Rapid Travel Chai

I started the week in Dubai and Saudi Arabia with my wife in maximum ‘good sport’ mode, passed through NYC and on to Toronto for TBEX, a gathering of travel bloggers that for the most part consider it a badge of honor to have nothing to do with frequent flyer programs. Really quite refreshing. Canadians may look all smiles and cuddles but at least one specializes in car smash and grabs, not fun to be driving back to the airport with shards of glass blowing around, however that is a post for another day.

Non-travel earning:

• Google Wallet is all the recent rage, Frequent Miler did the leg work, and he and other like Wandering Aramean sent the pennies. I cautiously waded in with one modest payment for shared apartment rent. So nice to have others explore the limits. I don’t need to get fat on these, just portly.
• I even got around to setting up GoBank after the invite had sat in my inbox for some weeks, seems the main play involves Wal-Mart which I do not have access to, so I am watching from the sidelines.

Misc items that I liked:

• Mommy Points on never booking roundtrips with British Airways Avios. My Avios addiction is really hurting me, I still do not think I have been on an AA flight that was not cancelled for massively delay. Friday LGA to YYZ was 2 hours delayed in 15 minute increments, the gate agents made no announcements and walked away for an hour. From the nasty glare of the flight attendant upon boarding I thought I was committing home invasion. Coming back last night we got in around original time by getting on the scheduled 5:25 that was delayed 2.5 hours. NY-Toronto weekends in summer are bad news.
• The Miles Professor has an incredible post on ‘Better than Free One-Ways’ on American Airlines, further evidence that I should never try to write about award booking.
• Mommy Points again on the US Airways credit card $99 companion certificate. I still don’t plan to use it or fly them, but good to know.
• Personal Finance Digest debates the worst credit card issuers between Capital One and Citi. For customer service I find Capital One ok; Citi I dread any interaction. The latest is an annual fee refund check on a cancelled card that has purportedly been mailed multiple times over half a year. Meanwhile, they are shutting down 5x accounts.
• The Priceline Rewards Visa is no longer offering 2% cashback to new applicants, as reported by Wedding Spend. Darn.
• Delta has launched Newark-Paris service, nice for me since I am closer to EWR, reminded by the interminable ride to JFK today.
• In a world of weak hotel bonuses, nice to see Priority Club offering double points through July 31, from Frequent Flyer Bonuses.