News roundup: Big Citi AAdvantage bonus offer gets less big, free wifi in London, and a little humor

Here is a short roundup of news items for the week:

Well, it was lucrative whiles it lasted, but the Points Guy writes: RIP Citi American 75,000 Mile Card Bonuses.

As of today, 10/10/11, the links for the amazing 75,000 mile Citi AA cards are no longer working. Barring any sort of resurrection, I think this deal is dead (though I’d love to be proven wrong).

Go here for the full story.

But the good news is that Citi is now offering a 50,000 AAdvantage Miles bonus. Daraius over at Million Mile Secrets has adjusted his classic (but expired) 2 Browser Trick for 150,000 AA Miles and shares his new Use The 2-Browser Trick To Earn 100,000 Free AAdvantage Miles trick:

Even though the Citi AAdvantage 75,000 mile credit cards are no longer working, there are still working links for 50,000 mile Citi AAdvantage cards.

So I’ve modified my earlier 2-browser trick post

Go here to read more.

Terry Maxon at the Dallas Morning News Airline Biz Blog reports that Conde Nast Traveler hands out Readers’ Choice Awards and the results aren’t good for American, they scored 47 out of 100 points and landed in 10th place.

Go here to see how the rest of the airlines did.

I’ve always been a little frustrated by the scarcity of free wifi access in London, so I was happy to learn from The Register that Starbucks extends gratis Wi-Fi to UK.  The bad news (for now) is:

Well, not quite all of the beverage purveyor’s punters: the company was later forced to admit that the deal doesn’t extend to its branches within Britain’s airports.

Though according to the article, Starbucks is working to possibly change that.

Read all about it here.

Speaking of Starbucks: FlyerTalk member bmchris wrote about his frustration with the American Airlines marketing mailers he receives, so he wrote a very funny, tongue-in-cheek post: AA VP of Marketing rejected for marketing job at Starbucks:

So I wondered what Starbucks would look like if the VP of Marketing at American was in charge there.

1. You could only buy a coffee that they would serve you in 10 days time.
2. Decaf would be cheaper before 2pm, and Caffeinated coffee would be cheaper after 5pm. On Saturdays and Sundays only.
3. 1 cup of coffee costs more than 2 cups of coffee.

In all fairness, his comments apply to all the carriers. My favorite may be “6. They couldn’t tell you how much the same cup of coffee cost yesterday, or how much it would cost tomorrow.”  There’s more, so go over here and read the rest.

Here’s one last item:

A behind the scenes video from an American Airlines Rio to JFK flight by Kent Wien of The Cockpit Chronicles: Food in the cockpit.  How it’s prepared and what is served

He also writes:

Most co-pilots give the choice of meal to the captain, and the captain often defers back to the co-pilot. It can become comical at times; neither pilot wanting to make what is probably the least important decision of the flight. Alas, it’s typically decided that whoever is flying the plane for that leg should choose.

Go here to read more.

Have a great weekend!