Rapid Travel Chai

Weekend was spent in Toronto, with some hiccups and farce on the outbound. I am rethinking when and how I use award tickets on airlines for which I do not have status. My last two infidelities from Delta/SkyTeam were BA Avios redemptions on AA. Both trips the outbounds were scratched (one for reasons unconfirmed, one for weather) and those weekend trips were nearly ruined, only recovered by hours of persistence to get rebooked on Delta and WestJet, respectively. I would have paid more for Delta but been properly reaccommodated within moments due to my Diamond status. I need to be better atdetermining where and when I use awards (as in avoid US airlines). Avios and Lan have been a beautiful partnership for me, why stray?

Thanks Again/United MileagePlus:

I signed up for the Thanks Again 1,000 point promo for text offers, adding a little to my puny United MileagePlus balance. I did not like multi-program abuse on the offer, some people registering phony phone numbers. I met the founders of Thanks Again at the Freddie Awards and like the idea of multi-dipping on spend, especially on my corporate card, because I generally do not spend much at airports on my own dime. I often overlook my corporate card for opportunities like this, and am only registering as I write this. If you have a corporate credit card, it is in play.

This offer violated one of my Core Principals of Spousal Tolerance of Miles and Points Time Consuming Hobby:

Do not sign up spouse for text offers.

The points seem easy, 500 here, 1,000 there, then the grief comes.

So this is ‘deal for one.’

Status Matching:

HackMyTrip introduces a useful tool called StatusMatcher. The more readers contribute, the better the info I do not know who is behind it, but I like it. I did baby’s first status match this year, getting Club Carlson Gold ahead of the summer giveaways.

ANA:

I completed the ANA survey for 100 miles to keep my account active. Many have noted the utility of ANA’s award engine for searching Star Alliance awards.

Marriott:

Field of Burch is writing good pieces on Marriott Rewards. I have a modest store and need to learn. Nice to see coverage of Marriott.

Credit Cards: 

• Starwood caused people to swoon over an extra 5,000 points on its credit card sign-up bonuses. I noted that a further 5,000 on top of that sounds better to me.
• I took note of  the 2,500 Amex points for watching a Bose demonstration offer at The Points Guy. No harm in taking a detour to Soho on my Friday lunch walks to Chinatown.
• Alaska Airlines Visa Signature 40,000 sign-up bonus offer at Online Travel Review. Minimum spend too much for my eyebrows to fully raise, requiring $7,500 spend in 6 months. Pass.