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Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Apple’s upcoming iOS software update will allow iMessage users to send and receive payments directly through the messaging app when iOS 11 is made available for download this fall, Senior VP of software Craig Federighi revealed at today’s WWDC conference in San Jose, California....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here - Chase Sapphire Preferred CardWhen it comes to credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred has been one of my go-to travel cards for years. The rewards are pretty generous, as you earn two Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on all travel and dining. The travel category includes everything from airfare to subways, and even tolls and parking....

A short kiss was the reason a same-sex couple was allegedly booted from an Uber and left on the side of the highway recently in Houston, Texas.According to reports from Click 2 Houston, Randall Magill and Jose Chavez were leaving a holiday party when they decided to head home in an Uber. After the newly engaged couple shared a quick kiss in the driver’s van, the driver pulled over and told them to get out....

You could be eligible for a $75 statement credit on any purchase of $300 (or more) made with an American Express card through HotelStorm.com, a discount hotel-booking site.Here’s how it works:Log in to your American Express account and register for the offer. Note: It’s a targeted offer, so you might not see it. If you don’t, tweet using an account linked to your Amex and use #AmexHotelStorm. Wait for confirmation from @AmexOffers that the offer has been added to your account....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.It’s one of the most recognizable voices in the world. Even non-frequent fliers would probably remember hearing the voice while traveling. It’s the voice in the airport that tells you to watch your bags or that your flight is delayed....

The world was taken aback when US diplomats in Cuba and China started experiencing puzzling acoustic attacks in 2016 that have so far left 26 government workers ill.Now, the lead author of the US government’s report on the incident has said that the attacks may have been caused by microwave weapons.In an interview with the New York Times, Douglas Smith, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair said that the main suspect of the cause of the victims’ injuries are microwaves....

One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about all the positive ways award travel has affected their lives. That being said, while I love hearing about your successes, I think there’s also a lot we can learn by sharing our mistakes, and I’m calling on readers to send in your most egregious and woeful travel failures.From time to time I’ll pick one that catches my eye and post it for everybody to enjoy (and commiserate with)....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Update 12/28/2017: The Turkey-US visa spat has been resolved and now Americans are able to easily apply for Turkish e-visas once again.Last Thursday, I successfully entered Turkey. I did not have a visa before arriving at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport (IST), but, by taking advantage of a bizarre loophole, I was still able to get in using my US passport, despite the current restriction....

Instagram has quickly become many travelers’ go-to app for sharing photos from their adventures. In fact, it’s become so popular that it’s sparked the great debate: When does sharing your vacation photos become too much? No matter where you stand on that issue, there’s no doubt that Instagram has completely changed how we share our travel experiences.Now that the app has more than 500 million monthly users and hosts more than 95 million photo or video posts per day, it’s no shock that the company has been keeping track of its users’ data....

Truth be told, one doesn’t really need much enticement to plan a trip to the US Virgin Islands. With its year-round perfect temperatures, iconic white sand beaches, passport-less travel policy for U.S. citizens and rum cocktails that go down like glasses of water (consider yourself warned), it’s a popular tourist destination year-round.Now, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas becoming American territories, the islands are offering one more reason to book a trip in 2017 — $300 to spend once you get there....

On Thursday, Miami-Dade and Broward counties confirmed the presence of toxic algae blooms known as the red tide, which have been creeping along the Sunshine State’s east coast. This red tide may be one of the most severe in recent memory.Though it’s not uncommon in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s rare to see red tide this far east.Nicole Sharp, natural resources administrator at the Broward County Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division, told the local New Times Broward-Palm Beach that only nine of 57 Gulf of Mexico algae blooms have traveled to Florida’s east coast since the division began keeping records....

Update 6/1/17 10:39am: This flight is already bookable, but it doesn’t appear that award space has been loaded yet. A one-way economy ticket on the inaugural will run you $475, while a round-trip costs $736. Round-trip business-class fares start at $4,177, but there’s no availability on the inaugural.Well, this is quite a surprise! When United gave me a ring earlier this morning, I expected the call to go something like this:After reviewing your post from earlier in the week, we too agree that charging $1,200 for a domestic basic economy fare is utterly absurd....

Almost eight months after the disastrous Dr. Dao incident that led to the Bumpgate public relations nightmare for United Airlines, the company’s PR chief has quit.According to Bloomberg, Jim Olson sent out a letter to employees notifying of his resignation which will be effective January 8. Olson, a former Starbucks executive and the current SVP of corporate communications for United, worked for the airline for two years and was brought in during a time of upheaval at the company....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.What happens when you take the world’s fastest man, put him in an Airbus A310, remove any semblance of gravity and pit him in a race against a French astronaut? He wins, of course.The 32-year-old Jamaican, famous for his stupefying speed on the ground, recently boarded a Zero-G aircraft to take part in what amounts to a publicity stunt....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.On this day in 1969, we saw the first trace of humans on the moon — in the form of a footprint. Some 240,000 miles from Earth, with nearly 76 hours of travel time to the lunar orbit, astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his foot on a powdery gray surface and took a step forward....

Most aircraft end their days in the scrapyard. Large empty spaces, often in deserts, are filled with row upon row of planes that airlines can no longer use economically, stripped of any valuable parts and spares. Many are recycled for their metal, mostly aluminum.But a lucky few get a second life in a rather different role: they become hotels and restaurants. They will never fly again, but they get to host people — a reminiscence of their previous career....

As anyone who has set foot on a plane lately — let alone tried buying an airline ticket — can tell you, things aren’t what they used to be. Airfares seem to be getting both cheaper and more expensive. Carriers continue to merge and consolidate, while new airlines keep appearing. Nonstop routes between unusual city pairs are cropping up all the time, and connections on airlines that never used to be partners are now the norm....

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are doing their part in the aftermath of Sunday’s tragic shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in US history, with 59 people killed. In a blog post on Alaska’s website, the carrier said that both it and Virgin America — which Alaska bought — have introduced a flexible travel policy to offer the family members of victims a better way to get to their loved ones in Las Vegas....

One day before the latest iteration of the Trump administration’s travel ban was to take effect, a federal judge in Maryland granted an injunction blocking it, saying it was clearly targeted toward Muslims. The Maryland injunction comes on the heels of a similar one issued by a federal judge in Hawaii. The ban was to take effect just hours later.“The record provides strong indications that national security is not the primary purpose of the travel ban,” US District Court judge Theodore D....

Chances are many of you will be dining out this Valentine’s Day, so I wanted to remind everyone to sign-up for a dining program. These are free, easy ways to earn miles and you get them in addition to the points/miles you get from your credit card. Here are the main programs and their current bonuses:American Airlines AAdvantage Dining Program:New member bonus - join and complete $30 on a single dine within 30 days and get 1,000 extra miles....