The New Emirates First Class Suites Destination, My Ridiculous Lost Luggage Situation, Couple Charged $350 for Negative Review, and More!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe transition into 2018! I hope that you have a great year of deals, travels, and memories this year!

For December, I did something that I haven’t done on this site in years – I slowed the pace waaay down! I had a lot of traveling and then we had the chance to spend a couple of weeks with family for the holidays (first time in years!) so I just went slower with posting. Also, it is quite a bit harder to have to be on NYC time! I love being 7 hours ahead as I can normally get a jump on the day by getting my posts for the day done before anyone is up!

Anyway, I have not had a roundup in quite a while so I am just picking some of the posts that are still relevant over the last couple/few weeks. Have a great rest of the day!

Miles, Points, Travel, and Deals

• Changing of the Guard? – Dustin looks at what may be the best currency and means for redeeming for travel.
• The 2017 Top 25 Hotels of the World – Where Are They? – Find out what the top 25 hotels of the world are and how cheap they can be obtained for.
• Bad News for Tech Lovers – US Airlines To Ban Some Smart Luggage – If you have a smart bag, you better be aware of these changes that are coming very soon!
• Wow: Airline Crew Says They Saw the North Korean Missile – Can you imagine being within sight range of something like this?
• Great News for the New Marriott Credit Cards and Increased Amex Bonuses Available for Some – If you want to continue to take advantage of the cards available with SPG and Marriott, this is a bit of good news!
• Star Alliance Partner Awards Now Bookable Online with Aegean Miles – This is great news for the valuable airline currency! I have already taken advantage of this feature and it works quite well for foreign partners!
• Top Sites to Search for Airfare – Find out the top sites to search for airfare and to save money on your next trips!
• Delta Is Chasing the Wrong Competition With Their Latest Fees – Delta is adding a new fare class that will charge you for your first bag on European flight. What competition are they going after with things like this?
• TSA PreCheck Would Have Worked – Except for the TSA – TSA PreCheck is a great, great program – when it works. This is one time it failed because the TSA didn’t do what they should have.
• Chase and American Express Issuing Marriott Cards, as Good as it Sounds? – Dustin looks at the news of Chase and Amex issuing Marriott cards going forward to see if it as good as it seems.
• Two Brand New, Interesting Airline Routes – Two new airline routes have launched that offer interesting point options to Hong Kong and Tahiti.
• My Lost Bag Situation Is a Very Strange One – It is now 3 weeks since this bag got lost under very strange conditions and – nothing! Now, I get to start getting reimbursed for all of the stuff I had in there. I get to see how good Emirates is with that…
• Couple Busted Running a Meth Lab In a Hotel Room – This is definitely not your standard use of a hotel room and fortunately no one was hurt with this crime.
• Emirates New First Class Suite 777 Plane Will Fly To Ryanair’s Hub – Emirates had announced their newest destination for their new First Class Suite-equipped 777 and it is the hub of Ryanair – Standsted in London.
• Wyndham Rewards: Overlooked and Underrated? – Thanks to Wyndham Rewards’ simple redemption system, not a lot of people talk about this program. Find out if you are overlooking and not rating it as high as it should be!
• Dealing with Amazon’s Giveaway Mess – A Big Headache for What Reward? – Getting a freebie in a giveaway is nice but Amazon made it really hard to actually get that reward!
• New Feature – Anyone Can Transfer Aegean Award Miles For One Low Fee! – This is a great way to merge your miles from Star Alliance flights for a small amount and then redeem for some great premium rewards!
• Couple Charged $350 By Hotel For Negative Review – Per Hotel Policy – This hotel charged a couple $350 for their negative review – and it was in line with the hotel’s policy!
• Hyatt Just Made Their Elite Levels More Valuable With New Cancellation Policy – Hyatt’s new cancellation policy rewards elites and penalizes their basic customers.
• 6 Year Blog Anniversary – How It Started – I just celebrated 6 years of writing this blog and here is a little glimpse at how this blog started.
• My Predictions for 2018 – Check out Dustin’s new predictions for 2018!
• Disney Resorts Introduce New “Do Not Disturb” Policy For Hotel Rooms for Security – Disney is introducing a new policy for guests with their “Do Not Disturb” in the name of security.
• Great News! All Hyatt Award Nights Will Count For Elite Status! – Hyatt finally joins the likes of SPG and Hilton in allowing all award nights to count for elite status.
• 6 Things I Learned from 6 Years of Blogging – I have learned a lot about blogging but here are 6 important lessons that I have learned that may help other aspiring bloggers as well. 🙂
• Two Favorite Trips of 2017 – Complete Opposites! – These are my two favorite trips of last year and they are my favorites because of who I traveled with – even with complete opposites in transportation!
• Top 10 Posts of 2017 With Some Surprises! – Here are the top 10 viewed posts of the year with some surprise appearances!

Thanks for following along this past year and I am looking forward to another year of writing! Happy New Year!