Windbag Miles

Amex Offers have always been pitched as ways to save cash in order to justify the annual fee on an Amex card. And since the offers vary from card to card (and sometimes from offer to offer), there can be value in casting a wide net by carrying multiple cards. I rarely take advantage ofContinue reading “Is it just me or is Amex really going to town offering Membership Rewards points for Amex Offers?”

Welp, Alaska is shutting down the Virgin America brand, and if my Facebook feed is any indication, people in the Bay Area are losing their shit. Here’s the thing, and I’m pretty sure anyone who flies even somewhat often already knows this: Virgin America isn’t that great. Don’t get me wrong – their first class productContinue reading “I, for one, welcome our new Alaskan overlords.”

A while back, Swiss announced that they were going to start charging business class passengers to reserve throne seats. To refresh your memory, Swiss crams 5 seats per row into their 777, in a staggered 1-2-2 configuration. That means that each row has a single “throne” seat with a huge amount of room on eitherContinue reading “Did you book a flight on SWISS during the availability bonanza? Check to see if there are throne seats available!”

Woohoo! Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have a thing for KLM… I’m not even really sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that I love their logo and brand identity, maybe it’s the fact that I’m a sucker for all things Dutch (except fascist Geert Wilders and his comic book villain hair),Continue reading “KLM Business Class! Blue planes!! TINY CERAMIC HOUSES!!!”

I’ve long sworn off British Airways, insulted as I am by their egregious fuel surcharges and business class that presents the possibility of both sitting in the middle and sitting backwards. I certainly wouldn’t be “chuffed” to be in that situation, that’s for sure. However, it turns out that I’ll probably book BA on our big tripContinue reading “British Airwaysin’”

Aside from a person with severe alopecia, I’m probably the last guy who would want a membership to dollar shave club. Despite having a naturally shiny top cap, I’m not one of those bald guys who wants the rest of my head to match the dome. I usually have a nice healthy horseshoe going on theContinue reading “I didn’t let being bald and having a beard stop me from taking advantage of Amex’s Dollar Shave Club offer.”

Hooray! It’s almost April 1st, which means that grocery stores (and drug stores) will soon be the Chase Freedom’s 5x categories du jour. Because I don’t go out of my way to maximize the Freedom categories every quarter like I should, I get excited about the grocery one, because that’s the category that absorbs theContinue reading “Why Q2 is the season for minimum spending requirements”

I got home from work and saw a US Bank-branded envelope in the mail. “Oh good,” I thought to myself. “I’m finally going to find out if I got that Korean Air Visa card, since apparently it’s 1987, and banks only communicate via the postal service.” I eagerly opened the letter, realizing that this was the firstContinue reading “Okay, now US Bank is just fucking with me.”

I was thinking about this the other day, since I received an offer for the Korean Air Visa that awarded 15,000 points for every $1000 spent in the first three months, up to 45,000 points. I feel like we’re seeing more and more cards offer tiered bonuses as a way to induce people to spendContinue reading “Are tiered/protracted bonuses the answer for banks trying to combat unprofitable customers?”

I usually put a lot of thought into what credit cards I’m going to apply for. I work out a general strategy over a six-month period – what trips I’m likely to plan, where I want to focus my earning, etc. Then I adjust the plan as new offers hit the market or the fieldContinue reading “My experience applying for a Korean Air credit card, which I probably shouldn’t have done in the first place”