Australia remains near the top of many bucket lists and it can be a tough award to crack, not to mention the damage it can do to your mileage balance. This week in our Frequent Miler week in review around the web, we have an Aussie award option you shouldn’t overlook. Also find a scenic restaurant, a guide to the beaches of Kauai, the latest Mint speculation and more. Read on for the weekly recap around the ‘net.
Business Class to Australia / New Zealand for 120,000 Miles Round Trip!
Customers Who Have Booked on the British Airways Website Just Had Their Payment Details Stolen
Yet another data breach. What does it say about the current security situation that my first reaction was, “Meh…they only stole credit card numbers.” Of course, if your number was stolen, it could certainly lead to a headache. See this post from View from the Wing for the details on dates and keep an eye on your accounts/
The 100 Most Scenic Restaurants in the U.S., According to OpenTable
In a reply to discussion about travel the other day, I mentioned that I love to stay in luxury hotels using points, but if I have $250 cash and a choice between spending the entire amount on a night in a fancy hotel downtown or a decent enough $150 hotel 15 minutes away, I’m the type to probably pick the $150 hotel and throw $100 towards a good meal. I’m no food snob — not every meal has to be a gourmet experience — but I enjoy seeking out the right place to grab a bite. If we share that in common, maybe this list from Travel & Leisure will give you a place to check out, whether on your next trip or in your own back yard. Reader Larry passed this along and I immediately shared my skepticism with it naming seven New York restaurants and none of them being located in the scenic beauty of Upstate New York (nothing between the Catskills, the Adirondacks, or the wineries of the Finger Lakes region?? Call me biased, but there probably doesn’t need to be more than 1 “scenic” restaurant in Manhattan). Still, I’m interested in checking out a couple of places on my next road trip.
JetBlue CEO Seeks to Lower ‘Obscene’ Cost to Cross the Atlantic
This piece by Bloomberg indicates that JetBlue may be inching closer and closer to transatlantic Mint class, which could become a competitive force that would be good news for both paid and award travel. With JetBlue now a Chase transfer partner and the award rebates earned via holding the right credit cards, it would be great to see this happen. The first route here will probably be in very high demand, but hopefully that will justify expansion to other markets.
Best Kauai Beaches
With the terrific prices of late from the West Coast and the latest rumors I’ve read indicating that Southwest may start service to the Hawaiian Islands by Thanksgiving (color me skeptical but willing to daydream on a dreary fall day), this post from Miles for Family outlining the best beaches in Kauai for a variety of different purposes to be helpful in deciding where to go and what to do. I’ve only been to Kauai once before and am very excited about a planned trip back early next year. My wife and I were just talking about whether or not there were beaches on Kauai where we would bring our son (he starts swimming lessons this week!) and this post gave us some options should we decide it to be safe.
That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
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