News and notes from around the interweb:

• As Emirates reportedly slows hiring of flight attendants and defers Airbus A380 orders, and as Etihad lays off employees and unwinds some of its foreign airline investments, Qatar Airways moves forward with a 10% stake in South America’s LATAM. They already own a stake in British Airways and Iberia parent IAG and Meridiana.

  

• Complete map and sortable table of all 653 IHG category changes 2017

• 7 Smart Travel Credit Card Hacks You’ve Never Heard Of except that readers of this blog have probably heard them (since many of them are from me).

• IHG is probing reports of a credit card breach

• Delayed Air Canada flight meant a 5 hour winter drive in the middle of the night and a call for police.

  Air Canada did not answer specific questions, such as when the next flight was available, if it was safe to send passengers out on a five-hour winter drive at 3 a.m., or what the Air Canada employee meant by warning passengers they could be put on a no-fly list. Air Canada also did not explain why the employee called the police.

• When National Car Rental’s frequency program updates its terms, they send you an email but the email doesn’t say what has changed. They do offer a FAQ but it only highlights what topics contain changes, it doesn’t actually tell you what the changes are. So if you want to know how the program is different, well…

  We do know that they have added mandatory arbitration to the terms. I haven’t bothered to read the document to discern what “[m]odified transferability of rental credits” means. And they wonder why very few people care about rental car loyalty programs.

• Man gives away frequent flyer miles to get people home for the holidays. Here’s his Imgur post. (HT: Jenn R.)

• Emirates reportedly cutting A380 showers from Dubai – Kuwait City flights and welcome towels in economy