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Mackieman posted:Corroborating but still highly anecdotal, I've yet to miss using my trusted traveler number from Global Entry. Same here.
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Jun 15, 2013 20:04
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Belldandy posted:Same here. And to also provide an anecdote, I was batting 100% on the pre-check until I got assigned a gig at MSP last year. Suddenly they've got a long line for pre-check and only 1 out of 3 is being accepted. I don't know if that was a few weeks of bull poo poo in general, MSP doing something weird, or statistical clustering. I haven't had that problem any other place or time though.
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Jun 17, 2013 05:20
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Are you precheck via status or via global entry or other US govt program
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Jun 17, 2013 08:08
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The remodeled half of DFW Terminal A has been mostly great except now it takes forever to get through security, even with status. Source: I've been standing in it for 20 minutes. At least my flight is delayed 
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Jun 17, 2013 13:50
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United announced spend requirements to achieve status today. Thankfully it's for the 2014 qualifying year.UA posted:Starting in January 2014, Premier qualification for members living in the United States will include a minimum annual spending level. We will track this new requirement with Premier qualifying dollars (PQD) – dollars spent on most United tickets, including partner flights, and Economy Plus purchases. The changes will not affect Premier qualifying miles (PQM) or Premier qualifying segments (PQS). The new criteria will look like this: http://www.mileageplusupdates.com/ has all the details and FAQs.
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Jun 18, 2013 14:23
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Hertz question. I'm taking a personal trip to Germany in September, mainly using up a bunch of my Delta/Hilton points. I was going to use Hertz points to get a car from Frankfurt, returning it in Munich several days later. But due to Hertz having some weird restrictions on what I could use the points for (only a compact manual car was eligible for points even though I'm President's Circle and have like 20,000 points) I ended up actually paying for a reservation. I got a really, really good deal. I booked a luxury car for 40.02 Euros/day, giving me a total after taxes of about 225 Euros for the four day trip. But I'm running into a dilemma. I was on the Hertz website recently printing out some receipts for expense reports and decided to just take a look at my reservation. When I tried to bring it up I got an error. So I called Hertz to ask what was up. The first agent said the reservation was showing up as being 600 Euros. After a few transfers ended I up talking to an agent in Germany. The best advice she could give me was "Just be insistent on getting the rate you booked and hope for the best." The difference is big enough that if I'm not able to get the reserved rate I'd want to totally change my itinerary and use train travel instead. Which would mean staying in different cities along the way, impacting hotels and other things. So I don't really want to just cross my fingers and hope. If it is unlikely my reserved rate will be honored I'd rather just scrap the reservation now. Has anybody run into an issue like this, where they have to get Hertz to honor a substantially different rate? Did you have any luck? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 15:05
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Thoguh posted:Hertz question. A couple of years ago I rented a car from Hertz at Rosenheim (first decent-sized town on the way back from Salzburg) and drove down to Fussen, returning the car to MUC that evening. I had a $50USD discount coupon to apply to the reservation thanks to an issue I had domestically prior to that trip. The Hertz desk agent in Rosenheim assured me he applied it, but he did not, so I had to go to the desk in MUC when I returned the car. It took the agent several minutes and some help from the supervisor (I don't speak German but I believe the discussion was over the valuation of $50USD in Euros) but they adjusted it and all was well. I have a feeling that if you have a print out from the Hertz site of your reservation (or perhaps the e-mail they sent when you originally made it) that shows the lower rate, they'll honor it. You could also try booking a second identical rate to see if you can make it happen again without the odd change. What you may be seeing is the authorization amount they'll put on your card after it's converted from Euros to US Dollars, but it's tough to say.
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Jun 18, 2013 15:18
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Mackieman posted:I have a feeling that if you have a print out from the Hertz site of your reservation (or perhaps the e-mail they sent when you originally made it) that shows the lower rate, they'll honor it. You could also try booking a second identical rate to see if you can make it happen again without the odd change. What you may be seeing is the authorization amount they'll put on your card after it's converted from Euros to US Dollars, but it's tough to say. A printout of the confirmation email is my current plan. It is definitely a different rate now, when I try to recreate it it shows up at 109 euros/day and a total of a bit over 600 Euros, ended up being exactly the amount that the agent I talked to on the phone mentioned. So it really is a question of whether Hertz will honor the rate I booked.
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Jun 18, 2013 16:47
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Mackieman posted:United announced spend requirements to achieve status today. Thankfully it's for the 2014 qualifying year. Delta did the same thing a few months ago. I don't really care about the spend levels, since most of my travel is booked a week or less before I go I'll hit them no problem. But I really wish that it was miles or spend. not miles and spend. If you are going to cull the ranks at least give me more of a reason to pick your airline for my last minute trips.
