I love Uber, but they are seriously terrible

The private ride-coordinating app Uber exists for a single reason. It’s not the ubiquity of smartphones and it’s not the rise of the freelance economy. It’s the fact that taking taxis is the worst, and always has been.

For me and most people I know, taking a cab thrusts me into a shadowy world I don’t like or understand: taximeters (which after the driver fidgets with the keys always end up $2-4 higher than the fare itself); “broken” credit card terminals; being assured that the driver has a “shortcut” to get wherever you’re going; and of course never being able to get one when you need it (Washington, DC, and Los Angeles — I’m looking at you). It’s all just so painful.

Uber neatly solves all these problems: no taximeter, no credit card terminals, a GPS map that makes it obvious if your driver is screwing with you, and even “surge pricing” to encourage drivers to come out at times of peak demand (and push notifications when surge pricing has ended).

But you don’t have to use Uber very many times to realize that it comes with its own slew of problems. It seems I can never take an Uber without running into one or more of these issues:

Drivers and cars don’t match the app

If an Uber driver’s car is in the shop, he’ll borrow a friend’s, and riders have no way of knowing whether that car is insured, whether it’s safe, or even whether it’s stolen. Always compare the license plate in your app to the one on the car: if they don’t match, don’t get in.

The same is true of drivers, although it’s not particularly easy or fun when your car shows up to make a split-second decision about whether the picture and the driver look “enough” alike.

Drivers accept a ride and then…go do something else

I once ordered a pickup in Brooklyn and the driver who accepted was driving the other direction on the Williamsburg Bridge. He at least had the good sense to call and ask if I wanted to wait for him to turn around.

Another time the driver who accepted my pickup was getting gas. After 5 minutes of watching his car sitting still on my iPhone screen, I canceled the ride and ordered another. And the same driver accepted! Which brings me to…

The driver selection process is completely opaque

As the story above shows, there’s no way to participate in the process of choosing your driver. After a ride you can provide feedback, but you can’t do something as simple as marking whether or not you want that driver to pick you up in the future. And if the ride doesn’t take place, there’s no way to provide feedback at all. If you or or driver cancels the call before the ride begins, you can’t indicate whether you canceled the call because the car or driver didn’t match, if you canceled it because your driver was busy getting gas, if you didn’t feel safe, or any other reason.

Uber doesn’t collect that information because it doesn’t want that information: if it were receiving reports in real time about unregistered drivers or vehicles, it would have a duty to act on that information immediately.

Likewise, every time someone borrows their friend’s Uber account to give a few rides, or uses a different car than the one they registered with Uber, Uber still gets their cut of the fare.

I am personally unconvinced, however, that their studied ignorance will protect them against the coming wave of lawsuits. Fortunately, settling out of court with Uber’s victims is their problem, not mine.

Uber operates as a semi-criminal enterprise

It’s no secret why Uber works this way: it’s because their business in many markets is in violation of applicable laws and regulations. While their customers may be hipsters, businesspeople, and travel hackers, the independent contractors who provide rides for those users are not: they’re by definition the kind of people who are willing, for whatever reason, to work as freelance contractors, using their personal vehicles and personal liability insurance to provide rides to strangers, all while operating in a legal grey area.

Conclusion

I don’t use Uber very much, for the same reason I don’t use cabs very much: I walk, bike, and take public transportation as much as possible.

But I do use Uber, because sometimes you need to get somewhere by car, but don’t want to go to the trouble and expense of renting one or trying to use a taxi (see above).

Still, I wish Uber weren’t a bunch of criminals, I wish the rider-driver matching mechanism was more transparent and that the rider had more control over it, and I wish it were possible to alert Uber to shady behavior that makes you cancel a ride before it begins.

But I’m not holding my breath.

If you haven’t experienced the joys of Uber for yourself yet, feel free to use my signup referral link. You’ll receive a free ride (worth up to $20 at the time of writing, although it periodically changes) in your account immediately and I’ll receive one as soon as you take your first ride. If you end up finding Uber useful, I’ve written before about prepaying for Uber rides by sending yourself gift credit $25 at a time; it counts as a redeemable travel purchase with the Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard, and you can spend it down over time – gift credit doesn’t expire (until Uber does!).

Fun with post-devaluation Avios for premium cabin redemptions

In the last few years we've been flooded with airline rewards program devaluations. A few examples:

• On the earning side, we've seen revenue-based earning on Delta and United. Alaska also reduced earning on Delta-operated flights, leaving American (and for the next few weeks US Airways) and the Alaska-American partnership the last major domestic distance-based loyalty programs.
• On the redemption side we've seen increased United partner award costs, Delta's multiplication of award levels and close-in booking penalties, and British Airways' April 28, 2015, move to increase business and first class partner award redemptions from 2 and 3 times the cost of economy awards, respectively, to 3 and 4 times.

That last devaluation — increasing by 50% and 33% the cost of British Airways Avios redemptions in business and first class, respectively, got me thinking: when are Avios redemptions still cheaper than other alternatives?

The question is interesting because British Airways is by far the oneworld member it's easiest to earn miles with, as a transfer partner of both Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, both of which offer bonus spending categories that make it easy to get big point balances with relatively little manufactured spend.

