Hey y’all! We’re in Baltimore this weekend for Nick’s birthday trip, so this post is happening remotely–the magic of WordPress. Here are this week’s stories:

1. Delta Schedule Switcharoo:  Recently, I booked my tickets to go home for Christmas to visit my family. I was SO proud of myself–I found a Delta flight nonstop from Manchester, NH to LaGuardia that got me back to NYC before dinner for only $120. Score, especially during the holiday season! Alas, my great find wasn’t meant to be. Continue reading.
2. Earn Double Points When You Shop Small with AMEX:  Last weekend, American Express announced their “Shop Small” promotion, and it’s pretty great, and applies to almost all cards in the American Express portfolio. Continue reading.
3. Flashback – Recurring Payments:  This past February, I wrote a post on the “life-changing magic of recurring payments” as a way to inform readers that mindless purchases we all have to make are a great way to boost miles and points. Today, I wanted to take some time to recap that.  Lazy blogger, I know, but I think it’s an interesting point to highlight, especially since a lot of things we buy are set to recur and auto-pay. Continue reading.
4. Five Books for Traveling:  I’ve noticed that people fall into two camps of packing books for travel:  it’s either one thin paperback or so many books you’re in danger of going over your bag weight limit. There is no in between. I fall in the latter category–when traveling, you generally have AGES of downtime, so you might as well bring a few good books. Continue reading.

Other things happening around the world:

1. Earn a quick and easy 1,000 Air Canada Aeroplan Miles–great if you need a quick top up on your points or want to prevent them from expiring. Click here for quiz.
2. A long but interesting article about the disappearance of Eastern Airlines Flight 980 from Outside Magazine. Click here to read.
3. British Airways is set to connect London and New Orleans in the spring of 2017, the first connection of these two cities in over 25 years! Click over to OMAAT to read more about it.
4. Not an article, per se, but I thought these photos from the Boston Globe of the Ashmont-Mattapan Trolley were pretty cool. Click here to view.