Highlights from travel industry discussions on social media

Qatar Airways offers competitive point rates

Qatar Airways charges just 6,000 points for short-distance American Airlines flights in coach. However, regional carrier flights don’t always show up online or even for agents over the phone. Dan’s Deals wrote about booking a mainline flight and then changing to the desired regional one. "They sent him a link to pay the $25 change fee – he didn’t pay, but the ticket was reissued anyway." By changing the frequent flyer number in his reservation to his AAdvantage account with elite status, he was upgraded.

Delta's IT failure complicates rebooking

When Delta experienced an IT failure that caused major disruptions, it became nearly impossible to get flights rebooked. They eventually agreed to reimburse travel purchased on other airlines but not in time for many travelers. "But someone who couldn’t get their ticket changed and just gave up and bought a new ticket on Delta? Not eligible apparently – because they are reimbursing tickets on other airlines only?" shared by u/wuhee indelta.

Brand standards questioned at Hampton Inn

"Free 'newspapers' at the Hampton Inn, Carrboro, NC," commented u/Ex-Clone inHilton.

JetBlue-Spirit merger debate continues

The Spirit Airlines acquisition no longer made sense for JetBlue after their partnership with American Airlines was quashed by the Justice Department. Colorado Governor Jared Polis expressed confusion over anti-trust concerns: "At a combined 10.1% of the market how could a Spirit and JetBlue merger be an anti-trust issue? If anything it would allow the combined low fare entity to compete more effectively with the bigs," he tweeted (@jaredpolis).

Other topics included:

- The misery of LAX-it rideshare lot in Los Angeles.

- Soup Dumpling Index: How many pork xiao long bao you can buy with $10 at Din Tai Fung locations worldwide (HT: @crucker).