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:
- Flying Vinny shares his experience flying from one side of Manhattan to the other, on Blade. Looks awesome to me!
- Gary shares tips when you may get scammed, as well as ways to prevent getting scammed abroad. Lots of good advice.
- Frequent Miler offers ways to avoid paying Uber Surcharges.
- American Airlines kicked seat maker Zodiac to the curb as the seat maker has fought delay after delay in producing the custom frontwards/backwards business class seat for the 787 and the refit 777-200’s. The Runway Girl Network has a good look at alternative options.
- From Cynthia Drescher – The famous European Town that you’ve never heard of, where everybody travels by boat, and more and more people are learning Mandarin.
- Becky shares the realities of a non-traditional job and work environment, and the benefits of it (aka much more travel), and the challenges (aka working remotely)
- From Johnny Jet, Google Street View Showcases a British Airways A318 – if you’re not familiar with the A318, its a smaller version of the A319 (duh), and BA flies it from London City to JFK via Shannon, in an all business class configuration with 32 seats.
- Map Happy has a post about the Godfather of miles, and how he travels. Its a good quick read.
Miles and Points:
- Kenny shares some great retention bonuses, and provides that proverbial kick in the pants to call the retention lines for your cards.
- Richard Kerr writing for The Points Guy shares an analysis of award space to Asia on American Airlines metal. It is sad to see the award availability so dismal, but none-the-less, fear not, partner airlines do have availability.
- Will, aka “The Doctor” reports that Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to Amtrak will end on December 8th. As he says, this shouldn’t be a surprise. I personally appreciate having more than 2 months notice. But don’t worry, The Associated Press reports that Amtrak will start charging for bags.
- Grant shares his first experience booking an award ticket using Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer miles. While I’ve done more than a few of these myself, it occurs to me, that unless you try to do it online, you’ll be surprised that you have to “nominate” the traveler. Its a quick process but none-the-less can throw you for a loop if you’re not expecting it.
- Loyalty Lobby shares the latest Cathay Pacific / Marco Polo Elite Program changes. Have you ever wondered how airlines view your “Contribution to the airline?”
- Freequent Flyer talks about constraints in Manufactured Spending. Specifically the liquidation constraint, which I think not many folks talk about. What he means to say is, you want to most efficiently MS geared toward your liquidation constraint, e.g. if you can only liquidate $5k, then you want to generate the most miles/points for that, even if you pay a slightly higher per point cost.
#AvGeek:
- From Jeanne – Schipol Airport makes a man’s dream come true. An 86 year old plane spotter had worked on various planes, but retired before the A380 went into production. So he went to Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport to finally see one. What happened next will bring a tear to your eye (in a good way!)
Tagging Miles Posts of the Week:
- External look at Expat Life, with some great comments to boot.
- Pope Francis tours the cockpit of an @AmericanAir 777-200
- Entertaining Discover Commercial Flashbacks in Honor of #DealoftheYear
- Targeted: Barclay AAdvantage Aviator 15k AA miles
- Concluding the Bermuda Labor Day Trip
- Get more cashback through the Ebates Mobile app
- A Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend. Start of the trip report more to come, including: British Airways Terraces Lounge – Boston Logan Airport, Cathay Pacific Boston to Hong Kong – Business Class
- Delta’s New Advertisement – Why we fly.
