- 1750 jetBlue points per order at 1-800-Flowers. Buy miles for 1.3 cents each. by Frequent Miler. We talked about the value of jetBlue points recently, might be a way to grab some shitty flowers and cheap miles at the same time.
- Upcoming US Bank FlexPerks Visa/AMEX Credit Card Changes to “Grocery”; FlexPoints Purchase & Transfer Limits by Travel With Grant. Biggest change is that grocery stores won’t include discount/wholesale stores, bit disappointing but better grocery store cards out there.
- Getting a 3rd Chase Freedom Card & Barclaycard/Chase Retention Data Points by Miles to Memories. The other good thing about getting the annual fee on the Aviator red waived is he’ll be able to get the 10k anniversary miles next year as well. You can never have too many Chase Freedom’s either.
- What is this $2500 Hotel Room Really Worth? by The Deal Mommy. My rule is always, what would I pay for this room with straight cash. No way in hell would I ever pay anything close to $2,500 for a hotel room (I wouldn’t have paid $275 + suite upgrades either, but I’m cheap like that).
- Are Recent Premium Cabin “Amazing Deal” Fares Really Affordable? by Tagging Miles. They are cheap if you were going to fly paid business anyway, if you weren’t not so much.
- Reduced mileage awards has been updated for American Airlines, give it a look.
- OFFICIAL: Changes You Can Make to an American AAdvantage Award After March 22 — and How to Lock in Current Pricing for Future Trips by View From The Wing. Not sure how I missed this before, but useful information even if it makes my head spin a little (I hate booking awards).
- Interview: Starwood CEO Talks Marriott Merger by International Reviews Meeting. Nothing really that interesting to read here, although they blame the current information vacuum to elites on anti-trust reasons. I still think SPG elites will get royally screwed in this merger, but let’s wait and see. Most interesting part is probably this:
HM: When the acquisition was announced, SPG members cried foul. Allay their fears.
TM: We heard them loud and clear. The blogosphere lit up with concerns. What has made Starwood so valuable is its brands and loyalty program. We are confident that Marriott would approach it with a due-no-harm approach. We do not want to alienate our most valuable members, who drive about 50 percent of occupancy. But, because of antitrust reasons, we haven’t been able to talk about how to put these programs together, so, unfortunately, it has created a bit of a communication vacuum. People want to know, but it’s an area we can’t talk about or collaborate on yet, as we still need to compete.SPG won’t switch over on day one. It will need to take longer. Marriott needs to learn about the special sauce.
