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In this Frequent Miler week in review around the web, read about rumors and speculation — from a possible new Ink product to a major hotel devaluation and more. Read on for the weekly rrcap.
WILL WE SEE A CHASE INK BUSINESS RESERVE BY YEAR’S END?
Monkey Miles makes a bold prediction about Chase introducing a new premium business card. While it makes logical sense that this would complete the mirrored portfolio, I question the wisdom in creating a new product that mirrors a product losing its relevance. I imagine Chase will question that as well. Further, Chase can’t really compete with what Amex offers for the group I imagine is the core customers on the Business Platinum card: people who spend six figures per month on their business. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy to see a new 100K bonus come along, I’m just not sure I see a business version of the Sapphire Reserve being as successful as either the CSR or the Business Platinum. I’d love to be wrong.
Chase UR Portal Lost Option to Book Southwest, Spirit, and Allegiant
Well now….this is a bummer. In Chase’s switchover to booking through Expedia, they have lost the ability to book several airlines. I’m typing this post right now while overlooking the ocean in South Florida as my family sleeps. I flew my parents and sister / brother-in-law here on *gasp* Spirit Airlines (yes, they lived to tell the tale) thanks to a booking I made just a few weeks ago through the Chase travel portal. Thankfully I did that before this change — my family was able to get here on direct flights that took just over an hour and I flew 4 people round trip for just over 30K Ultimate Rewards points. Now the same origin and destination would require about 4 hours (rather than a 1-hour direct flight) since the UR portal offers no nonstop option and I’d pay more than double the points. See this post from Miles Talk for more.
What to do when an Ebay buyer returns a bag of sand
In an illustration of why I got out of selling electronics online, Vinh at Miles Per Day explains what to do when your buyer asks to return $4,000 worth of merchandise and sends you a bag of sand. It’s nice to see that there is hope, but I imagine most people would panic when PayPal initially takes $4K away. Whether you’re a reseller or not, it’s an interesting read.
[Rumor] Wyndham To Move To Tiered Rewards System: 7,500 or 15,000 or 30,000 Points Per Night
Well, this would be disappointing news: Doctor of Credit reports a rumor that he claims to have on pretty good authority about what I imagine will be a huge devaluation to the Wyndham Rewards program. Just a couple of months ago, I redeemed 15K points per night for the Wyndham Santa Monica (thanks to Deals We Like for the tip) — a great location with rates around $250/nt. I’d be less enthused at the prospect of 30K per night. And while I’d determined that the cost of MSing a month in New York City wouldn’t be worth it even with my old Wyndham card, we were more seriously considering it for a week at an all-inclusive in the Caribbean. I wonder how soon this will happen if all . . .
That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
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I don’t see why the ultra-premium cards aren’t all sold as business versions. Those high AFs are much more palatable when I can deduct them …
Chase UR travel portal now sucks. Expedia is using their least qualified agents to staff it. The simplest questions involve long runarounds with lots of hold time and no answers. One can can only imagine the nightmare scenario of weather cancellations and reroutes.
It was a United booking within the 24 hour cancellation period that involved a simple change which could’ve been completed with a United agent in 5 minutes, but took hours. In the end, frustrated, I cancelled the booking a started over on United.
Expedia was selling a mixed class domestic itinerary, where United showed the same in 1st class for the entire journey at the same price.