Today, April 1st, 2010 was a pretty exciting day in the news for credit cards and reward travel.

Delta Airlines To Eliminate SkyMiles For Flights

In a move that had been anticipated by industry insiders, Delta Airlines announced it will no longer be awarding SkyMiles for travel on Delta Airlines.   The SkyMiles program will continue to offer miles from credit cards, hotels, restaurants, rental cars, checking accounts, and SkyMall purchases.     Said Delta spokesman Brian Stack, “We see this as a win for travelers.   Right now, you could pay hundreds of dollars for a last minute, short haul flight and you only get 500 SkyMiles out of it. ”   He continued, “Most of our miles are earned though our partners anyways, and besides, 500 miles really doesn’t go very far anymore these days when most International Business Class awards are around 200,000 miles.   This will be a win for fliers because there will be fewer miles out there chasing the single ‘Low’ award seat offered to each destination, each year.”    Other major airlines are expected to announce similar changes in the future.

New Dave Ramsey Strategy

The financial guru Dave Ramsey has made a minor, but significant change to the financial advice he preaches in his seminars.    Whereas Ramsey used to tell his followers to eliminate all credit cards and other loans and use cash only, he now thinks it is prudent to give up cash as well.   Said Ramsey, “I was walking around with all this cash in my wallet, you know, from my $600 a seat seminars, and I just couldn’t help but spend it.”    According to his website, Ramsey will now stop using any kind of cash or credit and simplify his life by going to a barter only economy.   To attend one of his seminars or buy one of his books, you will now need to offer some goods or services that Ramsey is interested in.    When he goes to the store, Ramsey offers his financial advice to the merchant in exchange for their goods.    As a last resort, Ramsey is always able to find perfectly good products that other people have no use for.   Said Ramsey, “It is amazing what you can find in people’s trash, especially in the nicer parts of town.”

Man Earns 10,000,000,000 Frequent Flier Miles With Credit Cards

While the critically acclaimed film “Up In The Air” revolved around a business traveler who was on a quest to earn 10 million miles, Newark Delaware resident Brandon Schaefer has earned a record 10 billion frequent flier miles, all through credit cards.   First, he created a computer application to simultaneously apply for every single miles earning credit card at the exact same time.    Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Diner’s Club, you name it and he applied for it.   Since all the applications were submitted simultaneously, he was approved for each card, many with generous sign up bonuses.    Unfortunately, that only got him the first 100 million miles.   From there, he was able to create a similar program to order dollar coins from the US Mint simultaneously in unprecedented quantities.     Said Schaefer, “My bank was stunned when I pulled up with a tractor trailer truck filled with coins, but after a few weeks, they got used to it”.

Even then, Schaefer was only at a billion frequent flier miles.    Fortunately, Schaefer was able to leverage his position as a purchasing director for the Department of Defense.    It turns out, that he was able to charge significant purchases related to the wars in Iraq and Afganistan to his personal credit cards.    The way Schaefer explained it,

“At first it was just some office supplies, and then some meals and hotels during business travel.   After a while, they were ok with me charging a few of those new F-22 fighters to my StarWood American Express, and that is when the miles really started pouring in.     Those babies ain’t cheap, but we won’t settle for anything less than the best for our fighting men and women.”

What will Shaefer do with all of those miles.    He is hoping to redeem them for enough Delta SkyMiles to take his family on a trip to Europe.   Said Shaefer, “According to Delta’s award calendar, I may need most of my miles to take a family of five to Asia in Business class, as there doesn’t seem to be any ‘Low’ category awards left.”

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