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Spending time in a really nice airline lounge before, between, or sometimes after your flight can be a real treat. As you undoubtably know, airports and boarding gates aren’t always the nicest places on the planet to spend time. Instead of just biding time in a crowded gate area, my family vastly prefers to utilize our airport lounge access perks to the max. One network of lounges that our lounge passes, credit cards, and memberships can’t get us into is the growing network of United Polaris Lounges....

Delta is launching a new “Dine Up” premium meal service that will let coach passengers order a premium meal up until 48 hours before their flight to eat onboard.According to this How It Works page, you go online to check which menus are available on your particular flight and place your order for the one you want using a credit or debit card. Then your meal is delivered to your plane and to you on the day of the flight....

Norwegian has announced it will be cutting two routes between Sweden and the US, and it’s blaming the move on Sweden’s new aviation taxes.Norwegian will end nonstop service between Stockholm (ARN) and Oakland (OAK) and Stockholm and Las Vegas (LAS). The budget carrier flies a Boeing 787 Dreamliner between the two cities, with three weekly flights to Oakland. Norwegian had already suspended its Stockholm-Vegas service due to weather related issues in 2016, but this appears to be the nail in the coffin for the route....

Yes, yet another social media promotion. Lufthansa is celebrating the launch of their A380 service to NYC and will be giving away a pair of business class tickets to a savvy Twitter follower on Monday, February 28th. Seems like a lot of work, but winning two business class tickets to Europe is pretty awesome (though I’m sure you’d have to pay taxes on them, which might hurt).I won a similar Starwood sponsored Twitter promo last summer and I received two free nights, which I used at the W South Beach....

Today, I’m going to tell you a story. And like most good stories, there is a lesson. This story took place in Bali on the famous Mount Batur sunrise hike. You’ll find this hike on most Bali “to-do” lists, and despite the masses of tourists, questionable operations and inflated cost, I do believe it has earned its spot. Here is some background info on the hike, some of which would have made my day slightly less interesting if I had known beforehand....

If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that I recently cheated on Delta and flew United from LAX-JFK. Hey, it’s good to know who’s competing on such a popular route! Here is my experience…As I’ve moaned about before, I’ve seen airfares skyrocket this summer. On my frequent JFK-LAX hops, I’ve seen my trusty old $220 roundtrips turn into $900 affairs. Ouch! Last week I had to be in LA for a couple days, so my midweek trip was pricing at over $900 - no matter what carrier I tried....

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’s testing a new method of boarding – but for real this time.Earlier this year, United announced its new plans to streamline the dreaded boarding process by implementing a few efficiency tactics, going from the current five-lane boarding system, which was implemented in 2012, to two lanes, and using monitors to show which group is up....

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has pulled back on an investigation into how Equifax failed to protect the personal data of around 143 million American consumers in September 2017. Reuters is reporting exclusively, citing people familiar with the matter, that Mick Mulvaney, the head of the CFPB, has essentially put the probe on ice.When Equifax said in September that it had been hacked, then-CFPB director Richard Cordray authorized an investigation by the bureau....

TPG reader Khant sent me a message on Facebook to ask about point valuations:“I noticed that you value Ultimate Rewards more than points or miles from any of Chase’s transfer partners. Why is that the case, and how do I get the higher value out of Ultimate Rewards points?”I tend to put a premium on programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards compared to their various airline and hotel transfer partners....

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 has been quite the week for travel-related contests. First, WOW air is looking to pay two best friends to travel the world and tell about it. Then TPG posted an open call for the best internship ever....

One of the best things about travel is getting to meet other people. And every now and then, you luck out and meet someone who starts a conversation that leads to amazing travel advice — I was once seated next to an older Italian woman on a train from Florence to Rome who heard my New York accent, said she’d lived there for 25 years and proceeded to give me her list of favorite Italian food markets, gelato shops and bakeries in NYC, which I eagerly wrote down and visited as soon as I got back home....

It’s a scientific fact that dogs looks like their owners, so maybe it’s not such a stretch to think that some pooches might take after their human parents when it comes to holding certain standards — like demanding a plush bed of their own instead of whatever room is left over for them on the sofa. And with a recent survey concluding that as many as 52% of people travel with their pets, the hospitality industry has definitely upped its game when it comes to offering pet-friendly amenities, whether in the air or on the ground....

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.Frequent flyers can be very passionate people. For some reason, people get very attached to their airline of choice and whenever that comfort level is threatened, all hell can break loose. This is happening now with the impending takeover of AirTran by Southwest, which I wrote about in September....

Los Angeles. Some call it the City of Angels, some call it the City of Traffic. LA is notorious for its constant gridlock that paralyzes many parts of the city. With public transit lacking, there aren’t many means for getting around the metropolitan area quickly.Enter BLADE, the company that’s innovated a variety of transportation services in New York City, including on-demand helicopter service from Manhattan to the city’s airports, helicopter and seaplane flights to the Hamptons or private jet service to Miami....

We often publish stories from readers that illustrate how points and miles can help you get where you want to go. However, it’s important to learn from our mistakes as well as our successes, so I’m calling on you to send us your most epic travel failure stories. Email them to info@thepointsguy.com and put “Reader Mistake Story” in the subject line. Tell us how things went wrong, and (where applicable) how you made them right....

Today’s installment of Daily Getaways are several packages of Priority Club points. These points can be redeemed for all Intercontinental/Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Indigo, etc) with the lowest Point Breaks hotels going for 5,000 points a night and the nicest Intercontinental properties cost 40,000 points a night.As with the other auctions, these are being marketed as free nights, but what you are actually buying is blocks of points. Per the redemption T&C:“Within 10 business days of purchase, you’ll have 10,000 Priority Club® points deposited into the Priority Club account that you provide at time of purchase, to use however you choose....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – The Platinum Card® from American Express, Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express, Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American ExpressAmerican Express and the US Travel Association (a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting US travel) have partnered to offer discounts and deals with various travel brands and loyalty programs during the next month, including hotel packages, points/miles purchase promos, rental car discounts and more....

We value Delta’s Diamond Medallion status at a whopping $7,850 per year. Of that amount, complimentary upgrades account for some $1,500 — and, depending on which routes you fly and how often you travel, it’s easy to draw even more value from the perk.Of course, like all carriers, Delta would prefer to fill those first-class seats with paying customers, even if that means letting them go at a fraction of the regular price....

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you may have missed from the week before, including several that already appeared on The Points Guy, and some more that we haven’t covered yet. If you’re an avid TPG reader, scroll down for the new stuff. Here’s the top miles, points and travel news you may have missed this week.Review: Classified, United’s Exclusive Invite-Only Restaurant at Newark Terminal CAlthough it’s called “Classified,” United’s new private restaurant isn’t so secret anymore....

TPG Reader Charles sent me a message on Facebook to ask about earning hotel rewards:“Do some hotels within one chain give you more points than another? If so, which Marriott and Hilton hotels give you the most?“Hotel loyalty programs offer a pretty wide spread of earning rates. Even within individual programs, your points might vary by a factor of five or more depending on the property, your elite status level and whether you use a co-branded credit card....