Queer and There

Category Archives for Queer and There.

Rolling with the punches (Or, Et tu, American?)

by Harlan 3 Comments

Update: American’s shitty response when I tweeted this post:

Did you feel it this morning? The quake that rippled through the blogs regarding American’s sudden overhaul of award redemptions? They also eliminated the beloved Oneworld Explorer Award AND stopovers at North American “gateway” cities – two features I really loved about the AAdvantage program. It’s a veritable mAAsacre.

I have to admit, I was really down about it. I don’t really care about the new five-tired award redemption system. I only ever booked SAAver awards anyway. The others are pure capacity controls, nothing more.

I was really looking forward to booking an Explorer Award in the near future. American recently introduced an unprecedented 100K bonus on the Executive AAdvantage card, which was enough, or nearly enough, to book a decent Explorer Award. I know a lot of people were looking into it and beginning to plan one of their own, including me.

And now, overnight, it’s gone. No advance notice. No, “hey you might want to book this soon”. Just a complete, unannounced overhaul.

The other thorn was the elimination of the free one-way that you could tack onto an award redemption. I was planning on doing that too, to get back from Oktoberfest, then onward to somewhere else. Now, the “somewhere else” prices as a completely separate award.

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Bye, Bluebird: My Experience Getting the Serve Card

by Harlan 4 Comments

Yesterday, after writing the post about how to best manufacture spend post-Vanilla, I went ahead and dumped Bluebird. I’ve heard of many ways people have done it, and the different sequences of opening/closing, and all the conflicting rules about switching from Bluebird to Serve.

Here’s how I did it:

  • Applied for a Serve card by following this promo link to get a $50 credit after two direct deposits of $250 or more (I plan to do this with Amazon Payments in May)
  • Yes, WITH my Bluebird account still open
  • Of course I got an “account being reviewed” message because you can’t have a Bluebird and a Serve account at the same time
  • So then I called Bluebird CS to close account
  • Then Serve CS to open the pending account
  • Seconds after I hung up, I got a “Welcome to Serve” email

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Will Vanilla Reloads at CVS be cash only starting 3/31?

by Harlan 1 Comment

Is that so?

Is that so?

Well, this would certainly be a game changer.

Per this report from PM&M and this post from @Ringsthecaddy on Twitter, CVS stores will stop accepting credit cards for Vanilla Reloads starting TOMORROW (3/31). Does that mean we can get in one last day of reloading? Or is it essentially “effective immediately?”

Vanilla Reloads have become a huge staple in my points earning strategy, to the point where I’ve relied on it to pay monthly bills like rent and student loans (and I know this is true for many others out there). To have it taken away with no warning would be tough. I can revert back to bill pay through my bank, but earn no points in doing it that way.

If this is true about CVS, they’ve changed their policy overnight with no warning – and we only know about it because of a leaked memo. I can’t say I blame them, but I wonder what the catalyst was? Transaction fees? Too many fraud attempts from criminals? Too many points addicts getting their fix at CVS for $4 a pop?

The game will go on no matter what. Here’s a post from Points Chaser about how to cope. We’ll all find out soon enough how this shakes out.

Mark this one as developing. Don’t be sad because it’s over; smile because it happened… right?

Seeking kindreds on the Barclaycard Travel Community

by Harlan 9 Comments

Update 2/1/15: I have been BANNED from the Barclaycard Travel Community. 

I don’t know why, but this is what I see when I log in now:

banned-barclaycard-travel

 

So if anyone has given me kudos, but I haven’t reciprocated, this is why. Thank you guys for the support, but it looks like I’m out of this one, unfortunately. :/

 

This post is part personal ad and part information.

Stepping up the game

Barclays Bank has been doing some really cool things lately, especially with their new Barclaycard Arrival (the naming of this card is so weird). They’ve created a revolutionary card with instant posting of points, instant redemptions, a great portal, free FICO score, and a slew of other great benefits. Anything a bank can do to keep a consumer engaged with their product is a really good thing. Now, they’ve made a community. Read More

If you haven’t signed up for Rocketmiles yet… do so now!

by Harlan Leave A Comment

This is just a shameless advert because the referral bonus has doubled for three days only, starting today. But, in all seriousness, if you haven’t checked out Rocketmiles, they offer a truly great service.

What it’s good for

  • Booking travel for others
  • Keeping mileage accounts active
  • Earning AAdvantage miles (the one with the least amount of transfer partners)
  • Sometimes getting a better cancellation policy than booking through other sites

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Evernote Review: Remember Everything

by Harlan 2 Comments

Also see: 

Be the elephant

Be the elephant

Evernote, for me, was one of those services that my friends highly praised, but that took me a while to get into for myself. Maybe it will be like that for you, or maybe you’ll instantly fall in love with it.

I have a new brain. And that brain is Evernote. Their tagline is “Remember everything.”

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Axiom for Bank Points and Airline Miles

by Harlan 30 Comments

a table of states with names

Axiom time.

Value

It is very hard to assign a monetary value to points and miles. Specifically, points issued by banks (Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, Thank You points, Arrival “miles”) and airline mileage programs (AAdvantage, MileagePlus, SkyMiles, Easy Returns, Avios, etc., etc. etc.)

Valuations vary wildly depending on who you ask. But if you ask me, it’s simple. You want to get at LEAST two cents of value out of each point or mile.

And that’s the smoking gun right there. Don’t waste time trying to assign some sort of arbitrary value out of your points and miles. You want to shoot for a minimum value of $.02 each.

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FoundersCard Membership: Is it worth it?

by Harlan 30 Comments

a close up of a blue round object

Also see:

Update: You can lock in a FoundersCard membership for $295 a year through May 13th, 2016 when you sign-up with my link. This is $100 less than the usual rate!

FoundersCard popular benefits
FoundersCard popular benefits

Why I joined

I joined FoundersCard earlier this year from a referral I received after flying in Pearl Class on Etihad. I mostly signed up to be able to review the benefits and see if they’re really worth it. So far, so good. I’m on target to more than recoup the annual fee.

The membership offers numerous discounts on a LOT of different services that are useful for business, lifestyle, or travel. There are one or two that I really zeroed in on, and I think the card could offer a lot of value both with monetary discounts and with opportunities.

Events

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Evolution of the Out and Out Logo

by Harlan Leave A Comment

I thought it was high time to get a proper logo for Out and Out. Who else but to enlist but my partner who’s a talented illustrator?

I found the evolution of the logo fascinating, and wanted to share.

The original direction for the logo was no direction at all. I think I said something like, “go crazy.”

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