News and notes from around the interweb:

• Yesterday I wrote about the best hotel redemption deal, 5000 point awards. IHG Rewards Club has published the full list of hotels that will be bookable on Tuesday. (HT: Travel is Free)

• Air New Zealand has a problem.. with its cheese-to-crackers ratio

• Clint Henderson from Fox News attended Frequent Traveler University and wrote about the experience. He writes extensively about One Mile at a Time, Pizza in Motion, and The Forward Cabin, and says this about me:

  I got to chat with the author Gary Leff at FTU. He writes one of the most popular blogs, “View From the Wing.” Leff is an evangelist for the hobby, and often writes up his most successful mileage redemption tales. He recently described a trip to the Maldives paid for with points and miles. He flew first class on Etihad and Emirates using American Airlines and Alaska Airlines miles, and stayed at a Hyatt resort using hotel points. He paid very little out of pocket for the trip.

• The ‘Big 3’ Middle East airlines will have strict legal limits placed on their ability to fly to Amsterdam.

• 50% bonus on hotel points transferred to Qantas

• The lead singer of Iron Maiden is working to re-launch Air Djibouti.