American Airlines, the other main oneworld member airline for US residents, is a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest, but earning Starpoints is laborious at just one Starpoint per dollar spent with their co-branded American Express card and a transfer ratio of 1 Starpoint to 1.25 AAdvantage miles (if transferred in blocks of 20,000 Starpoints).

The big three transatlantic Avios routes

There are three transatlantic routes which, due to the distances and airlines involved, are often cited as key Avios sweet-spot redemptions:

• airberlin flights between New York City and Dusseldorf or Berlin, Germany;
• Iberia flights between Boston or New York City and Madrid (after transferring Avios to the Iberia Plus program);

• Aer Lingus (not a oneworld member, but a British Airways partner) flights between Boston and Dublin, Ireland.

All three partners charge low or no fuel and carrier surcharges, and are on the higher end of their respective Avios distance bands such that your Avios take you farther than on comparable transatlantic routes that happen to be slightly longer.

Since these three redemptions are among the most popular routes for Avios redemptions, I thought it'd be interesting to compare similar redemptions using other points currencies (and, of course, cash).

Iberia: Boston and New York to Madrid

At 3,410 (Boston) and 3,589 (New York) miles in length, economy tickets on these routes cost 20,000 Iberia Avios each direction on flights operated by Iberia. Business class tickets currently cost 40,000 Iberia Avios, but on April 1, 2015, "Off Peak Season" redemptions will go down to 34,000 Iberia Avios each way in business class, and "Peak Season" redemptions will go up to 50,000 Iberia Avios each way in business. Learn more about peak season pricing here.

Outbound award flights incur about €76.20 ($80.83) in fees and charges, and the return costs about €110.53 ($117.25) in fees and charges. A brief scan of roundtrip business class fares shows nonstop business class flights from New York costing from $2649 and from Boston costing from $4672 (one-way fares are the same or higher), so in cash terms a roundtrip Iberia Avios redemption would yield:

• BOS-MAD: 6.58 cents per Avios (Off Peak Season), 4.47 cents per Avios (Peak Season);
• JFK-MAD: 3.6 cents per Avios (Off Peak Season), 2.45 cents per Avios (Peak Season).

Those are pretty good redemptions!

Of course, it's cheating to compare these redemptions to cash fares. We're travel hackers; we don't pay retail.

From the New York area, here are the additional non-stop, roundtrip business class award redemption options:

• Delta. From 125,000 SkyMiles plus $52 in fees;
• United. From 115,000 Mileage Plus miles plus $52 in fees;
• American. From 100,000 AAdvantage miles plus $52 in fees.

From Boston, Iberia operates the only nonstop flight, so American (or, for the next few weeks, US Airways) miles are the only domestic airline miles you can redeem for that route.

airberlin: New York to Dusseldorf and Berlin

At 3,749 (Dusseldorf) and 3,968 (Berlin), these flights are knocking on the very top of the same band as the Iberia flights discussed above. They cost 20,000 British Airways Avios each way in economy, and 40,000 Avios each way in business. On April 28, 2015, business class redemptions will go up to 60,000 Avios each way.

Outbound flights incur $5.60 in fees and charges, and return flights incur $88.17 in fees and charges. Nonstop, roundtrip business class flights from New York City to Dusseldorf start at $3,067, while flights to Berlin start at $3,065. If we split the difference we get an Avios redemption rate of 2.48 cents per Avios for roundtrip itineraries in business class.

Besides Avios redemptions on airberlin, here are the other options on these routes:

• United operates a flight between Newark and Berlin. 115,000 Mileage Plus miles and $89.80 in taxes and fees.
• Lufthansa operates a flight between Newark and Dusseldorf. As a partner award, business class flights cost 140,000 United Mileage Plus miles and $91.90 in taxes and fees.
• American (on airberlin). 100,000 AAdvantage miles and $91.90 in taxes and fees.

Aer Lingus: Boston to Dublin

Sneaking in at 2,993 miles, this route is pretty much what Avios were designed for. Economy flights cost just 12,500 Avios each way, and business class flights currently cost 25,000 Avios, going up to 37,500 Avios on April 28, 2015.

Outbound flights incur $34.17 in taxes and fees, while the return flight costs $74.08 in taxes and fees. Nonstop, one-way business class fares cost from $3,709 (this is the only route of the three discussed here with one-ways for half the cost of roundtrips). That gives you an Avios redemption value of between 9.7 and 9.8 cents per Avios. That preposterously high Avios valuation is actually borne out on this route, since I could identify no other airlines operating flights on this route.

However, Aer Lingus is a partner of United, as well as British Airways, which means it's technically possible to redeem Mileage Plus miles for the same route for 70,000 miles each direction in business class. In reality, since United and British Airways are both transfer partners of Chase Ultimate Rewards, it's literally never worth transferring points to United instead of British Airways in order to book the same Aer Lingus award reservation.

