News and notes from around the interweb:

• As if Hertz couldn’t possibly gut its rewards program any more they’ll now keep half your points if you cancel a redemption booking. I suppose that’s better than when they falsely report cars as stolen, landing renters in jail however the devaluation does seem in keeping with their having joined SkyTeam. (HT: Alex D.)

• Choice Hotels points worth buying at a half a cent apiece?

• Federal judge blocks suspicionless searches of phones at the border, a practice that’s up significantly over the last 3 years.

  
  Copyright: andreyuu / 123RF Stock Photo

• Google plans to offer checking accounts next year in partnership with Citibank

  Google executive Caesar Sengupta told the WSJ that the initiative is designed to “help more people do more stuff in a digital way online,” and he noted that the service could be used to offer loyalty card programs. The publication also notes that checking accounts contain a huge amount of valuable data about consumer spending as well as information about how much people earn. Google, however, has been quick to claim that it won’t sell checking account financial data to advertisers, and it added that it doesn’t currently use Google Pay data for advertising purposes.

• Chipotle nearly doubled its digital sales growth after launching new loyalty program.

• Austrian Airlines is launching Boston – Vienna on March 29. The Star Alliance carrier is a great boutique transatlantic option with good food and coffee in business class.

• Air India flight crew seem to be partying too much, calling in sick, and getting canned over it.