We bring you how future hotels will look, help maximize your JAL miles, more IHG devaluations, visit American utopias, SPG and Virgin America end partnership, look at some bizarre images from 2016, Delta screws its 401k participants, laugh at smartphone toilet paper, watch a movie by two BASE jumpers with one of them dying, more deals, give some awards in the financial markets for 2016, another way to get to amex offers and more!
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Starwood SPG is ending its partnership with Virgin America by January 6, 2017. Wow, that was fast!
More devaluations on tap, this time from IHG Rewards Club changing increasing hotel categories/points required for a stay. Here are the hotels impacted, all 39 pages of them, Jeeeesus! Up went US, China and United Kingdom. Down went Turkey, thanks Erdogan! Here are 10 great IHG hotels going up.
This site does not do deals and certainly does not get excited posting any deal we can find and faking excitement about it while adding an exclamation or two at the end of the headline! <—-see? Anyways, this post has 100+ deals expiring by December 31, 2016. You’re welcome.
If you are into JAL miles and want to learn how to burn them, read this post. And good luck dealing with a website that reminds me of…DOS. It certainly has some really good values…I just wish it was added to Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards partner list.
Another way to access increased Amex offers. Quick, before it is shut down again.
Lately I ‘ve been thinking about the changes in our society, all the technology, mobile, sharing economy, valuing experiences, differentiating the travel experience, etc. This was pretty good: The Hotel of the Future Will Be More Customer-Centric and Experience-Driven. Some quotes that stood out:
“…it is no longer just a hotel; it’s more than just a lodging experience. The hotel space can be a way to create new experiences for your guests. To enable connections. To be a more active participant in the community. It should offer more services and support than simply lodging. If a hotel company or brand were to think about some of these other ways they can support a guest, it doe s a lot offset some of the disruption they are seeing today, some of the challenges they are facing a they see guest behaviors evolve.”
“…five different traveler archetypes: curator, matchmaker, neighbor, architect, and choreographer.”
It must suck for a company to be sued by its own employees for a sucky 401k Plan. Well, congrats to Delta Airlines!
When We Were Knights. Gorgeous vimeo video about two BASE jumpers. Well, one of them did not make it. Sad to read his letter but, I mean, what do you expect when you pick a hobby like this huh?
The Japanese do it again. Only they could come up with toilet paper for your smartphone. Find one at an airport near you, as in Narita!
Your personal finance fix of the day: The 2016 Financial Market Awards. Check out the moronic prognosticator fails! Like RBS who screamed to “Sell Everything” in January of 2016!
Experimental Utopias in America. Very interesting collection…It’s a slideshow, sorry.
And I leave you with this…
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
First
I hate you ScottCastle.
🙁
I take it back, begrudgingly.
First.
Your big mistake was the .
It probably was!
Well played sir.
Wife was approved yesterday for the Sapphire Reserve through your link. No soup for the Titans this time.
Love this type of comment!
Especially: “No soup for the Titans”!
Thank you!
Regarding all the recent 401k lawsuits, how does the average Jane assess if the plan has “unnecessarily high fees”.
I think there are articles out there with some benchmark/average fees for certain size plans.
Maybe try brightscope.com
So the only reservation I have on IHG points in the books for next year is for a property going down in value.
You continue to amaze 🙂
Ha ha! More points for me:) And I have burned more than a million points and miles in just the second half of 2016 alone. You’re welcome. Thanks for the MVT crown. I probably earned that one pretty fairly. I started adding it up to see if I had done a million and only had to go back six months. And that was only airline miles and one hotel chain worth. If I add all of it up, who knows? Ain’t life grand?
Oh, and my countries visited tally this year was 25, 11 of them new. Even by my standards, that’s insane.
I am 200k away from burning over 1 million for 3 years in a row. These are the years that I actually counted lol.
Yeah I only counted last year when you mentioned burning a million and I did last year as well. Someone just stole a JAL first class seat from me while I was booking it on Alaska today. Never had that happen before. Had it in the cart, all info in there, pressed purchase and gone. Things are getting ugly out there.
Do you hear that sound? Do you hear it?
It’s the Korean online award feature burning them SkyTeam awards…
I expect Korean to devalue them…soon, thanks bloggers!
there is no single change in our society which would be good.
Not a single one…
Come on, lets stay positive now 🙂
Hotel of future — Bingo !!!
Reminds me of stays at Cabo Inn Hotel in Cabo and The Red Tree House in Mexico City. It was like staying with family. I didn’t find that in several BnBs in Europe, despite glowing reviews. Trying to make connections, meeting locals, having an “authentic” experience. Eg. How about a way to meet your counterparts in other countries, or people with similar educational levels, or not?
I’ve realized often the only people I meet are hotel, shop, and restaurant workers, tour guides and taxi drivers.
My impression is that airbnb used to be about meeting and connecting with other people, but it seems just totally commercialized now.
Mix couchsurfing into your travel? Most miles/points people seem squeamish about it, ’cause no bragging rights nor generic freefood lounge.
Mixing couchsurfing and airbnb works for us (no we’re not kids). Alternate between really good local knowledge and more privacy when ya need it.
Yeah…you may be on to something Mike.
For me, since I had and still have plenty of hotel points to burn it was always “why pay cash instead?”. But as the years go by my tastes are changing. Looking for more unique experiences and connections like you. Therefore, my trip to Iran. And my only Airbnb experience was fantastic, I should do more.
I have not done couchsurfing, my brother does and raves about it. Then again, he is single and has no points at all.
There will be more of this in the future. Hotels are kind of also boring me lately…
We all…evolve.
PS Love the dog gif !
I got some more awesome ones coming up!
Probably checking out Cats.
https://onsizzle.com/i/king-of-the-king-of-the-jungle-internet-via-splurt-2272662
Hotels: you forget that chain hotels are also sanctuaries you can retire to after a busy day immersing yourself in local culture. Alternatively a place you can poop your guts out and recover after tasting too much street food the day before 😉
Utopian places: the slideshow didn’t tell a story. Google Celebration, FL for a story how Disney wanted to create a perfect place to live in.
Other news: Karsten Nohls exposed some holes in GDS, so now common tools of FTers will bite the dust soon. The gaps he found don’t really matter, but it gives him some headlines. His previous speciality was GSM and RFID.
I liked the utopian photos.
I am getting tired of the brand hotels…
Which FT tools?
By the time IHG is done all the good hotels will be 50-60k at which point a great intercontinental will require the same points as a good holiday inn. Then they’ll have to create 70k and 80k to make up for the disparity
Ugh. That IHG list hurts. All my localish Oregon sweet spots are going up…PDX Candlewood (which included 2 weeks of parking with a stay), HIE Bend, HIE Eugene. Not much left except to pray for a convenient Point Breaks list…ha.