Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
In today’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web, find out about the extension to your free Caesars Diamond celebration dinner (don’t worry, we should have a vaccine before it expires), the testing ground for mobile payments, contemplating travel reviews in an uncertain time and more.
Confirmed: Caesars Rewards Diamond Celebration Dinner Extended With Other Perks
Great news for those of us riding the status match-go-round: your Caesars Diamond celebration dinner is getting extended until 2022 — and if you play your cards right (see what I did there?), you may end up being able to double down (gosh, I’m on a roll) and get a two-fer (err, four-fer in 2-player mode). Thanks to Miles to Memories for a great heads up here.
Why I Plan To Take My First Flight In Months… I Think
I’m including this post because I found my own feelings on it kind of fascinated me. I have no interest in traveling right now (I’m very much into being distracted by the thought of planning 2021 travel, but not at all interested in a plane or hotel today). I’ll probably be at the drive-in movies again when this post publishes, which is as adventurous as I care to be with COVID exposure at the moment for a variety of reasons. Even though I can accept that the risk is mathematically pretty low, it’s just not worth it to me right now – Paris isn’t going anywhere. But yet, as I read this post, I felt myself rooting for Lucky to get out there and report back in large part because I see he wouldn’t be doing it for fun but rather because it is precisely the kind of content that people look to him to provide and I find myself interested in his take on what it’s like right now.
MAXIMIZE COVID EXTENSIONS & WHY AIRLINE STATUS BEATS HOTEL STATUS!
Bethany at Bougie Miles makes an argument for airline status being more valuable than hotel status. I’ve never been one to chase airline status. I’ll take it for free when I can get it, but I’m not going on a mileage run to get there. I just don’t fly enough paid flights — not only do you need to fly on paid flights often enough for the benefits to cumulatively matter, you have to fly often enough to hit the jackpot on the HKG-DFW business class upgrade once in a lifetime. I can concede that if you do, it’s great — and Bethany makes a great case for the benefits in terms of the current chaotic travel scene. On the flip side, I’ll bet (without the knowledge of Bethany’s experience to back this claim up) that the value of my lifetime suite upgrades and late checkouts trumps Bethany’s flight upgrades. Big claim there for sure without knowing how often she flies, but I’ll take hotel status and the upgraded room I’ll spend 8 hours or more in every night of my stay over a once-every-three-blue-moons lie-flat seat for 8 or 12 hours total if I have to choose.
WhatsApp Gets a Raw Deal in Payments
Some readers may find article from Bloomberg Quint interesting in terms of seeing how India is becoming the testing ground for mobile payments. It’s often surprising to see how the technology here in the US, particularly with regard to banking, often lags behind that in other countries.
Are Simpler Weddings Something That Should Stay After The COVID-19 Pandemic Ends?
I am including this post from Dan’s Deals because I saw it the day after my wife and I had this exact type of discussion. We have a family member trying to decide between a wedding this year (at a time when we likely — very regrettably — won’t feel comfortable flying due to COVID concerns) or putting it off for a year. We also have a friend whose wedding was canceled last year because of events abroad in the destination of the venue and now this year it was canceled a second time due to COVID, so they just gave up on the idea of a wedding altogether. As someone who once worked in the wedding industry, I found myself thinking about how weddings spent the entire 20th century becoming more elaborate and outlandish and how the pandemic’s restriction on travel and gatherings may lead the current generation of young people to retract on that a bit — just one of many ways that travel and daily life may change moving forward.
That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
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I think we’re going to have to hash this out on Spill the Tea 🙂