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Jun 18, 2013 16:49
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Given the wildly varying costs of airfare I don't like the idea of being able to buy status. BIS miles works for me. 5 hour delay to JFK, not getting in until 1am I love travel!!!!
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Jun 19, 2013 00:17
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Mackieman posted:United announced spend requirements to achieve status today. Thankfully it's for the 2014 qualifying year. This is actually loving obnoxious for me. It screws hub-to-hub travelers (more flights needed to hit same status tiers because hub-to-hub tend to be cheaper), international travelers (heavily taxed and taxes don't count towards spend, so more flights will be needed to hit same status tiers), and anyone using *A partners where booking through United is disadvantageous (spend not booked through United does not count at all). With that said, I can totally see why they did it. edit: the winners seem to be lifetime status members, and people at non-hubs that travel for work. Pissingintowind fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jun 19, 2013 |
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Jun 19, 2013 00:21
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Pissingintowind posted:This is actually loving obnoxious for me. It screws hub-to-hub travelers (more flights needed to hit same status tiers because hub-to-hub tend to be cheaper), international travelers (heavily taxed and taxes don't count towards spend, so more flights will be needed to hit same status tiers), and anyone using *A partners where booking through United is disadvantageous (spend not booked through United does not count at all). Those limits are so obscenely low I don't get what the problem is. How on earth are you going to fly 30 PQS or 25k PQM and not spend $2,500?? That is ~$90 per segment.
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Jun 19, 2013 00:52
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salted hash browns posted:Those limits are so obscenely low I don't get what the problem is. Do you qualify based on segments? It obviously doesn't impact those that do it that way since flying lots of shorter segments has a higher cost per mile. It completely changes the game for those that qualify based on mileage on coast-to-coast flights. SFO-BOS RTs tend to be ~$375 most of the time. It used to take 4 of those and a 1 shorter flight to hit Silver. So let's say $1,800. With the new system, those $375 flights will only be worth $300 once you subtract out the various taxes, so you'll need 8 and a shorter flight to hit Silver. 8 and a shorter flight on the old system would have been Gold. See what I mean? Again, I totally understand why they are doing it this way, since obviously the cheaper flights aren't as profitable. It just sucks for me 
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Jun 19, 2013 01:08
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salted hash browns posted:Those limits are so obscenely low I don't get what the problem is. I wish it was changed to only spend. From Toronto to Madison, with my usual 1-day's notice, I'll spend roughly $1500 for 4 segments round-trip, or 2k miles (with the minimum). Getting Silver status alone costs over $10,000, so 1K level.
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Jun 19, 2013 01:36
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At least they didn't try to add some type of bullshit about how this change is good for consumers. Also, DC-BNA needs more than Southwest for direct flights.
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Jun 19, 2013 13:17
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TheLizard posted:At least they didn't try to add some type of bullshit about how this change is good for consumers. I'm still upset about Delta "enhancing" away my ability to do same day confirmed changes.
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Jun 19, 2013 14:25
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Now that United's done it, I assume post-merger American will dump the "elite qualifying point" concept and will be the next to add an annual spend requirement.
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Jun 19, 2013 14:29
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kitten smoothie posted:Now that United's done it, I assume post-merger American will dump the "elite qualifying point" concept and will be the next to add an annual spend requirement. Count on it. In the next five years, miles aren't going to count at all. Everything is going revenue-based.
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Jun 19, 2013 14:53
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Airlines going to pure spend would be amazing for me. I fly rarely, book last minute, and generally only fly one-way, out of (or to) tiny regional airports through two connections with one of the country's worst major hubs on the other end.
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Jun 19, 2013 16:06
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Mackieman posted:Count on it. In the next five years, miles aren't going to count at all. Everything is going revenue-based. ConciergeKey (AA) and Global Services (United) are already revenue based. It's kind of logical, the more you spend the better you get treated. Call me crazy but I don't think a 10k minimum spend for 100k miles and 1K status is unreasonable to ask. Even if you were to do SFO to BOS round trip 20 times to hit 1k, your ticket prices only have to average $500. Even if your tickets were somehow only $400 every time, you could get really close by doing Econ Plus upgrades, etc.
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Jun 19, 2013 16:12
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Belldandy posted:ConciergeKey (AA) and Global Services (United) are already revenue based. It's kind of logical, the more you spend the better you get treated. Agreed, what it weeds out is those folks who were doing mileage runs and whatnot on really cheap fares to get 1K. Sucking up lots of benefits for very little revenue in return. This will kill that, more or less. Hell, I have Gold status on UA and would not likely hit the $5,000 in spend required for the 2014 qualification year. Thankfully, I have the old Presidential Plus card that makes me exempt from the requirements. But I have a feeling that will change after 2014, causing me to seriously evaluate the money I spend on a couple of extra trips to make Gold (E+ is a requirement for me being 6'8") and buying the E+ subscription for my wife and I.
