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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.Enrollment is open for Small Business Saturday, which is a promotion where Amex will give you a $25 statement credit for shopping at at many participating small businesses on Saturday November 24, 2012.Enroll ALL of your American Express cards here (the more cards you have enrolled, the more $25 statement credits you can get)Then find an eligible small business here....

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 usually cause for concern when drones fly too close to airplanes, but Airbus is embracing the technology in hopes that it’ll help expedite the process of inspecting aircraft before flights.The current process for aircraft inspections is time-consuming, tedious and even considered to be dangerous, as inspectors have to use cranes and lifts to get close enough to the plane to get a good look....

Last week, I took an early-morning flight from Charleston, South Carolina (CHS) to Dallas (DFW) on a regional Embraer ERJ-175LR American Airlines jet operated by Envoy. Although there was plenty of first-class space, upgrades weren’t processed until four hours before the flight. Thankfully though, this was at least enough of a heads-up to know that I’d be getting a meal on board, so I wouldn’t have to eat before the flight....

Some travelers love the Boeing 737. Other travelers aren’t fans as the narrow cabin requires 17-inch wide economy seats. No matter where you stand on the matter, all travelers can agree that more pitch and fewer seats in the aircraft is better. American Airlines is doing the opposite by installing more seats and reducing legroom in its 737-800s.The first AA 172-seat Boeing 737-800 has just entered service, with 12 more seats than the other 737-800s in the fleet....

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 Airlines will soon be removing one of the biggest downsides of domestic basic economy fares: not being able to carry on a full-size bag. When the change takes effect, it’ll pull American Airlines’ basic economy policy in line with Delta’s to allow a carry-on bag with basic economy fares, and it also aligns the airline’s domestic policy with its international basic economy fare policy....

Christmas came early for me this year as I woke up in Amsterdam today to great news that American Airlines is offering double elite qualifying miles from December 13, 2011 to January 31, 2012 to all AAdvantage members. The rules are very flexible as well- this applies to all flights on American planes (not codeshare or partners), even for flights already booked.Registration is required, go here and enter promo code DEQAA if prompted....

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.Belgium plans on turning an abandoned, protected hangar into a “mega-brothel,” moving sex workers in Ostend from the city’s seaside red-light district.Backlash followed the decision from a nonprofit group, Oostendse Oosteroever, who had been advocating for the hangar to be turned into a museum to celebrate the town’s maritime past....

Elon Musk tweeted this morning that he’d received an informal go-ahead to begin tunneling an East Coast Hyperloop, fueling speculation that the future of travel could be just over the horizon.According to Musk’s tweet, the Hyperloop would run between New York and Washington, D.C. — and would stop in Philadelphia and Baltimore along the way. A trip would take a mere 29 minutes, speedy enough to put current transit options — about 1 hour 20 minutes by air and just under 3 hours by rail — to shame....

It’s generally expected that an airline’s CEO would fly up front in business class. But, as we learned at the APEX Expo in Long Beach today, JetBlue’s Chief Executive Robin Hayes leaves the carrier’s tremendously popular Mint cabin open for fare-paying customers.“This thing’s been flying around three and a half years,” Hayes told hundreds of conference attendees. “On transcon, I’ve only gotten on it once, because it’s always full.“JetBlue’s Mint product is hard to resist....

Music may be the main event at California’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice comfort. And Marriott and Starwood understand that. When the festival returns this April for its 18th annual event, the iconic hotel brands will be the first to launch a takeover of eight of Coachella’s onsite safari tents, giving them a first-class makeover.Though each tent will be one-of-a-kind — each one will showcase the diversity of Marriott and Starwood’s lifestyle brands, including AC Hotels by Marriott, Moxy, Renaissance Hotels, Autograph Collection Hotels, Aloft, Westin, Le Méridien and Tribute Portfolio — they’ll all feature many of the same amenities you’d find in a full-service hotel, including private restrooms and showers, a concierge and air conditioning....

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.Japan’s busiest international airport will build a new terminal to cope with the influx of tourists for the Summer Olympics in 2020 — and then it will tear it down once the event’s over, according to the company that manages Narita International Airport (NRT)....

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.Qantas Points+ aren’t the easiest the earn, and while you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points, we don’t typically recommend doing so. That said, a 25% discount on Economy Classic Flight Rewards definitely makes it worth considering. If you’re planning a trip Down Under, or if you’ve been looking for an ideal time to dust off your unused Qantas Points+, the carrier’s latest sale is worth ogling....

When I first started carrying the Ritz Paris Collection by Airweave Traveler DUAL MODE mattress pad with me, I’d joke about “accidentally forgetting it.” To be honest, I was skeptical about the worth of carrying a mattress pad — regardless of its quality — around the world.I’ve lived on the road full time since July 2017. As someone who travels a lot and has chronic back pain, I’m a great candidate to use and benefit from a travel-friendly mattress pad....

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.Qantas recently unveiled new livery on an aircraft dubbed the “Rainbow Roo” as a way to show support for the LGBT community, painting its name in rainbow colors and showing its signature flying kangaroo holding a rainbow-colored flag....

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 know my website was excruciatingly slow for many of you earlier this week, but the good news is that I’ve upgraded my web host, so it should be smooth sailing going forward.Thanks again for your understanding and if you ever have any suggestions on how I can improve my site, please feel free to email or Tweet me....

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.Starwood is running a triple/double point promotion from September 6, 2011- December 18, 2011 and registration is required.For the first night of Star Mega Do 3 (which has been awesome so far) I stayed at the Sheraton Munich Airport hotel, which was a pretty charming property - at least for an airport hotel....

TPG reader Ali emailed me to ask about transatlantic flights:“I’m planning to fly from Miami to Madrid with my wife and three young children. I have enough miles to fly business class in one direction; would you recommend we do that on the way to Europe or on the way back?”I try to fly in business and first class as much as possible — not only because I’m tall and can’t fit comfortably in smaller seats, but also because I find premium flight service really augments my travel experience....

TPG reader Kathleen writes:“I would like to give some miles to a friend so that he may travel in Business Class to Europe this March/April. I was thinking of giving them around 80K miles to do this, using an upgrade. Do upgrades not exist any more? He said he called Delta and they wanted some outrageous base fare PLUS 100K miles to upgrade.What is the minimum amount of miles I can give him to help him upgrade where he won’t have to pay $2,000 per ticket?...

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.Last month, TPG Associate Editor Emily McNutt chatted with US Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D-NY) about an amendment he proposed that would allow the FAA to require a minimum seat measurement for airplanes. The amendment, aimed at regulating legroom, would help ensure a safe and comfortable ride for airline passengers, who are constantly being subjected to tighter and tighter spaces....

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 a scant eight months after launching nonstop Dreamliner flights between Los Angeles (LAX) to Singapore (SIN), United’s short-lived route will soon be no more, shifting instead to a second daily frequency between San Francisco (SFO) and Singapore, according to information on Twitter provided to Brian Sumers and confirmed by TPG....