Posts

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.Denver is one of the hottest places in the US to visit at the moment, and for those with only a quick weekend to spend in the Mile High City, time is of the essence. If you’ve ever flown out of Denver International Airport (DEN), you already know to expect exorbitant wait times in either of the airport’s main security queues....

Update 10/4/16: United has now added a travel waiver as well.Update 10/4/16: Hurricane Matthew’s projected path is trending closer to Florida than yesterday. The National Hurricane Center has issued hurricane watches for the east coast of Florida. This means hurricane-force winds are expected within the next 48 hours. The major hurricane’s close pass of — or potential landfall on — Florida threatens to disrupt travel plans throughout the state.A few airlines (Delta, JetBlue and Silver) have now issued travel waivers for Florida airports....

Due to the comments on my master British Airways award clinic post, I know many of you are booking amazing South American awards with your British Airways miles before those redemptions become less valuable on Wednesday.However, before you book you should understand the visa and fees associated with visiting South American countries. If you plan a multi-country trip, these fees can add up - especially if you are traveling with your family....

Ever gotten through TSA and realized that you left behind your favorite shirt or jacket? Fortunately for forgetful travelers, hip Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo plans to expand its footprint with vending machines… in airports.Since Wednesday, travelers have been able to use the touchscreen at a “Uniqlo To Go” machine located in Oakland International Airport (OAK) to purchase two of the brand’s signature items — the HEATTECH t-shirt and the Ultra Light Down jacket for about $15 and $70 respectively — in a variety of sizes and colors....

Update 9/7/17: United has added this flight to the schedule, and you can now book a ticket using cash and miles. Round-trip economy tickets currently start at $1,882 or 80,000 miles + $120. Business class will run you $7,275 and up, or 140,000 miles round-trip in business class. There’s saver availability for both classes of service, with at least four seats available on some dates.Come January 18, 2018, there will be a new addition to the list of the world’s 10 longest flights....

Think back to United’s IT disaster of July 8, which forced the airline to ground flights and inconvenience almost half a million passengers. You may recall that United didn’t handle it very well, releasing only a single terse statement: “We are recovering from a network connectivity issue this morning and restoring regular flight operations.”What a difference a week makes. In a “leaked” (that is, written for and released to the public intentionally) employee memo, United seems to be taking customer service seriously now....

One of the great things about Priority Club Rewards is that they usually have ongoing stackable promotions where members can rack up thousands of bonus points with just a few stays.Here’s a quick roundup of some of the ones out there. Several of them say they are for new members, elite members or those who have just had a membership anniversary, but I was able to register for eight of them by simply going to the promotion pages and entering the correct promo code numbers, including both 3,000-point offers and the two 5,000-point bonus offers....

It’s a tale of two cities…or really…one city with two majorly conflicting reports on tourism statistics.Two reports conducted by University of New Orleans and the City of New Orleans (technically its Convention and Visitors Bureau along with the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp.) reached two very different tourist counts for New Orleans in 2017.University of New Orleans estimated that the Crescent City welcomed 10.98 million visitors, who spent $7.51 billion in 2017 (a record for the city)....

TPG reader Ryan tweeted me to ask:@thepointsguy – “If you’re not the most frequent traveler, but travel between the US and UK occasionally, what’s the best strategy for upgrading from Economy to Business class?“It’s getting harder and harder to use miles to upgrade these days. More business travelers are back on the road on those premium routes, so those seats are often full. Most US carriers offer premium products on their London routes, and airlines want to sell those seats to customers paying in cash, not miles....

A 45-year-old woman died Monday defending her dog from an alligator near her vacation home in the Sea Pines Resort of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.Nearby witnesses said they heard shrieks, and later found one of Cassandra Cline’s shoes, her hat and a bag of dog treats she carried for her dog in a trail leading into the greenish water of the lagoon. “She was walking the dog near the lagoon, and the alligator came out of the water and tried to get the dog,” said David Lucas, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources....

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.Yep, Delta will give you 2,500 miles just for being born in the month of January (and for buying a ticket and flying by Feb 28, 2011). This offer is technically targeted, but as long as your birthday is in your Delta profile, you should be eligible....

