News and notes from around the interweb:
- Reminder to keep checking points prices of Marriott free night awards after you’ve booked. Marriott regularly adjusts prices – including down (if they don’t expect the hotel to be full, their cost for the room is much lower).
Just a reminder to everyone to double check current hotel rates after booking. I booked the new 3 waters resort in Islamorada ~6 weeks ago for a trip in March. It was ~90,000/points per night but I had a 85k cert to burn so I used that and 180k points for a decent room with a balcony in ‘the cove’. Checked occasionally over the last month and saw rates had dropped but the room type I had wasn’t available, only non balconies. Check yesterday and bam, same room for only 55k/point per night avg. Was able to rebook, use my cert for the most expensive night and was refunded 75,000 points! What a deal.
- Not what you want to have passengers hear from a safety professional
Hey @AmericanAir, you might want to check on the door latch on N771SK CRJ700 used for AA6219 yesterday from ABQ to PHX. The cockpit door opened as we were taking off, causing the lead FA Julia, who was sitting in 1A in First Class, to exclaim, “Oh shit.” Something to look into? pic.twitter.com/CJPOsW1b1s
— k free (she/her) (@__KFree) February 24, 2025
- Virgin Pilot Alerted Australia to China Navy Live-Fire Drill (HT: @crucker)
- United opens grab ‘n go club in Houston
Credit: United Airlines - Say what? easyJet offers status match to disaffected BA elites
- United Airlines makes another investment in direct carbon capture. Ultimately it’s technological advancement that’s our only path towards better environmental stewardship. We aren’t going to stop growth, politics won’t support it. We’re going to have to find better ways of solving for environmental problems and this does hold promise – the technology works, investment just needs to bring down cost.
not only marriott
I just cancelled and rebooked a stay at intercontinental in melbourne australia that I booked 6 months ago, looked 2 days ago and price dropped by 5k points per night….
always good to check
If you are worried about carbon dioxide, there is an existing, proven technology that literally eats CO2 as food. It also provides shade and can cool urban hot spots. Better yet, they sh*& oxygen which last I checked is good for humans and other mammals.
But why use that if we can invent a massive, expensive, energy hog to capture, compress, and then inject CO2 into the ground.
@Connor EXACTLY
On the live fire drills by the Chinese in the Tasman Sea: A commercial airline pilot should not be the first intelligence on such a major development. The CCP is obviously feeling emboldened. That should be a major concern for all of us in the West (for the free peoples of the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, at least). Stupidly, our current President kowtowing to Putin has told Xi everything he needs to know–we will shamefully abandon our former allies. This isolationism and sycophancy to tyrants will cost the world far more than we can imagine. It won’t just be the people of Ukraine or Taiwan that pay this price.
On re-pricing bookings: Agreed with @doug. It’s just not just Marriott, but all award bookings, any brand, and even cash prices for hotels AND flights. For instance, I recently got a few thousand dollars back from Delta for repriced tickets. That made my day, for sure. It pays to stay vigilant.
@Connor — So ‘worried.’ If it were only as easy as just planting more trees. You and @Baron knowingly oversimplify this issue–decarbonization will require far more than that alone. The status quo is making far too much off oil and gas to pump the breaks. In the US, we’re about to ‘double-down’ on ‘drill, baby, drill’ instead of actually leading the ‘green’ energy economy. Yet another abdication of responsibility and opportunity for us. So, multinational mega corps will continue to destroy the ‘lungs’ of the earth, for instance, by deforesting the Amazon, DRC, and Borneo, because we supposedly need more beef, and ‘line go up.’ Profits over people and the planet. Future generations will justifiably loathe us for our greed and ignorance.
@1990 I think you might be surprised how much impact planting trees can have. I can promise you with certainty that it will have more short term impact than carbon capture. True story, our company worked on a carbon capture project. The energy demand on the equipment was so high they needed an expansion to a high voltage substation which was going to take 18 months. The proposed workaround to the delay was to run it off of diesel generators… Meanwhile, the deforestation you and I are both concerned about continues. I think we might be surprised how well planting trees works. Much simpler and cheaper.
I am all for innovation to improve the health of the planet and its inhabitants. But right now we are cutting down trees (again, they eat CO2) to use as a “green” substitute for concrete and building massive carbon capture things which won’t be close to “carbon neutral” for decades at the current adoption rate of green energy when honest math is used. People are making as much money here as the oil people.
“”Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
“Green” used to be the color of envy. Now we have changed the name to mask the greed. Funny how that works.
Agree with the “say what?” sentiment. Easy Jet is easily the worse airline I have ever flown.