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Jun 19, 2013 16:56
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Pissingintowind posted:Do you qualify based on segments? It obviously doesn't impact those that do it that way since flying lots of shorter segments has a higher cost per mile. It completely changes the game for those that qualify based on mileage on coast-to-coast flights. Actually, in some odd edge cases, it'll affect those of us qualifying with many tiny segments, too. My most common United round trip is DAY or CMH to CHS with a layover each way, and due to my employer's contract with United, my Y-class round trip (4 segments at 150% = 6 PQS per round trip) costs just under $400 pretax. So right now it takes me 5 round trips to earn the 30 segments for silver, but at about $400 per round trip, it'll now take me 7 round trips to pass $2500 PQD. I don't really blame them for doing it, as $400 is dirt cheap for 6 PQS, but it will affect me.
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Jun 19, 2013 17:51
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I think a big part of the problem frequent flyer programs have is there are lots of different types of frequent flyers, but their programs are one size fits all. Personally unless I have a legitimate business reason to fly at a specific time, or get a specific routing, I have to buy tickets that are close to the cheapest of the day. So really my only choice is which airline to fly. When they start differentiating between L,U,T,Q,B and all the various ticket types it is really annoying, because as a customer I only care if I am in coach or first class. Everything else is just bookkeeping. If you don't want people to fly on an "L" ticket then don't offer it. That is my biggest complaint about a lot of the changes Delta has been making to their program. They are basing it on things that matter to Delta (fare class) rather than things that matter to me (coach/first).
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Jun 19, 2013 18:14
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Don't forget, taxes don't count for your PQD's so your actual PQD's earned will be 10-15% below what you pay. Personally, I have zero faith that UA's IT people are capable of implementing this properly.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:19
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Gail Wynand posted:Don't forget, taxes don't count for your PQD's so your actual PQD's earned will be 10-15% below what you pay. They had a Presidential Platinum spend tracker on the old CO website (which is now the new UA website) so the infrastructure likely already exists for doing this. I imagine we'll see that roll out in early 2014.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:33
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Mackieman posted:They had a Presidential Platinum spend tracker on the old CO website (which is now the new UA website) so the infrastructure likely already exists for doing this. I imagine we'll see that roll out in early 2014. That tracker was hopelessly broken, FYI.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:36
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sellouts posted:5 hour delay to JFK, not getting in until 1am I love travel!!!! This right here is why I am starting to loath having to fly to the office each week. I really don't want to start flying in Sunday nights but at the same time not getting to the office till 3 in the afternoon on Monday because of delays doesn't exactly work either. On the plus side I fly non-hub -> expensive hub (CVG) -> non-hub so I have no problem meeting the $$ requirements. 5 more weeks till Platinum on Delta!  Maybe then I'll actually get upgraded for my status rather then only getting upgraded when I get re-booked for mechanical issues.
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Jun 20, 2013 03:12
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kitten smoothie posted:Now that United's done it, I assume post-merger American will dump the "elite qualifying point" concept and will be the next to add an annual spend requirement.
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Jun 20, 2013 05:11
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Small White Dragon posted:Doug Parker has a known strong dislike of frequent fliers and FF programs, so whatever "enhancements" his guys come up with certainly won't be in your favor.
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Jun 20, 2013 15:40
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Small White Dragon posted:Doug Parker has a known strong dislike of frequent fliers and FF programs, so whatever "enhancements" his guys come up with certainly won't be in your favor. I've only heard him speak once, but I walked away with the impression that he was mostly indifferent about loyalty programs. Where he had issues was with programs (and customers) who weren't profitable for the airline, as a good CEO should. He's runs his business fairly well, and the service and operations of US have improved dramatically over the last couple of years. But the merger with AA is going to be nuts, just like everyone else's mergers were. Delta was dogshit for about four or five years during the merger with Northwest, but they have a pretty good operation now; United has been dogshit operationally for the last year and a half or so and will continue to struggle for a bit longer as they get stuff worked out. American is going to be dogshit for the next four or five years as they get stuff worked out. It's cyclical.
