Welcome to my new miles, points, credit cards digest covering best stories from the blogosphere. Here are some topics:
- Marriott’s race to the bottom continues
- Chase devalues its Pay Yourself Back categories
- New JetBlue credit card bonuses
- Miraval BOGO offer
- Resy AmEx Platinum offer
- Real Covid pill
- And more
To access publications hidden behind the paywall, I have three words for you: Firefox. Bypass. Paywalls (no relation 
).
Planes
You can get a free Air Canada Elite status match up to the top Super Elite, by VFTW.
Qatar brings back A380 fleet with First Class cabin intact (which looks weaker to me than Q-suites). By Executive Traveller.
Hotels
If I may tout my own horn (and oh yes I can 🙂 ), I guarantee you’ll find at least some useful information in my ongoing Hyatt series.
- Best Hyatt Points Values for Cat. 1 International Hotels Including Suites
- Best Hyatt Points Values for Cat. 2 International Hotels Including Suites
- Best Hyatt Points Values for Cat. 3 International Hotels Including Suites
More posts are coming.
How do you know when there is something seriously wrong with a hotel brand? When different people complain to different bloggers twice in the course of one week.
- Case #1: Marriott Hotel Caught Playing Games With Loyalty Perks & Upgrades by Miles to Memories.
- Case #2: Walked THREE Times In A Night By Marriott Hotels, by Loyalty Lobby.
At least the Marriott people in Hong Kong didn’t threaten the customer that they’d call cops on them — unlike the good Marriott folks of Atlanta.
Wow, just wow!
It won’t hurt to match your Radisson America status to Radisson Hotels International, by Frequent Miler. I had a good run being Radisson Gold Elite. While it doesn’t include a free breakfast (although they gave it to me at Radisson Suites Bangkok), I almost always received sensible room upgrades without asking, including a crazy luxury suite at Blue Saga Reykjavik of all places. At least, my Radisson Gold upgrades were much more consistent than Hilton Diamond’s.
Hyatt Brings Back Miraval BOGO for 2021, by MilesTalk. Looks like a great deal if you don’t mind the high cost of this resort group in the first place.
Credit cards
Chase devalues Pay-Yourself-Back categories, by Doctor of Credit.
Can you believe the fantastic Resy AmEx Platinum offer is still available? By Frequent Miler.
Here is another post from Frequent Miler: The new personal and business 70,000-point JetBlue bonus offer. Well, the program has gotten seriously devalued lately, and it used to be 100,000 not too long ago. I’d wait if you don’t need the TrueBlue points right away.
Covid-19
Some people would rather lose their well-paid jobs than get a jab, and that spells trouble for health care facilities. By Frequent Business Traveler.
FDA could authorize Moderna COVID booster vaccine at a half dose, by MSN. That’s welcome news. Moderna is supposedly better than Pfizer in preventing hospitalizations, and cutting the dose in half may reduce some side effects. My mom who received the third shot about three weeks ago (what I presumed was a full dose) still had problems moving her arm for a few days and can still feel some pain at the injection site.
So, after the maniacal thirst for anti-malaria and anti-parasitic drugs has swept [a huge segment of] the population, it seems the real Covid miracle drug has arrived, by Boing Boing.
Other tidbits
Remember Daily Getaway Deals? It’s back, by Doctor of Credit. I don’t know about you, but I’m not playing.
Thailand has reconsidered its death-by-a-thousand-cuts “reopening” process and promises to simplify things starting in November, by God Save the Points. We’ll see.
Another deal found by Doctor of Credit. Get $50 off $120 on Amazon using Discover points. I don’t normally post coupons or codes or “off” deals like that, but 50 bucks is 50 bucks. As a reminder, if you’ve already use these Chase, AmEx, Citi and Discover deals before, remove your card from the wallet and enroll again. That might help.
TBB
- COVID Travel Skills, Taxes for Gig Workers, New Marriott Offers, Best Hyatts
- Best of Web: New Pandemic Rules, Couchsurfing.com History, Greatest Freediver, 20 Inventions That Changed the World
- Best Hikes, NFT Scammers, Best Wildlife Photos, Free Hotels in Las Vegas
My favorites: my goodness, too many. Here are some.
- “Havana syndrome ” and the mystery of the microwaves
- The Stories Behind 20 Inventions That Changed the World
- Paradise lost: The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com
- The Psychology of Betting Big and Losing it All
- The NFT Scammers are here
And yes, there are more.
And now just for fun
Crossing a glass-bottom bridge might be a lot of fun — but not when the glass start breaking.
