{"id":44770,"date":"2025-09-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44770"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T18:20:35","slug":"public-speakerphone-fines-what-not-to-buy-biz-class-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/public-speakerphone-fines-what-not-to-buy-biz-class-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Speakerphone Fines\/What Not to Buy\/Biz Class Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Get Some D%#@ Earbuds Already!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some travel etiquette \u201cno-no\u201d rules are up for debate. Others should not be\u2014like playing sound on your phone or tablet speaker in a public place. This rude behavior won\u2019t just get you an angry stare from those around you if you\u2019re on a train in Ireland. It could cost you a \u20ac100 fine from Irish Rail<\/a>. This follows a public campaign on the London Tube, announcements on many flights, and a few isolated fines so far in public stations. Let\u2019s hope that this highly popular \u201cshame or fine\u201d trend is going to spread quickly since the abuse is so rampant, from biz travelers filled with self-importance to the spoiled kids on iPads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things\u00a0Not<\/em>\u00a0to Buy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re often recommending products and services on here that are a good fit for working travelers, but here are three products you might want to avoid for now. 1) Spirit Airlines tickets<\/strong>. The company\u2019s CEO expressed \u201csubstantial doubt\u201d about its ability to survive<\/a>, which is bad news if you\u2019re booking a ticket with them for a wedding you need to get to. 2) Cybertrucks<\/strong>. Musk said Tesla would sell a million cybertrucks. They\u2019ve sold 52K instead<\/a> and already had 8 recalls. 3) Kodak photography products<\/strong>. As with Spirit, the company expressed doubts about the \u201cability to continue as a going concern\u201d and is trying to pivot to pharma products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airline Loyalty Program Changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This has been a busy month for loyalty programs. Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines\u2019 programs will merge into one <\/a>October 1. JetBlue inked a deal to offer Condor flights<\/a> to Europe with its miles\u2014and vice-versa. Frontier has been busy capitalizing on Spirit\u2019s troubles (see above) to take over its routes and is aggressively wooing customers with lots of new loyalty program goodies<\/a> and status matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Class Deals to Latin America<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of the online chatter about business class flights is about status upgrades or cashing in points, but some routes have a much lower premium for the front of the plane than others. As mentioned before, I\u2019ve snagged one-way fares between the USA and Mexico for less than $100 more than basic economy. It\u2019s often a 2X or less multiple when flying further south, on U.S. carriers or foreign ones like Copa, Aeromexico, or LATAM. See info in this article, with actual prices: Business Class Deals for Latin America<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #169<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44771,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44770\/revisions\/44771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}