Here is your rewards recap from a happening week. Enjoy.
American Express & Uber Team Up
American Express and Uber have announced that they are teaming up! You can now earn 2x Amex Membership Rewards points per $1 on Uber (all riding services), and use your Membership Rewards points to pay for Uber rides. Nifty.
Uber and Membership Rewards
I love Uber and have used them many times. Cleaner than a taxi and not that much more money. Plus, you never have to hand the driver payment or even tip, since it’s all done through the Uber app.
I also like that Uber is now integrated with a points currency. I just wish that the points system was Ultimate Rewards, which I find a little more valuable than Membership Rewards points. Yes, you can now choose to earn 2x MR points per $1 if you have an Amex card, but I would still rather use my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which gives me 2x points on travel (car services), and a no longer available on all miles earned, so essentially 2 points per $1 on travel.
I don’t recommend using your Membership Rewards for Uber rides since you’re only get $.01 per point. I would much rather transfer my MR points out to a travel partner.
Here’s how this new promotion will work:
- Get the latest Uber app for iPhone
- Enroll your eligible Amex Card with a tap
(If you already have an eligible Amex Card on your Uber account, you’ll be prompted to enroll when you open the latest iOS version of the Uber app. Otherwise, add your eligible Amex Card to get started.) - Choose whether you’d like to earn 2x points or use points for your ride
- Reap the rewards!
If you haven’t signed up for Uber, you can through this link and we will each get a $10 Uber credit. Oh, and if you live in Austin, Uber rides are FREE until June, 19th, 2014 with the promo code: ATXFREE
United Devalues Mileage EARNING
United has dropped another bomb, this time on mileage “earning.” United has followed Delta’s lead and is going to a revenue earning chart, starting March of 2015. This is not a change to their award chart – they already devalued their award chart earlier this year.
This doesn’t have an impact on you if you don’t ever pay for your flights. But if you’re a business/elite traveler or someone who lives near a United hub and flies them a lot, this is ground breaking news.
Basically, instead of being rewarded for the distance of miles you’re flying, you will earn miles based on how much you paid for the flight. And you will earn more per $, based on your status.
It’s sad to see United going this route, and it’s probably only a matter of time until American Airlines joins them. I hope not, though. I definitely recommend flying American if you’re paying for flights or looking for elite status with an airline. But flying AA may not be a good fit for you. If you do pay for a United flight, think about putting in a star alliance partner membership number, because the partner will still give you award miles based on actual miles flown (as long as they aren’t ticketed on United as a codeshare). Remember, earning miles on partners won’t be elite qualifying miles.
Of course, if you pay for expensive flights on United, you can come out ahead on the new revenue earning, but I imagine that’s a very small % of people reading this blog.
New Bluebird Practices
I have received numerous emails from readers having trouble loading their Bluebird accounts at Wal-Mart lately. Don’t worry, the sky isn’t falling. I haven’t had any issues myself, but that’s because I’m lucky enough to have a “Money Center” at multiple Wal-Marts nearby.
Wal-Mart Money Center
If you aren’t as lucky to have a working Money Center and are loading via registers at Wally World, then you may have had some trouble. According to Travel with Grant, you can still load Bluebird with gift cards that have pins at Wal-Mart registers by swiping your gift card. After swiping, quickly notice and press the small yellow box that states change payment method. Then select debit, no cash back, and enter your 4 digit pin number. You can also press the red or yellow change buttons if you don’t see the yellow dialogue box. I hope this helps if you’ve had issues at the register loading your gift cards with pins.
— Geoff Whitmore