Windbag Miles

My biggest hobby (outside of points and miles, of course) is books. Most of my online presence is focused on my hobby business as a bookbinder and printer (as evidenced by my Kickstarter campaign), so if you found me on Instagram and wondered why all the pictures were of books, now you know why. I spend whatContinue reading “Windbag Book Review Corner – Pan Am: History, Design & Identity by Matthias Hühne”

If you follow the points & miles blogosphere, chances are you’ve seen at least one person (with a bunch of kids) tweet something like “Amex announces they hate your children and also VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM!” (Okay, maybe not that last part.) Apparently to cut down on overcrowding in Centurion lounges, Amex is only going toContinue reading “I selfishly love Amex’s new lounge access policy #nokids #blessed”

Not much to say about this… plus I want to post it before someone scoops me! I logged into my United account today and saw a targeted offer that seems to be focused on people based in/around San Francisco. In fact, the promotion is called “The new spirit of United arrives in San Francisco.” Jeez,Continue reading “United promotion for San Francisco peeps – up to 16x miles per dollar on fares. Oh sorry, I meant “AMAZING NEW UNITED PROMOTION, CLICK HERE FOR ONE WERID TRICK TO RACK UP MILES!!!””

Not much to say about this… plus I want to post it before someone scoops me! I logged into my United account today and saw a targeted offer that seems to be focused on people based in/around San Francisco. In fact, the promotion is called “The new spirit of United arrives in San Francisco.” Jeez,Continue reading “United promotion for San Francisco peeps – up to 16x miles per dollar on fares. Oh sorry, I meant “AMAZING NEW UNITED PROMOTION, CLICK HERE FOR ONE WERID TRICK TO RACK UP MILES!!!””

In my spare time (ie: the time spent not working or writing my irreverent points and miles blog), I enjoy writing other stuff, like essays about semi-obscure Italian artists. One such essay has become fairly popular – not Million Mile Secrets interview popular, but still pretty good. I’m currently raising some money over on KickstarterContinue reading “I don’t have ads on this site, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to tell you about my Kickstarter project.”

An entire industry has evolved around making things simple for people who want to earn free travel with their credit cards. The most disingenuous, in my opinion, is Capital One, since they overclaim how complicated loyalty programs are while simultaneously aping those programs’ terminology by calling their points “miles.” Despite what Jennifer Garner wants youContinue reading “Why I think it’s funny that people get so aggro about Amex’s overly complicated bonus structures”

Update: Nope, it didn’t. Turns out the customer service rep I spoke to was mistaken and the fee will be $550 after all. A chat rep not having the full story a day after the new card benefits are published? SCANDALOUS. Today The Points Guy published a Q&A that everyone thinking of keeping or gettingContinue reading “Did the Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card just become Amex’s best value? Probably not, but you know, maybe.”

Kind of like my Fantom Blue post from the other day (god I hope that takes off), I’m going to write about another opportunity that probably isn’t very good but still worth looking at. Why write about an opportunity that isn’t very good? Well, given how often things change, there’s always the chance that a mediocreContinue reading “Earn 2.5 AAdvantage miles per dollar on groceries + 1.5 miles per dollar on dining and travel! Or don’t; it’s not my job to tell you what to do.”

2022 Update: Most of this post is no longer relevant. How’s that for an update? First of all, the deal that I got in exchange for the timeshare presentation no longer exists and hasn’t for years. Also, a lot of the perks were specific to SPG hotels, and SPG no longer exists and hasn’t for years.Continue reading “Time to share my timeshare presentation experience at the Westin Ka’anapali [2022 UPDATE]”

I can’t remember why I was looking at availability to Taiwan yesterday, but I was, so here we are. I don’t have any upcoming travel there, so I guess I was just curious. The nice thing about flying to Taipei is that you have two really nice options to get there. China Airlines just startedContinue reading “Taiwan, anyone? Availability is really good, and your options are even better.”