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As I wrote about last week, I took a quick trip to Barcelona and Madrid recently to celebrate my birthday (not that I need an excuse to visit Spain) with friends who live in Spain. I normally just stay in Madrid, but this time I wanted to go to Barcelona for a night to get a taste of the city that so many people love and I had never visited.So I decided to use 12,000 Starwood points for a night at Le Meridien Barcelona, which is centrally located on La Rambla....

Amid the devastation of Hurricane Irma, there is one place whose loss will be especially heartbreaking to a dedicated group of hardcore travelers. Maho Beach, the world-famous hangout for incredible airplane spotting that is the biggest bucket list item for AvGeeks everywhere, is no more. After Irma lashed the island of Saint Martin on Tuesday, the beach has all but disappeared, and the surrounding facilities have been gutted or washed out to sea....

One of the biggest outstanding questions of the Marriott/SPG/Ritz integration has now been answered. The company has officially announced how existing travel certificates from Hotel + Air packages issued before today (August 18) will convert in the new program. Let’s dive right in:BrandExisting CertificateConverted Certificate (valid across combined Marriott/SPG/Ritz portfolio)MarriottCategory 1-5Category 1-4MarriottCategory 6Category 1-4MarriottCategory 7Category 5MarriottCategory 8Category 5MarriottCategory 9Category 6Ritz-CarltonTier 1-3Category 6Ritz-CarltonTier 4-5Category 7As you can see, these all exactly match my predictions (the conservative set) from earlier in the week....

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 probably no huge surprise that the TSA agents here at home find some pretty unusual items that travelers try to sneak past security checkpoints. There’s been brass knuckles, flaming balls, cane swords and more. But, what is surprising is that one of the best airports in the world, located in one of the safest countries in world has seen a dramatic increase in the number of confiscated goods — Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN)....

Another month, another list of crazy things passengers tried to sneak by TSA when traveling. The TSA’s Instagram includes cheeky posts about all things people attempt to take with them on their flights, either by carrying on or checking it in their bags, that are obviously not-TSA-approved items. At least some of the ones we’ve rounded up for you were trying to get in the Halloween spirit. All in all, it’s just another month of confiscated deadly weapons and explosives at US airports....

For this week’s Thursday Giveaway, we are giving away 450 Euros in Radisson Blu gift cards, which can be used to pay for hotel stays as well as dinner, spa treatments and more.With all the cheap airfares and the low exchange rate, now is the time to plan a trip to Europe. The continent is home to many Radisson Blu properties, meaning you’d be able to use this toward your accommodations....

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.Thursday’s shopping portal offer isn’t quite as good as deals we’ve seen from American and United this year, but if you’re in the market for some Apple products, this one-day promo is definitely worth a look.Only for Thursday, August 31, 2017, Delta is offering 6 SkyMiles per dollar spent with Apple....

2015 was a year of big journeys for our family even though we actually traveled less than we have in recent years. This is because 2015 was the year we welcomed our new tiny traveler, Baby S, and then took our first four trips after we rounded out our family of four! Given that we didn’t travel with our first daughter until she was almost a year old, traveling with someone as young as just two months was a new world to us....

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.United has never been known to sell miles at a discount. In fact, normally their miles are a whopping 3.5 cents a piece plus a 7.5% tax, bringing the cost of buying 100,000 miles to $3,762.50, or nearly 3....

Get your tickets here, get your tickets here! United is planning to put its six 787’s back into service beginning May 31. This is the first good news since JAL and ANA both grounded their fleets and the FAA ordered United to do the same back in January.United 787.The first flights will be short roundtrips between the airline’s hubs in Houston and Denver.Flights between Denver and Houston will begin as early as May 31....

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.United announced today that it will significantly expand service on 11 routes from the mainland US to the Hawaiian Islands. Later this year, United will begin selling basic economy on these routes as well.The airline, which now claims that it has more flights to Hawaii than any other carrier, will increase service from its hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – The Hyatt Credit Card, Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve CardTPG reader Jeff would like some help deciding whether to get the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card or the Chase Hyatt Credit Card:“Since the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve came out I’ve really wanted to pick it up. I want to get a card with SmartChip technology and am debating between getting it and Chase Hyatt Visa....

Visa, Mastercard and several major US banks on Tuesday finally settled a 13-year-old class action lawsuit with retailers across the country, which accused the credit card companies of fixing prices of card swipe fees to benefit the banks.The $6.2 billion settlement is reported to be the largest antitrust settlement in history.The class action suit was first filed in 2005 when both Visa and Mastercard were owned by banks, Bloomberg reports. Retailers accused them of illegally elevating the swipe fees that all merchants pay when a customer makes a purchase via card....

Last year I indulged a decades-old travel dream and stayed at the Walt Disney World Polynesian Village Resort that is located right on the Disney monorail loop. We could get to the Magic Kingdom by just hopping on the crowd-pleasing monorail and between trips into the parks, we got to enjoy one of the original resorts imagined by Walt himself. I quickly realized this was a dangerous decision and warned others to stay away....

Thanks to just-announced changes to the American Airlines schedule, there’s a new opportunity to score a more comfortable flying experience: lie-flat business class to Cancun, Mexico. American Airlines is launching not one but three daily flights to Cancun using its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.That means that instead of a standard “domestic first class” recliner seat…… you have the chance to book a lie-flat business class seat:These revised flights will operate on the following schedule:Effective November 4:AA 147 — Chicago O’Hare (ORD) 8:25am Departure ⇒ Cancun (CUN) 1:06pm ArrivalAA 147 — Cancun (CUN) 2:00pm Departure ⇒ Chicago O’Hare (ORD) 4:57pm ArrivalEffective December 19:Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions....

There are a few fun travel contests and sweepstakes going on around the web this week. Here are my top picks to win some great travel prizes!Win a trip to India courtesy of SmarTours.Win a Trip to India: You could win an eight day trip to India for signing up for SmarTours mailing list by July 8, 2014. The prize trip includes international airfare, all transfers and ground transportation, deluxe hotels, six meals, and sightseeing tours....

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.I’m approaching 13,000 Twitter followers today, so to celebrate, I’ll give 13 lucky followers 1,000 Amex points each.All you have to do to enter is be sure you follow me on Twitter, and then retweet my special 13,000-point giveaway tweet with the hashtag #TPG13K within the next 3 hours for a chance to win....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Chase Sapphire ReserveTPG reader Matt sent me a message on Facebook to ask about redeeming a credit card benefit:“Does Sapphire Reserve just give me a credit for the first $300 I spend on travel, or can I choose to apply the credit to specific charges?”When the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card was introduced in August, one of the benefits that stood out to me was the $300 annual travel credit....

China has told US airlines there will be “no room for negotiation” on its demands that the carriers list the island of Taiwan as a Chinese territory on their websites. The mandate’s deadline, which was extended at the request of the all three US legacy carriers, is Wednesday.The Civil Aviation Administration of China demanded that United, Delta and American Airlines change online references to self-ruled Taiwan to “Taiwan, China.” The three carriers said at the end of June that they were each considering the requests and working with the White House to come to a resolution on the issue....

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.Increased security concerns seem to be having an impact on airports and airlines across the globe. Just last week, the EU announced that it will now be collecting air traveler information for passengers flying into and out of Europe in an effort to increase security....