News and notes from around the interweb:
- Delta is giving free identity protection services through AllCLEAR for folks who think they may have been impacted by the data breach of their chat services provider.
- Qantas website award searches now support Japan Airlines availability. I’ve been using the British Airways website for this but the Qantas site is faster and easier.
- ANA isn’t adding fuel surcharges to Scandinavian redemptions
- American Express, Mastercard, and Discover no longer require signatures on charge slips. Visa will follow later this month. Some merchants may still require the signature, and it may take some time for knowledge of the change to spread.
- Emirates plans to exercise A380 options ‘sooner rather than later’
- However old first class suites will remain in existing A380s until 2021 at the earliest.
- Wyatt Cenac, formerly of The Daily Show, doesn’t like Delta SkyMiles because redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles are different and he can’t easily swap miles between programs. It comes down to not understanding the program (and let’s not even also layer on qualfiying dollars). It’s not a Delta complaint as such, but really about the overly complex nature of the programs generally. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
- Another TSA worker arrested for trying to have sex with a child, this time an 11 year old. These are the people who get to grope passengers under color of law. But TSA says it’s not sexual assault when the government does it.
If you’ve ever managed to sit through even a few minutes of Late Night with Seth Meyers then you know to believe very little on his show. He’s so jaded on his content that it’s unwatchable. So for some pseudo-celebrity to vent about Skymiles is most likely not worth watching at all.
This is ALL CLEAR, not CLEAR.
Am I the only person that finds it ironic or funny that Delta is “teaming with” AllClear to add protection for your identity while one of their main partnerships that has our biometric info is called CLEAR?
This guy isn’t too funny or bright when it comes to topics related to loyalty
He claims he got nominated for a Wedgie award
Probably deserves it
As for the TV host I am amazed he has a career at all
So, signatures are going bye-bye. It is about time, as no one authenticates signatures anymore.
But I am scratching my head over the no-need approach because of chip cards. Chip cards have been used world-wide for years, in conjunction with pin numbers. A chip card without entering a pin is worthless. A stolen chip card, without authentication is meaningless and can be used by anyone who steals it.
Europeans haven’t used a signature in years. They always use chip and pin. Frankly, the canard that merchants have to change out store level machines is a total cop-out.
Actually Europe has moved on from chip and PIN for small purchases – we now use contactless payment. If the amount to pay is under 30GBP (amount varies by country) you just tap the card on the reader. If it’s over 30, chip and PIN is used, same card.
The bank has the ability to ask for a PIN even with contactless if it suspects there is fraud (based on its algorithms), in reality you are very rarely asked for it.