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Good news for United premium cabin flyers — new amenity kits are coming your way. To celebrate its partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, United is launching redesigned amenity kits for passengers flying internationally in Polaris First and Business Class as well as premium transcontinental flights.Polaris passengers are in for a treat with these new structured Saks bags that resemble a slightly larger sunglass case. Both first and business-class passengers will get similar bags, which comes in two colors — black and white, but with slightly different contents (more on that below)....

As all bargain shoppers know, being the first in line is often a good bet. As the first buyer of the new (in name only) Airbus A220-300 jet, JetBlue received a significant discount on its July 10 order of 60 planes, according to international credit rating agency Moody’s. Both JetBlue and Airbus are keeping pricing details confidential, but analysts estimate that the deal most likely is worth $1.4-1.7 billion, which would mean an average sticker price of $23-28 million per jet....

Despite not being a member of one of the three major airline alliances, Alaska Airlines has built its Mileage Plan loyalty program into one of the most lucrative in the industry by cobbling together an impressive array of partnerships with individual airlines. Mileage Plan miles are relatively hard to earn, but once you get your hands on them, they can open the door to some truly amazing sweet spot redemptions.Cathay Pacific first class is just one terrific redemption you can book using Alaska miles....

Retired commercial airplanes often have nowhere to go but the desert, to be scrapped for their metal or parts. However, a half-dozen retired Boeing 737-300s have found a new lease on life.A Southwest Airlines 737-300. Photo by Paul Thompson.The Coulson Group has purchased six 737s formerly flown by Southwest Airlines, to be used as firefighting jets. This is the first time 737s have been used for this purpose. The planes will be able to dump 4,000 gallons of fire retardant on each run, and carry up to 63 passengers, including ground firefighting crews and rescue teams who will work in the hot zones....

On Monday, Sprint and Dynamics Inc. announced the world’s first battery-powered “connected” payment card at CES in Las Vegas. The card is a “smart card” similar to Edge Card and SWYP, meaning you can load your bank’s debit, credit, prepaid, multicurrency, one-time use and loyalty cards onto a single card.The product, dubbed Wallet Card, features a small display that shows card numbers, announcements and other information. It has a built-in self-charging battery, programmable magnetic strip, EMV chip and contactless chip....

TPG reader Chris writes:I have 18,520 miles on Etihad that I accrued flying roundtrip Chicago to India. I have no future plans to travel on routes that Etihad offers so am at a loss as to what to do with these miles. I know that one can book flights on Etihad with American miles but not the other way around, which would be useful for me. Besides using the miles in their Reward Shop what can I do?...

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.Aviation officials in Taiwan are examining ways to target international airlines that recently buckled to pressure from Beijing to call the self-ruled island a territory of China on their websites.The island’s transportation ministry is brainstorming measures to push back at the 44 airlines around the world that now say Taiwan is part of China, in response to letters from Chinese officials that demanded the international carriers change the Taiwan references on their websites or face possible sanctions on their business in China’s booming aviation market....

Australian carrier Qantas has one of the strongest food and beverage programs in aviation. The airline first partnered with chef Neil Perry, who brought acclaim to Australian cooking at his landmark Sydney restaurant Rockpool, back in 1997, making this one of the longest-running celebrity chef-airline pair-ups in the industry.Chef David Speck showing off one of Qantas’s new menu items.Part of that relationship involves regular menu updates both in Qantas’s lounges around the world and on its airplanes, including one that went into effect at the Qantas International First Class Lounge at LAX on Friday....

When the little-known Greek island of Tilos unveils its renewable replacement system later this year, it will become the first in the Mediterranean to run exclusively on wind and solar power, according to the Associated Press.The island, accessible only by ferry, will run entirely on batteries that are recharged by an 800-kilowatt wind turbine and a solar park. The project is being called TILOS (Technology Innovation for the Local Scale Optimum Integration of Battery Energy Storage), which stores energy and makes it available when demand is high....

For the eighth consecutive year, US consumer credit scores are on the rise, topping out this spring at an all-time high, Fair Issac Corp., the creator of FICO credit scores, announced Monday. The average score is now 704, which is considered good.FICO scores, which help determine whether you’ll qualify for a credit card or a loan (and at what interest rate), range from 300 to 850. The average score bottomed out at 686 during the housing crisis last decade, but has risen steadily as the economy has improved....

