Society & Culture
NowBoarding, your daily travel news in 7 minutes or less. This is your host, Ed Pizza, bringing you the latest travel deals and travel news you need to know Monday through Friday. Tune in daily so you don’t miss any of the best deals!Look for links to all of today’s stories in the show notes on whatever podcast platform you’re listening. And, please share the show with a friend!Just a quick note, The NowBoarding podcast is going to be taking a brief holiday on Friday and Monday so I can spend a bit of time with my family. Let’s jump into the news.First up this week is a 30% transfer bonus for Virgin Atlantic. If you have American Express Membership Rewards points and are thinking about flying one of the best Transatlantic premium cabins, this is a great way to stretch your points that much further. View From The Wing calls out the value of awards to Japan as a great redemption spot to take advantage of this transfer bonus.While it may not be the best use of Virgin Atlantic miles, I’m tempted to transfer during one of these bonuses to fly Virgin Atlantic upper class to London.You can now use your Radisson Rewards points in Las Vegas at Treasure Island. There are plenty of opportunities to use points and miles to get free rooms in Las Vegas. Hyatt’s partnership with M Life is the biggest, with the Wyndham Caesars tie-up also pretty sizable. At the margins, IHG has a partnership with Venetian/Palazzo, Marriott is in bed with Cosmopolitan and Hilton with the new Waldorf. Treasure Island was one of the few Strip casinos left without a hotel partner.That’s changed, and that’s good news for US residents who collect Radisson Rewards points. While there are a number of great redemption opportunities for your Radisson Rewards points outside the US, the full service options in the US are somewhat limited. You’ll still pay a resort fee on these award stays, but at least they don’t charge for parking.Aeroflot has a beautiful new business class product they’re rolling out. Even if you’re not bound for Moscow, Aeroflot has some destinations in Eastern and Central Europe if you’re willing to take the “long way” for a fantastic looking premium seat. Heck, even the Premium Economy product looks really nice.Aeroflot has been winning some acclaim lately, taking home 6 of the prestigious Freddie Awards trophies in the past 2 years for their loyalty program. Now, the hard product on their long-haul flights will be industry leading as well. Use your Delta SkyMiles or other SkyTeam miles to score awards on an Aeroflot flight.Things are still really messy at Air Canada and Aeroplan. Reports of waiting hours on the phone only to get disconnected are just the start of how bad things are. There are also reports that the app won’t let you change or cancel flights. It’s a bad situation that doesn’t seem to be getting better just yet.Finally, if you’re not playing by the rules, credit card companies are cracking down. There are recent reports of Chase sending out letters to customers saying they are breaking the rules. And, if they don’t stop it, they’ll have all their Chase accounts shut down. This started out looking like something that really did just deal with people breaking the rules. However, there’s a report of someone receiving the letter who plays by the rules but only uses their Chase cards for the bonus categories. I don’t recommend just getting a card and putting no spend other than the bonus categories on it. You want to try to be a good customer if you can. In the end, these are supposed to be potential long-term relationships, not speed dating with plastic. It’s okay to break up with your credit card, and you should if you’re not getting the right value. But, there’s a healthy balance there.Interesting times. That’s a full wrap on today’s travel news. A reminder that I’ll be taking a news sabbatical Friday and Monday, back on Tuesday with all of you.That’s a full wrap on today’s travel news. If you’ve got a piece of travel news that you think I should feature on NowBoarding, you can e-mail me at ed@pizzainmotion.com, or find me on social media, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And, you can find me blogging daily at pizzainmotion.com.Lastly, I need your help, for just a minute. Reviews and ratings are a huge part of what helps us reach a larger audience. So take a minute and help us out, leaving us a review and a rating wherever you get your podcasts. And, please tell a friend. That’s your travel news in 7 minutes or less. I hope you’ll join us again on a future flight!