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!

Do Now (if you haven’t already)

• Discover Q1 5% Cashback activation from Doctor of Credit.

Nonsequitars

• Drew at Travel is Free posted a Master Chart of What Sites Search Airline Award Availability. 
• One Mile at a Time posted an update on American Airlines’ Photography policy.
• Barclay’s has upped the US Airways Premier World Mastercard sign-up bonus to 50,000 miles after first purchase. I’m sure there are plenty of links to use, but I’m linking to The Flight Deal – primarily because they do so much and its nice to give back (even though its out of cycle for my applications).

Manufacturing Spend

• Doctor of Credit highlights another option for liquidating giftcards. Billpay at K-mart — of course, the only problem: you’ve got to go to K-mart.

Travel Hacker Meet-ups

• I will be attending the Frequent Traveler University this weekend at the Crystal City Regency Hyatt. You can see the schedule for the Advanced and Basic. There are still tickets to the Basic track, but at $149, it is pretty pricey for what should be a good/great networking event. Its billed as the largest ever gathering of frequent traveler / mile and point enthusiasts. I’m not sure that’s a benefit.
• If you’re looking for an alternative, Bengali Miles Guru and Travel Summary have put together #TravelConOC2015. Matt will be among the speakers, and attendance is limited to 125. It will be the weekend of 28 February 2015.
• If you’re looking for something more family oriented (and on the East Coast), The Deal Mommy is hosting FT4RL2 in Charlotte the weekend of 7 March 2015.

General News and Notes

• Is it possible that carry-on items could be banned this winter? NPR suggests this could be something.
• In other news, Qatar Airlines takes delivery of the world’s first A350 next Saturday. In case you wanted to start booking tickets now.
• Want to run your very own TSA security checkpoint at home, complete with bodyscans? You can, for the low price of $7,995!
• Speaking of the TSA: they’re kind of sorry about opening up checkpoints a half hour after ticket counters at Chicago Midway, and adding a hour to travel time.
• By the way, which is the REAL best airline in the world? United? Air New Zealand?