You’re going to see a lot about a new CDC-released study that suggests blocking middle seats is important protection for air travel during the pandemic. However the coverage is going to be very misleading.
All that the new research tells us is that being a bit farther away from someone infected with the virus is probably better than being right next to them, which we already know.
Over the weekend, Vivo Y20 cell phones and accessories which were made in Guangdong, China and headed to Bangkok caught fire as they were about to be loaded onto an aircraft in Hong Kong.
You can now earn Marriott points for premium Uber rides and food delivery in the U.S. You just need to link your Marriott and Uber accounts to earn automatically. This earning is on top of what you get through Uber’s own rewards program.
Effective immediately and without notice, Southwest Airlines has started requiring 6.5% more points for flight redemptions. The change comes as Southwest celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. Award tickets used to cost 78 points per dollar of base fare and now cost 83 points per dollar.
The fact that a Westin hotel can go against the chain, and against their co-brand relationships with Chase and American Express, shows everything that’s become wrong with Marriott over the past several years.
On Meet The Press an infectious diseases expert gave this scary – and completely misleading – take on flying after being vaccinated against Covid-19: “Let me just give an example on the airplane flight. When you get vaccinated, it’s like buying a fireproof suit that works 90 to 95 percent of the time. But it doesn’t work all the time. So why want to walk into a big fire if you don’t have to?”
This completely misrepresents the risk of Covid-19, and how vaccine effectiveness is reported.
Canada’s hotel quarantine rules had a loophole. Passengers returning to Canada by air had to spend three nights at a government quarantine hotel waiting for Covid-19 test on arrival results, while those who crossed the border by land could quarantine at home.
This can be avoided by flying into a U.S. airport near the Canadian border and renting a car or taking a cab. That’s exactly what’s happening.
I first wrote about Bask Bank and the Bask Savings Account at the beginning of 2020. I’ve been saving and earning with them for a year and the mileage-earning strategy has proven-out.
That’s not really a surprise. I’ve been a customer of Bask Bank’s parent, Texas Capital Bank, since July 2003. But it’s great to see that the value proposition has remained constant throughout the past year’s turmoil, and even looks more attractive compared to today’s alternatives.
I’ve had the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® both recently and in the distant past, and it’s spending on this card that largely accounting for my first lifetime elite status with American Airlines way back in 2006. American’s miles are the currency I’ve spent the most over the years, and there’s no longer a great way to earn miles through another credit card besides an American branded one and then transfer those miles to AAdvantage.
And AAdvantage miles remain my go-to right now too, whether it’s booking Qatar Airways QSuites for next year or Cathay Pacific awards to go back to Southeast Asia. Any awards booked this year can be cancelled, with miles redeposited, at no cost – so these miles are the perfect way to start planning travel again.
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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
