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Update 4/17/17: Delta has closed the “loophole” that allowed you to book awards at the old rates when including a Delta-operated segment as part of your itinerary.Update 4/7/17 4:21pm: Delta has confirmed that this is not, in fact, a mistake. The airline provided the following statement: “This change is part of Delta’s regular evaluation of award pricing that can result in increases or decreases”.Update 4/7/17 3:33pm: For some reason or another, partner flights with one Delta-operated segment are pricing at the old rates....

Several TPG readers emailed me an interesting mailing they received as American Express Platinum Cardmembers. The mailing from American Express (picture below) is a clear attempt to lure Continental and United elites to Delta. While elite status matches are nothing new, this is the first time I’ve seen a credit card company acting as an intermediary on behalf of another airline. I personally think it’s a brilliant, proactive move, but I also feel they should have advertised the 50% transfer bonus and 25,000 MQM promo (which, by the way ends May 31, 2011 so hop on it soon!...

Update 12/8/16: The ability to earn Shop Your Way points with Uber has expanded to 23 new markets. The cities include Atlanta, Boston, Connecticut (statewide), Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey (statewide), New Orleans, Orange County (CA), Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Washington, D.C. These new markets are in addition to the existing two cities — New York and Chicago....

Going to the bathroom on an airplane is about as exciting as a colonoscopy. But if you like to order a cocktail or two on a flight, this is one nook of the plane you can’t escape.While you’re in there, though, a million questions probably leap into your mind: What’s the deal with the disclaimer that says “Do not flush while seated”? Why are the flushes so loud? Why is the toilet water blue?...

This is a guest post from my dad, Grandpa Points. He and my mom are in their mid-60’s, are (mostly) retired,and are ticking off “bucket list” destinations quicker than they ever thought possible thanks to miles, points, and travel deals. They have an intense love of this country, of its National Parks and treasures, and have no problem with a clean budget hotel room and an economy airline seat on a budget airline as long as it gets them where they want to be....

As ride-sharing, ride-hailing and taxi services become more prevalent, our phones are getting more and more cluttered with apps. And the ever-present question is “What’s the cheapest and fastest option for me to get where I’m going?” The answer usually involves opening a few apps, plugging in your destination and comparing prices and services (a shared vs. private ride) to see what makes the most sense for your journey.While ride-hailing aggregators aren’t new, with the likes of RideGuru operating since the early days of ordering a car through your smartphone, a new entrant, Bellhop, aims to be top dog....

At the 2016 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, Airbus unveiled its new Airspace cabin for the A330neo. That completely overhauled cabin design offers a high-tech experience through and through, from the slick mood lighting with etched overhead features to futuristic lavatories and much larger overhead bins.Tuesday at the APEX Expo in Long Beach, we learned that Airspace will now be making its way to Airbus’ single-aisle A320 Family, launching first with JetBlue....

A little more than a week after it was officially delivered to its launch customer Widerøe, Embraer’s first commercially operating E190-E2 has made it to its new home in Norway.After stopovers in Recife (REC) and Las Palmas (LPA), the ferry flight from Brazil made one last stop in Aberdeen, Scotland (ABZ), in order to pick up journalists, staff members and other special guests for the short hop across the North Sea to Bergen (BGO)....

When British Airways introduced its longest-ever nonstop route earlier this year, from London Heathrow (LHR) to Santiago, Chile (SCL) — more than 14 hours in flight — my inner traveler and AvGeek self got rather excited. As a birthday gift to myself, I decided to cash out a heap of Avios and use a reward voucher to experience this ultra-long-haul route on my inaugural visit to South America.The thing that’s really attractive about this LHR-SCL route is simple: British Airways is the only carrier to offer a direct route, with no need to connect from the UK....

Southwest thinks it could launch its long-awaited flights to Hawaii as soon as this year. In the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly announced that the carrier’s plans to fly to Hawaii are on track from the airline’s end, and they could end up launching as soon as the end of 2018.“I think there is a chance that we could be flying by the end of the year and that will be our goal,” Kelly said....

