From The Tray Table

by BoardingArea | November 25, 2025 | 0 Comments

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BoardingArea

BoardingArea is highly rated for delivering insightful tips, advice, and reviews about the topic of travel and travelers’ obsession with frequent flyer miles and points. This up-to-date information is tailored to all levels of travel expertise from a diverse collection of experienced contributors, including travel bloggers, industry insiders and avid adventurers. REQUIRED READING FOR FREQUENT FLYERS.

Frequent Miler

World of Hyatt to launch early access bookings for elites and cardholders June 30th

A little over a week ago, Hyatt launched its new, distinctly unanticipated award charts, which raised the pricing tiers it could use to price a free night award from 24 to 40. In the process, the top-tier prices that could be charged at nearly every award category increased substantially. When...

View from the Wing

Hotel Refused Free Tap Water, Offered $8 Bottled Water — Italy’s Top Court Says That’s Legal [Roundup]

Italy’s top court says a five-star hotel can refuse free tap water and offer $8 bottled water instead. Also: American blocks close-in partner saver awards, Amadeus gets fined over traveler profiling, Qantas adds Philippine Airlines, and Bilt adds Mindbody fitness bookings.

carry on bag (l) woman shares flight issue (c) delta airlines (r)

BoardingArea

Woman Gets Asked To Check Her Carry-On At The Gate. Then She Gets On Plane And Sees What’s Taking Up Space In Overhead Bin

“Those items go under the seat."

Your Mileage May Vary

Woman’s Rental Car Was Repossessed While She Was Eating Lunch

Most travelers worry about things like flight delays, lost luggage or surprise hotel fees. Probably not many have “rental car gets repossessed during the trip” on their travel bingo card.…

The Bulkhead Seat

What Happens if the Trump Administration Shuts Down Customs at “Sanctuary City” Airports?

The possibility of the Trump administration restricting US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations…

Frequent Miler

(Now live) Negative Bank of America Preferred Rewards changes: Lower bonus rewards, higher eligibility requirements

Update 5/28: The new BoA Preferred Rewards program is now live, to nearly everyone’s chagrin. ~~~Original Post Follows~~~ Bank of America tends to fly under the radar when it comes to travel credit cards despite issuing cards for Alaska Airlines/Atmos Rewards, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Spirit Airlines, and more. A...

View from the Wing

Southwest CEO Lays Out First Class, Lounges And Long-Haul Roadmap — Credit Card Money Is Why

Southwest’s CEO is now openly talking about first class, airport lounges, and long-haul international flying — the very things the airline spent decades not being. The reason is ncredit card economics. Aspirational destinations, premium products, and lounges will drive Chase cardholders spending, including on a new premium card product..

Miles To Memories

Act Quickly! Rakuten Amex Card $200 / 20,000 Bilt Points Offer Is Back

Rakuten launched the new Rakuten American Express® Card a few months ago and now there's a one day promotion with a $200 bonus.

Frequent Miler

Chase Ink / Sapphire Business Cards: Now 40K points per referral up to 200K max

Chase has increased the yearly limit for the maximum amount of points you can earn from the referrals to the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠, Ink Business Unlimited®, Chase Ink Business Preferred®, Ink Business Premier®, and Ink Business Cash® cards; it’s now possible to earn up to 200k total points per...

Points With a Crew

Kickstarter: Tardigrade Sleeping System

The Tardigrade sleeping system is built to let you sleep comfortably outdoors, in any condition. It's on Kickstarter, but only for a few more ...

Your Mileage May Vary

Things I Wish I Knew Before Booking Deutsche Bahn Trains In Germany

Before our trip to Germany, I spent way too much time trying to figure out Deutsche Bahn train travel. Not because trains in Germany are impossible to understand, but because…

Miles To Memories

Spirit Credit Card Refunds, Choice Hotels Outsmarted Mark & Discover’s Best Ever Offer?!

Discover's 5th quarter and best ever, Choice outsmarted Mark, returning to Sapphire Reserve and Spirit credit card refunds.

woman shares american airlines booking issue (l) American airlines aircraft (r)

BoardingArea

‘I’m So Upset I Literally Could Cry’: American Airlines Customer Buys The Number Of Miles They Say She Needs To Cover Her Flight. Then She Tries To Book It

“American Airlines, you might be losing a really loyal customer."

Monkey Miles

New elevated Southwest Credit Cards ( up to 90k )

We illustrate how you can use the Chase Southwest Credit Cards to help you get the Companion Pass

BoardingArea

Review : Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge – Montreal (YUL), Transborder Concourse

Needs a refresh….soon The summary The Maple Leaf Lounge is located near gates 73 and 74 in Montreal’s Transborder concourse, which is only accessible to US-bound travelers. It is directly across from the Air Canada Cafe. I was in the Air Canada Café before checking out the “traditional” Maple Leaf...

Frequent Flyer Bonuses

Marriott Bonvoy: Earn 3,000 bonus Bonvoy points per night at select hotels in Japan (May 28 Bonus Offer Highlight)

Today’s bonus offer highlight is a good one for travel in Japan where you can earn 3,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points at select locations across the country. Check out all of the new bonuses added today:

Miles To Memories

Bank of America Adding Subscription Credits for BofA Rewards Members

Eligible customers will receive monthly subscription credits that can be used toward select services including Paramount+, SiriusXM, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

The Gate with Brian Cohen

$50 New Member Referral Bonus With Rakuten

This is your chance to cash in on a $50 new member referral bonus when you sign up as a new member of Rakuten; and you will receive a bonus of $50.00 via referral when you spend a minimum of $50.00 within the first 90 days of your new membership, which is...

Points Miles and Bling

Review – Primeclass Business Lounge Riga (RIX)

Location and Entrance For travellers departing from Riga International Airport (RIX), the good news is that there is only one…

Frequent Miler

Newegg: Buy $500 Southwest gift cards for $480 (stack with 10x Ultimate Rewards promo)

Newegg is running another sale on Southwest gift cards, this time selling $500 denominations for $480 when using promo code SSF69254. On its own, this isn’t anything to get excited about. We often see higher discounts on Southwest gift cards. However, if you can pay using Paze and an eligible...

View from the Wing

Passenger Denied Boarding After Urinating On Himself, Climbs Airport Fence — Police Bring Him $3,600

A passenger denied boarding at Manchester Airport after urinating on himself turned the refund fight into a livestreamed bridge standoff, shutting down access to Terminal 2 while demanding £2,700 back for his missed Jamaica trip. Police eventually brought cash to the scene — and then arrested him anyway

Your Mileage May Vary

Company Trolls Southwest Over Weird New Carry-On Rule

Airlines ban unusual things all the time. But Southwest Airlines’ latest addition to its prohibited-items list was weird enough that it almost immediately inspired some internet trolling. 😆 I have…

The Bulkhead Seat

Caesars Entertainment to Be Acquired by Fertitta in $17.6 Billion Deal

Caesars Entertainment, one of the most recognizable names on the Las Vegas Strip, is…

Miles To Memories

Chase Doubles Referral Bonus for INK and Sapphire Reserve Business Cards

Those who have eligible Chase cards can refer friends and earn 40,000 for every successful referral, up to an annual limit of 200,000 bonus points.

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