Best in Miles, Points, Credit Cards, Travel and More: Around the Web: 12.12 — 12.18, 2021

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Andy Shuman • 4 Comments

Welcome to my weekly miles, points, credit cards plus other travel news from the blogosphere. Here are some topics:

Etihad First Apartments might be coming back for a short while
What Your Pilot Won’t Tell You
JetBlue will upgrade Mosaic+ members to Mint
Nomadic Matt shares his terrible Airbnb experience
Two incredible deals are supposedly being honored

To access publications hidden behind the paywall, I have three words for you: Firefox. Bypass. Paywalls. Seriously, no need for any kind of trickery (beyond that ).

Planes

Are you missing Etihad First Apartment as much as I am? Then this is great news! I don’t care what some snobs are saying; I still believe it’s the best First Class cabin ever. And fortunately, there is a chance Etihad First Apartment is coming back, by Insider.

Priority Pass adds GameWay Lounge at LAX, by Travel Codex. I guess these can be useful if you travel with kids.

This is a fun piece from Reader’s Digest: 13 Things Your Pilot Won’t Tell You.

Delta wants to raise their paid domestic First Class load “into the mid to high-60s” by 2024. I don’t see it happening unless they start offering premium seats at bargain prices. What I do see happening is Delta planes taking off with empty seats, which is something we’ve been seeing from multiple airlines for a long time all over the world. Wishful thinking is a powerful thing. Delta Premium Revenue Push, by Simple Flying.

JetBlue will provide four upgrades to Mint to Mosaic+ members and more, by DansDeals.

Hotels

This would be funny if it weren’t so sad: Hilton Expands Daily F&B Credits to 2022, by MilesTalk.

Here is the latest Vegas acquisition: Hard Rock Gutting Mirage, by Miles to Memories.

Nomadic Matt calls to boycott Airbnb after several bad experiences.

And here is another Airbnb story by Skift: Airbnb and Vrbo Start Sharing Information on Party House Offenders.

Credit cards

It looks like the “deal of the century” is getting through: The 240x SimplyMiles deal is being honored, by Frequent Miler via VFTW.

Here is another deal of the century, this time from AmEx — and that “offer” (which I didn’t receive — again!) is way more incredible. Read on Reddit: Amex Too Good to Be True Offer Update.

Here is a useful feature from Capital One, by Thrifty Traveler.

Covid-19

I can’t help but feel that this CNBC report is slightly premature: The pandemic could end in 2022 — here’s what “normal” life might look like soon.

Kelly is wrong about masks not being useful on a plane, but I wish him a speedy recovery: Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly Tests Positive for Covid, by Skift.

This is my latest update on where vaccinated Americans can travel without considerable restrictions: expect this list to shrink in the coming days and weeks due to omicron variant.