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Why Do The Values Some Blogs Give For Miles Make Absolutely No Sense?

by Gary Leff

Aug 18 2022

Richard Kerr, formerly of The Points Guy and the Award Travel 101 Facebook group who is now with Bilt Rewards, offered a couple of provocative questions in his Instagram feed.

He asks why some people value clearly less valuable currencies more than a Bilt point. He may be asking about individual program members, but I’m going to ask it of those people who are supposed to know – travel bloggers who publish valuations of different mileage currencies. Much of the work those bloggers are doing fails to hold together.

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Why Tortas Frontera Is Great, And Other Airport Restaurants Are So Bad

by Gary Leff

Aug 17 2022

I don’t love Chicago O’Hare, but when I book an O’Hare connection I usually think, “at least I can get Tortas Frontera.” And I’ll pick up a sandwich (choriqueso is my go-to, followed by the pepito) even though there’s free lounge food available. I’ll gladly pay for something good enough that I would eat it even if it wasn’t inside of an airport.

There need to be some licensed TGI Fridays and plenty of quick serve places in an airport, to put out a lot of food to travelers with varying palates. But not every place needs to do that.

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LAX CEO Says A Surprising Airline Could Launch Non-Stop Service To Vietnam

by Gary Leff

Aug 09 2022

Vietnam Airlines launched new service from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) during the pandemic. They’ve been eyeing non-stop service to Los Angeles as well – but they’re not alone. In fact a surprising carrier may be first to launch the service, and receive two years of subsidies from the Los Angeles airports authority.

There are two airlines reportedly with Memorandums of Understanding in place to launch non-stop LA – Vietnam service, both may be surprising but talks with one have reportedly heated up.

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20% Transfer Bonuses From Capital One To Air France & British Airways Through 8/31/22

by Gary Leff

Aug 06 2022

Ultimately I’m thrilled to see these offers even though I’m not going to take advantage of them now. I often don’t know when I’ll need it, and I check each of my transferable points accounts for a bonus before choosing which one to transfer from. I’ve recently redeemed Flying Blue points for a Paris – Chicago flight, and just last week redeemed something intra-Europe (since, while Virgin Atlantic was cheaper for the same award, the Virgin site kept erroring and a telephone agent was not helpful).

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Passenger Fined $1870 After Sausage McMuffins Were Found In Their Backpack

by Gary Leff

Aug 02 2022

U.S. immigration is hard-nosed in Toronto, especially for Canadians entering for temporary work. Portland used to have a reputation as “Deportland.” At most ports of entry to the U.S. they’re looking for terrorists, and people with immigrant intent. In Australia they’re looking for… snacks.

It was only last month that Australia fined a woman $1750 for failing to declare a half-eaten subway sandwich. Now a passenger has been fined $1870 after McDonalds McMuffins were found in their backpack.

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25% Transfer Bonus From Citi To Avianca LifeMiles

by Gary Leff

aviancaplane
Aug 01 2022

Right now one of Citi’s transfer partners – Avianca LifeMiles – is offering a 25% bonus on Citi transfers through August 31. What’s interesting is that this is LifeMiles making the offer – they want to encourage the transfers from Citi, so Citi pays them for the miles – rather than Citi making the offer.

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How Do We Stop Diseases From Spreading On Planes?

by Gary Leff

Aug 01 2022

About half of people said they’d fly even if they had the flu. Socially many people felt compelled to travel when sick, perhaps they’d lose out on an important meeting. I always hated this – and got very angry at people who came to work at my office sick – because they risked spreading whatever they had. Financially airlines have made it hard for people to reschedule.

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