13 Travel Updates for Frequent Flyers:

United will discontinue its nonstop flights between Edmonton and Newark this fall with the final trip taking place Oct. 24, 2014. The route, which was launched May 2013, was “not meeting expectations.

… Apple customers can now earn Qantas Frequent Flyer or Virgin Australia Velocity points for every dollar spent buying iPhones, iPads, MacBook laptops and iMac desktops, iTunes content like music, movies and apps, and other Apple products, software and accessories. You must access the Apple store through the online mall of your chosen frequent flyer program. Most Apple purchases earn two points per dollar spent, except that Qantas frequent flyers get three points per dollar spent on iTunes.

… A rumor surfaced on Twitter about JetBlue recently: @JetBlue will likely start to charge for bags in mid-2015, says @DavidJBarger, but “we’ll do it in a very JetBlue way.”

#Boyd14LAS … Virgin America is adding one more daily flight from Dallas Love Field to San Francisco, Washington, D.C. (DCA) and Los Angeles as of April 29, 2015. This is in addition to the four daily nonstop roundtrip flights to New York (LGA) beginning Oct. 28, 2014 and the three daily nonstop roundtrip flights to Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles beginning Oct.13, 2014.

… Delta is adding nonstop service between Mexico City and Salt Lake City starting Dec. 20, 2014. The airline is also launching nonstop service to Amsterdam from Salt Lake City in 2015.

… InsideFlyer recently reached out to PEOPLExpress asking when their frequent flyer program will launch and press contact Thomas Becher replied, “Not yet determined.”

… Holland College (Prince Edward Island, Canada) students can now convert their Aeroplan miles into cash for their tuition through the HigherEdPoints.com program. For every 35,000 Aeroplan miles, a $250 credit is issued to the student. There are now 33 participating schools.

… Oneworld members LAN and TAM will merge into one brand with one name by the end of this year, and the new name will not necessarily be LAN, TAM or LATAM. The two airlines merged in 2012.

… Aeroflot and InterContinental Hotels Group are now partners and Aeroflot Bonus members can earn one or two miles per dollar spent when staying in IHG hotels worldwide. IHG has plans for 100 hotels to be open or in the pipeline in Russia, the CIS and Georgia by 2020.

… Jet Airways has discontinued their low-cost brands, JetLite and JetKonnect, and has put renewed effort into the airline’s frequent flyer program with a boost from the strategic alliance with Etihad Airways.

… Southwest Airlines has a new “Listening Center” that integrates social media, traditional media and operational data in one place with employees from customer relations, communications and marketing available to answer questions, engage with customers and share feedback across the entire organization.

… American Airlines recently pulled flight listings from Orbitz only to, three days later, reinstate the listings with a new agreement between the two companies.

… As of Sept. 16, Southwest Airlines is flying from Baltimore to Mexico, Jamaica and Aruba and will begin flying to the Dominican Republic from Baltimore on Nov. 2 and to Nassau, Bahamas at a future date yet to be announced.