News and notes from around the interweb:
- The new Virgin Atlantic award calendar is a fantastic tool for searching both Virgin and Delta availability in all classes of service quickly.
Virgin Atlantic New Calendar Search With Bonus Features
by u/mexicoke in awardtravel - Atlantic City hotel will get a new cannabis lounge
- This is really funny. No, Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t banned from television commercials. But the hypothetical TV spot (complete with very NSFW language) that would have gotten him banned is quite good. (HT: Jonathan)
- Hotel shredded 41 guest passports stranding a British school trip group in the U.S. The British Embassy is expediting replacement documents.
- Woman arrested for using 8 stolen credit cards to book a 7 day Royal Caribbean cruise.
- Existential question: if your upgrade doesn’t clear, does it matter whether you were next on the list or 120th? Still, this is pretty brutal.
There are so many Delta passengers with high elite status flying out of ATL that as a Platinum Medallion with the Reserve card I'm not even IN THE FIRST 60 for upgrade. Out of 190 seats on the whole airplane. I don't even show up on the upgrade list. pic.twitter.com/q3YRIaMOau
— Alberto Riva (@Albertoriva) February 28, 2023
There’s more to this story than is shown in the linked article. “they realised 41 passports had been accidentally destroyed – although how and why remains unclear”. Who had possession of these passports? Someone isn’t stepping up to clarify who is responsible.
The airlines shift to credit/charge card-based elites and this (anti-traditional) policy of crediting miles based on $ spent (rather than distance flown) are big contributors to the massive lists of elites waiting for complimentary upgrades at the airport.
@ GUWonder — The reality today is that if you want to fly up front, you’ve got to buy it. I guess that’s how it should be, even if we don’t like it. Why should airlines give away their most coveted benefit? Don’t get me wrong — I love being able to be able to reliably score free upgrades, but those days will be over come March 31 along with my spouse’s CK status.
I use whatever points I have (in several different airline reward groups) to just reliably book “A to B” trips in economy (main cabin). I long ago saw the futility of trying to book anything more “luxe” with my rather ordinary flight status. As it is, I am satisfied I can save some money and still get to my chosen destination (all domestic, BTW). My CC expenditures are, therefore, not going to waste, but help me defray standard, regular travel costs; lower, more realistic expectations, and therefore, no upsets.