NowBoarding!  Your travel news in 7 minutes or less:

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Full Transcript

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!

First up is a report that American Airlines will allow members to buy elite status in 2020. Right now you have to be targeted for the offer and it’s unclear how widely targeted it is. But, View From The Wing has at least two different examples of the qualification levels.

At first blush, we’re looking at $5,000 in Elite Qualifying Dollars for Gold status, $10,000 for Platinum, $15,000 for Platinum Pro and $24,000 for Executive Platinum. Virtually all AA fares earn one EQD per dollar spent, expect for Basic Economy which earns half that.

I’d love to hear your opinion on these American Airlines changes. Are you excited about being able to achieve status just from spending? Worried that you’ll be fighting with even more people Hit me up Twitter or Facebook A

Next, we’re talking about 23:59. As God Save the Points says, the airline rule that allows you to stopover in a particular city for up to a day, is a perfect time for a short visit to a destination. Airlines will generally allow a connection that long on virtually any fare, which is a good excuse for a quick stop somewhere new, or a favorite you haven’t visited in a while.

Another thing to consider here are airlines for destinations that have dedicated stopover programs. Many flights to Iceland allow multiple day stopovers. And, TAP Portugal allows up to five nights in Lisbon or Porto, two lovely cities. Make the most of your next trip and build in a stopover someplace awesome.

One Mile at a Time walks us through the rules around transferring Marriott Bonvoy points between accounts. You can transfer 100,000 points to another account each year. I had no idea you could receive up to 500,000 points each year. This can be helpful if you have just a handful of points in a spouse or family member account and don’t want them to go to waste.

If you’re really close to qualifying for JetBlue Mosaic status this year, you don’t have to worry about falling short or having to hop on a plane to earn those last few points. Status point purchases start as low as $45, which can be a lot cheaper and quicker than hopping on an airplane.

If JetBlue is willing to sell you points in an increment as small as 250 points, it’s probably a really good indication that they aren’t likely to give you an exception if you miss by an amount that small. If status is important to you, you probably don’t want to leave it to chance.

Finally, according to Miles to Memories, Samsung Pay has a ton of discounted gift cards right now. I don’t have any Samsung devices to check that these are still available, but the report is that you’ll find 20% discounts at places like Staples, REI and Legal Seafood (yum, one of my favorite seafood restaurants). There’s also 10% discounts on Lowe’s, Uber and Hotels.com.

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, Facebookand 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!