Rapid Travel Chai

The weekend went over to last-minute Club Carlson booking and today we found the credit card bonus award night still alive till midnight Central June 1 (FrequentMiler) and that meant the 100+ hotels that went down in points price from May 31 to June 1 were fair game (Travel is Free). Consult this sortable list while you still have time (Points With A Crew). I was able to rebook Berlin and Wuxi stays at significant savings. See my last minute guide for more. There is a great free weekend night rate available in Europe, Middle East and Africa (The Deal Mommy).

Otherwise it has been an American Airlines week for me. Business last week when it was the only nonstop from NYC and another Caribbean jaunt this week thanks to off-season low cash fares paired with the Citi Prestige 1.6 cents/point for AA/US flights. Great for the Caribbean when taxes are a big part of the ticket price. My roundtrip to Curacao was $300 retail which was 18,725 points plus $0.00 and earns miles, compared to booking as an AA award for 35,000 miles plus about $80.

Airlines:

• Battling Delta’s deceptive award pricing practices, Seth has rebuilt the Delta SkyMiles award chart at HowManySkyMiles.com and built a browser extension to show the base price on the Delta website. The Delta website cotinues to massively overprice many awards, so study How Much for that SkyMiles Award?? and When SkyMiles Borks End-on-End Award Pricing (all from Wandering Aramean).
• Always trying to catch up to Delta, United continues to charge award change/redeposit fees for tickets booked by Platinum and above elites for other non-Platinum and above travelers (One Mile at a Time). I know from personal experience the refund process is a pain and don’t waste time with online forms. Keep calling until you find someone able and willing to help.
• Copa’s new program has launched and Scott argues it is a huge missed opportunity (Travel Codex).
• I need to learn more, and pay more attention, to reasonable cost upgrade opportunities by fare class or outright purchase, here’s a case where $3 made the difference (Travel Codex). I usually only search cheapest fare, amateur move.
• Aer Lingus is joining OneWorld and that means fuel surcharges on awards and likely end to relationship with United. Yes, you can book United awards on Aer Lingus. (UPGRD Matthew).
• Pro tip: flying as a dual Alaska-Delta elite (The Free-quent Flyer).

Credit Cards:

• Citi Prestige hotel 4th night free is eligible to use AAA, AARP and military rates, though not government or conference rates (FrequentMiler). Pairing it with Citi Premier, which keeps getting better, is powerful and I plan to add a couple soon, see this comparison of the three ThankYou cards to see the potential (FrequentMiler).
• How to Churn the Citi HHonors Visa Signature Card (Miles to Memories). Good to keep tabs on Citi since practice versus published terms so often diverges.
• The ‘Shopping Cart Trick’ may work for the Virgin America card, so you may get a $50 bonus and may even avoid a hard credit pull (FrequentMiler). You may be able to get double the usual bonuses for these cards (Doctor of Credit). The $149 annual fee version waives all Virgin America change fees on paid tickets.
• Bank of America’s BankAmeriDeals may have some good targeted offers for you (Travel With Grant).
• Capital One Quicksilver earns a 20% rebate on Uber through April 2016 (View from the Wing). I am both an Apple holdout and an Uber holdout.

Cars:

• Attention non-car owners. If you are a Sam’s Club member you may get full insurance packages included in Sixt rentals at great rates (Million Mile Secrets). Remember that US credit cards cover damage to your vehicle (CDW) but not liability (SLI).
• Philip Hall of Miles Abound has started a separate personal finance-themed blog, and the car lease post is a doozy.