Analysis

As a transfer partner of all three major flexible points currencies, we're always going to be eager to redeem British Airways (or Iberia) Avios when possible, since they're so easy to acquire. With that in mind, here's the breakdown of these three key routes to Europe (all figures are roundtrip):

• Aer Lingus between Boston and Dublin. Avios are a no-brainer, since this is British Airways' lowest transatlantic distance band, and any region-based airline partner is going to charge far more for the same flights. Even if you're flying on to mainland Europe, Dublin's a great place to start your itinerary, since you can get there for just 75,000 Avios roundtrip in business class.
• airberlin between New York City and Berlin or Dusseldorf. Unless you're flush with American Airlines AAdvantage miles from credit card applications, you'll want to take advantage of the luxury of choosing between United, Lufthansa, and airberlin availability. At 115,000, 140,000, and 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points, respectively, all are great choices on this route.
• Iberia between Boston or New York and Madrid. From Boston, this route is a no-brainer, since it's the only non-stop route to Madrid. From New York, again unless you're flush with AAdvantage miles, you'll want to look at your mileage balances and enjoy the luxury of choosing between Delta-, United-, and Iberia- operated flights between New York and Madrid, which clock in at 125,000 SkyMiles, 115,000 Mileage Plus miles, and 68,000-100,000 Iberia Avios, respectively.

Conclusion

I don't pretend that this analysis is definitive. I'm omitting important issues like transfer bonuses between Membership Rewards and British Airways that could substantially drive down the cost of even longer-haul flights on these carriers.

However, I've never seen a comprehensive analysis of the miles and cash cost of these routes before, let alone one taking into account the April, 2015, devaluations of both Iberia (April 1) and British Airways (April 28), so I'm happy to provide a first step in that direction.

Thoughts and criticism are, as always, welcome in the comments.

How many Ultimate Rewards points do you stockpile?

I recently saw Frequent Miler bemoaning his low Ultimate Rewards balances and had to chuckle to myself. Why? Because I do my best to keep my Ultimate Rewards balance at the bare minimum I'm likely to need in the immediate future.

I've written before about periodically redeeming my Ultimate Rewards points for cash. I do so because:

• Points are worth nothing until they're redeemed;
• Hyatt and British Airways (and Amtrak) are the only Ultimate Rewards transfer partners with points consistently worth more than 1 cent each to me;
• Unredeemed points are vulnerable to seizure by Chase;
• Flows are more important than balances.

I think it might be interesting to focus on that last point for a moment.

Flows versus balances

I have 3 primary methods of earning Ultimate Rewards points:

• Chase Freedom bonus categories (7,500 Ultimate Rewards points per card, per useful quarter)
• Chase Ink Plus office supply store purchases (250,000 Ultimate Rewards points per year)
• Chase Ink Plus gas station purchases (100,000 Ultimate Rewards points per year)

With two Chase Freedom cards and two useful quarters this year (grocery stores in the first quarter and gas station in the third quarter of 2015), I'll earn 380,000 Ultimate Rewards points this year, or roughly 32,000 Ultimate Rewards points per month on average.

That's my flow, and it's the number I think about regularly: managing credit lines, managing liquidation methods, and managing my schedule to make sure I hit my earning targets month-in-and-month-out.

Balances, on the other hand, are only relevant at the moment of redemption. It's very important – essential even – to have a sufficient balance of Ultimate Rewards points at the moment when you need to transfer them to Hyatt, British Airways, Amtrak, or United (if you're a glutton for punishment), or when you need to redeem them for a paid flight or hotel reservation.

But since your balance is just the sum of your flows over time, it's trivial to manage your balance in order to always have the correct number of points at the moment of redemption, when they're actually needed. For that reason, I'm happy to put any excess points to work in my bank account, as cash.

I still stockpile a few Ultimate Rewards points

With that being said, I don't redeem my entire Ultimate Rewards points balance for cash. Obviously I first look ahead and make sure that my incoming points flow really will cover any future redemptions I already have planned. But I additionally keep a reserve of Ultimate Rewards points for unexpected and unplanned redemptions.

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have such a reserve. After all, I have tens of thousands of US Bank Flexpoints, British Airways Avios, Delta SkyMiles, Hilton HHonors points, and even Marriott Rewards points that I could use to get and stay anywhere in the United States I needed to be particularly quickly. Failing that, I can always charge travel to my Barclaycard Arrival+ card and take up to 120 days to "work it off."

At the end of the day, however, there are reservations that really are made most cheaply with Ultimate Rewards points (for example my $200 flight to Reno).

So I keep a reserve balance of 45,000 Ultimate Rewards points in my Chase Ink Plus account. Here are a few of the potential redemptions that made me arrive at that number:

• 40,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points: 5 nights at a Category 2 Hyatt;
• 45,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points: 3 nights at a Category 4 Hyatt;
• 40,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points: a Bedroom - Two Zones award;
• 50,000 United MileagePlus Miles (I already have a small balance): a Standard Award in economy anywhere in the United States;
• Up to $562.50 in airfare or hotel reservations.

So with a balance of 45,000 Ultimate Rewards points I have a high level of confidence that I'd be able to get and stay anywhere I wanted or needed to be on short notice, regardless of my balances in the other programs I mentioned above. That's my reserve fund.

How many Ultimate Rewards points do you stockpile?

Obviously my calculation is based on variables that are specific to me: I don't have family abroad, so don't need a reserve fund that could take me overseas on short notice, and I'm budgeting for a single traveler, without a spouse or kids I would need to buy additional tickets for. Those expenses would add up fast.

What do my readers think? Do you save up Ultimate Rewards points for specific redemptions? Do you keep some in reserve for unexpected last-minute redemptions? Do you ever redeem them for cash? See you in the comments.

