A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Airlines Won’t Ignore Your Airtags Data

I heard multiple frustrating stories last year about people locating where their lost bags were with Apple or Android device trackers, but the airline customer service people refusing to do anything with that information. They’re now going to start paying attention it seems thanks to new data sharing partnerships with Apple Airtags that are going mainstream. Announced in November with 15 airlines to start, implementation is already happening: United has integrated a sharing feature within its app and others should roll out this year. See more details here.

Where Your Money Stretches Further

Four years ago, one US dollar would get you 104 Japanese yen. Today it gets you 156, meaning you’ve got 50% more spending power in this fascinating country. Get a Japan Rail Pass from past advertiser 12Go and see multiple areas to take advantage of this deal window. Other countries where your dollars or euros will stretch much further than a year or two ago are Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, and Turkey. My favorite site for checking historic exchange rates is an oldie but goodie: fxtop.com.

World Monuments in Danger

UNESCO just published its latest list on its World Heritage sites and monuments that are in danger and the locations are far and wide, from Albania to Zambia to Maine. Some are loved to death, others aren’t getting enough love to fund the maintenance. Then there are issues with natural disasters, climate change, and missiles raining down from Russia and Israel. See the full list here.

2025 Flight Outlook

There has been a lot of news out this week about predictions of flight prices going up, but read past the headlines and this is mostly a U.S. problem due to reduced capacity. With Spirit Airlines in big trouble and cutting flights, less competition on some routes means higher prices. Capacity in Asia is rising, however, so long-haul flights to there are expected to go down this year. Meanwhile, JetBlue says you can pay with Venmo.