AOPA credit card --- WARNING.

I should add that if I make the contingency reservation and am late then you
are free to rent the room out, but not before-guaranteed reservation or not.

mike regish

"mike regish" wrote in message
news:XFdqd.108569$5K2.15879@attbi_s03...
That ain't right. I can see the guarantee thing during a known busy
weekend, but if I make a reservation (contingency) and show up at or ahead
of the reservation time just to find out you don't have a room because
somebody else showed up before me with cash, I'm hauling somebody into
court.

mike regish

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Srcqd.164139$R05.153882@attbi_s53...

If you want a "contingency" reservation -- where anyone who walks in the
door with cash can bump you -- nope.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

That ain't right. I can see the guarantee thing during a known busy
weekend, but if I make a reservation (contingency) and show up at or ahead
of the reservation time just to find out you don't have a room because
somebody else showed up before me with cash, I'm hauling somebody into
court.

With only 27 suites to rent, we're in no position to play the "will they
show up?" game.

Which is why, if you want a guaranteed reservation, you've got to guarantee
that you're gonna show up. Since wiring money in advance is pretty awkward,
we must do it the credit card way -- even though I absolutely despise the
credit card companies, and it pains me to no end that I must pay those
*******s 4% of everything I take in.

But, if we didn't accept credit cards, our longevity would be measured in
weeks. Sadly, very few guests actually pay with cash.

(P.S. Hey, while I'm bitching, let's talk about the 5% I've got to pay to
the State of Iowa, and the 7% I've got to pay to Johnson County. Yep, a
whopping 16% of everything we bring in, off the top, goes to someone other
than Mary and me. Remember that next time you wonder why it costs so
damned much for a hotel room.)

(P.P.S. Of course, it would be much worse if we were part of a chain, or
used on-line booking agencies like Travelocity. Then we'd be giving away
upwards of 46% of everything we earned.)

(P.P.P.S. Which, by the way, is why we can afford to *include* a delivered
breakfast on a suite for which we only charge $59.95 per night, while the
chains cannot. That same breakfast, delivered to your suite at the
Sheraton, by itself will set you back over $40!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

I've twice been on the reverse side of this situation where a hotel
gave me a guaranteed reservation and then failed to hold a room
available. Once the room had been reserved with either Visa or
Mastercard and the hotel basically told us that we were on our own
but could use the pay phone in the lobby to search for another place
to stay. Complaining later to the credit card company got us
nowhere. The other time an AMEX card had been used to hold the
reservation and the treatment was quite different. They
apologized for having overbooked, arranged transportation to
another hotel and paid for my first night's stay there plus a few
free phone calls so I could let others know where I was staying.
I heard similar stories from others and apparently AMEX had a
much stricter policy of making both the hotels and customers
adhere to the guaranteed reservation policies.


Amex had nothing to do with it. You just found a hotel that unscrupulously
overbooks, but still has a conscience about doing so.

This was at least a couple decades ago and I believe that
AMEX had everything to do with it. At that time AMEX was
in a very strong position in the hotel industry and was
reported to revoke their arrangements with hotels that
didn't honor their reservations. No idea what the current
policies are since the relative influence of AMEX vs. other
card providers has changed rather dramatically.

On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 18:02:20 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

In a previous article, "RS" said:
If you have an AOPA/MBNA credit card then you should check the APR on your
last statements. MBNA has been raising the APR on AOPA cardholders, even if
you pay on time.

Anybody who carries a balance on any credit card is an idiot or a sucker.
The credit card companies hate me because I haven't paid a cent of
interest to any of them in 3 years. I get about 5 envelopes full of Visa
checks every month (as well as come-ons for new cards) because they want
to sucker me into that debt cycle.

Credit cards are good for two things:
Convenience and emergencies:
They are NOT good for credit!

Even a signature loan will be half or less for the interest. That is
why there are companies out there making a business of saving credit
card users money.

I've never figured out how people do the economics of using a credit
card to purchase things they don't have the money for otherwise.
Credit cards are by far the most expensive way to purchase most
anything if they are not paid off on time.

If I don't have the cash handy for a large ticket item, I'll take out
a short term signature loan.

With the money Capitol one spends one spends on sending me junk mail I
could probably afford to fly for a few hours. No wonder I read they
need the money.

My own credit card co sends me those darn checks (Instant case) and
other incentives. Of course if I use any of that the interest is
charged from day one. There is no grace period to the due date.

I must receive at least 5 "pre approved" credit card applications per
week to feed the paper shredder.

There are far better ways to borrow than on a credit card.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Jay Honeck" wrote the same thing twice:-)

Has anyone noticed that there are a lot of duplicate posts lately, or is it
just my ISP?
--
Jim in NC


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.802 / Virus Database: 545 - Release Date: 11/26/2004

Niagara Falls.

Matt

Maybe because of more tourists?

I don't think so. More like, it's a major artery on both sides of the
river. The New York Thruway must dump thousands of people onto those
bridges every day. (The main bridge doesn't even go through Niagara.)

When I was stuck on that bridge, it seemed to me to be mostly trucks.

I was impressed by how smart and friendly the customs guys were, on
both sides of the border. Stupidly I neglected to bring my passport,
having grown up in the era when all you needed to cross the border was
a driver's license. But nobody asked for it!

(Two round trips in the summer of 2002.)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
the blog www.danford.net

In article ,
"Morgans" wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote the same thing twice:-)

Has anyone noticed that there are a lot of duplicate posts lately, or is it
just my ISP?

I think it may be your ISP. I haven't seen even a few duplicate
posts lately.

--
Bob Noel

In article Tsdqd.405505$wV.131490@attbi_s54,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

:-( Then I won't be able to make a reservation for business travel at
your hotel.

Or anywhere else, for that matter.

Jay: I have a Diners Club card which I've been using the early 90's
for business travel.

I don't know of a single hotel (or even small B&B in our market) that
doesn't pre-authorize guaranteed reservations on a credit card.

right. But your hotel is the only one that I've heard of that doesn't
take American Express or Diners. I don't have a Visa card
(just a debit card)

--
Bob Noel

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 05:54:10 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote:

I don't think so. More like, it's a major artery on both sides of the
river. The New York Thruway must dump thousands of people onto those
bridges every day. (The main bridge doesn't even go through Niagara.)

When I was stuck on that bridge, it seemed to me to be mostly trucks.

I was impressed by how smart and friendly the customs guys were, on
both sides of the border. Stupidly I neglected to bring my passport,
having grown up in the era when all you needed to cross the border was
a driver's license. But nobody asked for it!

(Two round trips in the summer of 2002.)

Doesn't sound as if you were "hassled". Just caught in traffic.

There's a lot of truck traffic at the Calais/St. Stephen border crossing,
too, but with no major highways, no where near as much as at the major
crossings. Of course, there's only one or two customs booths open at a
time, so the lines can get long. (And there's a little used crossing a few
miles away, NOT known by the tourists, that we use when the main crossing
backs up).


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

Jay Honeck wrote:
:-( Then I won't be able to make a reservation for business travel at
your hotel.


Or anywhere else, for that matter.

I don't know of a single hotel (or even small B&B in our market) that
doesn't pre-authorize guaranteed reservations on a credit card. It's the
only way a hotel has of protecting itself against bogus reservations and
no-shows.

From what you wrote earlier, it doesn't sound like the CC even gives
you protection from no-shows, so why bother?


Matt