Do this now: register for Q2 2015 cash back bonuses

Registration is open for cards offering rotating cash back bonus categories in the second quarter of 2015. Here's the skinny:

• Chase Freedom. 5 non-flexible Ultimate Rewards points at restaurants, Bed Bath & Beyond, H&M, and overstock.com, on up to $1,500 in purchases across all bonused merchants.
• Citi Dividend Platinum Select. 5% cash back at The Home Depot and home and garden stores, up to a maximum of $300 in cash back annually.
• Discover it (log into Discover first). 5% cash back at restaurants and movies ("movie theaters, video rental stores, and online movie ticket services"), on up to $1,500 in purchases across all bonused merchants.
• US Bank Cash+. Register for 2% cash back at grocery stores, gas stations, or restaurants (I usually pick grocery stores) and 5% cash back in 2 of the available categories, on up to $2,000 in quarterly spend. Good 5% cash back options include charity, department stores, and electronics stores.

Bonus do this now

When you log into your Hilton HHonors account, you should see this banner:

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I aim to redeem HHonors points for no less than 0.37 cents each (the opportunity cost of earning them), so at that rate 1,000 points are worth about $3.67. I'll take it!

Weekend thoughts on killing deals

I saw a few interesting posts in the last few days about the ethics and mechanics of writing publicly about techniques to manufacture spend:

• Thoughts on Killing a $25K MS Deal — Matt from Saverocity

• Family Travel For Real Life, Southwest Cards, Top 25 Credit Cards, Hotel Point Transfers, Atacama, Budapest, ConventionsFamily Travel For Real Life, Southwest Cards, Top 25 Credit Cards, Hotel Point Transfers, Atacama, Budapest, Conventions (comments section) — TravelBloggerBuzz

• Open Discussion: How Should We Handle MS Topics? — William Charles at Doctor of Credit

In the 2-and-change years I've been writing this blog, I've developed a general rubric I use to guide my thinking about whether to share a technique to manufacture spend: if the technique takes advantage of a publicly advertised product of a for-profit company, I feel fine writing about it. If a technique involves a glitch, mistake, or oversight on the part of a company, I'll save it for my subscribers-only newsletter.

This rubric doesn't have the goal of "keeping every deal alive as long as possible." If I had that goal, I wouldn't blog about manufactured spending (and many of my critics would rejoice). Rather, it's based on the philosophy that when a company knows what it's doing, writing about a technique is more likely to help readers take advantage of a product for as long as it exists, while when a company doesn't know what it's doing lots of casual readers piling in will likely kill a deal before anyone can benefit substantially. That includes, unfortunately, the readers who would call into a company to "make sure something works," drawing even more attention to the oversight or mistake.

In other words, since every deal dies eventually, I ask whether I'm helping readers maximize their profit from a deal, or helping it die before anyone is able to benefit?

I don't think this philosophy is any better or worse than anyone else's, but it's the one I've settled on for now. Here are a few examples of how I've applied it in action:

• The TD Go, Nationwide, and US Bank Visa Buxx cards are all products that by design allow or allowed users to fund PIN- and ATM-enabled prepaid debit cards with MasterCard and Visa credit cards. I wrote about them frequently and they still occasionally come up on the blog.
• When TD Go announced that credit card loads would be limited to cards issued by TD Bank, third-party credit cards that had already been saved continued to work. Since that was a programming oversight, I didn't write about it. The more publicity the oversight received, the sooner it would be fixed (as it eventually was).
• When Evolve Money first launched, it allowed contributions to 529 college savings plans to be funded with prepaid debit cards. There were risks (you might get a call from Bill), but that was how the product was designed, and I wrote about it extensively.
• When Evolve Money first launched, due to lax implementation they also accepted credit cards to fund contributions to 529 college savings plans. Since that was an unintentional oversight, I shared it only in my subscribers-only newsletter, but not here on the blog, and it continued to work until a few days after affiliate blogger Daraius Dubash wrote about it on his highly-trafficked blog.
• Kiva loans, still one of the most lucrative and accessible manufactured spending techniques available, are bonused as "charitable spending" by US Bank as a matter of policy. That doesn't mean they'll continue to be bonused forever — they won't. That's because every deal dies eventually. But when the corporate policy is clear, as it is in this case, the more of my readers able to take advantage of the policy, the better.

While that's my general approach, there are a few obvious exceptions:

• When I agree in advance not to share something from a reader, I honor that even if it would otherwise be fair game, unless it's already common knowledge. After all, I actually do manufacture spend, so I'm thrilled to find out new techniques, even if I can't share them with my beloved readers!
• On the other hand, when something is not corporate policy but has lasted long enough to become background or institutional knowledge, like refunding travel purchases made with an Arrival+ card, I'll write about it on the informed guess that the company simply doesn't care enough to change or fix it.

Conclusion

That's my overall attitude towards blogging about manufactured spend. I don't make any claim that it's the right attitude, but it's mine, and if it helps anyone trying to figure out where they stand on the subject, I'll be happy I could help.

Unvarnished and uncensored criticism is always welcome, of course, in the comments.

