Happy Sunday to all of our travel friends, both near and far! Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, as well, so we’re passing them along.
- We’ve highlighted many of the reasons we tend to avoid staying at Airbnb. However, there comes times where I have checked prices just because all other options were so expensive. Point Me to the Plane writes about the things they learned during their first visit and why they’re probably never going to use it again. I wish they had asked us – we’ve been following Airbnb for years…
— The hidden cameras that’ve been found in some Airbnbs
— The risks owners and renters take by doing Airbnb
— The horrible things that have happened to Airbnb renters and owners
— How Airbnb’s problems have gotten so bad that the FBI had had to get involved - Gilbert from God Save The Points has been having a busy week, flying around the world and trying to give away his first-class seats and hotel room suites. It would be too much to ask to travel without a hitch and American Airlines came through by giving him a day full of mechanical problems followed by poor customer service. In other words, just another day when flying on American. At least he wasn’t told his bag was too big to fit in the overhead.
- After making it a point to call for retention offers on my cards for a full year, we became lax in 2019. Now that I’ve read this post from Flying High on Points about a retention call for the American Express Everyday Preferred, I need to kick myself back into gear and get back on the phone.
- It’s getting to be that time of year when the “Best of” or “Year in Review” posts are starting to come out. The first one I’ve seen is this list on C Boarding Group about the “Best Travel Blogs of 2020.” I loved this list because it broke the blogs down into categories such as “Best Points & Miles Blog” and separate lists for female written blogs, blogs by couples, ones for family travel and even video blogs. I’m partial to the “Best Frequent Traveler Blog” category because, for the first time, Your Mileage May Vary was named one of the honorees!
- Hyatt broke some huge news as they’re revamping their World of Hyatt program and adding non-peak and peak pricing for hotel room point redemptions as of March 2020. Travel Codex has a post about the changes and what it will mean when redeeming your points for Hyatt free nights going forward.
- One of the most interesting, and expensive points redemptions for those who fly with Virgin Atlantic is to use your points to book a week on Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private Caribbean getaway. Stays cost 1.2 million Virgin Atlantic points and are only open to Gold or Silver members in the program. Miles Per Day (who visited the island in 2019) reports the price has increased by 25% to 1.5 million miles for 2020 stays. At least those points are per couple and not for each person.
- Air Canada is having its share of problems this holiday season. They just transferred to a new reservation system that’s wreaking havoc on their website and they don’t have enough staff to answer the questions coming in on the phones. This article on Flyertalk highlights one of Air Canada’s solutions for the problem: Just tell everyone to go to the website and then hang up.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
