News and notes from around the interweb:

• Yesterday I wrote about a new $1000 gift card you can buy with a credit card. The Points Traveler walks through the steps for buying it, some notions on liquidating it, and summarizes reports so far (Chase and Bank of America coding these as purchases, Citi and US Bank as cash advances which is bad).
  
• JetBlue’s apology to the child forced to pee in her seat.
  
• Take a ride on Lyft and if you can get your driver to sign up for and drive with UberX you can get a $250 credit and they’ll get $500. This appears to be available in Atlanta, Chicago and Nashville.
  
• No more shopping portal payouts for gift cards purchased at Staples.com
  
• Military coups are bad for frequent flyer programs? Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus is mutilating its award chart effective September 1. All red shirts, leave the country before then. Fortunately most of my readers don’t have miles in Thai’s program (although they remain a Diners Club Club Rewards transfer partner). Not what I had in mind when I wrote about how Thailand’s military coup would affect travel.
  
• American – the largest international airline flying to Venezuela and nearly half of the capacity between Venezuela and the US — will cut most of its service to that country on the government’s unwillingness to let them access cash from that service. Apparently American is owed ~ $750 million.
  
• Aside: Since the $750 million of American’s cash held hostage in Venezuela is about how much United lost last quarter, does that make Jeff Smisek the new Nicolás Maduro?

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