Understanding Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan earning activity

I like to think there's a difference between loyalty programs that are confusing and those that are merely complicated. It's confusing how many Delta SkyMiles an award ticket will cost because Delta continually obfuscates and changes the number of SkyMiles required, while it's merely complicated to figure out whether a British Airways Avios redemption is cheaper when broken up with an intermediate stopover.

Since I'm relatively new to crediting paid fares to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, I wasn't familiar with their system of elite-qualifying-mile bookkeeping. I know that many of my readers are in the same position I am, aiming to keep or reach elite status with Alaska, so I thought it would be useful to share what I've found so far.

Crediting American Airlines flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

From the Alaska Airlines website, here are the rules for crediting American Airlines-operated flights to Mileage Plan:

"Elite Qualifying Flight Miles: Earned flight miles and premium cabin bonuses on American count towards Elite Status.

Economy Class Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in B, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, Q, R, S, V, W, X or Y classes of service.

Business Class Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in C, D, I, or J classes of service, plus 25% Bonus Miles.

First Class Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in A, F, or P classes of service, plus 50% Bonus Miles.

*Earn 500 minimum miles on flights less than 500 miles. Actual miles flown = 1 mile per flight mile flown. O class of service accrues for flights taken on or after February 1, 2015. Miles may not be earned for tickets flown in E, T, U or Z classes of service. Some deeply discounted, and industry fares are ineligible to earn miles."

Since my American Airlines flights last week have finally posted to my Mileage Plan account, I can report that while these rules are followed, their application is unnecessarily opaque.

"Earn 500 minimum miles on flights less than 500 miles"

Here's the flight I was rebooked on from Reno to Los Angeles:

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Since the actual miles flown was under 500 miles, I should have earned 500 miles, plus 625 bonus miles as an MVP Gold 75K elite. Instead, I was credited with the 390 miles actually flown and the "Bonus" column was "topped up" with the missing 110 miles, leaving me with the correct total number of miles.

"Earn actual flight miles* flown in A, F, or P classes of service, plus 50% Bonus Miles"

As I mentioned in a previous post, for my flight from Los Angeles to Dallas I was booked into the first class "F" fare bucket, which earns 50% bonus miles when credited to Alaska. Here's how that flight posted to my Mileage Plan account:

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Here the third column reflects the number of miles actually flown, and the fourth column includes both the 50% class of service bonus and the 125% MVP Gold 75K elite status bonus. Importantly, the class of service bonus does not increase the base mileage to which the elite status bonus is applied: both bonuses are applied only to the base number of miles actually flown.

"Earned flight miles and premium cabin bonuses on American count towards Elite Status"

Here's where things get tricky: your total number of elite-qualifying miles is the number of actual miles flown (the entire third column), and the portion of the "bonus" column that represents 500-mile minimums and class of service bonuses.

The best way to illustrate this is another example. Here are all five paid flights I've credited to Mileage Plan this year:

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And here's what my tier status counter looks like:

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The elite-qualifying miles shown represent the sum of my actual miles flown (4226), the part of the "Bonus" column representing my 500-mile-minimum "top up" (501), and the 50% class-of-service bonus I earned on my flight from LAX to DFW (618).

Conclusion: Alaska Airlines elite-qualifying-mile earning is unnecessarily complicated, but fair

While I was credited with all the redeemable and elite-qualifying miles I was due for the 5 American Airlines flights I credited to Mileage Plan, Alaska doesn't make it trivial to verify those numbers. With just 5 flights I could check their math manually, but when that number gets up to 20 or 30 I'll be left taking their word that my miles are being allocated correctly (or keep my own running tally).

Yet another loyalty program trap: airline companion tickets

In the last few weeks I've done a bit of a deep dive into the annual free night certificates offered by various co-branded hotel credit cards (IHG (and here), Marriott, Hyatt), with the general theme that a single annual free night certificate has to be looked at in the framework of your overall miles, points, and travel strategy.

For example, a $75 Hyatt free night certificate can either save you 8,000 Ultimate Rewards points if redeemed as part of a short Category 2 stay (good deal!), or cost you tens of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points if you let its presence in your account convince you to spend your vacation at a Category 4 Hyatt property rather than, for example, a Club Carlson property where your last night (or every other night, depending on your credit card portfolio) is free.

In other words, it's not enough to say the Hyatt Visa Signature credit card gives a free night when you pay the $75 annual fee. That "free" night might be very cheap or very expensive, depending on your travel plans and overall miles and points strategy.

Are airline companion tickets too good to be true?

Many airline co-branded credit cards offer an annual companion ticket, which are (with a few important exceptions) valid for economy travel in the continental United States and Canada, on flights operated by the issuing airline (excluding their partners and, in US Airways' case, their own sister airline American).

