One Program Will Still Let You Use American’s Old Award Pricing, or Book Business Class Roundtrip to Europe for Under 40,000 Miles

May 13 2016

American Express is running a 30% bonus on transfers to Etihad Guest through June 15. This is more valuable than you may realize. Etihad’s points aren’t just useful for booking premium cabin award tickets on Etihad itself.

There are some unique features of Etihad Guest. I’ve had success with award holds, there are strong value partner awards some of which are absurdly cheap, and you can even get infant fares for just 10% of the miles (not of the ticket price).

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Alaska Airlines Passenger Demanded Hugs from Flight Attendants Who Wouldn’t Serve Him Beer

May 13 2016

A passenger pleaded not guilty after becoming belligerent and demanding hugs when flight attendants refused to serve him beer.

It’s not even the first time this year this has happened. It’s not even the first time this year it’s happened on Alaska Airlines. In February an Alaska Airlines passenger screamed ‘We’re all Gonna Die!’ when refused alcohol. In that case the airline treated it as a simple ‘customer service issue’.

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Checked Bag Screening Melted Down With Thousands of Bags Piling Up in Cell Phone Lot Today

May 12 2016

More than 3000 checked bags today weren’t put on their passenger’s flights today at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport when the TSA checked baggage screening system melted down.

The ‘backup system’ that was in place? The cell phone lot was turned into checked baggage storage, where bags were to be checked manually (TSA says, “the alternative process is more time consuming than our automated system.”)

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Wyndham Introduces Elite Benefits and Makes Free Nights More Rewarding Than Paid Nights

May 12 2016

A year ago Wyndham launched a new program that gave members a single award chart price of 15,000 points per night. That’s an increase for the cheapest hotels, and a decrease for the most expensive hotels.

Now, a year into the new program, Wyndham is introducing elite tier benefits and they’re adding a new benefit every time you redeem free nights all while not taking anything away from members. There are changes, and they’re all positive.

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