A Thai Airways Boeing 747 skidded off the runway upon landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Monday night.Thai Airways Flight 679, which had traveled from Guangzhou, China (CAN) to Bangkok (BKK), landed in heavy rain at approximately 10:48pm local time. Upon touching down, the Boeing 747-400 skidded off the runway and in to a patch of grass.Once the aircraft came to a stop, slides were deployed and passengers and crew were evacuated and transported to the airport’s terminal....

TPG recently shared his personal favorite passport stamp, acquired in Easter Island.After oohing and ahh-ing over the design, it got us thinking: Whare are some of the most interesting places in the world to visit, and where can you get some truly unique passport stamps?So we asked our TPG Lounge readers, “What’s the coolest passport stamp you’ve ever gotten?” And boy, did they deliver.Here’s where our readers have been:Vernadsky Ukrainian research base with the southern-most bar in the world....

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.For some people, a trip to Ireland is largely about one thing: the beer. And it’s certainly easy to while away an entire week in Dublin and not see much more than the inside of any number of the city’s charming pubs....

Attention Canadian readers! Air Canada has just launched a new airline within an airline called Air Canada Rouge that is going to service seasonal leisure destinations in Europe and the Caribbean with flights departing daily from Toronto and Montreal beginning July 1, 2013.The airline will fly from Toronto to:AthensVeniceEdinburghPunta CanaLiberiaSan JoséPuerto PlataVaraderoKingstonSanta ClaraCayo CocoHolguinAnd from Montreal to Athens.It’s basically just an addition to Air Canada with A319’s and B767’s that have been spruced up and Virgin-ified with swankier cabins and options like fee-based preferred seating....

Between multiple retrofit projects and seat manufacturers, boarding an American Airlines 777 in the past year has been a roll of the dice. As recently as July 2017, you could have stepped on an AA 777-200 for a transpacific flight that had angle-flat seats. Until this month, there were four different configurations of the 777-200s. Today, that number is down to three.As part of AA’s fleet simplification plans, it’s retrofitting its aircraft to have the same number of seats in each cabin for each aircraft type — something it’s calling fleet “harmonization....

With transatlantic airfares hovering at historic lows, there’s never been a better time to fly to Europe. But when it’s possible to find sales for as little as $99 one-way on a plucky low-cost carrier, does it ever make sense to pay more to fly on an older full-service legacy airline? Or are there still times when redeeming miles on a major carrier actually makes more sense than paying cash?That’s the question I faced recently when I needed to buy a ticket for a same-day departure from New York to London....

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.Germany officially ended its short-lived run at the FIFA World Cup on Wednesday after losing its game against South Korea, 0-2. The defending World Cup champions will not be progressing past the first round of the tournament for the first time since 1938....

If you get a call from American Airlines, you might want to pick it up. Effective immediately, American Airlines is contacting select customers with the opportunity to change their connecting flight to a direct flight for a non-refundable fee of $75 per person.Although we originally heard of this offer from Twitter user JonNYC, we’ve confirmed the information with an American Airlines spokesperson.Here are some things you should know about the new test program:American Airlines revenue management is selecting the customers to whom this offer will be made....

Amid the ongoing political rift between Qatar and several other Middle Eastern nations, it was fascinating to see an A380 I took from London (LHR) to Doha (DOH) so quiet, with most of the main deck being empty and a very light load on the upper deck as well.With this in mind, I’m hopped on a short flight from Doha (DOH) to Larnaca (LCA), Cyprus, before returning to Doha, in order to see firsthand what it’s like to fly on a route directly affected by the airspace closures....

If you ever feel the urge to experience what it’s like to get a whiff of the political and legal storm now engulfing the Trump administration, all while visiting New York City, you can indulge yourself — for only $14,200 per month.That’s the price of a rental at a Manhattan condo owned by former Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort, who surrendered to authorities Monday after being charged in the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election....