Here's a quick glance at some of those companion tickets:

• Barclaycard US Airways MasterCard (for new and current cardholders in 2015 only): $99 plus taxes and fees for each of up to two companions traveling with the cardholder, when the cardholder purchases an economy ticket fare of $250 or more. Valid in the continental United States and Canada. $89 annual fee. You must pay with your US Airways MasterCard.
• Barclaycard American Airlines Aviator Silver MasterCard (beginning in the second quarter of 2015): $99 plus taxes and fees for each of up to two companions traveling with the cardholder, when the cardholder purchases a ticket for $250 or more. The cardholder must spend $30,000 each cardmember year to receive the companion tickets. $195 annual fee.
• Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature: $121 for one companion to travel with the cardholder, when the cardholder purchases any economy ticket. Valid systemwide on flights operated by Alaska Airlines. $75 annual fee. The primary cardholder must be traveling or the ticket must be booked with a card in the primary cardholder's name.
• American Express Delta Platinum (economy) and Reserve (economy or first): pay only the taxes and fees for your companion when purchasing a ticket in eligible fare classes. Valid in the continental United States and Canada, except for residents of Hawaii, who can originate there. $195 (Platinum) or $450 (Reserve) annual fee. The terms and conditions state that the ticket must be paid for with your American Express Delta Platinum or Reserve card, although a reader reported that he was able to use a different American Express card.
• Chase British Airways Visa: you pay only the taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges for a second award ticket in any class of service booked entirely on British Airways-operated flights, originating in the United States. $95 annual fee. The primary cardholder must be traveling.

Who are companion tickets right for?

I often write that there are only two reasons to even consider using travel-rewards-earning credit cards, rather than earning a straight 2% cash back using a card like the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express:

• You travel for work and have reimbursable business expenses;
• Or you manufacture spend furiously.

That's because even if you (not unreasonably) value Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou points at more than 1 cent each, you have to earn a huge number of them to "make up" the $95, $175, or $450 annual fees incurred by premium rewards-earning credit cards.

The same logic applies to companion tickets. If you're reimbursed by your business or employer for your travel expenses, then the annual fees of these credit cards really might be cheap methods for bringing a travel companion on a domestic trip with you.

That's because when the cost of the revenue ticket is taken out of the equation, the credit card annual fees may be a relatively small fraction of the cost of paying for a second revenue ticket: $217 (Delta Platinum) is 25% of a $868 ticket, $210 (US Airways) is 25% of a $840 ticket, $196 (Alaska) is 25% of a $784 ticket. While those hypothetical prices are currently high for leisure fares (I haven't paid $784 for a domestic ticket in years), if your travel companion wants to come with you on a route heavy with business travelers, they're not inconceivable.

The problem with companion tickets

With that out of the way we can come to the crux of the problem: companion tickets are a bad deal because they require you to purchase a revenue ticket directly from the airline.

And if you're a travel hacker, that's vanishingly unlikely to be the cheapest method of buying tickets — even revenue tickets. Leaving award tickets completely aside, here are a handful of straightforward methods for buying revenue tickets on the cheap:

• Redeem US Bank Flexpoints at up to 2 cents each, earned at up to 3 Flexpoints per dollar spent on charity. Maximum discount: 83.3%.
• Redeem Citi ThankYou points at up to 1.6 cents each on American Airlines or US Airways flights, earned at up to 3 ThankYou points per dollar spent at gas stations. Maximum discount: 83.7%.
• Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points at up to 1.25 cents each, earned at up to 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at office supply stores. Maximum discount: 46.3%.

Compare that to a revenue ticket purchased directly from the airline, and a companion ticket paid for with your annual fee plus any required taxes, fees, or co-pays. Even the unusually high prices I cited above (with savings of 75% on the companion ticket compared to revenue fares) produce savings of just 37.5% when you're forced to buy the first ticket at retail price.

Exceptions worth considering

While the Bank of America Alaska Airlines companion ticket and the British Airways Travel Together ticket do have to be booked directly with their respective airlines (over the phone, in both cases), the terms and conditions of the tickets do not require them to be booked with the corresponding credit card. That means you can use a Barclaycard Arrival+ card to pay for both tickets, potentially securing a discount comparable to what you'd get booking using a more lucrative points currency.

Personally I prefer to use my Arrival+ miles for non-chain hotels and taxi and Uber rides, but if you're earning them cheaply enough, an Alaska Airlines or British Airways companion ticket might make sense — again, depending on your own miles and points strategy.

Think for yourself: it's free!

Here on the blog I very rarely make explicit recommendations.

When the "old" Blue Cash card surfaced, I suggested readers "strongly consider" applying, and am pleased as punch at the hundreds of thousands of dollars my readers earned taking advantage of that offer.

When the Suntrust Delta SkyMiles World Check card was being (gradually) retired I wrote that "when they finally close existing accounts, a lot of people are going to regret not trying their luck to see just how many Skymiles they could earn in that crazy period in the early 2010's when debit cards still earned rewards on PIN transactions." I, for one, am still going strong.

But as a rule, I don't give advice, and that's because I don't know anything about you, which I'm happy to admit. Unfortunately, the miles and points blogosphere is chock full of people who don't know anything about you who are absolutely giddy to hand out advice to complete strangers.

And they're wrong to do it.

How much is a weekday night in April at the Grand Hyatt Seattle worth?

Hyatt will sell AAA members a refundable room for $240.25 after taxes and fees, and there are folks, including among my beloved readers, who will argue that the retail price is the only true measure of what a product is worth.

