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The economy is picking back up again, and that has meant a bounce back in the number of business travelers for airlines and hotels. While many, including myself, have conjectured that this was part of what was behind the major hotel points programs devaluations this spring as well as an increase in both the number and prices of the ancillary fees airlines have begun charging on everything from checked bags to same-day flight changes....

Last night, Japan Airlines (JAL) sent an email to all members of its Mileage Bank award program encapsulating several changes that will be going into effect on April 1, 2017, and July 1, 2017. Some of these changes we touched on last week in our guide to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, while others haven’t been covered yet. None of these changes are earth-shattering and some of them are actually positive, but it’s important to know what to expect if you’re booking award flights on JAL after April 1....

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.IHG issued a press release at the end of last week alerting guests of a credit card data breach from credit card readers at the front desks of ‘certain IHG-branded franchise locations’ from September 29 through December 29, 2016....

By now, we’ve expected the Marriott/Starwood merger to be well underway, but Chinese regulators have opted to delay their approval, leaving both companies in limbo for another month or so. That doesn’t mean Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest managers haven’t already begun developing a plan to combine the two programs — if the below screenshot is any indication, that process may begin sooner than later.As you can see above, a screenshot uploaded by Marriott to Apple’s App Store includes an option to “Link your Marriott Rewards account to your SPG account....

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.The rollout of United’s new Polaris Lounges has been much slower than most — including United itself — anticipated. After the first Polaris Lounge opened in Chicago (ORD) in 2016, the carrier laid out an optimistic plan for the opening of more of its lounges — Houston (IAH), Newark (EWR) and San Francisco (SFO) were supposed to be open by mid-2017, and Washington Dulles (IAD) and Los Angeles (LAX) were going to open by the end of the year....

Southwest Airlines is reversing a policy from 2017 that made refundable fares non-refundable if you changed your flight.This ticketing policy was a major nuisance — it meant, for example, that if you purchased a fully refundable Business Select fare and changed flights, you’d lose the ability to fully refund the ticket. Deals We Like, which originally reported this change in 2017, noted the new reversal of this policy.While Southwest did allow non-refundable fares to be credited toward a future Southwest flight in the form of travel bank credit, passengers with non-refundable fares couldn’t refund the price of the ticket back to their credit card....

United just launched an award sale to several destinations in South America, dropping the round-trip economy rate from 60,000 to 45,000 miles. These discounted awards are available to cities in Brazil and Chile, including Rio, São Paulo and Santiago. You can fly from anywhere in the US or Canada (excluding Hawaii). Flights must be booked and flown by November 30, 2015.This sounds like a good deal on the surface, but keep in mind that flights to South America have been quite inexpensive recently, with fares occasionally available for less than $500 round-trip....

One of the awesome features of Burning Man the past three years has been a Boeing 747 hauled into the playa in ever-growing pieces by the Big Imagination camp. In 2016, the art piece started as just the top two passenger decks of the front of the 747. Since then, the camp’s volunteers have expanded it each year.This year, the camp prepared a giant section of its 747 — complete with landing gear — as its festivity stage....

With 12 nights at $150 per night, you’d spend a total of $1,800, earning you 900 extra Hyatt points. We’ll assume a relatively conservative value of $500 worth of flights, which equates to 500 bonus Hyatt points. With 36 nights at $150 per night, you’d spend $5,400, earning you 5,400 extra Hyatt points. You can use a single Club Upgrade on a stay of up to seven nights, and they are valid on eligible paid room rates and rooms booked using points....

There are a few fun travel contests and sweepstakes going on around the web this week. Here are the top picks to win some great travel prizes!Win a three night stay at the Peninsula Paris.Win a Stay at the Peninsula Paris: If you book a room on the Peninsula hotel website before July 31, 2014 at one of the three US Peninsula locations (New York, Chicago, or Beverly Hills) you will be automatically entered to win a three night stay at the brand new Peninsula Paris hotel....

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.Passengers on Chinese airlines have long known that keeping your phone on during flight is a no-no, even in airplane mode. But now two major Chinese carriers are allowing passengers to use their personal electronic devices in flight....

Nothing marks the holidays quite like over-the-top lights displays — and no, we’re not talking about your zany neighbor who’s done up his house, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation–style. While families over the world will adorn their homes with holiday decorations, these 11 neighborhoods become destinations in their own right this time of year, all thanks to the sort of next-level displays that come with an exorbitant electrical bill.Shiodome Caretta Illumination in TokyoPhoto by Jun Sato/WireImageThe Caretta Shiodome attracts locals and visitors daily to its collection of stores and restaurants set among towering skyscrapers....

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.A passenger on IndiGo, a large budget carrier in India, says he was grabbed by the collar and dragged from a plane before takeoff because he complained to the flight crew about mosquitoes on board the aircraft Monday morning....

New Year’s Eve is still over three months away, but the early bird gets the best rooms. This is especially true for award nights at Choice Hotels, since most properties within the brand make all of their rooms available for the same award rate. This means you could end up in a suite, a city view room or an upgraded room for the same number of points as a standard room....

Earlier this month, Germany’s second-largest airline declared bankruptcy after it was denied additional funding by part-owner Etihad Airways. Since then, Topbonus, its frequent flyer program, also announced it was going bankrupt. Now, the carrier is cutting off some of its long-haul operations — another sign that the end is near.According to German newspaper Bild, flights from Berlin (TXL) to Abu Dhabi (AUH), Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago (ORD) and San Francisco (SFO), as well as its flight between Düsseldorf (DUS) and Boston (BOS) will no longer operate as of October 1, 2017....

If it seems as if your social media feeds are full of headlines about excruciating airport security lines, opinion pieces on how to fix the TSA’s problems, and #IHateTheWait-branded photos, you’re not imagining it. And we’ve got some bad news: It’s probably going to get worse — and quickly.Airlines for America (A4A), the trade organization for the major U.S. airlines, has just released its summer air travel forecast, and all indicators point to a record number of travelers taking to the open skies over the next three months....

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 the middle of September, Marriott launched a Twitter promotion called “Extra Point Sundays” in which Marriott Rewards members could earn 1,000 free points for answering a trivia question about the National Football League. That promotion temporarily disappeared last week, as Marriott said it was working out some issues with it....

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.As part of its merger with Starwood Hotels, Marriott is significantly stepping up its experiences game, adding countless redemption opportunities around the world. This latest redemption appears to be a holdover from the SPG Moments days, however, and Starwood Preferred Guest’s long-standing partnership with Emirates....

A Delta flight out of Atlanta (ATL) on Wednesday night experienced a reported uncontained engine failure shortly after take off.As Delta flight 1418 departed ATL for Orlando (MCO), the engine failed. The pilots shut down the engine and diverted back to Atlanta, where the plane landed safely, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There were no injuries reported among the 127 people on board.The flight was operated by a Boeing 757-200, registered N668DN....

Passengers on a flight in Sweden were surprised when their plane unexpectedly landed more than 600 miles away from its intended destination.The NextJet flight departed on Monday from Sundsvall Airport (SDL), located in the middle of the country. The aircraft was supposed to fly west to Gothenburg (GOT), but instead it went hundreds of miles off course to the northern city of Lulea (LLA).NextJet said it had to change the route last minute due to weather conditions in the plane’s original destination, Gothenburg....