles. (A couple of weeks ago I explained fuel surcharges on award tickets in some detail.)

An award sale like this at least improves the math, if not making it worthwhile from my own perspective. I’d still save up miles for a business class award, Virgin’s product is quite nice (at least seat and lounges, if not food). And then it doesn’t feel quite as rough paying $500+ in cash for your “free” seat.

Frequent Traveler University details have been announced, the event will be held at the Sheraton Meadowlands on Saturday, April 28 and Sunday April 29.

It’s the conclusion of a days’ long Frequent Flyer Extravaganza — there’s an industry conference on loyalty taking place on the Wednesday and Thursday, Thursday evening April 26th is the return of the Freddie Awards honoring the best in frequent flyer programs as voted by the members themselves. Friday will be the return of the Randy Petersen Executive Travel Summit. And it all concludes with a two-day learning event for frequent flyers.

Mommy Points has done a nice job summarizing the event.

Complimentary cocktail party on Friday night sponsored by milepoint.com

On Saturday you will be able to learn from the best in the biz from exclusive speakers you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, including the miles guru himself, Randy Petersen and popular blogger Gary Leff (View From the Wing)! You’ll also meet the credit card guru and super blogger The Points Guy Brian Kelly.

On Sunday, interact with the largest frequent flyer and hotel programs in the world, including Mileage Plus, AAdvantage, SPG and Hyatt Gold Passport.

The introduction of the best credit card learning program “Credit Card Lions Den”. The credit card programs will present their most popular cards in front of everyone, then watch the worlds biggest experts on travel credit cards bloggers critique the credit cards and make the right recommendation for you! On the panel you will find Brian Kelly (The Points Guy) Gary Leff (View From the Wing) and Randy Petersen.

Complimentary, exclusive access to the 23rd Freddie Awards on April 26th will be raffled off for those attending. That’s right! 15 spots to this years prestigious awards will be drawn on March 1st, the only thing you have to do, is sign up for the FT University before this day. The Freddie Awards are not open to the public, this will be one of very few chances to get access!

Tickets are available for purchase, the $99 cost includes lunhes on both Saturday and Sunday. Capacity of capped at 250 people due to space constraints.

The room block at the Sheraton Meadowlands is also now bookable. The $129 room rate is cancellable / not pre-paid.

Discussion of the event on Milepoint can be found here.

According to Calculated Risk, while hotel revenue per available room and occupancy rates are trending above 2011 levels so far this year, and are of course higher than when the bottom dropped out in 2009, they are still below their median level for the 2000 – 2007 period.

That’s worth remembering when hotel chains like Starwood Preferred Guest which say they’re explicitly tying hotel categories to room rates bump up their redemption categories. I would argue that members haven’t fully shared in the effects of the Great Recession — lower room rates should mean lower redemption prices than during the 2000 – 2007 period, not just slowed growth in the increase in points necessary to redeem for rooms.

I’m tilting at windmills here, but it’s a useful perspective to keep in mind, the more we shout from the rooftops, at least programs might be hesitant to slowly inflate away the value of our points.

Back during the period of time when room rates were higher than they are now, Starwood Preferred Guest didn’t even have a category 7. And it’s true their bottom line was under pressure at the height of the boom times, because of the structure of their program — full hotels meant that SPG was paying the hotel’s average daily room rate for redemption rooms instead of its discounted rate. But when hotel occupancy dropped (and industry-wide it remains depressed), we didn’t see a suspension of category 7…

I don’t mean to single SPG out here, they’ve just been the most transparent about their category assignment formula, the overall point remains one that’s worth emphasizing with all programs — with room rates below the 2000 – 2007 period, why are redemption rates on the rise?

After having a few hundred dollars of credits ‘removed’ from my Jetsetter.com account, and being given he runaround by customer service — being told I had violated their terms and conditions, but being refused requests to tell me how, and then being told that using referral links that they had given me at all were seemingly in and of themselves a violation of their terms and conditions — I shared the ludicrous story of their customer service responses here on this blog.

The post generated over 100 comments, it also was posted on Jetsetter’s Facebook wall and tweeted and re-tweeted. Lucky picked up on it as well.