But we're travel hackers, which means never paying retail. So here are some other options for paying for the same room:

• Redeem 31,344 Delta SkyMiles through the Travel Marketplace. Total cost: $22 (if earned using the Suntrust Delta SkyMiles World Check card at Walmart). 
• Transfer 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt Gold Passport. Total cost: $150 (the value of the points if redeemed for cash instead).
• Redeem 20,000 US Bank Flexpoints. Total cost: $200 (the value of the points if redeemed for cash instead).
• Pay with a Barclaycard Arrival+ MasterCard and redeem Arrival+ miles against the purchase: Total cost: from $48.05 ($2 per $500 Nationwide Visa Buxx load).
• Chase Hyatt Visa Signature annual free night certificate. Total cost: $75 (the card's annual fee).

Of these, the Chase Hyatt credit card is the third cheapest option, as long as you're staying for exactly one night.

That's fine as far as it goes, but what if you're staying more than one night? Do you move hotels? Or do you start spending $240.25 per night, or $200 per night, or $150 per night since you decided to "save money" by using your Hyatt free night certificate?

On the other hand, if what you want isn't really a night at the Grand Hyatt Seattle, but just a night in downtown Seattle, you suddenly have other options. The "Homewood Suites by Hilton Seattle-Conv Ctr-Pike Street" is literally across the street from the Grand Hyatt, and costs 40,000 HHonors points per night. Manufacturing spend with an American Express HHonors Surpass card at $4.95 per 3,030 HHonors points, a room costs about about $65. At $6.95 per 3,041 HHonors points, it costs about $91. And that's for each and every night, not just the first one. As an elite, if you stay for exactly five nights the price drops even further to 32,000 HHonors points per night, or $52 and $73 at the rates mentioned above.

Credit card rewards are traps; affiliate bloggers don't help

Hyatt, and Marriott, and IHG know exactly what they're doing when they give out annual free night certificates: they're trying to lock you into overpriced properties on the only-too-well-founded assumption that you won't look under the hood and realize how much money they're really making off you.

As travel hackers we should aim to break down these products and rationally choose the best and cheapest way of meeting our travel goals. As travel hacking bloggers, we should aim to help readers meet their travel goals by laying out analysis with as much detail and as many caveats and warnings as possible.

Affiliate blogging creates the opposite result: rather than laying out all the options and weighing them carefully and objectively so that readers can make the decision that works best for them, credit card affiliate links lead to motivated reasoning: since affiliate bloggers don't think of themselves as bad people, but do write blog posts promoting the credit cards that pay them affiliate kickbacks, it's absolutely necessary for them to be emotionally invested, for example, in the absurd notion that the Hyatt credit card annual free night certificate really is the best way to get a hotel room in downtown Seattle.

Why do I write about affiliate blogging?

I indulge myself once a month or so and point out particularly egregious behavior on the part of affiliate bloggers. And I typically get one or two annoyed readers who, quite rightly, point out that posts like this one don't help them earn or redeem their miles and points.

But at the end of the day, I understand that experienced travel hackers read my blog more for entertainment than anything else. If I write a dud every once in a while, it's no skin off their backs.

It's the novices who are just getting started in the hobby, the ones who are vulnerable to the ever-more-popular affiliate blogging platforms, that I have a real chance of helping by pointing out the conflicts of interest that are obvious to us, in hindsight, but are passed over with vague "disclosures" on the biggest affiliate blogs. As long as I think there's a chance of helping those beginners avoid rookie mistakes, I'll keep (occasionally!) writing about those abuses.

Conclusion: think for yourself

Of course it sometimes happens that affiliate bloggers make good points about the benefits of credit cards. Your only job is to be aware that they aren't making those points in order to help you — they're making them in order to get paid, and they find it convenient to ignore the benefits of all the credit cards that don't pay them affiliate commissions.

Understand the consequences of your actions. Decide on your own travel goals. Don't let anyone tell you what those goals are or should be. Think for yourself. It's free!

RFC: Problems with in-person Staples Visa gift card activation

While ordering PIN-enabled Visa gift cards from Staples online is no picnic, I had never had a problem buying such cards in-person until yesterday. I'd like to share my experience and see if readers have any of their own stories to share that might shed light on the best way to handle this situation if it occurs again.

Staples receipts should show the serial number of activated Visa gift cards

When you buy Visa gift cards in-store, the receipt shows the complete serial number (the second block of digits that are exposed when you peel back the small cardboard perforation). That makes it easy to check immediately whether your cards have been activated or even if (heaven forbid!) your clerk swapped them out for some dummies hidden behind the counter. Stranger things have happened.

My Staples receipt showed the product number, not the serial number

The first block of digits exposed when you remove the small cardboard perforation is identical on all $200 Visa gift cards, and that was the number printed on my receipt — the same for all the cards I purchased. In other words, it was impossible to tell which card corresponded to which item on the receipt.

Concerned at this discrepancy, I pulled a card out and called the phone number on the back to check the card's balance. Rather than a reassuring $200, the phone system told me the card had not been activated and instructed me to return to the store where I purchased the card.

Staples is able to refund unactivated Visa gift cards

In my conversation with the store's general manager, he explained that when a purchase receipt shows that Visa gift cards sold in a transaction haven't been activated, the store is capable of processing an immediate refund (my understanding is that other gift card merchants, like CVS, are also able to either process refunds or manually activate unactivated cards, though I don't have firsthand experience).

My receipt, however, indicated that the gift cards had been activated, and the general manager didn't have the option of processing a refund by simply scanning my receipt's barcode.

