Thanks to reader Jon for letting me know that Avis is advertising their $9.99 one-way car rentals again. Budget too. A free tank of gas and 150 miles for ten bucks is pretty strong if you find dates/locations that work. This can be a really good taxi/Uber alternative with pickups at the airport and dropoffs in the city. Or vice versa. Play around with the times too…it says the rentals are for 12 hours but sometimes you can plug in 24 hours and get it to work. Have a great weekend, nerds!
You can now earn or burn United miles at BP here. 200 bonus miles for the first time you get gas after registering.
While you’re registering for gas stuff, you can also get few bucks for connecting Shell to your Chase Pay account.
(By the way, it’s really hard for me not to tell 200 bad jokes about gas right now)
In fact, I used to tell fart jokes…until people told me they stink.
A lesser man might have discussed dinosaur farts and how they’re a blast from the past.
But, as a mature adult, I won’t be telling any of those types of jokes today.
Not even the one about an elderly couple at church.
How halfway through the service, the husband leaned over and whispered in his wife’s ear, “I just let out a silent fart. What do you think I should do?” The wife replied, “Put a new battery in your hearing aid.”
No, I refuse to tell any jokes like that today.
If all of these reasons to stay at a Kimpton weren’t enough, you can add 3,000 (or 5,000) more points to the list. This one is for booking an IHG stay through their app. Free is always best but, man, this is an unusual amount of stacking. Also, I just edited Monday’s Mobile Passport post with additional thoughts from reader Josh.
Big thanks to reader Daniel for being so generous with his National rewards. This time, he’s giving away a pair of his “One Two Free” codes (they can be used for a free rental day whether traditional or one-way). I just ask that you only enter if you can use one before June 15th. Please make sure your email entry goes to the contest 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, “March National Rental.” I’ll pick two people randomly on Friday night. Good luck!
Big thanks to reader Bryan for bringing Mobile Passport to my attention. And possibly yours. In his words…
“There’s not much info about this on most travel blogs because it doesn’t help sell credit cards. But it’s completely free and works similar to Global Entry when coming back into the country. For me arriving at Miami, it was faster than Global Entry because all of those kiosks were full. Also, Mobile Passport doesn’t require an interview or background check. Obviously Global Entry is valuable too for TSA PreCheck and all of the additional airports. But you can’t beat free. I use both and pick the shorter immigration line (some airports have both in the same line).”
I mean, shit, the dude basically just wrote today’s post for me. 24 airports and it’s free. Not sure what else you need to hear. I can’t think of a good reason not to go for this. Thanks Bryan!
Edit below (to add a counterpoint from reader Josh):
“Hi MileNerd, just read your short piece on mobile passport. Here is the reason NOT to use it. While it is true that mobile passport might save you a few seconds if all the Global Entry kiosks are occupied, but if you arrive at a crowded international airport like JFK, once you get through immigration you still have to go through customs. If you have global entry, once you’ve picked up your luggage you just take the global entry lane and motor past the throngs waiting in the snail speed general public lane. And sadly, if you have mobile passport you too will have to join the throngs. You do NOT get expedited service through customs.”