Within hours of my posting, I finally heard from a ‘real’ person at Jetsetter (from a non-generic email address with a person’s name attached).

I was unfortunately in meetings all day, and was not able to respond in a timely manner.
I understand you’re frustrated regarding your referral credits. I am happy to explain the referral program, terms of service, and how to properly utilize the channel for perks as a valued member of Jetsetter.com.

Please provide me with a phone number, and a time most convenient to contact you. I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow.

I had gotten their attention. And they commented on this blog as well.

Hey Gary –

We hear you and first and foremost would like to apologize that you’ve had a bad experience. We are continuing to investigating your case to honor any credits that are duly owed to you. We just want to make sure and clear up any misunderstanding and do what we can to do right by you.

Jetsetter experienced a lot fraudulent activity during the Groundlink sale. As a result, we were forced to delete several accounts deemed fraudulent, as well as their respective credits. Upon further investigation, we are restoring your credit that complies with our terms and conditions. While we know you did not knowingly commit any fraud, your invitation link was used in several confirmed cases of fraud. Jetsetter has always honored referral credits and we will continue to do so. We will not however, honor credit received through fraudulent practices.

We value your business and are doing as much as we can to make things right. We always appreciate your feedback (positive or negative) and of course, we apologize.

I’ve tried to make clear to Jetsetter that I don’t especially care about my own referral credits. That I’m not mollified by their returning my credits (squeaky wheel gets the grease so shut me up). That if they want to demonstrate contrition and learning, they need to make things right with everyone that they took referral credits to without explanation and with stonewalling responses through their customer service channels.

I asked if I could provide the email address of the ‘real’ person who contacted me to the folks that have commented on the previous thread that they’ve had similar experiences with credits seemingly illegitimately taken away. I haven’t heard back on that request.

Now, the claim that people using my links were engaged in fraud so they took away the credits doesn’t quite ring true. Here’s the relevant snippet from their comment: “While we know you did not knowingly commit any fraud, your invitation link was used in several confirmed cases of fraud.”

If someone was committing fraud they were presumably signing up multiple accounts for the $25 first purchase bonus. But they wouldn’t have been using my referral link if they were doing that, they’d be using their own so that they would also get the $25 credit for successfully referring someone.

Still, I have no way to know who did what with their accounts, no matter how far fetched it seems, I cannot disprove their claim and they’re not likely to give me access to those sorts of details on the individual accounts referred through my link.

And of course they deleted all of the credits earned at the time of the Groundlink offer, were they seriously claiming that everyone who used my link was doing so fraudulently?

Further, what about the claim they made to me that any use of a referral link was impermissable under their terms and conditions? (Presumably only under the updated terms and conditions from January 28 which weren’t in effect at the time?).

Well, they haven’t given me a commitment to restore everyone’s credits. Or to allow me to give out the email address of the ‘real person’ that has been in touch. But my modest $275 in referral credits have been restored.

And I can only imagine what their office was like during this social media kerfuffle, as it prompted a blog post under the name of their CEO.

Unfortunately, there are people who game the system by creating multiple email accounts in order to gain fraudulent credits. In regards to the Groundlink sale, people created multiple accounts in order to purchase multiple vouchers which violated the sale’s terms and conditions limiting the vouchers to one per member.

When we see suspicious activity with a single individual creating multiple accounts, we deactivate these accounts and any associated referral credits. In cases when one link is abused many times, the irregular activity can negatively affect referral credits, and account status of honorable members. Upon further investigation, it seems we were overzealous in our effort to ferret out abuse and deactivated some legitimate accounts and deleted legitimate credits. We regret deactivating suspicious accounts without a more thorough investigation and without communication.

We are investigating every complaint on a case-by-case basis and have already reinstated credit to several legitimate accounts. If your account or credits have been deleted in error, we apologize. Please contact support@jetsetter.com and we will investigate each case in a timely manner. You can also call 877-573-8872.

That does sound like acknowledgment of error and contrition, and a commitment to make things right — for those who contact them. Of course we’ll have to see whether or not they actually do. And it fails to acknowledge the heinous, silly, and illogical customer service responses to date.