I lucked out with an accommodating manager

After explaining the situation to first the assistant, then the general manager at my Staples store location, the general manager researched the issue for 15-20 minutes and finally decided to process a manual refund of my purchase amount. That is to say, he generated a dummy transaction for the opposite of my purchase amount and refunded it to the credit card I used to make the original purchase.

That's highly irregular, and is clearly not the standard operating procedure when a Visa gift card fails to activate properly. Which leads me to:

Request for comment: what do you do when Staples Visa gift cards fail to activate properly?

With the hundreds of thousands of these cards folks have purchased over the last 2-3 years, people have no doubt experienced similar situations before. So I'm curious: what IS the correct procedure for having incorrectly activated Visa gift cards refunded or manually activated, either by Staples or Blackhawk Network?

Quick thoughts on 5 American Airlines flights

For my first trip since my Italian caper in January, earlier this week I flew to Reno for a fencing tournament and, per my plan for paid flights in 2015, booked flights on American Airlines, which I could credit to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

I've only very rarely flown on American, not because I actively avoid them (as I do United), but because until this year I was deliberately renewing my Delta Platinum Medallion status and American seldom served my needs for award tickets.

This isn't a sweeping judgment of American Airlines, just my thoughts after spending perhaps 20 hours in their clutches in the last 3 days.

Chicago is a terrible choice for a hub

This criticism isn't unique to American Airlines, but Chicago in general and O'Hare in particular is a bad place to route huge numbers of flights through.

On my outbound leg Sunday evening, my American Eagle flight to Chicago was delayed 90 minutes, which was only mitigated by the fact that my flight from Chicago to Reno was delayed 2 hours.

Detroit, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City, all northern cities with significant winter weather conditions, don't seem to have the continual problems I experience traveling through Chicago.

On my original return flight from Reno to Chicago, the flight was both delayed because of weather in Chicago and put under "weight restriction."

My gate agent was good at rerouting volunteers

Due to our weight restriction, my original return flight required a huge number of volunteers to take other flights. I think they ended up needing about 12 volunteers. They were offering $500 in voluntary denied boarding compensation, so I decided to see what options were available.

A simple Kayak search on my phone (the ITA app stopped working on my iPhone a while ago) didn't show any flights with space available that would get me home that night on any carrier, but the gate agent was able to force space open for me on a route through Los Angeles and Dallas that got me home 4 or 5 hours later than my original routing.

Alaska Airlines doesn't give bonus mileage for full-fare economy on American Airlines

I was rebooked into the full-fare "Y" fare class for my flights to Los Angeles and from Dallas, and booked into American's "F" fare class for the longer flight between Los Angeles and Dallas. I excitedly checked what kind of class-of-service bonus this would earn me in Alaska's Mileage Plan and was disappointed to discover Alaska doesn't offer any bonus for full-fare economy tickets.

However, neither of the other programs I might consider crediting miles to, American or their oneworld partner British Airways, awards bonus miles for "Y"-class tickets either, so I stuck with my original plan and credited the flights to Alaska (American gives 50% more Elite Qualifying Points, if you're planning to qualify that way)

The American Airlines cookie is fine

Since until this year I only occasionally flew American Airlines, I have only noticed with bemusement the literally thousands of times bloggers have written about the cookie served in American Airlines' first class cabin.

I was served lunch in first class between Los Angeles and Dallas, a distance of 1,235 miles, qualifying me for the second-most-elaborate food service:

"Warmed mixed nuts, followed by a three-course meal including a warm cookie for dessert."

The cookie? It's fine.

ERJ-145 planes are terrible

Both my regional American Eagle flights were on Embraer ERJ-145 airplanes, and those things seem to be just terrible.

The lefthand exit row seat has an odd metal protuberance which, on my first American Eagle flight a few months ago, I assumed was because the seat had been vandalized in some way.

Now that I've flown on a second ERJ-145 with an identical jutting metal bar, I realize that the armrest must have been deliberately sawed off in order to make the emergency exit accessible. Seems to me a slightly crazy way to run an airline, but I'm not an airline mechanic.

American flight attendants are a mixed bag

One of the great things about Delta is their flight attendants who, at least on mainline jets, are relentlessly terrific.

On my mainline American Airlines flight between Los Angeles and Dallas, the flight attendants were bumbling but well-meaning. I had to place orders so many times I started to thing I was having déjà vu. Twenty minutes after placing my lunch order, the same flight attendant walked by and asked, "Will you be joining us for lunch?"

The American Eagle flights that bookended my trip were opposite experiences:

• The first flight, already running 90 minutes late, was delayed another 20 minutes by the flight attendant repeatedly asking the gentleman behind me, "Are you going to treat me with respect?" I didn't hear what initiated the exchange, but come on: it's a 20 minute flight, and we all just want to get to Chicago.
• On the last American Eagle flight I took on my way home, the flight attendant exercised my very favorite dereliction of duty: she didn't charge me for booze.

Conclusion

This year I plan on directing my paid travel to Delta first class flights when possible, and American economy flights otherwise, in order to maximize my chances of renewing medium- or high-level Alaska Airlines status. I feel like this trip taught me a lot about what to watch out for when booking American flights, and hopefully my future flights will have more cookies and fewer sawed-off armrests!