T-Mobile is giving some customers free Hulu (but the bad kind), a Japan Airlines flight bursts into flame and what your player 2 really wants to say about points and miles. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to each article are embedded in the titles).
What Player 2 really thinks about points and miles
Have you ever spent hours on your day off driving to office supply stores to buy thousands of dollars of fee-free Visa Gift Cards at the behest of someone you care about? You might be a player 2. Have you ever hotel-hopped during a weekend stay and thought it was perfectly normal? You might be a player 2. Player 2 is the name that we affectionately give our (often reluctant) significant others who come along, and are sometimes dragged, on our points and miles earning and burning adventures. I remember listening to part of an episode of Frequent Miler on the Air with my wife one day while driving. Nick and Greg were discussing the Wyndham Earner Business card. About one minute in, she said, “you know what that sounds like to me? Wyndham!….wah wah wah (Charlie Brown adult voice)…. 40,000 points!!….wah wah wah….8x fuel!!!…wah wah wah.” I’m not always quick on the draw, but I could tell that she wasn’t exactly riveted by the quality content. That was the last time that we listed to the podcast together. Being a player 2 can be a tough, thankless, boring, confusing gig…that just happens to come with international business class. Lindsay, aka “Miles Earn and Burn P2,” recently wrote a hilarious “diary” of a player 2. Thanks to her for a fun read. We hope that all those P2’s out there feel seen.
Visa Gift Card issuer Incomm sued for high incidence of fraud
99% of the country has no idea what “Vanilla” brand gift cards (or their issuer, Incomm) are. But these broadly unnoticed shelf-hangers are near and dear to the hearts of many folks that are involved in manufactured spending, as they have historically provided a simple means to turn bonused spend into cash at low fees. Over the last few years, fraud involving the physical Vanilla cards found at retailers has become more and more frequent. The most common scam involves the prospective thieves removing the card from its packaging, noting the numbers and PIN code and then waiting for someone to buy and load the card, at which point they can drain the funds. As a result, the San Francisco DA is now suing Incomm, saying that the company knew that these cards weren’t secure, did nothing to fix it and then didn’t properly reimburse consumers when fraud did happen. I’ve bought a lot of debit gift cards over the years and, interestingly, I’ve never personally had an issue with an Incomm card. On the other hand, there are other issuers (ahem, US Bank) where I’ve found fraud to be much more common. Regardless, stay safe out there.
T-Mobile now offers free Hulu on some plans…with a catch
Compared to the staid, horse-and-buggy world of bundled cable, today’s mass of streaming apps can feel like the wild, wild west. Every service seems to have service plans with and without ads, constant promotions, bundling deals and co-branding agreements with everyone from American Express to Wal-Mart. Phone providers have gotten into the mix as well, with both Verizon and T-Mobile (and probably others) providing free access to everything from NFL games to Netflix as amenities to their more expensive plans. T-Mobile just announced the addition of free Hulu for customers of its expensive Go5G Next plans, to go along with the Apple TV and Netflix that is already included. Unfortunately, there’s a huge, glaring, no-good, very bad problem: the plan that T-Mobile provides has ads…yuck. Some people don’t seem to mind ads and this is great news for them. But, for those who don’t want to hear about car insurance during the last five minutes of The Handmaid’s Tale, you can still get ad-free Hulu covered by American Express‘ Digital Entertainment Credit.
Japan Airlines flight hits plane on landing, burst into flames
Unless you’ve been on a media diet, you’ve probably seen the terrifying images that came from Tokyo last week, when a Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 with 379 passengers onboard collided with a coast guard plane as it was landing at Haneda Airport. Evidently, the coast guard aircraft wasn’t cleared to taxi by air traffic control, so no one was aware that it was in the path of the massive airliner. The JAL flight was almost immediately engulfed in flames, effectively turning it into a rolling fireball. It eventually burnt down to what was little more than a pile of ashes. Incredibly, all 379 passengers and the entire crew made if off without a single death…and anyone who’s ever seen a Japanese airline board a full plane in 10-15 minutes knows why. Hats off to the crew of Flight 516 for keeping calm and carrying on.
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Yeah big huge catch on the Tmobile ‘freebie’. Not only does this include ads on Hulu, but they are now going to include ads on Netflix, and if you want to avoid that, for the same service they provide today, the price will more than double. That Netflix price increase will be applicable to ALL customers/plans. Hulu with ads only gets included with the highest priced plan like you said.
This price increase comes after the autopay elimination resulting in $5 per line increase per month. So with this Netflix price increase of an additional $9 (plus tax/fees/surcharges) an account with two lines will now be paying about $20 more per month for the same service that they had before with no new benefits. To get hulu with ads, the plan would need to be increased by about an additional $10-$20 depending on where they started.
Worth pointing out that Verizon now has a plan that includes voice/data/text worldwide. The big thing here is voice calls are included and are not billed per minute like Tmobile. This is a game changer for a frequent traveler. Just putting it out there. I just switched from Tmobile to Verizon and am getting a monthly credit for bringing my own phone so they end up being much lower cost than Tmobile. I do have their visa card which actually has a decent payout with 4% at groceries and gas stations, 3% at restaurants, no annual fee and no international transaction fees.
Not pushing Vz by any means, just pointing out some possible savings for folks who travel often. Oh and adding service with them often gets 6200 AA loyalty points per line.
I just do mileage and mattress runs solo and the wife just knows it will work out well for her at some point.
what do monkeys buy with a credit card?
A household referral!
Lol, what do monkeys buy with a credit card?
My mother-in-law recently bought a US Bank $500 Visa gift card at QFC (Kroger). The employee reached behind the counter and handed it to her. When she got home, she opened the packaging to find the CVV and last 2 digits of the bar code number scratched off. The US prepaidgiftcardbalance phone reps have been useless, claiming that every one of our faxes is “too dark” and “unreadable.” My only guess is that US Bank is purposefully committing fraud in conjuction with Kroger employees.
We’ll inform our various DA’s and federal agencies, but I think she’s out $500. Yes, US Bank commits fraud and is completely immune from prosecution.
Yes a major US bank is bed with Kroger employees to defraud the American public. It’s not like gift card fraud happens in retail stores after all.