My confidence is hardly restored in Jetsetter, but if they do in fact make it right — for everyone — and if future customer service examples do more than stonewall, they have the potential to restore confidence. Which I genuinely hope they do, because I’ve found some of their offers to be quite good, and for hotels that I would actually very much like to stay at.

Relevant Links

• American Express Premier Rewards Gold card
• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express
• American Express Platinum Card®
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card

The American Express Premier Rewards Gold card has upped its signup bonus from 15,000 Membership Rewards points to 25,000 (after $2000 in spend within 3 months), no fee the first year. That’ll be enough to get several folks off the fence and apply. If each point were worth 2 cents, that’s a $500 signup bonus for a no fee card. Truth is, American Express points are both hugely flexible for their ability to transfer to tons of different frequent flyer programs (to anyone’s account, in many cases instantly) although potentially annoying to some since many of their partners add fuel surcharges onto awards.

Amex offers frequent transfer bonuses, last year you could earn a rebate equivalent to a 67% bonus on transfers to Delta and a 50% bonus on transfers to British Airways for instance.

And the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card is the strongest-earning Membership Rewards card there is, double points on gas and groceries and triple points on airfare.

There’s no fee the first year, $175 thereafter, so whether the card is worth keeping after the first year depends on how much spending you do in their bonusable categories. Mine is significant enough, especially on airfare, that it makes sense. But at least grabbing it for the first year will be a boon to frequent travelers who buy their own airline tickets, and for folks with gas and grocery spend that’s more than de minimus.

I applied for the card back when there was only a 15,000 point signup bonus on offer, although perhaps I lucked out because when I hit my qualifying spend they actually gave me 25,000 points.

I use the Premier Rewards Gold for bonus-able spend only, there are two other American Express cards I carry.

• I have an American Express Platinum card not to put spending on but for the benefits, it’s a great way to get lounge access with American, Delta, US Airways, and via Priority Pass Select Alaska Airlines and a sleuth of international lounges. I reviewed the card extensively in January.
• I use the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express for spending that isn’t bonusable on other cards. It’s my generic go-to for most spend (non-travel, restaurant, gas, groceries). And it has been for better than a decade. Because the points are great for hotel stays and transfer to a huge variety of airlines, with a 5000 mile bonus for every 20,000 miles transferred. I reviewed the card extensively in December.

There are cards you get for the signup bonus (and put only the minimum spend required for that bonus). There are cards you get for the benefits like the Amex Platinum, you hang onto the card whether or not you put any spend on that card. And there are cards you get for your spending — in my case general spending on the Starwood American Express, airfare, gas and groceries on the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card, and finally the Chase Sapphire Preferred card which I use for:

• All merchants who don’t take American Express, since it’s a Visa
• All purchases outside the U.S. since there’s no foreign currency transaction fees
• All travel spend that isn’t bonused by the Amex Premier Rewards Gold and Starwood Amex, so hotel stays at other chains and outside the U.S. (even Starwood stays outside the U.S.) and cabs and trains, etc. Since the Sapphire Preferred earns double points on all travel spend.(Note: I do keep my Diners Club card for primary collision coverage on rental cars, so that doesn’t go on the Sapphire Preferred, it’s a benefit that few cards offer but oddly enough something that the United Explorer card< gets you.)
• All restaurant spend, since the Sapphire Preferred earns double points on all restaurant spend.

Points earned through the card transfer to United, the best use of those points in my opinion. They also transfer to British Airways, which offer cheap short-haul flights on partners like American Airlines, Alaska, and Qantas intra-Australia. They transfer to Korean Airlines (which as Lucky observes offers great first class award availability on the Airbus A380 to Seoul). They also transfer to Southwest, Hyatt (in my opinion, second best use of the points), Marriott, Priority Club, and Amtrak.

The card gets 40,000 points as a signup bonus after $3000 in spend within 3 months, and points transfer to whomever you wish. The card also earns a 7% annual bonus on all points earned, and gives access to the Ultimate Rewards mall which is often the most lucrative points-earning online shopping portal.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express, American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, and Chase Sapphire Preferred card combine to form the core of my credit card strategy for where I put my spending.

