Examples of current inflation - add yours!

athena53 said:
And don't get me started on the massive increases in points needed for Business Class transatlantic flights.
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I switched from capital one to fidelity visa. Went from 2% points to 2% actual cash back.
 
athena53 said:
Deteriorating values of loyalty program points has been an ongoing saga, but I just got burned today. Booked the Hilton Garden Inn within walking distance of Heathrow for my next trip to Europe. It's been 50,000 points per night forever. Now it's 70,000. :-(

And don't get me started on the massive increases in points needed for Business Class transatlantic flights.
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They are doing the same with IHG points. Almost doubled for a night's stay at a nicer place. I just went through this too. I'm still burning off all my airline and hotel points from three decades of heavy travel. Almost gone though!
 
athena53 said:
Deteriorating values of loyalty program points has been an ongoing saga, but I just got burned today. Booked the Hilton Garden Inn within walking distance of Heathrow for my next trip to Europe. It's been 50,000 points per night forever. Now it's 70,000. :-(

And don't get me started on the massive increases in points needed for Business Class transatlantic flights.
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On flights, the airlines have managed to keep their planes absolutely packed, especially business class for international flights. As such they really don’t want folks taking up those valuable business class seats.
 
Fermion said:
I switched from capital one to fidelity visa. Went from 2% points to 2% actual cash back.
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Yea, I use my hotel and airline credit cards only on the brand. The Costco Visa gives me 3% cash back on travel, which is worth far more than the points earned even if you do have to wait for the annual rebate. My only exceptions are spending to get the sign-on bonus, which I still try to do with that airline/hotel, and using it for that brand to get multiple bonus points.

audreyh1 said:
On flights, the airlines have managed to keep their planes absolutely packed, especially business class for international flights. As such they really don’t want folks taking up those valuable business class seats.
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They're also giving priority for unsold Business Class seats to deadheading crew members and offering people in Coach paid upgrades.
 
athena53 said:
Yea, I use my hotel and airline credit cards only on the brand. The Costco Visa gives me 3% cash back on travel, which is worth far more than the points earned even if you do have to wait for the annual rebate. My only exceptions are spending to get the sign-on bonus, which I still try to do with that airline/hotel, and using it for that brand to get multiple bonus points.
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Same here. The Costco 3% for travel and 4-5% for gasoline demands that the card be used for those purposes. But Costco only offers 2% for store purchases and my other 2% card gives me the same without the wait. .

I watch my Discover Card to see what the 5% cash back is for the quarter. This quarter it’s restaurants. I like it better when it’s groceries.
 
@Flieger I was just out at our Walmart, and the doz large eggs were still $5.97, that I paid several days back. Plenty of eggs in stock. I didn't need any.
 
This talk of airline "loyalty points" gouging for extras makes me chuckle when I see one of the airline ads about their loyalty programs. My first thought is "loyalty to whom? Certainly not to the consumer."
 
One of the reasons I've always avoided "points" cards is because there's no reliable definition of what a "point" is worth. Dollars I can understand.

This is especially true with travel. Prices for airline tickets, hotels and all the rest are so fluid that it's hard enough making comparisons in dollars. Apparently seasoned travelers develop a sense of the value of their points and miles, and make good use of them. I'm not there yet.
 
Most of the toilet paper in the USA is actually made in the USA (hey we make something!!!). Perhaps uses lumber from Canada though, not sure about that.
 
Fermion said:
Most of the toilet paper in the USA is actually made in the USA (hey we make something!!!). Perhaps uses lumber from Canada though, not sure about that.
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Exactly. I thought people knew that by now. Oh, well!
 
Fermion said:
Most of the toilet paper in the USA is actually made in the USA (hey we make something!!!). Perhaps uses lumber from Canada though, not sure about that.
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My Brother makes it at work(US) and gives me a case every year.
 
CaptTom said:
One of the reasons I've always avoided "points" cards is because there's no reliable definition of what a "point" is worth. Dollars I can understand.

This is especially true with travel. Prices for airline tickets, hotels and all the rest are so fluid that it's hard enough making comparisons in dollars. Apparently seasoned travelers develop a sense of the value of their points and miles, and make good use of them. I'm not there yet.
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Check for what you're likely to use them for. In my case, airline miles for a Business Class transatlantic round trip on AA are worth about 2 cents each- but if I use the airline credit card I get 4X the dollar amount spent on AA purchases, so 8 cents per dollar spent on flights charged to the card. Hilton is chintzier. I've been using points at the one near Heathrow and values are about .0034 (yeah, that's less than half a cent) per point. I get 12 points per dollar spent at Hilton on my Hilton Amex which improves it to a bit over 4 cents per dollar spent.

But you can see why I don't use the hotel and airline cards for other purchases.
 
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athena53 said:
Check for what you're likely to use them for. In my case, airline miles for a Business Class transatlantic round trip on AA are worth about 2 cents each- but if I use the airline credit card I get 4X the dollar amount spent on AA purchases, so 8 cents per dollar spent on flights charged to the card. Hilton is chintzier. I've been using points at the one near Heathrow and values are about .0034 (yeah, that's less than half a cent) per point. I get 12 points per dollar spent at Hilton on my Hilton Amex which improves it to a bit over 4 cents per dollar spent.

But you can see why I don't use the hotel ad airline cards for other purchases.
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One more calculation we have to do to get the best deal - figure out how best to use airline (or other loyalty) points. Grrrrr. Cash is so much more intuitive to me.
 
Just got the yearly bill for my personal articles policy...30% increase!!! I can't wait until I ask my agent why so much, but I'm sure the answer will be they have to cover all the jewelry destroyed in the LA fires :(.
 
The other day on a layover at the Phoenix airport, paid $39 for two burgers and one order of fries at Zinburger. Decent burgers, but the price seemed a bit high.....
 
cbo111 said:
The other day on a layover at the Phoenix airport, paid $39 for two burgers and one order of fries at Zinburger. Decent burgers, but the price seemed a bit high.....
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I take my own food now when I travel. Bacon and peanut butter travels well.
 
We still get a lot of value out of airlines miles. The key is to be flexible.

We typically fly out of Baltimore or Philly. We have a lot of AA rewards. It was cheaper for us to book a trip from Philly to zurich, direct...than it was for us to book a trip from Philly or Baltimore to Bozeman, MT. Soo, we're headed to Switzerland.

We used to fly regularly to Hawaii on AA from East Coast. It was never over 55k rewards round trip, to any of the islands. Not anymore!
 
cbo111 said:
The other day on a layover at the Phoenix airport, paid $39 for two burgers and one order of fries at Zinburger. Decent burgers, but the price seemed a bit high.....
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You always pay a huge premium for anything purchased at an airport, the airport authority rents are much higher than non airport locations.
 
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