In a story so absurd it cannot possibly be real, a passenger accidentally left $20,000 in cash inside her checked luggage at Boston Logan Airport—and the TSA screener who found it was celebrated for not stealing the money.
This week’s Frequent Miler On The Air podcast offered a really insightful point that I think is worth repeating.
Four premium cards dominate the space right now: Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X, and Citi Strata Elite. Let’s break down lounges, credits, earn rates, and transfer partners—then show which card (or pair) actually makes sense for how you travel and spend.
A woman crossing the U.S. border from Mexico was detained by Customs and Border Protection after facial recognition software repeatedly failed to match her current appearance to her passport photo taken 10 years earlier. Officers claimed her eyes looked “more open” in her old picture, leaving her locked in a secure room and repeatedly questioned before finally being allowed to leave without explanation.
An American Airlines agent fixed a 204,000-mile AAdvantage award pricing mistake for a reader in just 3 minutes—a problem Twitter support said couldn’t be solved. The solution? Simply hanging up, calling back, and getting a different agent, a powerful tactic that reliably cuts through airline red tape and bureaucratic dead-ends.
Journey Rewards is trying to do for boutique hotels and one-off rentals what the big chains do for 200-room boxes: make loyalty portable, trackable, and worth chasing. Their want to hook you by giving you 500 points for each airline and hotel program you verify belonging to.
American Airlines pilots declared “no confidence” in the airline’s management and requested a meeting with the board over financial and operational struggles—but the board declined, sending them right back to the executives they criticized.
Donald Trump reportedly demanded Washington Dulles airport and New York’s Penn Station rename themselves after him as a condition for approving rail funding—but a judge quickly intervened. Plus: TSA sued over $82,000 cash seizure, Chicago O’Hare’s new concourse, and more.
Everyone debates which credit card is “best,” but most people are solving the wrong problem. This simple framework cuts through the noise, showing how to decide which card actually fits your spending, benefits, and goals.
Airport food is mostly mediocre — but lounge food usually isn’t the upgrade people imagine, especially in lounges you can access with just a credit card. In practice the buffet often trails what you can buy in the terminal, and the few places that buck the trend are exceptions that prove the rule.
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 »
