- A loyalty scam sold to the uninformed by Wandering Aramean. I think there is a big difference between learning the rules of a program and taking advantage of sweet spots and then outright breaking them like this. It’s not a good look for our hobby and as Seth mentions somebody is going to be left holding the pieces sooner rather than later.
- Breaking News: Jet Fuel Tax Break for Delta Air Lines Voted Out By Georgia Senate by The Gate. Passed on without comment.
- Buy 2,000 IKEA Meatballs for S$1,000 and get 12,000 Miles + S$10 Gift Card by The Shutter Whale. This deal isn’t available to us, just thought it was funny.
- I thought this was very cool:
Despite being deaf and blind, Colombian soccer fan Jose Richard Gallego was able to experience Barca’s win on Saturday. He and his guide/interpreter Cesar Daza created a system of unique signs that allow him to follow games.
(via @BrooksDT) pic.twitter.com/5YBzo86irv— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 27, 2018
Are these the “horse” meatballs?
Re: Jet fuel tax break for Delta. The headline is misleading – the tax break is on all jet fuel purchased by any airline in Georgia, not just Delta, even though Delta would be the major beneficiary due to their hub there.
I agree with the cancellation of the tax break. The taxpayers of GA shouldn’t be expected to subsidize the fuel costs of the airlines without anything in return. It’s not like American and United are going to move hubs there just to get a break on fuel, nor is Delta likely to move just because they didn’t get a break they were hoping to get, but didn’t have before.
On the politics angle, I think Delta is getting a lesson in “when you mix business and politics, don’t be surprised that someone else will mix business and politics.” Why big companies can’t just focus on providing goods and services to all customers instead of virtue signaling to a group of rabblerousers on social media is a mystery to me.
Like the NRA? Great – join up. Hate the NRA? Great – don’t join. It’s just bad business to alienate a big chunk of your customer base.
Well said, couldn’t agree more. Any time a corporation changes policy in reaction to a political event, they are asking for trouble.
While I am not in favor of the tax break Delta now doesn’t get, those are not granted with no return — at least in theory, they are granted in return for Jobs and indirect tax income. The same happens very publically with Amazon HQ2 and much less publically all over the country. That is just day-2-day politics.
Also, you argue in defense for a lobby group with the argument to not ‘mix business and politics’ — that is the one and only reason for lobby groups to exists: they [try to] influence politics to favor the businesses they are founded by.
One could argue that giving a discount to a very small, controversial group was politics that Delta shouldn’t have done, to begin with. I can’t see how this discount could be commercially beneficial to Delta — I would assume it was purely to benefit from the political power the NRA has. Just based on members, the NRA seems too small to negotiate any discounts with major companies — if it wasn’t for its political power.
NRA basis is just not a big chunk of the customer base. They represent — if you follow the NRA numbers — less than 2% of Americans — and are presumably even less represented in the more flying population of the east and west coasts.
Personally, I think businesses shouldn’t give discounts to political groups. Period.
You are wrong on multiple points. The idea that giving tax breaks to Delta or Amazon will create jobs and indirect tax income is trickery spouted by politicians.
It’s just like when states or cities provide big tax breaks or cash subsidies to developers to build a shopping mall, or Costco in exchange for creating a “Tax Improvement District” which translates into a higher sales tax rate at that location. Everyone benefits except the taxpayers and those who shop there and pay the higher rate.
If Amazon or Delta need to hire more people, they’ll do it with or without giveaway incentives.
Big companies only play this game because they know politicians don’t care about spending someone else’s money as long as they can claim a “win” for their next political campaign.
Secondly, the NRA is not solely, or even mostly a lobbying group, nor were they founded by any business or business group. They train our police and other instructors. They help with range management and insurance. They have school safety programs.
The reason they have clout in Washington is due to the 5 million dues-paying members who represent 80-100 million gun owners.
They are “controversial” only to those who wish it to be. To others, organized religion is controversial. To many, a group like Planned Parenthood is controversial, but to those who agree with them they’re not.
Business have and will continue to give discounts to a great many groups if they think it will serve their interests down the road.
What you “think”, or more likely feel is entirely irrelevant. Why should you dictate which organizations are acceptable and which are not?
Why do so many people want freedom and choice for themselves, but not for those they disagree with?
Re: Loyalty scam. Can you clarify what’s being done here? It sounds like someone is selling access to their high elite status for hotel bookings, but who is paying for the room?
I book rooms all the time for my employees using my points. I call the hotel and give them the names of people checking in, making it clear they work for me and that I won’t be there to check in and haven’t had a problem yet. Is this an abuse of the program?
Same question. The blog is either not explaining something well OR the issue is NOT an issue.
It seems to me like Seth is trying to point out the issue without putting the name of the scammer and a link to his scam out there. To that extent, he is leaving out some of the explanation.
So what is happening is somebody who has high hotel tier status and is trying to maintain that high status is offering to book rooms for people and add them as a second guess on the room. The person who is staying gets the high status benefits (ie. breakfast, club access, etc) and the person doing the booking gets a small fee, stay credit, points etc.
Yes, this is what they are calling fraudulent/ a loyalty scam. In your case if you are being fully transparent and the hotel still lets you do it, that’s on them But the example given is a little more egregious. In the example, the “rule breaker” is trying to sell his status to get strangers to pay for the “rule breaker” to book rooms so that the stranger gets the status benefits and the “rule breaker” gets points/stay credit.
Somebody is offering to a book a room using their elite status, then adding you as a second person on the booking. You would pay for the room and whatever fee they are charging, they get the elite credit and points + their fee.
Ok – that’s much clearer. I hope I’m not creating an issue with Marriott on my end. I’d probably hit Platinum every year anyway even without my employees’ stays being under my name, but what’s the point of having a Marriott Business card if you aren’t able to use the points for business travel?
We stay in the cheap places anyway so it’s not like they are getting any huge benefits from my status (i.e. they’d get free breakfast anyway, don’t use late check out).
How did he become soccer fan in the first place if he is dead and blind.
That’s like a blind person loving women with green eyes.
Perhaps they became blind and deaf over time?
uh…the way you have it written, it sounded like Wandering Aramean was selling a loyalty scam to the uninformed. had to click through to see it. luckily it’s not the case.
Thought the same thing…
How would you phrase it?
just clearly add: Loyalty Scam EXPOSED under the guise of “advice” by the WA or something like that. then ur comment would make more sense.
uh anything else really…e.g.
“Wandering Aramean alerts us to A loyalty scam sold to the uninformed”
Ah you mean the actual link section? I always use the titles for those bits.
That’s 1000 Singapore dollars, which is merely $757 US.