@ISIDEWITHQuestionstransportation3mos ago

Should the government regulate airline frequent flier programs?

In September 2024 the U.S. Transportation Department began an investigation into U.S. airline’s frequent flier programs. The department's inquiry centers on practices that it describes as potentially unfair, deceptive or anti-competitive, with a focus on four areas: changes to the value of points that the agency said can make it more expensive to book tickets using rewards; lack of fare transparency through dynamic pricing; fees for redeeming and transferring rewards; and reduction in competition among programs due to airline mergers.  “These rewards are controlled by…  

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No

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…14hrs14H

America’s Housing Market Is Crushing First-Time Buyers

It takes more money than ever to buy a home in America right now. And nearly a third of home buyers navigating the high mortgage rates, rising home prices and low inventory are somehow buying their homes entirely in cash.The share of home buyers paying all cash reached 33 percent through August this year, according to data from Redfin — one of the highest rates since the years following the Great Recession.As cash purchases have become more common, the median age of home buyers has been ticking up and now stands at 56 years old, according to NAR’s data from July 2023 to this June. Even for first-time buyers, the median age has risen to 38 compared to 35 last year.Many of the all-cash buyers are selling previously owned homes to fund their moves. But the rise of cash buys is making it even harder for first-time home buyers. Between July 2023 and June 2024, the share of first-time home buyers in the market was only 24 percent — a historic low.“If it’s a multiple offer situation, it’s likely going to be hard to beat an all-cash offer,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Cash offers often move quicker and are seen as less risky for the sellers.And the struggle to break into the housing market may not ease anytime soon — property experts surveyed by Reuters expect affordability to get worse for first-time buyers over the next year.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…14hrs14H

Mexican Shuts Down 2 Migrant Caravans After Trump Threat

Mexican immigration authorities have broken up two small migrant caravans headed to the U.S. border, activists said Saturday.Some migrants were bused to cities in southern Mexico, and others were offered transit papers.The action comes a week after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap 25% tariffs on Mexican products unless the country does more to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.On Wednesday, Trump wrote that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had agreed to stop unauthorized migration across the border into the United States. Sheinbaum wrote on her social media accounts the same day that “migrants and caravans are taken care of before they reach the border.”Migrant rights activist Luis García Villagrán said the breaking-up of the two caravans appeared to be part of “an agreement between the president of Mexico and the president of the United States.”The first of the caravans started out from the southern Mexico city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, on Nov. 5, the day Trump was elected. At its height it had about 2,500 people. In almost four weeks of walking, it had gone about 270 miles (430 kilometers) to Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca.In Tehuantepec, Mexican immigration officials offered the tired migrants free bus rides to other cities in southern or central Mexico.“They took some of us to Acapulco, others to Morelia, and others from our group to Oaxaca city,” said Bárbara Rodríguez, an opposition supporter who left her native Venezuela after that country's contested presidential elections earlier this year.Rodríguez said by telephone she later caught a bus on her own to Mexico City.In a statement Saturday, the National Immigration Institute said the migrants voluntary accepted bus rides “to various areas where there is medical assistance and where their migratory status will be reviewed,” and said “upon accepting (the rides), they said they no longer wanted to face the risks along their way.”

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