Alaska’s launching flights to Europe and we’re guessing exactly where, Siri took eavesdropping too far and now Apple will likely have to pay, One Mile at a Time has a cryptic legal question for his readers, and a survey leaves us hopeful that Hotels.com Rewards may be coming back. Read on in this week’s Saturday Selection.
Alaska Launching Seattle To Europe Flights In 2026: Could Rome Be First?
Alaska has announced that sometime in the second quarter of 2026, they’ll be launching flights from Seattle to Europe, though we don’t yet know which European destination exactly. This One Mile at a Time (OMAAT) article showcases a graphic from an Alaska Air Group presentation which boasts that Seattle is closer to 90% of the world’s population than SFO and LAX. Perhaps more relevant however is the fact that the graphic shows London, Paris, and Rome as the only non-Asia destinations on the map. Might the first European destination be one of those cities? Ben at OMAAT provides a few reasons why he suspects this new flight may be to Rome. For one, the Alaska Air Group CEO is of Italian heritage and joked that his family “will be very happy about this route.”
Siri Eavesdropping Class Action Settlement: $95 Million ($20 Per Device)
If you experienced Siri eavesdropping on you when you didn’t intend it in the decade-long span between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024, you are apparently eligible for a piece (or several pieces if you had multiple eavesdropping devices) of this $95 million Siri Eavesdropping Class Action Settlement. You could get $20 per eavesdropper, in fact. The Final approval hearing isn’t until August, so don’t go spending your $20 just yet.
Dear Lawyers Who Read OMAAT: A Theoretical Question For You
Wow – grab some popcorn for this one. It sounds like Ben at OMAAT might be experiencing some bullying from an airline who didn’t like a quote he included in a post (which was actually a quote from the government…so I guess it’s the government the airline has an issue with.) All theoretical, of course… I’ll be curious to see if Ben shares additional details about this situation and in the meantime, I’ll be surfing the comment section to see if any reader/lawyers are chiming in.
Hotels.com Rewards may be coming back, as it attempts to recover market share
Expedia Group made the questionable decision to replace its Hotels.com Rewards program with “One Key” rewards, then halted that decision when it was looking to be a disaster. But unfortunately the transition was too late for the US and UK, who have been stuck with One Key. Apparently now Expedia Group has sent out a survey asking folks which option they would pick between “Hotels.com Rewards returns but with a different reward structure” and “Hotels.com Rewards returns with the original structure”. Absent was an option 3 with “One Key”. This has got folks hopeful that One Key may be getting the boot and Hotels.com Rewards may be coming back.
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I think it’s a mistake for Alaska to launch a route to Rome at this point in time but I would love to see a Hawaiian Airlines livery plane there, too bad it will be Alaska livery if it happens.
Regarding the Hotels.com rewards news (good riddance One Key), how about the option “Hotels.com Rewards returns but with a better reward structure”?
When Hotels.com made the switch to One Key, I used-up my existing Rewards and haven’t used or even visited their site since. They’ve got a lot of making up to do to convince me to ever give them another try.
Same! I used to book everything through hotels.com for the free night perk. When that stopped I looked in to hotel credit cards, Chase portal at 10x, etc. Now that I know more, even if it comes back I’m not sure I’ll use it…