Happy Sunday to all 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, so we’re passing them along.
- If you have an international trip planned, I hope you already have your passport and it’s up to date. For months now, even if you pay for expedited processing, passport times have varied from several weeks to several months or more. Not even contacting your congressperson seemed to help shorten the wait. It’s tough to learn anything from a single data point but there’s hope that things might be getting a little better and wait times will be back to only being slightly longer than usual.
- Citi made a splash with the surprise announcement of its Custom Cash card. While it’s not going to allow you to earn tons of points, there may be a place for it in some people’s wallets. For me, I just managed to get rid of a large chunk of Citi ThankYou points to pay for our flights to Iceland. With so many cards offering huge sign-up bonuses at the moment, it’s understandable if you didn’t want to use an application for the Custom Cash card. That’s why it was welcome news that Citi is now allowing some cardholders to product change from other Citi cards to the Custom Cash.
- United is warning passengers that things are about to get worse for operations out of its Newark Airport hub because of scheduled runway work. First of all, that’s hard to believe because United’s operations out of Newark have never been that great to start. For example, Newark was rated the worst airport in the US for 2019. I guess you can’t rest when you’re #1. In true United fashion, they’re already blaming JetBlue for the problems.
- Banks never make things easy for us. One of the easier tasks has always been applying for new credit cards. As long as your application goes through online, there’s no human interaction needed. However, there’s some evidence that banks are cutting back on auto-approvals and adding in an extra step. We had this happen to us when we recently applied for a new card.
- There are not many on-again, off-again relationships in the travel universe like Alaska Airlines and Priority Pass. In other words, “It’s Complicated.” The last time Alaska and Priority Pass broke it off, the number of Priority Pass members was overcrowding the lounges. Probably because there were so many travel cards offering PP memberships. During the pandemic, the two parties got back together and Priority Pass members could visit Alaska lounges. But like all rocky relationships, you knew it wasn’t going to last and 4 lounges have once again left the network.
- In some of the least surprising news of the week, the travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia has burst due to increased cases in Australia. Who knows if they’ll try again but it’s looking that travel Down Under will not happen anytime soon. I guess this travel unicorn will be stuck on our list for a while.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
