Today’s blog action was full of two main stories: the official “we are going Rev based” announcement by Delta and the new livery by American Airlines.
Here is the official announcement from Delta on the new Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQD) requirement. Open up your wallets or get the Amex card & charge at least $25k on it. For true road warrior elites or Amex cardholders, this is not too bad. BUT you are all missing the POINT here! The point is: a big legacy airline has broken the taboo finally and now the flood gates have opened! Expect continued “enhancements”, it will be the death by a thousand paper cuts. And the others WILL follow! So, my original prediction that this will happen effective in 2014 was right on…again! I am guessing the “redemption” enhancement will start in 2015. I will aim to clean out my Skymiles in 2014…NOT an easy task! Many elites have been moving out of the US to avoid the $dollar requirement [hint]. Another gotcha moment is that it appears no benefit for flying on partners…which is totally absurd. Then again, this whole airline reminds me of these guys plotting how to suck more money out of their customers.
If you are going to stick around, you better get your FAQs straight on this new MQDs.
Gary Leff did a pretty good analysis again on the Delta changes. He is hoping for a step up in Benefits. I laughed when I read this…you would think this is a perfectly normal reaction. But we are talking about Delta here, it is like Iverson speaking about practice!
If you want to see what a mega rant is, please read Comment # 4 by reader vlpec. WOW, now THAT is a rant, makes mine look like children songs!
BEST OF MILES/POINTS
For some reason today was a day with blogs posts about how to bribe a front desk hotel person at checkin. Milevalue did it with a $20, fancypants Gary Leff did it with a $100 and OTR did it with a $50. I was going to do this a few years ago at Wynn in Vegas but…just could not do it, I felt so awkward! I have a stay in Vegas in May, I may try it again. What if the hotel employee takes my money, gives me a crappy room and then goes to the back and start laughing with his/her co-workers? 🙂
Mommy Points made some excellent points about this hobby “In the Miles and Points Game, You Gotta Keep Moving“. Not much to add other than the power of networking. I absolutely adore twitter, follow me at FlyerTalkerinA2. And…there will be another deal and certainly there will be another credit card signing bonus!
Gary Leff again gets the final scoop on the American Express Hilton card changes. As I thought, something was brewing. Drugstores at 6 pts per dollar is going away in May, boo!
BEST OF TRAVEL
Gadling has an amazing HD video about Rwanda, wow!
American Airlines has a new look. Gary Leff had a pretty good write up about it. I don’t like it. Why? The answer is in the picture at the top;-) I have predicted a merger with US Air will happen and this will all be a waste of money. That will be not be too unusual with airlines!
6 Audacious New Projects in the Maldives. A Louis Vuitton resort???
Landlopers on “Staying at the Most Photographed Hotel in the World“. The Quebec City Fairmont Chateau Frontenac. Stayed here a few years ago, it was a lovely time! Free of course, come on!
NOT SO BEST OF
Frugal Travel Guy had another “churning challenge“. I would NEVER EVER give this advice! Is an Internet Brands employee just putting something together in 5 minutes? Why would you not suggest the US Air non affiliate credit card to get to Phoenix? Breathe George,breathe!
I believe I am making a difference. I placed Gary Leff here just once I believe yesterday. And today he comes back with three Best Of posts. This is what we all can call #winning. Meaning we ALL win.
ODDZ & ENDZ
40 Life Hacks That Will Change Your Life At Bored Panda, some of these are awesome!
10 Choices You Will Regret in 10 Years This website has great lists!
Not really anything earth shattering – FTG has his filler post where he rehashes a lot of information a newbie can easily find on the hotel programs website and slips a few CC links in
What was funny was at the end of the whole speil on Marriott rewards, he embeds at the end…. an SPG Amex link. LOL
@Anonymous … you bother to read FTG to the end?
no
Mommypoints C&P devaluation post deserves a double “not so best of”
1 for SPG for a huge devaluation (the only time I’ll even consider C&P anymore is on category 3’s and 4’s)
1 for Mommypoints for sticking in affiliate links into the posts. “The value of starpoints just got decreased. Oh btw, here’s a link so you can get some starpoints”
I will get to it later, I am getting there…Sounds not so bad practice. You want to see bad? Check tomorrow, got one already in the Not So Best of category!
