USAIR CARD GETS A LITTLE BETTER:Via Hack My Trip, the Barclaycard USAir card is getting a little better. Starting April 30, cardholders will get 1 free checked bag for themselves and up to 4 companions.
ARCANE FREQUENT FLYER RULES–IN PICTURES!: Travel Is Free has another typically helpful post laying out the quirks of the major airlines’ routing rules. Check this out:
Why would you want to do a trip like this? As Drew points out, “A trip to Africa would normally be 80,000 miles in Economy, but by making it a stopover on the way to Japan the price is 70,000 miles. Save miles, see more.”
Incidentally, for those of you who have suddenly found new uses for your Avios, there’s a good TIF post about how to save your Avios by breaking up the trip.
ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE MONEY FROM BANKS: How about buying a cheap bank stock? Oddball Stocks reports on M&F bank, currently valued at 30% of book value.
MARATHON MAN SPEAKS: Food for thought from Marathon Man:
We all want to share ideas and help our fellow MSers, and we all have our own reasons for that. I say, go ahead, share and show… but let’s not be specific about things. If we say a certain card exists that says “debit” on it, we need not tell every little step on how to use it. By now most are in tune with this and those who are not should step up (like we had to) and test things, ask questions or go out and learn too. No room for lazy people. As well, if we discover a certain store or chain starts allowing something, let’s not list the darn details so prevalently! Let’s not put the Google Map address on there either. Let’s not even talk about the store itself, just that a certain type of thing can happen at certain types of places. Again, people can go out and test depending on where they live. The thinking here is that if we push push push and constantly tout all these ways to get something out of these retailers, they may see it as a scam even when it’s not, and the overzealous department heads who are smart enough to use Google and find our writings (and they do in fact show up so let’s not kid ourselves!) will change the rules and gone will be the next best MS thing.
We have to be good stewards or custodians of MS and try to do whatever we can to prolong deals, not let them die quickly because we think a new one will come along soon. We must not think that something new will replace something good. When Coins died, it took a long time for the next thing to happen and many readers may not have been around in those days or in the much darker times of the past to understand this, but it happened then and it can happen again.
CHASE’S MILITARY-SPECIFIC CREDIT CARDS: Just when I thought I was familiar with all of Chase’s credit cards, I learn something new. Military Finance has a rundown on Chase’s military credit card family. I have no idea what an MWR is, but you can get 2% there.
Coolness! I gotta show this to my wife! Now that someone ELSE printed it, it looks normal what I wrote 😀
All this talk of blogger ethics codes and protecting ‘secrets’ is too obtuse. I have not a clue what MS even means, despite the fact that it’s mentioned three times in your pulled quote. Either lay out the deal or don’t. You either get the crowd that wants the info or you don’t. Going half way with veiled reference pleases no one.
I think that Nick and I, along with others here are going through a period of reflection and learning regarding secrets and ethics, it is important to realize as this happens we may find affinity with certain positions and concepts as displayed by Marathon Man, and want to share them.
I imagine that the majority of people who read this site do indeed know what MS means, and as such many would be pleased by this post. For the minority that do not, like yourself, you have two options: firstly you could complain about not knowing, or secondly you could say ‘hey could someone tell me what MS means?’
Not complaining that I don’t know what MS means. In fact I don’t, and in fact it didn’t detract from what I got out of today’s post. Nor did it add anything. I’m just making a point for Nick and the rest of you: are you going to blog for the blog-erati, or are you writing for a wider audience?
Multiple Sclerosis? Microsoft? Mississippi?
“are you going to blog for the blog-erati, or are you writing for a wider audience?”
Why not both?
well, I reckon that is what you did in today’s post. And you ought to post what interests you, so “good on you mate”!
Mrs. Smith’s? Mixed Salad? May Semester?
It’s a good point, I think overall our readership consists of a wide group of people, other bloggers, old timers and new people. Id certainly like to appeal to all of them in the right way, with solid content.
I would love nothing better than to post every arcane trick there is about getting points, miles, and cashback. The problem is that if I did that, those tricks would disappear.
Yep, I think solid content doesn’t have to mean spilling the beans.
Fair enough. I’m not as deep into this as you guys are, but I’m not new to it. You must truly have an enormous basket of ancient secrets that only a few cultivate for incredible returns. These secrets must be guarded….at all costs. If, however, your secrets involve more work for marginal return…well…MS!
Even for some of the better-known stuff, if it gets talked about too frequently and too explicitly (for example, in charts with lots of helpful arrows), then too many people do it until all of a sudden nobody can do it. Remember the Home Improvement Gift Card?