American Airlines’ frequent flyer program is turning 30 years old, so they are launching a 30 business day-long promotion to celebrate this milestone. A lot of the upcoming promotions are with partners like Avis, Dollar and Vinesse wines, so this promotion has the potential to be very lucrative - even if you aren’t an American frequent flyer.Today’s promotion is, “Earn up to 30,000 bonus miles for round-trip travel booked on AA....

Currently, American Airlines offers one of the most generous checked-bag policies for business and first-class customers, allowing those passengers to check up to three bags for no additional charge. As of March 29, that will no longer be the case. Why’s that? According to an AA spokesperson, “we’re making the change to line up our offerings with our US competitors.“Beginning later this month, American will only allow premium passengers in two-cabin planes (including domestic first class and international business) to check two bags (up to 70 lbs....

On May 26th, a belligerent passenger caused a Flybe aircraft to reroute after a bathroom dispute.According to Birmingham Mail, the flight was on its way to Amsterdam (AMS) from Birmingham (BHX) when passenger Kieran Tabberner caused a scene after being told he couldn’t use the bathroom during take-off.Tabberner aggressively yelled at stewardess Robyn Pascoe that he would “p*** on the floor if he wasn’t allowed to go.” He was also “upset” when he then saw Pascoe use the bathroom herself after take-off....

If you want to own a (very large) piece of aviation history, check out this unique sale on eBay. Concord Aerospace, which has recently posted listings for used planes on eBay, has listed an auction for a vintage Boeing 747 that was operated by Virgin Atlantic that went out of service in 2015. After decades of flying the original jumbo jet, most airlines are opting for more fuel efficient aircraft and thus these ‘Queens of the Skies’ are either being sold for scrap parts, or in this case being auctioned off to the public like this vintage Lady Penelope themed plane....

Boeing said on Wednesday that it was hit by a cyberattack — reportedly the WannaCry virus — potentially causing some of its manufacturing equipment that produces its newest 777X to be affected. However, after just a few hours, Boeing said the attack had been settled and damage was kept to a minimum.The Seattle Times broke the news, reporting that the aircraft manufacturer was hit by the WannaCry computer virus, which triggered alarm within the company and even some of its customers....

After decades of dreaming of staying right on the monorail at Disney, we finally pulled the trigger and made that travel dream come true. I’ve already warned you against staying there….not because it isn’t awesome, but because it might be too awesome. In other words, once you have stayed so close to the parks at a true Disney Resort, you may not want to save by staying elsewhere.When we decided to stay at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort it was already relatively close to our travel dates, so while we would have probably preferred to rent Disney Vacation Club points from a friend for all of our nights so we could save a little and stay in one room type for our entire stay, the ‘availability Gods’ were not on our side as the deluxe studios you can rent with DVC points were only available for two of our three nights....

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.So last year I hit about 135,000 MQMs on Delta, which qualified me for Diamond status. In addition to the main benefits, which I’ll sum up below, I also received a free Skyclub membership, Diamond Brag/Bag Tags, drink coupons (for those dreaded times I need to fly in coach) and Job Well Done certificates to award to the Delta employees that go above and beyond....

Cathay Pacific may be facing financial problems, but it remains one of international standards for excellent seats and service onboard its flights. Now, the Hong Kong-based airline just announced three new European destinations: Brussels (BRU), Copenhagen (CPH) and Dublin (DUB).Service between Hong Kong (HKG) and these three European capitals will be on Cathay Pacific’s newest aircraft, the Airbus A350, starting on these dates:Brussels: March 25, 2018Copenhagen: May 2, 2018Dublin: June 2, 2018The route to DUB is especially notable....

Disney World can be magical, but it is also crazy-making in its own way. Not only do you need to make advance hotel and airline reservations, and get your park tickets, but exactly 180 days at 6AM Eastern you need to be online to get your dining reservations, then 60 or 30 days before you now need to be online to get your FastPass+ reservations. Lord help you if you aren’t staying at a Disney property and you are “behind the curve” of those travelers who are, and consequently get a jump start on the “hard to get reservations”....