The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know!

Travel

• Matt reviewed Worldcue a travel planner. From a brief look, it seems to me to answer many of the questions that one would be looking to answer before a trip, including currency, health stuff, and entry/exit requirements. The question is how you get access, if your company doesn’t have a tie-in, or a Diver’s Alert Network (DAN).
• Frequent Miler reports on the best Citi Prestige 4th night free finds. There were some good ones, including for Super Bowl and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
• Rapid Travel Chai shares the latest additions to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. More concerning are that there are 48 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in danger.
• Wandering Aramean went ahead and provided an update of Star Alliance TransAtlantic routes. This is particularly helpful when you’re trying to find an oft-hard to find award flight.
• Lucky writes a post about which is better, Emirates 777 or the A380. A reader of his makes the argument that the 777 is superior, if you take out the bar and shower. My opinion? If you just look at the seat, you’re better off booking in Business.
• A one photo flight review of TAM’s Fifth Freedom flight Between Toronto and New York, courtesy of Rapid Travel Chai.
• Dia the Deal Mommy encounters culture shock for her little ones. I’ve got to be honest, I’m at a complete loss here, but, if you have kids, it is worth a read, and if you’ve got a solution that works for you, I’m sure Dia would appreciate it!
• Map Happy reports that Google will now convert multiple currencies and total them in US Dollars.

Credit Cards, Miles, and Points

• Doctor of Credit outlines the risks of shutdown for Alaska Airlines mile collectors. They range from transfers to Alaska Airlines accounts, multiple Bank of American Alaska Airlines cards, the whole gambit. The game, shall we say, is changing, but it is not over.
• Seth Miller has put out a ton of great tools on wandr.me. One of the ones I found I was using a lot was the SyncAssist, it was an incredible tool, as you could link a twitter handle, and when a new AMEX Offer came out, SyncAssist would automatically sign you up for it. Unfortunately Twitter deemed this tool a violation. Not entirely sure why, but, they did.
• Freequent Flyer Book recounts the Arrival+ Devaluation; or at least, the varying “confirmed” changes.. and the impact that these changes have on the value of arrival points.
• Amol for Travel Codex, advises Citi Prestige holders to consider codeshares when redeeming Thank You Points. The reason is, if you can book a codeshare through American, you can get 1.6 cents of value per point.
• From Gary Leff, somehow, Mastercard is trying to introduce “Selfie verification.” I have to say, I’m not a fan, not because I use my wife’s CC’s (in fact, she is a full participating partner in our pursuit of miles), but rather, the idea of having to take a selfie. In the past, the only selfies I’ve attempted are Laviator or Shower Selfies, and I don’t believe any of them are appropriate for Mastercard to verify that I’m me.
• Courtesy of Travel with Grant, and admittedly a few years old of an article, but still an interesting read about someone who had an AAirpass (unlimited first class travel for life), and got it taken away.
• From Gary Leff – American is eliminating first class on 2 of America’s 3 New York to London flights. I don’t necessarily see this as a huge downgrade, as the business class seats will still be layflat, and I’m not sure it makes that much sense to fly First Class on a flight that short; unless they offer something like British Airways does, where you can eat your meal at the lounge before flying.
• PF Digest poses the question – is the Golden Age of Points and Miles over? I dare say that it depends on where you sit.
• Rapid Travel Chai asks: Should he decrease his Citi credit limits? Apparently one can have so much credit from a credit card issuer that higher level managers are needed to even move credit around. Is it worth the hassle? Which is more valuable, ease of approval or having more credit, thus lower credit utilization?

Reselling

• Chasing the Points shares 3 reasons why you shouldn’t play the gift card arbitrage game.
• Vihn shares a postmortem about how he maximized his two Chase Freedoms for $3,000 of 5x Ultimate Rewards points in the second quarter.

Non Sequiturs

• From Will Run for Miles, Amazon Associates is prohibiting advertising on websites directed at kids under 13. If you ask me, I think they are missing out on a promising demographic, I mean, kids under 13 don’t have their own money, but with enough tenacity, they have plenty of their parents money.
• Frequent Miler shares some of the mechanics of how he can be a “Freak’in Blogger” full time. It’s interesting to read, and from a personal perspective, while blogging is not my full time job, I have been trying to improve the Support Tagging Miles page, to make it a little cleaner (though it is still very much a work in progress). I don’t advertise it, but it is there, if you’d like to take a look.
• United, a billion dollar airline, stranded travelers and had a systemwide groundstop issued by the FAA because of system failures, what caused it? A router. Seriously, they should just go to Staples and pick up a NightHawk! Don’t get me wrong, IT is hard, but, that’s why there are hot failovers and back-ups. Even I know that, and I’m anything but an engineer.

#Avgeek

• Remember last week, we told you about a Delta 747 damaged by hail, and that Delta recalled a 747 from the desert? Well, that same aircraft, flying Delta Flight 73 made an emergency landing in Dublin enroute from Amsterdam to Atlanta. In the big scheme of things, its not a huge deal, just interesting to see, given it just went back into service.
• Australian Business Traveller reports that Airbus has revealed a single aisle first class cabin concept for their new A350. It doesn’t look nearly as nice as the single aisle first apartments that Etihad’s A380 has. But, the A350 is a smaller plane.
• Boeing and Vietnam Airlines flew Vietnam’s soon to be first 787-9 Dreamliner to Washington’s Reagan National Airport to show it off. Because, the Paris Air Show flying demonstration just wasn’t enough. (hah!)
• Seth is giving away cool #avgeek stuff! Make sure you enter soon, items include Airplane models, amenity kits, and a bunch of cool stuff!