Happy Sunday to all of our travel friends, both near and far! Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, as well, so we’re passing them along.
- Gary at View From The Wing writes about upcoming changes to the Hilton American Express credit cards. Starting on July 18, 2019, one of the cards will be getting a new name, which is its old name before AMEX changed it. One of their other cards is making subtle changes for when you can use statement credits, further restricting their use. Just another example of why AMEX statement credits aren’t like getting cash back.
- Doctor of Credit writes about how Bank of America is going to start issuing contactless credit cards. However, they will start with residents of New York City and San Francisco because they’re more likely to use the cards because the public transport systems in those cities are contactless (and so is Chicago’s but I guess BOA didn’t know that). Depending on how the launch goes (meaning if more people are using their new contactless card), they will evaluate if it’s worth the cost to reissue the new cards to everyone.
- Ben (Lucky) from One Mile at a Time alerted us to a change with American Express’ policy for transferring Membership Rewards points to authorized users. You now have to be an authorized user on an account for 90 days before you can receive point transfers. I’ve used this trick before for transferring points to my dad’s FF account, so the workaround is if you have family members you need to add to your account, just do it now and you’ll be fine. I’d assume this is to crack down on people selling points who were just adding people to their account and transferring points immediately.
- Deals We Like reminds us that today (Sunday), JetBlue will be loading the new flights into their schedule. Instead of loading in flights every day like other airlines, JetBlue (and Southwest) load in their schedules as a batch, a few months at a time. The schedule will now be open for flights until Feb 12, 2020. I’ve been waiting for this as I need to book flights over the holidays and JetBlue would be perfect for us, they just weren’t bookable yet.
- Lynne at Around The World in 18 Years mentioned on Facebook that Kids Week is back at London’s West End. For the entire month of August, a child aged 16 or under can go to any participating show for free (where tickets are available) if they’re accompanied by a full paying adult. Tickets go on sale on June 11 (or 11 June, if you prefer).
- Mark at Miles to Memories has been following the story of Chase sending emails to cardholders alerting them about needing to opt out of mandatory arbitration for disputes. The outstanding question was if Chase would cancel your account if you didn’t agree to the new terms, as many other banks do if you do not agree to changes to the Cardholder Agreement. We now have confirmation, sort of, that Chase will NOT close counts of you opt out of arbitration.
- Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly looks at why American Airlines seems to have something against New York flyers. With higher prices for awards than connecting cities and absolutely no saver space on some routes, it makes sense to book hidden city (Skiplagged style) award tickets. I’m sure American wouldn’t be too thrilled about it if you did so, it’s a risk you’ll need to decide if you want to take.
- Sebastian at Loyalty Lobby examines the recently finished Daily Getaways promotion, asking if it’s worthwhile or just a waste of time. I don’t like to speculatively purchase points, so I’ve sat out of everything except the Sea World tickets for the last couple of years. I’d say that Your Mileage May Vary for the value from the sales and don’t stake vacation plans around buying points because the popular ones go fast.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