As of Thursday morning, Virgin America as an independent airline no longer exists. Yes, you might still see its red and white tail flying through the skies or sitting at an airport gate, but the airline as we’ve known it for the last 14 years no longer exists. Wednesday’s flights were the final to be operated as Virgin America, VX or “Redwood.“January 11, 2018, is the first day that Virgin America and Alaska Airlines are operating under a single operating certificate....

Update 2/3/17: This post has been updated to include clarification from WOW that flights purchased before this change will include the former carry-on allowance.If you’ve managed to snag one of WOW Air’s rock-bottom fares to Iceland (or beyond), prepare yourself to shell out some more cash when it comes time to fly. The airline has eliminated the free carry-on bag previously included for customers. You used to be able to bring one bag with dimensions of 16....

Update 7/10/17 9:30am: If you paid the fee to register your drone with the FAA, you can now get the $5 refunded. To do so, visit the FAA’s website. There, you can also delete your registration in the FAA’s database as long as you confirm you’re flying your drone for recreational uses.Drone owners received good news today after a federal court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling stating that they’ll no longer have to register drones with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) if flying it for personal use....

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.This one is pretty straight forward- stay 4 or more nights and get 10,000 bonus Gold Passport points (in addition to the current 10k point promotion for every 5 nights, which runs until Dec 15).To receive your 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points, book by December 31, 2010, at hawaii....

I love Buzzfeed’s witty, belly laugh-inducing Top lists like the 23 Signs You’ve Lived In New York City Too Long, 13 Simple Steps To Get You Through A Rough Day or even 16 Signs You’re Addicted To The Real Housewives (which might or might not be my favorite). Lists are great way to procrastinate on getting anything accomplished, but they’re also really funny because there’s an element of truth to them, and even we here at TPG can face our own demons to put together the Top 10 Obsessive Behaviors of Miles Junkies....

What do you listen to before the in-flight entertainment starts? Why, songs about airplanes, of course! Here, TPG Contributor Otis Wright highlights 10 of our favorite tunes to taxi to — with YouTube videos for each in case you want to rock out while you read.Musicians have been writing about airplanes almost as long as they’ve been hopping in them to get from gig to gig. While it’s true most of what they have to say about flying usually involves how sick they are of being in airplanes, their complaints make for some fine toe-tapping while you’re waiting for your A320 to taxi to the runway....

Alaska Airlines will soon be relocating its base of pilots and crew members at New York’s Kennedy airport (JFK) to California, the airline said Tuesday. The move is to beef up the airline’s operations on the West Coast, and it is one of many changes amid the airline’s ongoing merger with Virgin America.Alaska’s aircraft and the more than 100 pilots that are currently based at JFK, LaGuardia (LGA) and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), will all be relocated to Californian hubs....

If you haven’t flown on American Airlines in a while, you might be shocked at how much better its fleet has gotten. Although AA still has much work to be done to create a consistent cabin experience, in 2016 alone the airline invested approximately $4.4 billion in new aircraft, bringing 97 new planes into its flock. On top of that, American is retrofitting many of its older aircraft to modernize them and extend their useful lives....

As of yesterday, Delta customers are no longer able to transfer or combine airline vouchers, eCredits or eCertificates that were issued on or after December 15.These vouchers are usually issued for denied boarding, taking the bump, or as return credit on an unused flight or cancelled ticket. Until now, you’ve been able to transfer vouchers to other people, and to combine up to three of them to purchase a ticket. In fact, I just combined several old vouchers the other day to get a ticket for a family member....

One of the few passenger-friendly aspects of American Airlines’ new 737 MAX — which has been panned by both passengers and flight attendants — is the free internet. AA’s newest aircraft type has offered free ViaSat satellite-based Wi-Fi to all passengers since its inaugural flight in November 2017.Soon, the dismal 737 MAX experience will get even worse as that free internet is switched off.American Airlines currently has three internet providers across its fleet: Gogo, Panasonic and ViaSat....