Windbag Miles

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you would never have found out about it had I not uncovered a mistake rate at the Hyatt Regency Paris – Étoile last summer. Before that, I received maybe 10 views per week (!), although given that I posted once every couple months (or not even),Continue reading “Windbagging full-circle: My review of the Hyatt Regency Paris – Étoile”

Hi from Belgium, blog readers! I’m tired. At this point, I’ve been up for just inside 24 hours, and I’m feeling it big-time. I’ll write more about my United First experience that got me over here, which was extremely positive… but despite what was mostly a great flight, I didn’t sleep a wink. People whoContinue reading “My new favorite lounge in the world – the Thalys lounge at Brussels-Midi”

This is the third installment of my gripping trilogy about my experience with American Express’s foreign wire transfer service (FXIP). Here is a brief recap of the other two installments, since you’ve already forgotten: Installment one: in which I receive an email solicitation advertising up to 30,000 Membership Rewards points if I sign up forContinue reading “One last update on Amex FXIP before I stop talking about it”

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about an email promotion American Express buried at the bottom of the newsletter about my Blue for Business card through which you could earn points by setting up an account with their foreign exchange international payments (FXIP) service. Since I sometimes need to make foreign wire transfersContinue reading “LOL, Amex FXIP actually approved an account for my minuscule hobby business.”

I’m on a work trip right now, and I wanted to jot down some thoughts about different aspects of the trip. I don’t really have enough about each individual item to warrant a full post, so I decided to combine everything into one long post, SEO be damned. My trip started in Oakland yesterday withContinue reading “Travel Diary (OAK Escape Lounge, Alaska Airlines, SEA Centurion Lounge, Grand Hyatt Seattle, SEA Delta Sky Club)”

I came across a new Amex offer today for a company called Intermedia, and it’s very interesting: 20,000 bonus points for $200+ in spending. That basically means you could buy 20,000 points for a penny each, and I consider that a good deal. If you have a Business Platinum card, you’re already going to comeContinue reading “Interesting Amex offer – buy 20,000 points for a penny each”

One thing that always surprised me when I was first getting into points and miles is how inconsistent things are. Bank terms and conditions seem pretty set in stone, so it’s counterintuitive that two reps called one after the other may tell you totally different stories… but it happens all. the. time. The acronyms “HUCA”Continue reading “Always hang up and call again. ALWAYS! (Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam edition)”

I had an interesting experience with Amazon recently, and I figured I’d share it here. I know a lot of semi-professional resellers in the point & miles community use Amazon’s marketplace and fulfillment tools to facilitate sales, but I don’t know how many actually deal with Amazon directly. From experience dealing with Amazon in manyContinue reading “Off-topic: Vendor negotiations with Amazon.com”

If you’ve been anywhere near the points and miles blogosphere this week, you no doubt have seen that there’s one week left to earn 100,000 Hilton points by signing up for the Amex Hilton Surpass card. Because 100,000 of anything is an incredibly good deal, this is something you absolutely must not sleep on. It doesn’tContinue reading “Why you should sure pass on the Amex Hilton Surpass and get the normal Amex Hilton instead; also, why you should stop listening to normative statements altogether (except for that last one, which you should listen to… and this one too, I suppose, but that’s it, I swear).”

This is a continuation of an earlier post about the KLM logo. In that post, I looked at the designer FHK Henrion and his groundbreaking work to bring KLM’s brand identity into the jet age with a timeless logo that has persisted nearly unchanged for over 50 years. In this post, I’ll be looking at BEAContinue reading “Airline Design Files part 2: Leaning forward to step back at BEA”