News and notes from around the interweb:
- There’s still time to earn (a minimum of) 47,000 points for $47. I’m earning more points with that. And indeed the points are posting in a matter of days rather than the promised weeks. Note that these do not post as elite qualifying points.
- A man purchased a seat for a cello, including travel on an airline that doesn’t permit cellos in their own seat for the safety of the cello.
- Speaking of which… Buying your bag a seat on Spirit instead of paying checked bag fees
- Now we know why Singapore Airlines is launching Singapore – Canberra – Wellington, New Zealand service: it’s because of subsidies and what’s more Wellington, New Zealand tried to keep those subsidies from becoming public.
- New Swiss first, Senator, and business lounges at Zurich’s terminal E
- If you’re earning a Starwood point per dollar spent with Uber, that lasts (based on having stayed at a Starwood property in 2015) through January 31. You need to stay with SPG in 2016 to continue to be eligible.
The link to the article with the enterprising readers service isn’t working. Can you post a good link?
@beachfan – i believe they aren’t taking new customers
Thanks anyway!
BtW, do you get Starwood points for Uber in 2016 prior to your first 2016 stay if you got them in 2015?
@beachfan you get them through January 31. To get them starting Feb 1 you need a Starwood stay in 2016.
Mentioning Singapore and subsidies reminded me that Delta receives incentives from Port of Portland for continuing to fly PDX to NRT . I mention this since Delta has criticized competitors for receiving subsidies as though they do not .
From the article: “… it appears the council’s Destination Wellington Fund will contribute close to $9 a passenger, over 10 years”. What a big deal – there are commuter train systems where the per-passenger subsidy for a 40 km trip is higher than that! Also, while I don’t know what NZ’s air travel related taxes are, if they are like many other countries (think Germany or Nicaragua or US) passengers may easily be paying $20-50 in taxes and government fees, so some of the money being kicked back to the airline is no big deal.
Off topic but would love to see a conversation about the new Best Western MasterCards that just became available. Any insights?
regarding the IHG points, I submitted ~40 thus far and received 4 entries. Each entry was the minimum win, 500 pts. Expenditure: $22 worth of stamps & envelopes & index cards,. Gain: 2000 IHG points. Not worth the hand cramps. Yes, I believe that some folks got more responses. However, it’s a crap shoot…there’s no guarantee whatsoever that you’ll get ANY. Only after several inquires on my part did I receive FOUR responses out of 40 submissions. It’s unreliable… AVOID.
@Lindy I said the same thing after sending in 18 and then 20+ more. We have sent in over 97(just in case we had rejections) and have received 12,500 points posted. We had another win of 25 x 500, 5,000 1,000 and 2,000 on Saturday. As of today I anticipate 39,000 in points.
We are doing this for my partner also under his account so we can get the points under him.
You should get them