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Airports across the US want your money. And they’re going to more and more creative lengths to get you to open your wallet.First it was installing “smart glass” to get passengers to spend more at restaurants. Now, in a new bid to increase “dwell time” — or how long passengers spend lingering in airport terminals, shops, bars and restaurants killing time and spending money before a flight — airports across the US are turning to video games and virtual reality....

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.That sound you hear? The collective sigh of relief from points aficionados who appreciate the ability to book (relatively) affordable Delta award tickets via Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club. Earlier this week, several editors at TPG noticed something odd when searching for award tickets via Flying Club....

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 morning I went to a session at the Randy Peterson Executive Summit where we got to hear straight from the credit card issuers regarding their loyalty credit cards. In attendance were the VP of Membership Benefits from Amex, General Manager of Partnership from Chase, a VP from US Bank, and reps from Barclays and Capital One (didn’t get their titles)....

Check out this week’s travel contests and sweepstakes to try your hand at winning a flight on Alaska Airlines plus snowboard gear, a trip down Route 66 in Oklahoma, a vacation to find your ancestral roots (including a side trip to Hollywood), a vacation in London or a wine getaway to Napa, California.Win an Alaska Air flight and snowboarding gearWin an Alaska Airlines Flight & Snowboarding Gear from RIDEYou could win a free flight for you and a friend on Alaska Airlines, plus a cool collection of snowboarding gear from RIDE including a snowboard, boots and binding....

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.Earlier this week, an IT glitch made it temporarily impossible to book American Airlines flights using some partner currencies, such as British Airways Avios. Fortunately, that issue has been fixed, and you can once again search (and book) AA award flights via British Airways’ site....

Delta recently made changes to some of its mid- and high-tier awards without giving its SkyMiles members notice of the alterations. I’ll highlight the specific changes to Delta awards below, but let me get something off my chest first… /Rant onFor some reason, the Delta SkyMiles program rarely communicates important changes to their members and that really bothers me. From my perspective, loyalty should go both ways - especially for a program that generates as much revenue as SkyMiles does....

A number of foreign currencies are hitting new lows against the US dollar, meaning it’s a great time for Americans to take advantage of a strong greenback while also supporting local economies — especially when you consider that the financial tumult can drive prices for residents way up. On Thursday, India’s rupee slipped to a lifetime low of 70.90 to the US dollar. And in Turkey, the lira — which has been depreciating since early 2018 — lost another 4% to the dollar....

It’s summertime and we’ve got music on the brain! Here, TPG Contributor Michael Spelfogel outlines some of the best music festivals happening around the country this summer — plus one in Canada you shouldn’t miss either.Summer’s flying by, and while legendary music festivals like Lollapalooza and the Newport Folk Festival have already sold out, there’s still plenty of time to catch a great show. Here’s a look at five concerts and music festivals happening around the US and Canada this summer that should be on your radar....

Back in August, we were alerted that American Airlines was adding higher-level AAnytime award levels to certain routes. By that point, a slew of domestic routes had already been increased — particularly around Thanksgiving. However, the one bit of advance notice we received was that first and business-class awards from the US to Auckland (AKL) and Sydney (SYD) were getting a higher “AAnytime Level 4” rate starting in September.Flight options from LAX-SYD show the existing three levels of AAnytime awards....

American Express sent an email this week touting “Save 40% with Membership Rewards.” I got excited for a minute thinking there might be a spate of new 40% airline transfer bonuses, alas there were no new transfer bonuses. Instead there were five main “sales”:- 20% Rebate when you use Pay With Points for travel- 15% off hotel giftcards- 20% off car rental certificates- 40% off Shop Amex merchandise- 40% off Amex gift cards/ Travellers ChecksSo are any of these a good deal?...

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.Have you ever enjoyed a first-class experience so much that you wished it would never end? Well, sneakerheads and AvGeeks, rejoice! Virgin American has teamed up with SearchnDesign in Milan to create a sneaker that brings you the first-class experience on the ground....

China Eastern is hoping its new livery will go to “infinity and beyond.“Or at least, Buzz Lightyear’s famous catchphrase will come to mind when passengers see the airline’s new “Toy Story” themed Airbus A330 that took its first flight on Saturday.The new livery is part of a partnership between China Eastern and Shanghai Disney Resort, and features huge depictions of familiar characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear splashed across the plane’s fuselage....

With the end of the year quickly approaching, this week we’re looking at how you can claim any uncredited miles from flights flown in 2016. Yesterday we covered the rules at American. Today it’s Delta’s turn, and as we did with American, we’ll review the rules for both the primary SkyMiles program and the business-oriented Delta SkyBonus.Delta SkyMilesLet’s get the bad news out of the way first. Unlike most of its US competitors, with Delta, even if you’re already a SkyMiles member, you don’t get up to 12 months to request retroactive SkyMiles credit....

After an action-packed two-week trip to Asia, TPG is back home in the USA, so we decided to feature his current hometown as our Destination of the Week: Miami Beach.With sun, surf, a tasty foodie scene, fabulous shopping, and gorgeous hotels, Miami Beach is one of the all-time great vacation destinations. Here are some of TPG’s personal picks on what to do, see and eat while you’re there, as well as tips on earning and burning your miles and points....

At least two cases of Ebola have spread to an urban area in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the latest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, the nation’s health minister announced Wednesday night.The two new cases were detected in the country’s Wangata health zones, which encompasses Mbandaka city, the capital of Equateur province, Health Minister Oly Ilung said. These are the first cases found outside the outbreak’s origin in the rural region of Bikoro — 93 miles away....

Update: There’s even first-class award space to Sydney! But only one seat per flight:The clock is ticking on pre-devaluation AA award redemptions, and given that rates will jump in less than two months, you’d think AA’s natural move would be to hold award seats until after the big shift on March 22. Fortunately, it seems that American is doing just the opposite, releasing several business and first-class award seats on many of its routes....

Did you receive some gift cards over the holidays that you aren’t too excited about? Well, United is offering to take them off your hands — but not at a very good rate!You too may have received an email yesterday from United with the ever-tempting offer to “Exchange your gift cards. Earn extra miles.“Gift cards from dozens of merchants are available to exchange for miles.On the Gift Card Exchange landing page, United links to a list of the merchants whose gift cards it’ll accept, including popular ones like Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Home Depot, Sears, Starbucks and Walmart....

To celebrate the launch of its new Z10, Blackberry has teamed up with Delta to offer its users free in-flight WiFi on all domestic Delta flights from now through June 30, 2013.All you’ve got to do is launch your browser once the WiFi is enabled, the GoGo page should load and you can connect and surf with the click of a button.While I’m an iPhone user myself, I still miss my Blackberry Curve days of rapid typing....

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, Marriott changed its cancellation policy to be more customer-unfriendly, requiring travelers to cancel their reservations at least 48 hours in advance, with some hotels requiring 72 hours. The new policy was seen across the travel space widely as a negative change, especially for business travelers whose plans frequently change....

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.In case you weren’t aware, China’s currently experiencing a strange toilet paper crisis at some of the country’s most popular attractions. According to the South China Morning Post, they’ve become a “hotbed of toilet paper kleptomania,” the result of local residents, mainly senior citizens, who have been taking reams of toilet paper from public restrooms and using them at home....