Point Me Awake is a morning jolt of travel and points infused news. Hopefully, you’ll be jolted to use some hand sanitizer after this one.
About those gloves…
The Washington Post reports on a Finnish study that found airport security checkpoint bins — you know, those grey buckets you unload all your belongings into — carried more viruses than any other airport surface, including toilets.
I’m more than sure that TSA trays are filthy (just look at how they treat the carpets, and I’ve actually seen those being cleaned), but they join a long list of items that are dirtier than toilets (which are cleaned commercially on a regular basis), including shared bike handles, toothbrushes and a lot of surfaces on airplanes.
That said, airport security trays were REALLY dirty. Half the samples taken contained flu viruses and other respiratory illness-causing germs.
Toilets, on the other hand, were among the cleanest places sampled.
Disneyland Will Break Over a Half-Decade Dry Policy, and Start Serving Booze in 2019
Oga’s Cantina, rendered above, will be the first Disneyland space to serve alcoholic beverages. Image by Walt Disney Imagineering
There’s moisture in the forecast in Southern California. Disneyland is losing its dry reputation, per Lonely Planet, and will start serving alcohol at a Star Wars themed cantina next year. Walt Disney’s original theme park has been completely dry since it opened in 1955.
An $8 Round Trip?
This flight is worth it just to get into a Priority Pass Lounge buffet. Secret Flying reports the $8 round-trip deal between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Penang.
A Pukey Emirates Flights Quarantined at JFK — And Guess Who’s Onboard
An Emirates A380 flight got so sick that officials quarantined the aircraft on arrival at New York Kennedy Airport (JFK). Reports say that passengers were tested with thermometers before being allowed into immigration. At least 10 were hospitalized.
View From The Wing’s Gary Leff was very excited to report that Vanilla Ice was on the upper deck of the flight. Perhaps those feverish flyers could have used some Ice, Ice Baby.
25 Passengers on a Commercial, 11-hour A340 flight
Lucky, at One Mile At A Time, wrote perhaps the first ever Avgeek review of Air Belgium’s business class. He was one of 25 passengers on board an Airbus A340-300. The photographs were surreal (and the lavatories were, needless to say, very clean).
The A340, formerly of SAS — seats unchanged — is set up in a staggered business class configuration with the occasional “throne seat”. You guessed it, the foot wells were tight.
Lucky wrote glowingly of the onboard services and ground offerings at Charleroi, but with passengers loads like this the Belgian startup airline may not have a bright future. We’ll see if sales improve when Lucky takes his return flight.
Use The Altitude Reserve Card to get 3 points-per-dollar at Costco
The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa effectively earns 4.5 percent cash back on mobile purchases.
US Bank’s Altitude Reserve Card offers cardholders 3 FlexPerks points per dollar spent using mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, and converts those points to 1.5 cents each when applied to travel through Bank of America’s FlexPerks program.
Doctor of Credit points out that, since Costco started accepting mobile payments, the Altitude Reserve card now nets more effective cash returns (4.5 percent) than Costco’s own co-branded Citi cards.
You can find the Altitude Reserve Card info here — but prepare to scroll down and click “Show More Cards” about 5 times.
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