Lazy Points of the Week
Story of the week
US Airline passengers are no longer subject to airlines’ whims about when to provide passengers with compensation for cancellations or major delays. The DOT recently announced big changes requiring airlines to provide prompt refunds for qualifying events.
Specifically, passengers are entitled to a refund when a flight is cancelled, delayed by over 3 hours domestically or 6 hours internationally, departs from or arrives at a different airport, adds a connection, the class of service is downgraded, or the changes adversely affect a passenger with a disability (due to controllable issues). Airlines must now refund checked bag fees in the event of a major baggage delay, and return ancillary fees for services that are not provided (e.g. Wi-Fi).
The refunds must be in full, in cash or the original form of payment, within seven business days for credit card purchases, and automatic—passengers should not need to request them from the airline.
This will make it much easier to get out of flights when airline makes major changes to your itinerary. Unfortunately, this rule only allows you to get a refund if you don’t accept alternative transportation. In other words, sure, you can get your money back if your flight home has an overnight delay… but if you want to get home you’ll have to pay last-minute prices for a flight on another airline. That might be a better deal, and it will be nice to have the option, but this won’t be a game-changer in most last-minute situations. It is, however, extremely valuable for passengers who book in advance, especially in basic economy, only to see the airline change their flight details while there is still time to rebook a better and/or cheaper flight. For those last-minute issues, however, it will still be worthwhile to book travel with a credit card providing travel protections like trip delay insurance.
Positive developments for lazy travelers
Want to boost your balance of hotel points quickly? Dining programs are a great way to earn extra points and keep your account active to ensure that the points you already have don’t expire. Currently, Choice Hotels’ dining program has triple it’s normal sign-up offer: 1,500 points after spending $25+ at a participating restaurant within 30 days of sign-up. IHG is currently offering 2,000 points—double the normal offer—after spending $30+ in the same time period. Choice points are generally worth a bit more than IHG points, but both offers represent around $10 worth of points—not a horrible return on a ~$30 meal.
There’s also a few other hotel program offers floating around if Choice and IHG don’t float your boat.
Other card and points news
Capital One’s new, old Savor card. Capital One has reworked the “Savor” card lineup to have a single, no-fee Savor card that earns 3% cash back on dining, groceries, entertainment, and certain streaming services. If you have a Venture X or Venture card, you can earn 3x points on those purchases instead of cash back. Although Capital One miles aren’t the best, they’re much better than cash, and the Venture X/Savor combo is a potentially powerful combo that is virtually free to hold. To top it all off, the Savor currently has an increased welcome bonus worth an extra $50+, excellent for a no-fee cash-back card
Earn extra miles with Bank of America cards. On November 7th, holders of BoA cards like the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature can get an extra 2% cash back or 2 miles per dollar spent. So, if you have a BoA card, be sure to whip it out for your purchases on this coming Thursday.
United status gets harder to reach. If you thought it was tough to spend $5000+ with United or $4k+ in addition to 12 flight segments just to earn entry-level United Silver status, don’t look now. Those thresholds are moving to 6000 PQPs (basically dollars spent on base fares, with some asterisks) or 5,000 plus 15 flight segments (PQFs). If you’re a tenuous United elite frequent flyer, it might be time to look at Alaska and their newly easy-to-earn elite status.
Sign-up bonus of the week
We’re gonna have to repeat ourselves here, because if 60k ultra-valuable AA miles was good enough for the bonus of the week last time, this 70,000-mile offer certainly ought to qualify.
Previously highlighted bonuses with offers still available:
•60,000 points + a $300 travel credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred
•125,000 points on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
•60,000 points and a free night on the Marriott Bonvoy Bold
Lazy tip of the week
I only physically carry 2 credit cards: one for restaurants and one for everything else. But sometimes I find myself in a situation where a different card might give me the best rewards, like paying for a parking garage with the IHG Premier.
A few extra points aren’t worth the hassle of carrying all my various cards everywhere, but my digital wallet lets me use those cards anyway more often than not. If you haven’t set up your phone for mobile payments yet, here are instructions for Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
