Happy Sunday to all of our travel friends, both near and far! What a year it’s been again this week.
With the weekly posts, I have tried to pick out some of the things I’ve found that I thought were interesting. This week there are more posts than I’ve ever had to choose from. With everyone staying at home, there’s plenty of time to write and there’s no shortage of things to write about.
I’ll give some commentary on the first few posts and the rest I’ll give you the links so you can check them out on your own.
- I found this first post from Frequent Miler about how IHG is extending the life of free night certificates, but only if you call in. I have a certificate that has expired and I emailed IHG before the date asking for an extension. I don’t want to call because the wait times are massive so I’m going to just let things go and see if I ever get a reply to my email. Someone has to see if that approach works.
- Miles to Memories has a post about what retention offers banks are giving when you call and ask about canceling your credit cards. I said early on that I thought 2020 would be a good year for these offers since people are considering if they still need that co-brand travel card.
- I wrote about how I forgot the Chase Sapphire Reserve now offers a statement credit for DoorDash purchases. Monkey Miles also posted a reminder that the American Express Gold Card has a monthly credit for GrubHub deliveries. No excuse to leave the house for food when you can get it delivered.
- When things are not going well, sometimes you need a good laugh. I got one from this post from Ben at One Mile at a Time with links to his funniest travel memories. It led me to remember one of our funniest travel stories involving Sharon and a bothersome air conditioner.
- File this with the things we’ll need once we start making travel reservations. Pizza in Motion had a post about how Marriott has changed their website so you can now see the price of the room INCLUDING FEES when you search for properties. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if hotels would stop charging these fees, but until then here’s a refresher on why they do.
- Seth on Paxex.aero examined if it’s time for U.S. airports to close some terminals as has been done overseas. Point Me to the Plane also has a post on how London City Airport is shutting down. Many of the airport lounges have already closed on their own, like 80% of the lounges in Orlando.
Other posts from this week:
- Nomadic Matt has chronicled his diagnosis with coronavirus and the subsequent days being confined to his apartment. He appears to be doing better and here’s a recap of the last two weeks from how he felt to how this is affecting the whole travel industry, including blogs.
- Miles for Family shared a story that I’m sure is being shared by countless families. What to do if relatives from overseas are visiting. Because she knows something about travel, including points and miles, she was able to get her parents back home to Belarus on the last flight but what for all the other people in a similar situation counting on the airlines to help?
- View from the Wing shared an interesting angle on how people who love cruising may be able to lock in shipboard credits for the foreseeable future by buying stock in the cruise companies.
- Travel Codex wrote about National Parks. Since they have waived entrance fees (so people don’t have to interact with each other), more people are going to the parks. I share the same opinion as in the post, please don’t plan a visit to the parks right now.
- Points, Miles and Martinis wrote about the Four Seasons offering free rooms to medical providers in New York City.
- Rene’s Points posted about the current instructions for all persons who have been to New York City to self-quarantine until 14 days have passed since you departed.
- Hilton Hotels have been the best hotel chain in regards to dealing with their loyalty members. Traveling for Miles wrote how they’ve extended status for members so if you qualified in 2019, that status will be good through 2021.
- This post from Travel Update gives a look at what several of us are doing right now. Evaluating what cards we have and if they’re worth it in this new world we’re living in. I’m sure banks will be doing the same as the offers that were great in the past might not be as enticing.
That’s a whole bunch of posts. I figured you could use something to read.
#stayhealthy #stayathome #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
