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[ Someone had a little trouble handing a conference registration. So I explained to her what the problem was. ]
> Hi John:
>
> The MasterCard # you gave me isn't cooperating in my charge terminal. . .it
> says BAD ACCOUNT NUMBER. Help!
Yeah, that's because my co-branded Continental Airlines (a successor to the Texas Air Corporation and its former subsidiaries PeopleExpress, Provincetown-Boston Airline, and New York Air) - Marine Midland Bank (an indirect subsidiary of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp., now renamed to HSBC USA) Master Card and Visa account was sold to the Chase Manhattan Bank (a successor to the Chemical Bank which bought Chase Manhattan and then renamed itself to the better known Chase) which issued new cards with different numbers that still said Marine Midland, then later cancelled those and issued a co-branded Continental-Chase Visa with yet another different number.
But my other card, which was a co-branded Tops Friendly Markets (a subsidiary of Ahold B.V. of the Netherlands) - M&T Bank (Merchants and Traders Bank, a subsidiary of the M&T Bank Corp, formerly Empire State Bank Corp), dropped the Tops co-brand and became a plain M&T card, then M&T sold their credit card accounts to MBNA (a Delaware subsidiary of the bank holding company formerly known as Maryland Bank, N.A.), which issued new cards with new numbers, even though the cards still say M&T.
I would give you my new Continental-Chase Visa, except that last year Continental discontinued service to my local airport, Ithaca, so the miles I get on that card require that I drive to Rochester or Syracuse, each of which is an hour and a half away, or to Elmira or Binghamton which aren't served by Continental but are served by Northwest (formerly Northwest Orient, a successor to Republic Airlines and Hughes Airwest) which exchanges miles with Continental (which they now control through a voting trust that holds a special class of stock) but those airports are also over an hour away and you have to connect in Detroit where they left people sitting on the runway for eight hours last winter. So I got a new co-branded USAirways (formerly USAir, formerly Allegheny, Piedmont, Mohawk, and a variety of other small dead airlines) - Nationsbank (itself a successor to many mid-Atlantic banks, which bought BankAmerica, formerly Bank of America, formerly Bank of Italy and renamed itself to its better known subsidiary like Chemical did, only my card still says Nationsbank because it's issued on the east coast) Visa.
So here's the new number: 4000 0000 0000 0002 exp 12/09
Any other questions, feel free to ask.
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