News and notes from around the interweb:
- Starbucks gift cards earn ‘Stars’ so you can earn free drinks just buy loading your app. But by buying your gift cards from Starbucks, rather than an office supply store, you’re giving up 5x points-earning. So only do this on a ‘first Friday’ with a Chase Sapphire Preferred..
- Unions at Aena, the Spanish airport operator, have called for 25 days of strikes to be taken between February 11 and August 25 in protest of the company’s partial privatization. On the one hand, strikes at European airports and airlines make me shrug at this point. On the other hand, this could get ugly.
- Kayak will now search and sell Cuba travel.
Kayak users can search for more than 300 hotels in Cuba, but for now, the site’s flight-search results between the U.S. and Cuba only show connecting flights through third countries. And even those options are limited. For instance, for a round trip between New York and Havana next month, Kayak shows only a $1,443 itinerary operated by Copa Holdings SA and Cayman Airways via Panama City.
- United’s gates at Dallas Love Field will go to Southwest. United gets paid, and the DOJ’s Antitrust division has apparently signed off…
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Personally, I find I get much more use out of buying a resold Starbucks card at a discount…
Just bought a 15% off one at giftcardmart (dot) com
Never had a problem with any of the cards I bought there
Any idiot can find flights from the US to Cuba for $1,443. – Hopefully direct flights from the US for around $300 RT will be coming sometime soon.
I keep on meaning to visit Cuba before the golden arches and starbucks go in. The US foreign policy towards Cuba should have alleviated in the 1970’s anyway…..
The beverage I buy at Starbucks costs $2.75 after tax. When I redeem, it’s for $5.75 after tax. So every 5th time I’m in there, I go back before I leave and reload my card for $15. The extra star is worth $0.48, so even on a 2% back card I end up with 5.2% return.
But I’m fortunate to have one of the old Citi Forward cards with 5% for restaurants, so even better.
Gary, you may (or may not, I can’t tell from your post) have missed the point of the Starbucks post. It notes that you can buy a gift card with a gift card and earn a star for the transaction. Since you’re using existing gift card funds, no points are foregone bc you would not have paid with credit anyways. It’s a perpetual points machine (PPM).
Sbox is currently one of the 5x categories with Freedom, so not giving up 5x for the next two months.