Why you should credit to Copa, Italian houses for $1, flying up front for less and more

Some say less is more. I like more for less. In this weekend’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web, find out how you could be earning more benefits for less paid flight activity, how you could spend more time in Italy by owning a home for less than the cost of a cup of coffee, how to snag that thousand dollar Emirates upgrade for a net cost of much less than a grand and more. Read on for the weekend recap.

There Are Two Types of Airport People

Just reading this article from The Atlantic made me anxious. I am definitely the type who prefers to be at the airport hours ahead of time. Indeed, if you’re traveling with lounge access (be it from a credit card or by virtue of your cabin class), why not get there early and have some quiet time to snack and grab a beverage before the flight? I missed a flight for the second time in my life earlier this year (despite arriving an hour and 45 minutes before my flight this time and 3 hours in advance the only other time I missed one) and it was stressful rather than fun. I also ran through the airport last month when a delay almost caused me to miss my connection and that experience reminded me I probably need some more exercise and less free lounge food. Bottom line: I definitely don’t enjoy hustling through the airport, so count me in group B.

Why To Consider Chasing Copa Airline’s Status

I’ve said before that I don’t chase airline elite status because I just don’t fly enough paid flights to bother doing so. That’s not likely to change any time soon and yet Drew at Travel is Free had my interest completely within the first two or three paragraphs. This sentence from the post sums up why you should read this if you’re currently crediting your Star Alliance flights to United: “Almost everything is the same or significantly better with Copa status.” Read for the details.

Hilton CEO Changes Stance On Tipping Housekeeping

The subject of tipping often brings out opposing opinions, but I think Lucky’s take here makes sense: it’s odd that the CEO of a hotel chain wouldn’t want to encourage guests to offset the cost of housekeeping help with tips. On the flip side, perhaps he knew that if he lied about his past tipping record it wouldn’t have gone unchecked. Whether you think you should tip your housekeeper or not, this wasn’t a good look for Hilton’s CEO. That out of the way, should you tip? I tend to agree with Lucky: other similar service industry jobs are tipped, this one is just easier for people to skip since there isn’t usually a face-to-face interaction. I don’t tip every time (sometimes I just don’t have the right amount of cash and others I just don’t think about it), but I usually try to at least tip something each night on multi-night stays in the hopes that it encourages good service (which is really why we have a tipping culture in the first place).

Buying a $1 Italy dream house just got even easier

These places highlighted by CNN look pretty small and some (many?) probably require more work than their worth. I’m further sure that renovation costs will be higher than one imagines (but how much more is the key question, right?). This isn’t likely to be a get-rich scheme, but rather something that might be interesting if you want to own a cheap place to get away in Italy while maybe meeting your annual costs with a couple of lucky AirBnB bookings or something like that (or to take advantage of the next BA 30K promo for hosting an AirBnB guest!). I’m intrigued and wish I’d seen this even just a few days ago as I literally just left Italy yesterday afternoon and probably could have found a way to check out one of these towns had I seen this sooner.

Would You Pay $1,000 To Upgrade To Emirates Business Class?

That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.

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