The government is stepping in to try and deter devaluations, Atlas Obscura delivers a batty site-seeing stop, Havasupai makes plans to reopen after last month’s flash flood, and American Airlines adds new European routes for Summer 2025. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
Dare we imagine a world without devaluations? The Department of Transportation apparently feels that, yes, we should imagine such a world. They’ve sent a scary letter to American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, and United stating goals to “ensure that customer rewards are protected from any practices that would diminish their value, benefit, or availability”. Devaluations have come to feel like part of this whole miles and points game (with recent devaluations from LifeMiles, Qatar Avios, and Choice Preferred Hotels) but this seems like a welcome shake to the ol’ miles and points snow globe. Could we really have a world without rampant devaluations?
Atlas Obscura delivers a batty site-seeing stop in Portugal…
My Frequent Miler companions know that I love bats and they also know that I love using the website “Atlas Obscura” for unconventional site-seeing ideas while I travel. The Joanine Library full of ancient books and tiny little bats who protect them by snacking on page-eating bugs is exactly why I love Atlast Obscura. It wouldn’t occur to me to visit a library as I’m touring a destination if I didn’t know there would be bats there. (Or whale bones, as is the case for the Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City). Or maybe you’d prefer to go to Lisbon where you can visit this bizarrely museum-like bar and stay at The One Palácio da Anunciada, Lisbon, one of the great value Preferred Hotels boookable with Choice points.
In our recent “Ask Us Anything, Live”, we were asked to comment on places we thought were underrated and I immediately thought of Grand Canyon. There are so many ways to explore the Grand Canyon beyond just the viewing areas on the South Rim. For instance by visiting Grand Canyon’s Havasupai Falls. Sadly, on August 22 a deadly flash flood struck the area, killing one and stranding over 100 others. This kind of news is devastating and travel plans are rightly far down the priority list. But now, after several weeks of closure to recover and repair, a reopening date has been set and anyone whose reservations were interrupted by the flood closures can reschedule their visit.
American Airlines just announced 5 new European routes for Summer, 2025…
This may not be the hottest news to hit the table, but with CLT being the only destination reachable from the Lewisburg, WV airport (my closest airport), I’m not mad about the addition of a Charlotte to Athens, Greece flight. Other routes added are Chicago to Madrid, Miami to Rome, Philadelphia to Edinburgh, and Philadelphia to Milan. Tickets will be bookable starting September 9th. Philadelphians, maybe you’ll want to check out the Victorian Grandeur in Edinburgh, one of the great value Preferred Hotels bookable with Choice points.
They’re also expanding their capacity (and increasing premium seats) for a handful of routes to Asia like Dallas to Tokyo (both HND and NRT), Dallas to Shanghai, and LA to Tokyo (HND).
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the DOT getting involved in rewards programs will ultimately render them less useful to all of us. they will simply kill or shutter the programs as they provide less profit to the corporations or shareholders.
Great article selection today though.
not necessarily.
Been to that library- stunning. Fortunately for me at least, we did not see any bats since we were there in the daytime. Coimbra is a lovely, interesting place. But it was quite hot when we were there, around 100F, so walking uphill to the university was a bit of a chore (the elevator was not working). So I guess the bats were just sleeping in.
Sounds like another exciting edition of the Saturday Selection! It’s great to see the government taking steps to prevent devaluations and the unique site-seeing spot featured by Atlas Obscura sounds intriguing. The Havasupai reopening after the flash flood and American Airlines adding new European routes are also fantastic updates. Looking forward to diving into all these interesting tidbits and catching up on the latest travel news. Thanks for putting this together!