I carry a Platinum Amex, and for strategic purposes I currently have other cards as well like the Amex Hilton Surpass card ($40,000 in spend annually nets Diamond status), the Diners Club card (for rental cars), the Hyatt Visa (a bit superfluous given my Sapphire Preferred card but I keep it so I can trade the next time I want another Chase card), the American Airlines Visa (need to cancel that one and I’ll get it again eventually for the signup bonus), a Citi Thank You Points-earning card (which I got for the bonus and need to cancel), and the US Airways Mastercard (which I got for the signup bonus, am putting some more minimum spend on to earn a targeted bonus, and will keep through the annual Grand Slam bonus offer to earn one partner transaction before I cancel).

(Do know that links to credit card applications in this post will provide me with a referral credit if you are approved. There’s no obligation to use my links for these cards, but I appreciate it if you do.)

US Airways doesn’t do status matches, if you want expedited elite status they will sell you a ‘challenge’ where you get temporary status for 90 days and then have an opportunity to fly to keep that status on an accelerated basis.

Trial silver costs $200, trial Gold $400, and trial Platinum $600.

Then your travel on US Airways flights determines whether or not you keep status:

• Silver: Fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments
  
• Gold: Fly 15,000 miles or 20 segments
  
• Platinum: Fly 22,500 miles or 30 segments
  
• Chairmans: Fly 30,000 miles or 40 segments

Here’s something that’s implied by their chart, but that I didn’t actually know — the level you pay to sign up for is just the amount of temporary status that you have during your 90 day challenge. Put another way, the status you actually receive is determined solely by the amount you fly during your challenge. If you sign up for a Silver Preferred challenge, but you fly 22,500 miles in 90 days, you actually do get to keep Platinum status! You do not need to pay $600 for a Platinum challenge in order to earn and keep Platinum. You can do a Silver challenge for $200 and then fly enough to earn Platinum (or to earn Chairmans) on an expedited basis.

Something I learned from Jeanne’s experience that I didn’t already know, and always assumed that the opposite was the case. Don’t know how many this will help, but one to file away for those interested in challenging for status on US Airways, also useful because you do not already need to have status with any airline in order to do this.

Via @PriorityClub on Twitter, they’re running a 24 hour award sale at 50% off (or more) on a handful of properties:

We’re pilot-testing our One Day Sale with reward nights starting at 50% off! Hurry, it’s only around for 24 hrs!

Here’s the award sale and the page says that the sale is available from “12:00 a.m. Thursday morning to 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday night.” However there’s also a countdown clock on the page that shows the deal expiring an hour before that, at 10:59pm Eastern. IT glitch, it seems…

There are only 12 hotels on offer, although two of them are Intercontinental properties — Johannesburg for 15,000 points per night and available for redemption February 24 through April 13, and Panama City, Panama for 12,500 points per night and available for redemption through April 6.

The Crowne Plaza Beijing Sun Palace is available at just 10,000 points for 19 days in March, and a Candlewood Suites in Cary, North Carolina is available at just 5000 points for 13 days in March. This last, along with the Holiday Inn Express Houston-Brookhollow, are the only ones which match the value of a PointBreaks award.

But it’s still a good, though terribly limited, sale. Excellent value even for folks who only have 5000 points in their account currently, since Priority Club points can be acquired for 6/10ths of a cent apiece by booking and cancelling cash and points awards. (With 5000 points in your account you can redeem a 10,000 point per night room for $30, when you cancel that room within the cancellation guidelines you get the full 10,000 points back in your account, you’ve just bought 5000 points for $30. Rinse, repeat as necessary though at some point the merry go round on this deal which has been around for awhile may stop, caveat emptor.)

In the Continental-United merger (read: Continental acquisition of United), integration means that most things are being done the Continental way. Not everything, mind you, they tried briefly to use Continental’s boarding procedures but realized ‘back to front’ was a problem when they were upselling passengers for economy plus up front and then those passengers boarded last and had to gate check their bags.

