In this week in review around the web, we have a nice little hack for finding saver-level award space, a way to take a shot at free satellite radio on your rentals, an MS method on its way out and more. Read on for this week’s recap.
CAUTION: BA REMOVED MY 90,000 PROMO IBERIA POINTS AFTER TRANSFERRING
Recently, the cheap Avios earned by booking flights you never intended to fly became transferable to British Airways despite the fact that they weren’t initially and the fact that Iberia said your account would go negative if you attempted to do it. Majored in Miles from Travel Update moved his over to British Airways, where they were immediately expired because of inactivity on his BA Avios account. This seems crazy and I hope that British Airways will reinstate his Avios, but it is a good reminder to both keep all of your loyalty accounts active (a little shopping portal activity here, a car rental there once every year or two — just to be prepared for stuff like this that nobody could anticipate.
Quick Hit: One weird trick to pry saver awards out of Delta’s grubby little hands
This is a very smart little trick that makes me wonder about other ways to make this kind of play, and that’s it from me on this one. Go read it at Windbag Miles and file it away for the day when it becomes useful to you.
$500,000 and 2 Million Points Later It’s Over
The landscape is always changing. What worked yesterday may no longer work tomorrow. That just recently happened with one of my methods for MS. It was disappointing, but new methods pop up. That said, this post from The Art of Travel Hacking was worth a share as a reminder that you always want a backup plan. I’m sure that he will find other ways to liquidate his cards, but you don’t want to be stuck with thousands in gift cards and no liquidation method in mind when your method shuts down.
How to get free Sirius XM Radio with National
Very frequent renters may have either thought of or stumbled on this hack before, but those who only rent now and then and have status with National from a credit card might try out this trick from No Mas Coach if they are going to be stuck in the car a bit on a trip. When I rent, I’m rarely driving far enough to care much about the radio and I’ve never had a satellite radio subscription, so I’m not necessarily drawn to this hack, but I know I’m probably in the minority on that.
That’s it for this week in review around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
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well I’m glad we all know now that theartoftravelhacking is kind of a hack who doesn’t know current policies and likes to get all doom and gloom in an unnecessarily long and drawn out post. I wonder why I’ve never heard of that blog…
Tried to post a comment on the Game Over post’s website but got a DB error on submit. He just needs to load GoBank $500 at a time, no more. The rules for that card changed in the last couple of weeks. I had the same experience, a $1000 load split across 2 swipes failed. The next day I was able to load the same card with the same VGC’s with 2 separate $500 loads.
What’s GoBank?
An online bank that offers a reloadable Visa Debit card. The author mentioned using it in the referenced blog post.
Does it cost per load? I.e why not load $500 separately than $1000 all at once in the first place?
There ARE fees for loading but by direct depositing money to the card monthly those can go away. I assume the post’s author arranges for that like I do. Hence, the cost of loading 2 separate times at $500 each is ONLY the time it takes for one additional swipe. That, and convincing the clerk to load double the amount of cards, if only a perception thing.
Yeah not sure about the authors melodrama them.
Do Ach count as direct deposit? Have you tried?
Sorry, I don’t know, I have never tried this.