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News Roundup
This is a roundup of news and other interesting pieces that I’ve come across over the last few days. Citi Discontinues popular redemption option, worst airport for delays, TikTok wheelchair hack, flight refund headache, and Alaska’s new vegan and plant-based options.
Citi ThankYou Points Discontinues Mortgage, Student Loan Redemption Option
Citi has discontinued the option to redeem ThankYou points toward getting a check toward your mortgage or student loan payment. This has long been the steady way to get $.01 cent per point on Citi ThankYou points and has now been discontinued.
Fed hikes interest rates by 0.75 percentage point
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday enacted its second consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase as it seeks to tamp down runaway inflation without creating a recession.
In taking the benchmark overnight borrowing rate up to a range of 2.25%-2.5%, the moves in June and July represent the most stringent consecutive moves since the Fed began using the overnight funds rate as the principal tool of monetary policy in the early 1990s.
The worst airport in the world for delays is in Canada
A recent FlightAware report has named the worst airports in the world in terms of delays and cancellations. Toronto’s Pearson International Airport has claimed the top spot.
More than half of its flights were delayed. An eyebrow-raising 52.5 percent of its flights were delayed during the period FlightAware studied, from May 26 to July 19, which brings us right up to last week. Wisely, the airport is now showing you on its home page its ‘peak times’ so you can maybe work around those busiest flights to improve your changes of sitting on an on-time aircraft.
Passengers are using a TikTok wheelchair hack to skip lines
The CEO of one of the world’s busiest airports said that some passengers are exploiting a TikTok travel hack, where able-bodied people pretend to need wheelchair support, as a means of bypassing travel chaos.
John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport, told the Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC) radio station that the airport has as many people working in its passenger support team as it had before the pandemic. However, demand for the team had increased “significantly,” he said.
Why won’t Amex or BA give us our £1,350 flight refund?
A customer booked two first-class flights with British Airways to Boston for a honeymoon using saved-up Avios points, and paying the additional £1,350 due in taxes with an American Express card.
However, the flight times were changed and they had to cancel. The problem is the refund is now lost. BA says it refunded the amount to the credit card, but American Express insists it was returned to the airline because my card had expired. However, it won’t provide evidence of this transaction, which BA says it needs.
Alaska Airlines cooks up new vegan and plant-based options for travelers
This summer, Alaska Airlines guests can veg out on board with more gluten friendly, plant-based and vegan meal options available in all cabins.
We’re listening to our guests who told us that they are looking for more plant-based menu options when traveling. Our new vegan option, called the “Soy Meets World,” is a vegan salad developed in partnership with Evergreens, a West Coast-based company that makes gourmet, freshly chopped salads.