But even there, it’s mostly Continental leadership making those decisions. They’re keeping Rhapsody in Blue, at least for now, but even that was touch and go for awhile.

The victors, of course, get to write the historical narrative. And they’re getting in some zingers. I do think that Continental meal service has been better than United meal service on the whole in recent years, but this line from United’s (i.e. Continental’s) executive chef, Gerry McLoughlin, was still striking:

Ultimately, the goal is that the combined airline gets the positive ratings from customers that Continental traditionally received. Success comes down to a mindset, McLoughlin said. United tried to design food that fit well in serving carts, while Continental tried to create great food and figure out how to fit it in the carts, McLoughlin said. “We reverse the way we do things,” he said.

I’m not sure I’d call Continental’s food great..

Now, speaking of Continental ‘winning out’, here’s the test version of the new integrated United website that will go into effect at the beginning of March. Looks strangely like the Continental website, no? Except of course that it now says ‘United’ and shows combined United-Continental mileage balances when you log in. Fortunately the Continental website supports more partners for searching award availability, although it does also have frequent pricing glitches (generally charging you more miles, not less, natch).

As I understand it, in the coming days Hyatt Gold Passport will be announcing that effective March 16 members will lose the ability to earn miles with Aeroplan, Alaska Airlines, Frontier, and US Airways for their hotel stays and also the ability to transfer points into miles with these airlines.

While the announcement of these changes have not been made yet, apparently a website detailing them is up early.

This isn’t a huge loss, Aeroplan gutted its award chart last year and then began adding fuel surcharges to awards, taking a once great frequent flyer program and making it mediocre at best (though its online booking tool is pretty good). Frontier is, well, one of the weakest programs in North America.

Personally I will miss the opportunity to earn US Airways miles, at least during the annual Grand Slam promotion. Cheap one-night stays are often better to credit to miles than to points, I credited a cheap one-night stay that would have earned less than 1000 Gold Passport points and earned a fixed 500 US Airways miles and a Grand Slam hit instead. And of course points transfers from Hyatt counted as a separate ‘hit’ as well.

But this is truly at the margin. Still worth mentioning because it’s a loss that’ll be coming with almost no notice, I’d guess it has to do with the timing of renegotiating contracts. The airlines being lost are also not ones where Hyatt frequently ran bonus mile promotions, either. Still, always sad to lose earning options or earning partners.

Amtrak Guest Rewards is running a 30% bonus on purchased points through March 31.

You have to log into your account to see details of the offer. You can purchase a maximum of 10,000 points in a year.

The same bonus applies to gifting points, though the same 10,000 cap (not a separate cap) applies to receiving points via gift as via purchasing for yourself.

Not an amazing offer by any means, but useful to top off your account towards an award you want to redeem for and also can be strategically useful for some, it’s often less expensive to buy points (especially with bonus) than to buy tickets on some Northeast corridor routes especially and also on 1000-point one-way routes. Provided of course that your travel falls outside of Amtrak blackout dates (and for Acela travel also outside of blackout times of the day).

The AP’s Scott Mayerowitz was onboard the charter and filed this report.

ABOARD AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 9454 — Eric Mueller’s vacation started when his plane filled with smoke. Soon, people slid down an emergency chute, inflated life vests and climbed into a raft.

…The most recent journey had 160 people paying up to $1,699 for a seat and access to spots normally off limits: Boeing’s sprawling 737 factory, American’s mission control-like operations center and the cockpit of the world’s largest passenger jet.

Tickets sold out in 17 minutes.

…The camaraderie was part of the trip’s appeal. Sure, it was really cool to walk inside the first 747 ever built. But it was also fun to gulp down gin and tonics midair with other guys — three out of four passengers were male — who have the same passion for flying. How much fun? Well, American stocked the plane with four times the liquor of a normal flight.

…The fliers — who ranged in age from 20 to 81 and hailed from as far away as Chile, India and Italy — know the ins and outs of the programs better than anybody else and share pointers in online travel forums such as MilePoint.

You should, as they say, read the whole thing.