Ask The Head Of Hyatt Gold Passport A Question, Southwest Expanding, Give Viber a Try. Things I Find Interesting On Thursday, January 30, 2014

What if you could meet the head of a major hotel chain’s loyalty program for drinks and ask them anything you wanted?  What if they were the one buying you drinks?  That’s exactly what Jeff Zidell, Senior VP of Hyatt Gold Passport is doing.  And, you can win a free airline ticket and hotel room to join him at the event.

Southwest Airlines is “expanding internationally”.  I wouldn’t call this monumental news since they’re essentially transitioning existing AirTran service to Southwest planes.  But, if you have a Southwest companion pass (which isn’t valid on AirTran) then this is definitely a plus.  To celebrate the announcement, Southwest is having a fare sale to Aruba, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

Mommy Points is dealing with a dilemma about whether to change her plans to fly the new 7478-Intercontinental back to the US on her upcoming European trip.  I’m flying the new 747-8i to Paris in a few weeks and I’m actually hoping to fly back on the same plane.  It should be a great ride.

Southern Travel Girl has a concise review of Viber, an app you can use to stay in touch while traveling without spending any money.  If you make a call with Viber using your 3G or 4G network you’ll incur data charges, but other than that it’s a simple, cheap way to stay in touch.  The downside is that for it to be free you need the person on the other end of the line to have the Viber app as well.  But, since the app is free, this isn’t a big hurdle if you’re planning to travel overseas.

Points, Miles & Martinis has a helpful tip about quickly resolving a denied charge when you’re buying Vanilla Reload cards.

Hope your travels are taking you somewhere fun today!