Month: December 2015

Don’t Get Conned By Chase: Read The Fine Print!

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I like getting bonus miles to share a good deal with friends, and I don’t like fine print. Chase is offering some of both in their most recent refer-a-friend promo for the Rapid Rewards Visa that you may have signed up for when I offered it in November. Beware: you might not get the miles you expect for signing up your friends if Chase also offers you a referral bonus.

I received an offer in the mail last week offering me 5,000 miles for every person that I refer through June 30th. However, there is a lot of disturbing fine print so I called Chase today to confirm the details of the offer. What I found out was really disturbing and Chase may not honor the referral deal as clearly published. So, if you choose to participate in this program, it’s best to be fully aware of how it might bite you.

Changing Promotions

Chase can change the terms of the promotion at any time. So, although I received a refer-a-friend offer in the mail for up to 10 friends–and they even included 10 tear-off referral cards to share–my promotion was silently cut back! What did Chase do? They pared back the promotion to only allowing 6 referrals instead of 10, and this was done with no prior notification. I would never have known unless I called Chase and they told me that they did this. I would have done the work of selling 4 friends and readers on their card (which, to be clear, is actually a good deal) for no compensation whatsoever.

Calendar Year Can Clobber Your Points

Making matters worse, Chase only awards 50,000 referral points per calendar year. I completed 10 referrals in November and December. However, the points haven’t been credited to my account yet, and won’t be credited until sometime in 2016. Chase measures “calendar year” based on when they credit the points to your account, not based on when the referral was completed. So, if I participate in any referral programs in 2016 at all, I’ll be helping Chase sell credit cards, but I won’t actually get the referral bonus for doing so. If I hadn’t asked, I would have done a lot of work for nothing.

Calling Out Chase

Most travel bloggers won’t ever call out a bank for doing something wrong or questionable. After all, Chase pays good money for referrals, which is why most travel blogs are always going on and on about the Sapphire Preferred card (which, to be honest, just isn’t all that good). I’m not afraid to call out Chase, though–they’ve never paid me a dime. The refer-a-friend program is rife with exclusions and “gotcha” clauses and there’s simply no excuse for it. If Chase takes the referral, they should cough up the miles without any weaseling. After all, referring friends and readers doesn’t stop with them signing up for the card. It’s a lot of work! People come to me about any problems they have with the card, or any questions they have about the Rapid Rewards program in general.

What’s Next?

I still think that the Rapid Rewards Visa offer with 50,000 bonus points is a good deal (vs. their normal 25,000 bonus point offer, which isn’t good). However, the refer-a-friend program just isn’t credible. It’s just too rife with conditions, exclusions, and last-minute changes. If you’re going to participate, I recommend you call Chase every time to confirm the details before you make a referral. And given the amount of time this requires, you might prefer to avoid the program altogether.

Save Money, Drive Instead: LAX Flyaway Fares To Increase 1/1/16

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One of the biggest criticisms of the Los Angeles area is that public transportation is fairly poor. Although the LA Metro goes to the airport, it requires several transfers and more than an hour to get to the more central parts of the Los Angeles area.

A few years ago, LAX Airport began to plug the gap with its own buses called LAX Flyaway. The buses leave LAX and go to relatively central parts of the Los Angeles area. Initially, you could travel to Union Station downtown (with easy Red Line connections to the most popular tourist areas) but you can now travel directly to Hollywood, to Westwood (near UCLA), Long Beach, Van Nuys and more. These buses are a fairly convenient and relatively inexpensive option if you’re going to anywhere near where they stop.

LAX Flyaway station map

Newly expanded LAX Flyaway service

Unfortunately, since the launch, the cost of the LAX Flyaway has gradually crept up and it’s going up again on the 1st to $9 per passenger, per ride. At this point, it’s worth rethinking whether to use the Flyaway service for shorter trips. Parking in the LAX area is extremely competitive and costs as little as $3.75 per day at some lots. You can even get free street parking for short trips in some locations, if you take advantage of free hotel shuttles nearby. At a cost of $72 for a family of 4 (plus the cost of transit to and from the bus stop), driving to the airport and parking for a week costs about the same as using the LAX Flyaway. However, it’s a lot less hassle. For shorter trips, you can save money by driving instead.

I like the LAX Flyaway service, but the cost has crossed the threshold where I can really recommend it, unless you’re taking a long trip by yourself and you are within easy walking or subway distance of a bus stop. Door-to-door shuttle anywhere in the Los Angeles area costs just $21 each way with Shuttle2LAX, so you don’t have to schlep your luggage on the subway. From many parts of the Los Angeles area, using Lyft or Uber costs only slightly more.

So, hop in your car. Clog up the roads. Spew out some smog. It’s one of those “only in LA” things, but driving–believe it or not–can actually be cheaper than the bus.

Hoverboards On No-Fly List

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Hoverboards are one of the coolest tech inventions of 2015, but they have made the no-fly list on many airlines despite FAA regulations that don’t explicitly prohibit them. This is noteworthy, but also understandable. Since 2008, lithium-ion batteries have been banned from checked baggage, and batteries in carry-on luggage cannot exceed 100 watt-hours (which is slightly bigger than a full-size laptop battery).

What’s the reason for the ban? In a word, fires. The crash of a UPS 747 freighter near Dubai in 2010 was affirmatively traced to lithium-ion battery fires. These types of batteries are easily damaged, and can violently explode in a massive fire that cannot be extinguished by normal means. It only takes one battery catching on fire to ignite every other battery nearby, resulting in a chain reaction big enough to bring down any airplane. Although the pop-ups are extremely annoying, this video made by some crazy Russians will help you understand what happens when a lithium battery catches fire:

“So what,” you may be thinking. “Millions of people travel all the time and their lithium batteries don’t catch fire.” And this is entirely true. Fire risk increases with the size of battery, and most devices don’t have large batteries. However, hoverboards do, and as it turns out, the cut-rate batteries and shoddy engineering used on the cheaper models poses a massive risk.

Alaska Airlines is one of the most enthusiastic early adopters of new technologies and they are based in tech-friendly Seattle, home of Amazon and Microsoft. So, when they issued a ban, I really sat up and took notice. Alaska performed independent tests on multiple hoverboard batteries. In their tests, they discovered that many batteries were labeled under 100 watt-hours, but were actually larger than this. This combined with a nationwide epidemic of hoverboard fires was enough: Alaska Airlines has banned hoverboards from their flights, and many other airlines have done the same.

Normally, I would be leading an outcry against knee-jerk reactions to ban new technologies. In this case, I can fully get behind Alaska Airlines. Fires on an aircraft are no joke. They’re one of the most dangerous things that can possibly happen inflight, and your chances of survival are slim if the plane you’re sitting in catches fire. Until better safety standards are in place, and battery ratings on hoverboards are proven to be credible, banning them is a smart move in the meantime.

Keep your travels safe this holiday season. Even if your airline doesn’t specifically ban hoverboards, please leave them at home. It’s not worth risking your life.