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!

Top News!

• Loyalty Traveler reports that Hyatt is dropping the “My Elite Rate.” On the bright side, and infinitely more valuable, Hyatt will be keeping Points + Cash. Hyatt also released their category changes – The most notable thing for me was that the Excalibur is going from category 2 to 3. Yeah, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one, two days later.
• Chasing the Points (and probably everyone else) highlights Barclay’s latest push to get their US Airways card into more hands before they can’t anymore. 50,000 miles sign up bonus, and it sounds like 10,000 anniversary miles too!

Nonsequitars

• Stephan Segraves reports that ANA will be starting Tokyo-Narita to Houston service in June 2015. I don’t see it loaded yet on United.com or ExpertFlyer, so keep an eye out. If you’re an economy flyer, I’m sorry…er.. I mean, Stephan notes that the aircraft ANA announced that they would fly is in a 2-4-3 configuration. Good for couples, small and larger families. If, you know, you want to sit back there.
• One Mile at a Time’s Tiffany (part of Lucky’s PointsPro’s award booking service) talks about the value of Hang Up Call Again (HUCA) and how to talk to US Airways agents.
• Pf Digest shares a visit from St. Nick.
• Chasing the Points shares a way to stay in touch overseas – FoxFi. I hadn’t heard of it before hand, but I’ll be checking it out.
• Milevalue shares the BigMac Index and its impact on Argentinian McDonalds.
• One Mile at a Time shares his biggest hotel pet peeve. I can’t disagree. In fact, it’s a big reason why I won’t be returning to the JW Marriott Khao Lak.

Credit Cards and Manufacturing Spend

• Doctor of Credit reports/reminds on fee free Visa gift cards for AAA members.
• Miles4More talks about the options to downgrade Chase cards to Freedom (or others). Coincidentally, Chase released a preview of Freedom’s 5x for 2015 (my link).

#AvGeeks

• Wandering Aramean reports that soon (December 2015), you’ll be able to fly the an antipodal route around the world on a single alliance. For those of you rushing for a Google – an antipodal route is one that is entirely south of the Equator.
• Australian Business Traveler reports from Airbus’ Annual Investor Conference about the future of the A380. While Airbus’ CFO put into question the A380’s future, the CEO put a different tone, saying that a re-engined version is likely. Australian Business Traveler also highlights the potential (but highly unlikely) A380-900, which could carry as many as 1,000 passengers with 11-abreast seating in economy.