Rapid Travel Chai

On my mind: Although I do not have immediate Middle East travel plans, when I do, I will go out of my way to fly the electronics ban routes. I generally have not flown the ME3 carriers because the Gulf countries are among my least favorite in the world to visit and none are SkyTeam or Star Alliance where I value my status and the miles. I am big fan of Turkish, which flies to more countries than any airline. If someone at the Department of Homeland Security were serious about making security work without absurd measures, they could see how Turkish operates flights out of Mogadishu, Djibouti and more.

Hacks:

• Can you turn Chase Hyatt free night certificates into points? Not anniversary night certificates, unfortunately.
• The frequent fliers who bombarded Match.com. Anything that involves British Airways customer service I run the other way.
• Top 5 methods of transferring Starpoints into miles; get a mileage transfer bonus as high as 76%-230% from your Starpoints!

Travels:

• The vanishing stepwells of India.
• What insurance covers checked electronics?
• Delta increases same day confirm/standby fees. Since Delta switched SDC to fare bucket instead of cabin of service I have had minimal success using SDC.

Events:

• Anne Frank who? Museums combat ignorance about the Holocaust.
• Drivers take a punt on tiny river ferry to beat Beijing’s traffic.
• Chicago’s top prosecutor minces no words on his way out.

Ideas:

• Where TravelBloggerBuzz finds his GIFs.
• The problems with originalism.
• Between authoritarianism and human capital.