If you’ve ever wanted to feel what it was like to fly on the Concorde Jet, you can come close to reliving the experience when pieces of the plane go up for auction this November.Headphones from the Concorde jet are up for auction. Image courtesy of Marc LaBarbe.You’ll be able to bid on items like toilet seats, oxygen masks, headphones and fine china at the Marc Labarbe auction house in Toulouse, France....
Akbar al Baker is a meticulous man. The chief executive of Qatar Airways is known for a fanatical attention to detail that has led him to refuse the delivery of brand new airplanes because the cabin wasn’t up to his quality standards. But he’s also one of the most respected bosses in the airline industry — after all, he has presided since 1997 over the booming growth of Qatar Airways from a tiny regional outfit into a global powerhouse....
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.The never-ending battle in the skies for the world’s longest flight is taking another step forward. Earlier this year, Qatar Airways hinted that it was working to launch its Doha to Auckland flight, which would become the world’s longest....
TPG reader Eric wrote to me this week about a very frustrating experience he just had with British Airways and American Airlines.As a background, Eric’s sister was visiting him in Miami and he had purchased her an award ticket home on American Airlines using 7,500 Avios. Once she arrived at the airport, however, American told her that there was no record of her flight and the only way she could fly that night is if she paid $400 for another ticket....
I’ve shared the Comedy of Errors that was our recent trip to Las Vegas (here and here), but I want to share a few more details specifically about the suite our family stayed in at the Bellagio in case you are considering the same room for a future trip. I know I always like to get as many details as possible when deciding if a room or suite will meet my family’s needs!...
Here’s a recap of interesting points and miles news and promos from the week.15,000 Alaska Miles For New T-Mobile Contract: Now through March 31, 2013, potential cell phone customers who register with T-Mobile at this link will be eligible to earn 15,000 bonus Alaska Airlines MileagePlan Miles. This offer is open only to new T-Mobile customers, and they must sign up for a two-year contract on a qualifying 4G smartphone device and data plan....
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.After lots of internet rumors and speculation based on Southwest Airlines having luau themed boarding gates, employees in Hawaiian shirts, being a headlining sponsorship of a Hawaii travel summit, impending introduction of new planes to the fleet, and more, fans of the airline (and its Rapid Reward points) waited yesterday for news of a rumored formal announcement that the airline was starting up service to the Hawaiian Islands in 2018....
TPG reader Jody asks:“I’m sure you have a ton of clients that took advantage of both the British Airways 100K sign up bonus and the 150K American Airlines sign up bonuses recently. Can we take those 250K miles and use them together somehow within the OneWorld Alliance system to fly an entire family of four to Asia/South America/Africa, etc.? “This is a great question, because many of you did get in on the 100,000 British Airways Visa deal in April/May and are currently raking in the American miles from their 75,000 mile secret Citi cards....
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.The hotel I have probably stayed at the (and written about) most over the last five years is unquestionably Hyatt Lost Pines about 30 miles outside of Austin. For families looking to use points to get away, get outside, and disconnect it really can’t be beat....
There’s only one solitary ad in the travel category confirmed to screen during commercial breaks at this year’s Super Bowl: A 30-second spot from Universal Parks & Resorts in which an energetic Peyton Manning steps into the role of “vacation quarterback," guiding families toward the best getaway possible.It’s hardly a step up for the travel space from last year’s game, which was not much more robust with a paltry two ads from Airbnb and Turkish Airlines....
If you’ve passed through a major US airport within the past few years, you’re probably well aware of the benefits of PreCheck — even if you’ve never received an invitation to use that special TSA lane.The program offers expedited screening at 200 airports around the country, even including checkpoints at US territory airports, such as Puerto Rico and Guam. And while airports must be equipped to handle PreCheck passengers, individual airlines need to be on board as well....
Hong Kong is getting a thrashing from Typhoon Mangkhut, which was at one point the world’s strongest tropical system of 2018. The typhoon hit the Philippines with top winds of 165mph, which would have made the storm a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. The landfall sparked widespread flooding and landslides and has killed at least 40 people.After weakening a bit, the typhoon is passing just south of Hong Kong. Overnight Sunday, the Hong Kong Observatory raised the storm signal to its highest level (T10) for just the 16th time since 1946....
As I’ve written about before, status matching and challenges can be the quickest, easiest way to achieve elite status on a new airline, especially if you know you have a lot of flights coming up and can choose the airline on which you complete your travel. For anyone unfamiliar, a status match is when an airline will comp you elite status if you have elite status on a competing airline and a challenge is when they make you complete a set of short-cut requirements before giving you comped status....
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.Antarctica is often the ‘final frontier’ for world travelers longing to experience a continent that is relatively untouched by tourists. Historically, it’s been next to impossible to use points to reach the ice-covered continent — but not anymore....
There are certain airline frequent flyer programs that are the “golden children” of many miles and points fanatics because of their award charts, redemption sweet spots, routing rules, destinations, partners, etc. Then there are the others that aren’t often thought of in the same light, and aren’t usually given the same amount of attention on the blogs, forums, etc. Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards is one of the programs that sometimes gets a little neglected in the airline mileage discussion even though they are actually a pretty popular program for actual travelers....
Earlier this week we reported about the severe turbulence on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow (SVO) to Bangkok (BKK) that resulted in injuries to dozens of passengers. Now another aircraft — an AirAsia X flight from Taipei (TPE) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) — has suffered a turbulence event so extreme that a video shows the cabin crew asking out loud if someone had died as a result.The video, which was filmed on board Thursday and posted by Oriental Daily News Malaysia, shows flight attendants crouched in a galley, bracing themselves against the plane’s movements as food trays and stowage items lay strewn about on the floor....
After a recent three-week trip around Europe and Asia with my parents which included stops in London, Ghana, Dubai, Beijing, Bali, Singapore and Hong Kong, I realized how much I loved exploring Beijing, despite the cold winter temps.It wasn’t my first time traveling to the Chinese capital, but during this visit, I got a chance to play tourist and see all the attractions with my parents. The city has really grown on me — here’s why you should consider traveling to Beijing this winter....
Airbus aircraft are in use all around the world — whether the airline is flying its flagship A380 or the traditional A330 — and some cabins are being updated to feature the very best first- and business-class seats on the market today. I recently caught up with Stelia Aerospace — the manufacturers of Asiana Airlines’ A350 business-class seats — to see what’s new and coming soon to an Airbus aircraft near you....
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.Found this USA Today article pretty interesting. Whether you know it or not, many US flights have armed air marshals on-board who are there in case a security situation arises. Almost all of the time, they are seated in first class (and are sometimes easily spotted because they are one of the only people not partaking in alcoholic beverages)....
One of the major frustrations that miles and points collectors have with American Airlines’ AAdvantage mileage program is the seeming lack of award options that are bookable with AA miles. In fact, there are actually a whole lot more award options that you can book with AA miles than you’ll ever see on AA’s website. There’s a long list of American partners that you can’t book on AA’s website, and it’s been over a year since a partner’s awards have been added to AA....
