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A passenger jet carrying 170 people overshot the runway at Sochi International Airport (AER), crashed into a fence, rolled into a nearby river and caught fire on Saturday, according to reports.Utair Flight 579 was traveling from Moscow (VKO) to Sochi (AER). Upon landing, the Boeing 737-800 — registration VQ-BJI — overshot the runway. According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, translated from a report from TASS Russian News Agency, the 737 rolled off the runway and into a river....

“Reader Questions” are answered three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — by TPG Senior Writer Julian Mark Kheel.It might not be as easy as it used to be to get a Southwest Companion Pass, but it’s still possible, and TPG reader Ben wants to know if he can use one for his furry friend…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Ben”]This question is somewhat silly, but can you use a Southwest Companion Pass on a dog?...

Delta just pulled off a gutsy move. With Category 5 Hurricane Irma barreling down on Puerto Rico, airlines have been wary of sending flights into San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU). Some flights even got as close as circling the airport before deciding to bail, i.e. divert:Image by FlightRadar24.Only Delta flight #431 from New York’s JFK, a Boeing 737-900ER, continued unfazed toward San Juan.With the outer bands of Irma starting to lash the airport, Delta flight #431 touched down at SJU just after noon local time, and just 40 minutes later, it took off as Delta flight #302 to return to JFK:The flight had to turn sharply after takeoff and weave through gaps in Hurricane Irma’s bands to escape unharmed....

TPG reader Robert sent me a message on Facebook to ask about elite status:“I’ve had Marriott Platinum Elite status for a while, but after staying 175 nights last year, I was recently bumped up to Platinum Premier. However, no one at Marriott can tell me what this means! Can you explain?”The benefits of top-tier hotel elite status run the full spectrum of value, from straightforward offerings like free water bottles and gift shop discounts to highly lucrative perks like Hyatt’s suite upgrade certificates....

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.Just in time for two of the craziest shopping days of the year - Black Friday and Cyber Monday - I’ve started putting together a 2012 The Points Guy Holiday Gift Guide For Travelers and I need your input!...

Today I flew to visit two friends who were meeting up in Vegas for the weekend. They were here for several days before my arrival, but due to toddler care-taking commitments (AKA being a mom), I couldn’t get away for the whole weekend. However, I was very excited to join them for one night. We were going to go to the pool, go out to dinner, play some slots, and just have fun....

With this post, we introduce The Points & Miles Backpacker, a biweekly column appearing every other Monday. TPG contributor Brian Biros, who has 15 years of experience traveling all over the world with a backpack, will look at how you can use points and miles to fund this increasingly popular way of seeing the world.I never had dreams of being a backpacker. I don’t have any crayon drawings from grade school of a stick figure hauling a backpack through a train station from when my teacher asked me what I want to be when I grow up....

In honor of Valentine’s Day, yesterday I wrote about ten places I would love to visit using my miles and points in the coming years. When you combine the realities of young family life with lofty travel goals, I know it may take more than a few years to get to all of those spots (if I ever do), but that’s okay. Half of the fun is planning and dreaming. How lucky we are that some of these travel dreams do actually become realities....

Frank Turner, 34, isn’t just out behind his latest album, ‘Positive Songs for Negative People,’ the prolific singer-songwriter also just crafted his first book, ‘The Road Beneath My Feet,’ essentially a best-selling tour diary since the punk-folkie travels have taken him all over the world. Here, the London-based recording artist — who went to the London School of Economics with Prince William — reveals why it’s a bad idea to break up during an exotic trip far from home and why the brainy bard said ‘Fck no’ to a publisher when he asked first Turner to write his memoir....

Airline seat manufacturers are constantly developing better-designed products. We’ve seen some great innovations recently, from United’s dense yet well-designed Polaris seats to Emirates’ new world-class first class suites.Now, seat manufacturer Recaro is developing a new technology that focuses on health rather than just comfort. According to a Bloomberg interview with Recaro CEO Mark Hiller, a new self-cleaning business class seat is in the process of being developed. The seat will be “infused with a disinfectant that destroys almost every germ on contact within seconds” using a newly-developed anti-bacterial film....

A self-upgrading Korean Air passenger was forcibly removed from the business-class cabin of a San Francisco-bound flight after refusing to move back to her assigned economy seat.On July 27, an American woman boarded Korean Air Flight 25 from Seoul (ICN) to San Francisco (SFO), ticketed as an economy-class passenger. Once on board the aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER (registration HL7202), the unidentified woman reportedly self-upgraded and took a seat in the last row of the business-class cabin....

I’ll never forget my best in-flight meal — it was a year ago this month; my first time flying first class on Asiana’s A380.Not only was there a ton of food, it was also insanely delicious. It was Korean food, which wouldn’t ordinarily be my first choice, but if I could get those dishes at a local restaurant, I could easily see myself visiting once a week. It was that good....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – United MileagePlus Explorer CardFor this week’s Thursday Giveaway, we have a $500 United Airlines gift card that can be used anywhere United flies in celebration of the increased sign-up bonus for this card.You’ll earn 40,000 United MileagePlus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first three months with the United MileagePlus Explorer CardTo enter this giveaway, visit our Facebook Page....

In jaw-dropping space news today, SpaceX — an aerospace manufacturer and transport company founded by Elon Musk — announced that two “private citizens” have just booked a “trip around the moon late next year.” That’s right, SpaceX is planning on sending two people to the moon in 2018.While these space tourists won’t actually land on the lunar surface, this will mark the first time since 1972 that mankind has ventured to the moon....

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.Today I flew from Paris Orly to Nice and right as the engines were starting to wind up, the hip guy next to me did a big sign of the cross and started praying feverishly. Wondering if he knew something I didn’t I started to get worried, but then I realized it was just his way of ensuring that the flight took off without incident....

Throughout his extensive travels, digital nomad and TPG Contributor Ryan Gargiulo has learned that there are several great options for booking reasonably priced and centrally located short- and long-term accommodations across the globe. Here are a few resources that might come in handy when you’re planning your next big trip.Whether for short- or long-term, rental apartments can be a great alternative to hotels. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.I used to be the quite the hotel snob, but over the last few years, renting apartments has changed the way I travel....

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.American Express announced today that Virgin America will be a transfer partner of Membership Rewards starting October 5, 2011. The transfer ratio won’t be released until the program goes live, but I hope it’s at a 1:1 ratio, which would mean each Amex point transferred would equate to 1....

For several decades, Airbus and Boeing have owned the mid-range, narrow-body jet market. Canada’s Bombardier C Series has put a small dent in the market recently, but an even newer player is emerging from the world’s fastest-growing technological superpower.https://youtu.be/5zHOo3SifU8At 2:01pm on Friday, from Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, the COMAC C919 took to the skies for its maiden flight, with a crew of five aboard, and spent an hour and 19 minutes in flight....

Turns out that those magically cheap Etihad fares that we shared back in December may not be so magical, after all. I’ve been hearing from readers that although Etihad has agreed to honor these cheap mistake fares, the airline is now making changes to some their itineraries—and not for the better. In case this happens to you, I want to provide you with some tools to reach out for help.Last-minute changes are being made to mistake-fare itineraries—and Etihad and Orbitz are pointing fingers at each other....

I have to acknowledge up-front that I feel totally silly and petty writing about the merits and drawbacks of my recent economy flights to Spain given the devastating events of Germanwings Flight 9525 that left Barcelona the same morning we did. I’m writing about our flights as I normally would, because this is what I do, and fixating on the Germanwings Flight doesn’t seem appropriate either given that I have virtually nothing to add to that discussion other than my own shock and heartbreak for the families....