Shrinking award availability, over 11,000 forfeited points, and bodily fluids on a plane?

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the past week of travel information – here’s a recap of what you may have missed from Points With a Crew over the past week or so

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We talked a lot this week about award availability for just basic domestic awards

First there was Why is American award availability so awful?

Then, Ugh – United Award ticket availability seems just as bad!

Thankfully we do have the trick to seeing more United award availability

This week of course also was the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016

I hope that you have had a great and prosperous New Year

Here’s my Top 10 posts from 2015, including #7 that shocked me since it was posted less than 2 weeks ago!

While doing some research for another article, I noticed something disturbing

American Express had FORFEITED over 11,000 of “my” Membership Rewards!

Has this ever happened to you?

Best of the Rest

• The Southwest Airlines cancellation policy is the best one out there – here’s some great tips on how you can cancel or change any Southwest Airlines flight, for NO additional fees!
• What’s better than a first class SHOWER or BAR?  Here’s the latest and greatest amenity for First Class
• Don’t forget – we’re still giving away a 2 day rental car trip (if you live in or are traveling to southern California)
• Hilton is offering some new room types for their Doubletree brand – called the “Little Extras Upgrade”
• If you’ve got an American Express Everyday card, here’s a tip for how to check your Amex Everyday bonus limits, so you know when you’ve reached the $6,000 limit for the grocery bonus
• Flight attendants and other frequent travelers were asked – What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen on a flight?  I’m sure it will come as no surprise that most of the more hilarious responses had to do with sex, death or bodily fluids

If you’re still up for more travel reading, here’s last week’s recap: What’s better? 100,000 points for a few hours work, or my awesome travel hacking Christmas present?