News and notes from around the interweb:
- Surprisingly few entries for my giveaway of 4 hotel nights in Paris (with breakfast) at the contemporary boutique Hotel Eugene en Ville in a superior room with private terrace.
Comment in the giveaway post to enter. This is courtesy of Luxury Travel Diary’s auctions which often go quite cheap..
- Pennsylvania is considering letting its international airports offer slot machines. Gambling is ok, but only for ticketed passengers.
- France gets Star Wars 2 Days Before the Worldwide Release. So Air France will give you a free transfer from the airport to the theater and free ticket. (HT: Rene’s Points)
- Alaska Airlines and Emirates are introducing reciprocal benefits: priority check-in and boarding for elites in Dubai, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; Emirates Golds and higher will have access to Alaska lounges when booking an Emirates flight that connects to Alaska Airlines; Alaska Gold members and higher will have access to Emirates Business lounges in Dubai when flying Emirates.
- Through the end of the year transfers of American Express points to Virgin America can earn Gold elite status. Miles Per Day took that status and got it matched by Alaska Airlines.
- While US carriers – through their own flights and those of their revenue-sharing joint venture partners – are far and away the major beneficiary of Open Skies agreements, it seems that the US carriers’ bashing of Open Skies with Qatar and the UAE could wind up costing Delta its joint venture with Aeromexico whose approval is contingent on Open Skies between the US and Mexico.
- Airports offering flu shots. I got mine at O’Hare two years ago and will probably do it again there in a couple of weeks.
- Rushcard has been a disaster the past few weeks but the prepaid card product from hip hop mogul Russell Simmons was always a bad deal with high fees. Fortunately people without access to bank accounts — a growing problem thanks to the Durbin Amendment which makes low fee checking accounts unprofitable for banks to offer — there are innovative low fee offerings like Bluebird.
My favorite property is the villa in Aix-En-Provence
Not only located in a beautiful region, and can accommodate me and family, it’s going for only 6 Euros at the moment!
GREAT SITE!
I’m confused about the Amex-Virgin America bonus to earn gold status. The link you gave has the Amex-Virgin America bonus ending on 10/8. You say that something ends at the end of the year. The Virgin transfer link says nothing. So, is it that the Alaska match is only for transfers that occurred before 10/8 and that Alaska will honor those matches until the end of the year, or was the Amex-Virgin America bonus extended from 10/8 to the end of the year?
@patrick transfer bonus ended, status bonus runs through end of year if memory serves