Windbag Miles

I made my triumphant return to Finland last month (vaikka en vielä puhu suomea hyvin), and one of my priorities this time was to decide whether I’m cut out for eventually moving to Finland by assessing my ability to tolerate, nay enjoy, Finnish licorice. I’m not sure by what mechanism I’d ever be able toContinue reading “The Cruelty is the Point: Reviewing Finnish Licorice”

Guess which dormant blog whose meager remaining traffic is entirely due to a series of posts about a churning hack that has been defunct for over a year is back with a brand new post? If you guessed, “Windbag Miles,” you are a genius! What stunning development in the world of credit cards, points, andContinue reading “What is happening?”

Me: Hi there! Hope your day is going awesome! So, I placed an order for a widget two weeks ago, and I was hoping you could give me an update on when it will ship. Thanks so much for all your help!!! Them: Hi Windbag Miles! My day is rocking and rolling, hope yours isContinue reading “Customer service is horrible and I hate it”

Longtime readers (do such people even exist anymore?) will know that I’ve had Finland on my mind for a while. When I was in my early 20s, I got really into these mountain bike tires that were made in Finland and were perfect for the terrain in Southern California, and I’ve missed them ever since.Continue reading “Windland Finbag — The worst trip I’ve ever booked”

Point valuations are in the news again as The Points Guy just released new methodology on how they assign useless monetary values to a variety of points/mileage currencies. This new methodology replaces their old methodology, leading to extremely actionable intel for you: for instance, did you know that American Airlines miles used to be worthContinue reading “The worst redemption I’ve ever made”

I have one claim to fame in the points and miles blogging world, and it’s that I was the first one to realize that signing up for Morgan Stanley’s robo-investing platform (“Access”) makes you eligible for a Morgan Stanley Amex Platinum card. Well, I probably wasn’t the first person to realize this, but I wasContinue reading “It’s been a few years since I’ve written about a Morgan Stanley Amex topic, but that’s basically the only thing people know me for, so I should probably keep doing it.”

Well, we knew it would happen sooner or later — I’m finally getting on a plane again. After 16 months or so, I’m heading back to Chicago next month to see my family for the first time since the pandy started, and I’m pretty excited about the trip. Unlike your garden variety #AvGeek, however, I’mContinue reading “Me: “Stop being such a diva, just suck it up and fly economy.” — Also me: “No.””

Note: This post was originally published in March of 2020 on my now-defunct newsletter, “Windbag Mails.” (Although I’m not sure if it was ever not defunct, since I only ever wrote all of four posts.) American is in the news again now that they’re abandoning award charts and setting the stage for endless devaluations, whichContinue reading “Springtime for American Airlines (Flashback Post)”

Wowie zowie that was some pandemic, wasn’t it? I don’t know about you folks, but the last fourteen months for me sucked pretty bad, and I didn’t even have to deal with anyone close to me dying. No, just the psychic toll of living through what amounted to a nationwide slow motion car crash stuckContinue reading “Maybe it was a bad idea to get all those sign-up bonuses I didn’t need, unless it wasn’t.”

As world spending growth slows, the never-earned are the ultimate forgotten ones.  A couple decides to open one credit card instead of two, or none instead of one. This happens all over the world. Billions of sign-up bonuses are never earned. How real is the loss of a sign-up bonus that never began? Is there a right toContinue reading “Spare a Thought for the Billions of Points That Will Never Exist”