I’m a big fan of earning Alaska miles.
Spending them is significantly less fun.
Through Thursday, that process gets a little easier with this award sale.
Le Bernardin Experience
I wouldn’t exactly call myself a “foodie.”
A better description might be, “Spaz who can’t be left alone with a pack of Oreos.”
Or maybe, “Dude who pays the ice cream man to keep driving.”
Anyway, you get the idea.
But if you’re a foodie with a nice Starwood balance, here are a few interesting auctions ending this morning. Thanks to reader Dave for reaching out. As always, if you have the points, try to keep up with SPG, Delta, Hilton, and Wyndham auctions. Every once in a while, you’ll be able to find some good value there.
Two From Tom
Reader Tom is seeing this in his United app. You could have something similar available. Definitely worth taking a look. Potentially worth over 20,000 miles.
Tom is also one of many who got an interesting offer from Hertz last week. If you typically ignore promotional emails, make sure you’re paying attention to anything from those guys. Keep in mind that 550 Hertz points is a free day, so you’re looking at 2 freebies. Only if you got the email (sadly, I did not).
National Rental Giveaway
A couple of small random tips from emails this week…
- Reader Jerry recommends resortfeechecker and lasvegasjaunt for resort fee research.
- Reader James says, “It seems American is making saver availability on 2 leg one-ways (positioning-hub-destination) where the leg from hub to destination is at a higher rate. Completely blows the old way of searching AA for saver space 1 leg at a time out of the water.”
- Increased Hilton card bonuses (if American Express chooses not to screw you).
- As far as the giveaway, this is probably my final set of rentals to pass out from the One Two Free promo. This round is courtesy of generous reader Stephanie. She’s giving away a pair of codes (they can be used for a free rental day whether traditional or one-way). Only enter if you know you can use one before June 15th. Please send your email entry to the address below. As always, I don’t read messages there, so only use that inbox for contests. Blank email entries are fine. The subject should be, “May National Rental.” I’ll pick two people randomly on Saturday night.
Have a great weekend, nerds!
Follow-Up
Lots of great responses to yesterday’s post. Here’s a super-quick summary for those who missed it:
- I applied for an American Express card expecting to get a bonus.
- No bonus showed up.
- Multiple customer service attempts didn’t help.
- A CFPB complaint went nowhere.
- Amex quoted once-in-a-lifetime bonus language.
- I have screenshots. None of that language existed.
Again, I’ve never gone past this point to collect a credit card bonus. Haven’t needed to. But reader Jason was VERY helpful and wanted others to benefit. His awesome email is below…
“Can’t take them to small claims. You have to take them to arbitration. You have a pretty open and shut case, but your first step is to fill out this form and mail it to them certified.
https://web.aexp-static.com/us/content/pdf/GCO/gco_claim.pdf
For your claim, include the miles and a dollar amount. Delta sells them for 3.5 cents per mile on the website, so technically that’s their value. Mention that if relief isn’t provided, you will file for arbitration. Then wait a couple weeks while they don’t do anything.
Then you can file for arbitration/mediation – you can pick which service to use. JAMS is reportedly more consumer friendly. Amex picks up the tab and they have the option of settling once the arbitration wheels get set in motion. If that does happen, they’ll make you sign an NDA.
https://www.jamsadr.com/about/submit-a-case
That’s where you can submit for mediation. Include a write-up of points requested and what happened. Also include screenshots of everything and PDFs of the Amex contract stating they have to pay for arbitration. Good luck, I’m happy to help you out any way I can as a thanks for al the great stuff you’ve given me!”
