The benefits of spontaneous travel, Hertz hurts some EV renters, and more [Saturday Selection]

If you’re seeing the title and wondering if your internal clock is off, it isn’t: this week’s Saturday Selection is brough to you on Sunday afternoon. With Tim on vacation this week and the Saturday Selection left under my procrastinatorship, I present you with this week’s Saturday Selection on Sunday Afternoon for your reading pleasure, enlightenment, and infotainment.

7 Reasons Why Spontaneous Travel is Life-Changing

This post from Travel with TMC isn’t new this week, but I newly stumbled upon it and couldn’t help but laugh at my timing in finding it given that Greg, Tim, and I are set to take what will feel like one of the most spontaneous trips of our lives from June 5-12th (given that none of us know where we’re going or what Carrie & Stephen will challenge us to do when we get there). While I think our Flying by the Seat of our Points trip has broad applicability (it isn’t only for those looking for a spontaneous trip), I nonetheless look forward to the health benefits, excitement, and reduced stress that Tara promises! At the very least, I know that such a spontaneous trip will indeed lead to lasting memories. I certainly never cease to be amazed that this monopoly money we call miles & points can put spontaneity within such easy reach.

Transfer Limits & Times for Wyndham Rewards to Caesars Rewards; No Taxes on Hotels Booked with Points

If you have spontaneity on your mind, you’ll be frustrated with the slow transfer times when moving Wyndham Rewards points to Caesars. Nonetheless, Travel with Grant unearths an interesting tidbit regarding Caesars Rewards points: when you use them to cover your room at the time of booking, they also wipe away the taxes (since taxes are usually calculated based on a percentage and any percentage of $0 is still $0). That actually makes points worth a bit more than 1c per point when moved from Wyndham to Caesars in order to cover rooms at Caesars properties since your cash cost would otherwise include those taxes. My experience mirrors Grant’s in that it has taken about a week for points to move from Wyndham to Caesars (I haven’t tried moving them back, but data points indicate that can be far slower).

Capital One Now Lets You Move Credit Limits Between Cards Online

The ease of combining credit limits varies considerably from one issuer to another. Sometimes, it is as easy as sending a secure message indicating how much of your existing credit limit you’d like to move to another card, but other issuers turn it into a complicated request process that may even involve a hard inquiry on your credit report. Danny the Deal Guru reports that some cardholders can now move credit limits between their existing Capital One cards (consumer to consumer or business to business, not consumer to business or vice versa). Unfortunately, the ability to do this is limited to some cardholders, and if comments on my post and Youtube video about how to find your Capital One card number online are any indication, Capital One is likely to keep this targeted for years to come. If you don’t see the ability to combine your limits yet, I wouldn’t be too hopeful that it’s coming soon.

Absurd: Hertz Keeps Charging Tesla Renters Hundreds Of Dollars For Not Filling Up Gas

Over the past year, I have rented more times from Hertz than from any other individual rental car company. I haven’t yet been arrested or faced any other notable issues with Hertz in recent memory, but just as my comfort level with Hertz was nearing increased confidence, Hertz does Hertz and word gets out that they’ve been charging renters of electric vehicles to refill the gas tank. No, there wasn’t a typo in that sentence: Hertz has (apparently many times) charged electric vehicle renters to refill the tank — and I’m not talking about plugging in. I thought the initial story from View from the Wing sounded nutty last week, but Gary’s update here pointing to numerous data points makes it clear just what a mess Hertz has become. Am I still going to rent from Hertz? Probably now and then, but I do so knowing that customer service is likely to be nonexistent in the event of a problem.

Citi AAdvantage Business Card Authorized User Rewards Quirk

File this one under “weird”: Did you know that Citibusiness American Airlines card authorized users earn Loyalty points for the Authorized User, not the primary cardholder? One Mile at a Time shares one of the oddest credit card quirks I’ve heard of in quite some time. While on the one hand I guess it’s nice that employees could reap the benefit of using the “corporate card”, I’ve not heard of another authorized user card in the US where the employee / authorized user earns their own rewards instead of all rewards going to the business. To be clear, the redeemable miles earned from spend still go into a pot that the primary cardholder controls, but the bottom line is that you need to know that AU spend will not help you reduce the path to elite status.

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