I would say it’s a pretty terrible practice
It’s one thing to put affiliate links in a post that doesn’t really have a connection to it (and no, the fact the the post was about SPG isn’t a reason to put an SPG credit card in the post)
But it’s even worse to pimp credit cards in the very same post where you’re pointing out how the very points you’d earn with that credit card are getting devalued
It’s not TPG RyanAir/CSP bad…. but it’s bad
Well, I couldn’t go for three days in a row in the “Best of” Category. The earth may have fallen out of orbit if something that bizarre happened.
My SPG post would have certainly been fine without mentioning the cards, but instead I decided to say that I wished there were increased ways to earn SPG points (such as through a shopping portal or via spending bonuses) and also listed the ways that do currently exist.
Not a huge deal one way or the other in my book, but apologies to those it bothered. I will await my turn in the “Worst of” dunking booth.
Mommy, if you look through the comments, the “angries” complain when we don’t have a related card to the post and then again when we do. No winning with George’s audience. But at least they have a home now.
@Anonymous: [Can you pick a name, any name?] Based on what I review every day this is okay to me. Otherwise, my posts would be extremely long every day and would not have time to go to the bathroom, lol.
@Mommy Points: You are producing some really good stuff lately! I see your point about the limited ways to earn SPG points. Yes we agree it would have been better without the links but I will let you slide. I really enjoyed “I will await my turn in the “Worst of” dunking booth.” –made me laugh, thank you for your sense of humor. Some people are totally missing the point of my blog!
@FrugalTravelGuy: I disagree with your “angries” characterization of my readers. Then again, it will certainly not be the first or the last time we disagree Rick. My readers will always come FIRST in my blog.
Thank you to all for reading & commenting. Your support is appreciated. For the record, nobody has clicked on my ebates referral link! I totally suck in this build, build, build thing, lol.
It’s pretty sad to see how far FTG has fallen. Can it be any more obvious that TBB’s threads get well commented while most threads on FTG are lucky to have 3 “non-angries” commenting on it
Except of course his churning challenge. The non-angries in that thread looked pretty angry if you asked me.
What is your Marriott GC total at now TBB? Are you keeping a tab?
I must admit I am just amazed on the number of comments my blog gets!
He sent me one to his credit even though I said it is okay not to. I am not keeping a tab:-)
That blog was the first one I used to read in the morning:-(
Me too!! Used to go to FTG every morning first thing. But Rick started posting very little origional info and when IB purchsed his site, affiliate cc links multiplied. Don’t get me wrong, FTG can and should promote cc’s,aka earn a living. But I dont have to go to it anymore. Rick helped get me into the miles/points game and I have gone places and seen things I wouldn’t have if it were not for his origional info. I wish him well but I dont read his site at all anymore since he ignored the better US Airways cc offer. No ‘angrie” here, just someone who has chosen to get fresh info elsewhere. I’d even buy him a cup of coffee and thank him in person to show that I’m not ‘angrie”…
There are a lot of “angries” like you reading my blog:-)
Thanks for reading & taking the time to comment.
When you say burning through your skypesos will not be an easy task, I assume you mean because it’s hard to find redemptions at the low level(or because you have a sentimental attachment to them ;)). Otherwise you could just blow through them on trips to Asia at 300K a pop or whatever obscene # of miles they charge.
Yep, this is exactly what I mean!
Skypesos at $100 or less per 100,000 does not make them worthless. In fact it makes them the best value out there Rev based program or not.
I agree when you compare them to Spirit miles, lol