- DHS cancels some Global Entry appointments as summer travel heats up, citing border crush by CNN
- Ebates Credit Card Becoming Rakuten Cash Back Visa Credit Card (July 2019) by Travel With Grant.
- An Update On The Suspected Plagiarism Drama by Traveling For Miles. Sharing the update as I shared the original story. Seems crazy to me to run a test without telling the original author or asking for their permission first.
- Datapoint of somebody receiving the bonus on an American Express card even though there was a pop up saying they would be ineligible during the application. Obviously this is an exception to the rule, but still interesting.
Deals starting/expiring at the end of today or starting today (view the full deal calendar here):
- [Targeted] AmEx Offer: Sephora, Get 8x Additional Membership Rewards Points
- Amex Offers: Samsclub.com Spend $200 and get $25 Back
- Kroger: Double Fuel Points during upcoming Weekends (excludes gift cards); 4x Fuel Points on Happy Gift Cards
- [YMMV] eBay Sellers: Get A Coupon For Up To 50% Of Your Sales ($40 Maximum)
- Portal Bonuses from American and United Shopping Portals, up to 1,500 Bonus Miles
- [YMMV] Free UberEATS Delivery for McDonalds through June 23rd
Deals starting/expiring at end of tomorrow:
- Bank Amerideals/Chase Offers: 10% Off Google Express, Max $14 Discount
- Amazon Restaurants Will Shut Down on June 24
Here are some of the most popular posts from past few days:
I still can’t wrap my head around the short-sighted decision on Rakuten’s part to totally discard the well-known (and seemingly trusted) eBates brand in favor of spending so much effort to get their North American customers to now see them as their Japanese parent company… Seems like a prime opportunity to operate eBates as a subsidiary instead.
I wonder if synchrony is going to send everyone a new card or just wait till ours expires. Suppose it won’t really matter since mine expires in a few months.
I believe new cards will go out before the expiration date on your cards, as early as July.
I recently got the pop up when applying for an Amex card, but I went through with it anyway. Spoke with a rep who said I should call after my activation to confirm if I have the promo on my account. It sounds like the pop up isn’t absolute and could be the system giving a warning to those who have canceled cards after a year with light use. Will report back to see if I get the points.
Plagiarism update already taken down. Here’a a link to Google’s cache:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:heK65bM8j5cJ:https://travelingformiles.com/plagiarism-update/
Is the cash back on the ebates/rakuten deposited to your ebates account? So if you have a membership reward earning account, the points are deposited to Amex?
Yes, any cash back you earn with Ebates / Rakuten on-line, in-store, or with the credit card is deposited to yuor account. During payment time, you will be paid via AMEX MRs.
“The Trusted Traveler Programs website, which includes Global Entry, already has an alert warning applicants that the “extended partial government shutdown has resulted in a backlog,” of applications and renewals.”
Did I miss something? Are we in the middle of another government shutdown?
They’re prepping for the next one early
That alert has been up since the last one. Seems that some are more backlogged than others since some applications get processed immediately and others are waiting 10+ weeks, even though the applications were submitted well after the shutdown ended. I wonder if they have some AmEx IT helping out where some apps on certain dates just aren’t counted and will sit in limbo forever. Unfortunately extra spend can’t help us in this case.
The backlog is affecting the website update.
It takes months for them to catch up on over a month of unprocessed applications while still dealing with the regular pace of new applications without additional staffing.
Especially when they work at a government employee’s pace. Gimme a break. They usually have lots of people standing around airport check points just chatting, no matter how many lanes are open or needed. Inefficiency at its best.
I submitted my Global Entry application way back in early April. I have not heard anything since. Is it normal to wait 2.5 months just to hear something?
No, but nowadays nothing is normal.
Did you check the status online? I never received email communications but the trusted traveler portal had all my updates.
I thought I’d log in to check again. No dice. It still says application “Pending Review.” That’s too bad. Going on three months now and no update and no word. I filled out the application fully and I travel internationally frequently. So I was hoping to get this done. I sent them an e-mail about a week ago, when I remembered to follow-up. It says it takes 2 – 3 weeks to get an e-mail reply. Hopefully that will nudge them. I was expecting about a week of waiting to get the application processed.. never imagined that the first step of submitting my application would take 3 months :/
Just rename “2.5 months” to “5 minutes”. Problem solved. 🙂
The plagerism update link didn’t seem to work. Can you tell us what it was about?
+1
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftravelingformiles.com%2Fplagiarism-update%2F&oq=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftravelingformiles.com%2Fplagiarism-update%2F&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.1236j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8