News and notes from around the interweb:
- Avianca LifeMiles devalues some awards like business class U.S. – Europe goes from 63,000 to 70,000 miles in business while first class jumps from 87,000 to a whopping 130,000. Air Canada Aeroplan becomes the better path for booking Lufthansa first class awards.
Other award regions go up too, with first class seeing the greatest the greatest devaluation, such as U.S. – North Asia first class (think ANA) going from 90,000 to 120,000. For business class, changes I can live with, but they no longer offer outsized value for first.
Meanwhile business class East Coast to the U.K. and Ireland has dropped to 45,000 miles each way, not bad.
- An Airbnb host had to ban crypto mining after guests racked up a $1,500 electric bill.
I guess this doesn’t happen as much at hotels because you’d have to wheel the servers through the lobby? Otherwise crypto miners could easily get their room rates back in electricity alone. Or maybe that’s why we saw a rash of hotels imposing electricity surcharges on guests back in 2021? A Marriott did it. So did this Hyatt. This Las Vegas property, also.
@built.with.class Weird airbnb rules #airbnb #airbnbsuperhost #airbnbhost #crypto #electricvehicle #airbnbtips ♬ original sound – Ashley | Mama | Lifestyle Maybe passengers should try crypto mining inflight?
Latest airplane travel rig … laptop stand, (no levitation involved), keyboard, mouse, screen, power bank. And the @AmericanAir swivel seat 🙂 pic.twitter.com/IXKY4MsVPe
— Bhavin Turakhia (@bhavintu) November 29, 2023
- Like Q giving James Bond an exploding pen (GoldenEye), jetpack (Thunderball), or cigarette rocket launcher (You Only Live Twice):
The @TSA team at @Reagan_Airport made the right call when they removed what looks like a mobile phone from a carry-on bag. It's actually a stun gun that was manufactured to look like a mobile phone. Good catch by the TSA team at DCA! pic.twitter.com/MzRwY0zhQA
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) August 13, 2024
- Toiletries thrown out in DC airport security lines now going to people in need which of course proves that TSA knows they aren’t dangerous, even though they say the 2006-era liquid restrictions are expected to remain in place until at least 2040.
- Czech Airlines is being merged into Smart Wings effective October 26. It will leave SkyTeam. The OK Plus frequent flyer miles program will be sunset – all miles must be used by then. Such a shame, as this was arguably the best SkyTeam loyalty program.
I have written about some of the outstanding value, but not often because it’s been hard for U.S. members to earn points outside of partner flights.
- Spirit AeroSystems CEO gets $28.5 million payout
Czech hasn’t been a real airline for a few years now. Since the pandemic. I think at last check they flew just two flights. That’s it. Obviously, that’s not sustainable.
And why would that be a problem? Would raise no red flags especially if the hotel was hosting a convention at the same time. Total power to a single guestroom is probably limited much moreso than power to an entire Airbnb house.
I would call this *Clickbait* story
Spirit doesn’t do it’s job right and sells Boeing equipment that needs to be taken apart and inspected. When such equipment is put back together, Boeing doesn’t do it’s job correct so the door plug blows out in flight after Alaska Airlines doesn’t trace the multiple alarms it gets. Now Boeing is buying Spirit and the CEO of Spirit gets tens of millions of dollars. One hand washes the other. At the end of the day the flying public pays for it all.
US to North Asia was not 90k before. It has been 120k for quite some time.
Czech Air has been winding down for over a decade. 20-25 years ago, they had some intercontinental flights and the frequent flyer program was great. Then they wound down their mainline intercontinental flying and eventually even their intra-Europe route network became basically non-existent.
I think they may have lost a lot of members around 2013 or 2014 where they changed the program and for about a year had a rule that said miles would not be valid for more than 24 months from the miles earning date. Then they backtracked on that rule change for elite members, but the damage was done. The airline was too small too succeed against a Franco-Dutch behemoth in the alliance, but they also didn’t get creative enough with the OK program and play the part of being the SkyTeam version of USAir Dividend Miles and Avianca Lifemiles.
I have carted in boxes of computer and related hardware into hotel rooms without a problem. [Sometimes I’ve even had hotel rooms used as storage rooms and carted in boxes of miscellaneous items.]. So moving in a bunch of computers to bitcoin “mine” into a hotel room is less likely to be a problem than whether the room wiring and the hotel’s electrical system can handle the load of multiple desktops operating or if turning them on and/or off sets off something and shuts the electricity for the room or for some or most of the outlets in the room.
Agree with @GUWonder – most rooms are wired with 1-2 20A circuits at most.
(2 circuits * 20A * 120V) * .8 (max safe load) = 3840W
Nearly 4kW is a considerable draw! However, mining profit would be miniscule. Think like a few dollars a day, even with free energy, just based on some quick back of the envelope math and current stats I found online. There’s a reason that it’s a specialty “industry” and not something every company on the planet is into.
@Gary – LifeMiles devalued only a few months after launching their co-brand credit card in the US market? Just at the end of May you published an article ( https://viewfromthewing.com/lifemiles-overhaul-major-improvements-to-refunds-call-times-and-customer-service/ ) referencing executives at Avianca where they discussed upcoming changes to the award program (better customer service and processes being #1, was my takeaway).
It’s not a *lie* per se, but I believe you should call them out for their no-notice devaluation and timing that worked out such that new credit card customers barely had an opportunity to earn and burn at the rates valid at the time of sign-up. This was all terrifically misleading, in my opinion.
Very uncool, and will certainly be canceling my Avianca card at re-up. Trust takes a long time to build, and no time at all to destroy.
Bond actually had the stun gun phone in Tomorrow Never Dies