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Jun 20, 2013 18:26
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I think the problem is that a frequent flyer program isn't something that is immediately profitable, and in the short run might even cost them money. For example, I generally fly Delta. In the short term they don't really gain any money from me being a frequent flyer. But by keeping me captive (because I don't want to have to start over to get status elsewhere) they will probably easily get over $1,000,000 in sales over the course of my working career, including more than a few last minute full Y or first class tickets. Skymiles makes it so they get all that money, rather than it being spread out among them and their competitors.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:14
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Thoguh posted:I think the problem is that a frequent flyer program isn't something that is immediately profitable, and in the short run might even cost them money. For example, I generally fly Delta. In the short term they don't really gain any money from me being a frequent flyer. But by keeping me captive (because I don't want to have to start over to get status elsewhere) they will probably easily get over $1,000,000 in sales over the course of my working career, including more than a few last minute full Y or first class tickets. Skymiles makes it so they get all that money, rather than it being spread out among them and their competitors. Now if they would only make SkyPesos actually usable, they'd have a winner. But yeah, I've occasionally and secretly wondered what life would be like if Delta joined the Star Alliance instead of Continental. Hopefully my earlier thoughts about United come to fruition and they're able to turn things around.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:20
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Feeling kind of smug right now. I was stuck in the middle seat on a Delta MSP-SNA flight. The flight was delayed so they gave me some free rebooking options. One of the options was the flight I was already on, but the only seats available were in first. I selected that and it rebooked me into first. I even went and had an agent reprint my boarding pass to make sure it actually worked. So Yay for Delta having a glitch in their rebooking engine.
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Jul 15, 2013 15:05
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Thoguh posted:Feeling kind of smug right now. I was stuck in the middle seat on a Delta MSP-SNA flight. The flight was delayed so they gave me some free rebooking options. One of the options was the flight I was already on, but the only seats available were in first. I selected that and it rebooked me into first. I even went and had an agent reprint my boarding pass to make sure it actually worked. That is most certainly a win. Free opup.
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Jul 15, 2013 22:11
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Oh hi there frequent business traveler thread. I'm joining your ranks. Currently booking and preparing for 8 trips in the next 2 and a half months. Quick question... Our company uses National rent a car. Is it better to collect rewards points from them or transfer them to another FF/points service?
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Jul 16, 2013 15:39
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How is everyone doing mileage wise? I am officially US Airways gold through February of 2015 and I have three trips currently scheduled. Hitting Seattle, Tucson, and Orlando but there is a big gap before going to Orlando in early September so potentially could do a bit more. I'm hoping to hit platinum this year, I just missed out on a trip to Singapore which would have put me to chairman's pretty easily so that was disappointing on all fronts.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:16
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Lyon posted:How is everyone doing mileage wise? Still the same, sitting a little over 100k as I've been doing almost zero travel, which is totally weird for me. I'd be around 200k on my old schedule. They did for some reason renew my ConciergeKey for next year, so yay for that.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:22
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Lyon posted:How is everyone doing mileage wise? I probably could have hit Delta Gold for this year if they went to Barbados. Apparently they don't. We tried to do the ATL to MIA legs on Delta and then take American Airlines to Barbados, but that was too expensive. We still ended up being booked first class because the client didn't decide until the last minute and first class was all that was left on the plane (not that I complained).
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Jul 16, 2013 21:06
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oxsnard posted:Oh hi there frequent business traveler thread. I'm joining your ranks. Currently booking and preparing for 8 trips in the next 2 and a half months. Quick question... Our company uses National rent a car. Is it better to collect rewards points from them or transfer them to another FF/points service? Basic Decision Tree for acquiring points with another loyalty plan, versus just sending them to your preferred airline: Question 1) Will choosing to earn points gain you some manner of status that will benefit you when using this company/make your travel life easier? Question 2) Do you intend to use rental cars for your own personal travel at some point in the future, or do you not want all points to such a degree that you're going to cash them out for gift cards on the regular? If No to both, just send the points over to your airline of choice or whatever. Lyon posted:How is everyone doing mileage wise? I barely fly, but locked in my IHG Platinum and Mariott Platinum, currently Gold with Hilton and working on it. And I guess Best Western Diamond too, but that isn't exactly useful or meaningful.
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Jul 17, 2013 02:47
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oxsnard posted:Oh hi there frequent business traveler thread. I'm joining your ranks. Currently booking and preparing for 8 trips in the next 2 and a half months. Quick question... Our company uses National rent a car. Is it better to collect rewards points from them or transfer them to another FF/points service? I traveled for 4 years and except for 6 months where we tried Avis, every rental I had was with national. Even though I haven't rented a car for almost a year now I still have like 15 free days with them, and they are nice enough to carry them over year to year for me when I ask. Their car selection is typically pretty nice once you get to executive elite and the whole choose you own car and go thing I still love. On a side note, screw BNA. I have my trusted traveler enrollment, global entry and a nexus card. The TSA and customs office says that's more than enough to get me into the pre check line regardless of what airline I'm flying. But no, every god drat time I fly outta this shithole of an airport I get stuck in the normal lines because the they see a SW boarding pass and assume I don't qualify. Assholes. DJCobol fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Jul 17, 2013 |
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