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The White House may announce the reimplementation of at least some restrictions on travel between the US and the island nation of Cuba as soon as this Friday during a speech by the President in Miami, although a decision could still be delayed according to administration officials.According to The New York Times, the President is considering tightening travel rules and restricting US companies from doing business with many Cuban companies, but may retain the diplomatic ties established by his predecessor, President Obama, beginning in 2014....

Chinese New Year, which is celebrated during the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar, falls on February 16 this year and countries around the world are revving up festivities for the Year of the Dog. Even Gucci is getting in on this year’s zodiac representative, adding canines to their most recent collection. The festival is centuries old and comprises events that center around myths and customs that have been handed down from prior generations....

An inspiring Facebook post went viral on Wednesday when a blind and deaf passenger, Tim Cook, was assisted by a 15-year-old girl, Clara Daly, on an Alaska Air flight with service from Boston (BOS) to Portland (PDX).Cook was traveling from Boston, where he was visiting his sister, home to Portland. His sister accompanied him at the gate, but he boarded the plane alone. Passengers soon realized that Cook was by himself on the flight....

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.Take this quick survey and earn 300 free Priority Club points. It’s not a ton, but free is free!(Link fixed- thanks SCflier!)[card card-name=‘Ink Plus® Business Credit Card’ card-id=‘22129636’ type=‘javascript’ bullet-id=‘1’]

Saturday afternoon, I flew United business class from San Francisco (SFO) to Newark (EWR). It was a personal trip, so I paid out of pocket. I managed to snag a reasonable one-way fare of $658 — not bad for the airline’s lie-flat premium transcon biz class.I returned my fun Mini Cooper convertible at National, hit up the Amex Centurion Lounge and eventually made my way to my 757 flight to Newark....

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 latest eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is a testament to its continual activity within the past month.Just this morning, the volcano spewed ash at a height of 15,000 feet. The mist of ash shown in images from Reuters has threatening respiratory affects, which winds have carried to communities surrounding the summit of the volcano....

JetBlue is discounting flights from New York City this week up to 80% as part of a marketing campaign called Flight Week. Every day they’ll announce three cities that are up to 80% off the base fare for limited, last minute dates of travel. Today’s options are: St. Maarten, Ft. Myers and Liberia, Costa Rica. The trick is that you need to depart either today, tomorrow or next Monday-Wednesday (February 4-6)....

Until December 31, 2010, get a 30% bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to British Airways. No registration is needed (the ratio shows 1,300 BA = 1,000 Amex).While British Airways has a somewhat inflated award chart, there are some gems. I just booked a client on JFK-MIA-EZE roundtrip in business class for 80,000 BA miles (vs. 100k AA). With this promo, you’d only need 62,000 miles for that award- not a bad deal!...

Here’s a recap of the top points and miles news from this week:Increased bonuses for Ink cards end June 1.Reminder – Increased bonuses for Ink cards end June 1: The current offers of 60,000 points for the Chase Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards are slated to end tomorrow. Chase hasn’t specified a time, so if you’re planning to apply, do it today. 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points can get you a round trip flight to Europe on United, two nights in a top tier Hyatt property, or myriad other tantalizing redemption options....

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 past weekend was Frequent Traveler University at the Sheraton Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ, just outside New York. I was asked to give one of the presentations, so on Saturday morning, I debated Gary Leff from View From The Wing about the relative merits of Delta SkyMiles....

Emirates is reportedly struggling to fully staff some flights with cabin crew after a recent deluge of resignations and other circumstances, airline employees told Reuters.According to seven Emirates employees, the airline is flying routes with fewer flight attendants than usual, Reuters reports. Also on the rise — the number of flight attendants with last-minute reassignments to different routes in order to meet minimum operation requirements.Emirates is assigning two fewer cabin crew on some flights in May to “ensure consistency across our aircraft configuration,” an internal email sent in April and viewed by Reuters said....

While I’ve been to Disney World a number of times and can speak first-hand to many Disney resort hotels and experiences, I’m a Universal Studios newbie. Since I now have some Harry Potter wizards-in-training on my hands, we have our first Universal Studios Orlando trip penciled in for this upcoming summer. In the meantime, I’m trying to learn about all things Universal as quickly as possible. In the middle of this planning process, I was invited to be on a panel at a JetBlue conference in Orlando that just so happened to be held at the Universal Orlando Loews Sapphire Falls Resort....

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve spent the last few days hanging out in Seoul. TPG editor Eric flew there over the weekend on Korean Air’s A380 in their latest Prestige Business class cabin, and though I’ve recently become handy at redeeming Ultimate Rewards points for Korean Air awards, I took a different airline and route.I was traveling from Chicago and had more British Airways Avios than I knew what to do with since I took advantage of the American Express transfer bonuses earlier this year, so I decided to redeem my Avios and fly first class on JAL instead....

TPG reader Brad tweeted:"@thepointsguy If I submitted an application for a credit card with a 50,000-point bonus but just saw a 60,000-point offer that I qualify for, how can I get them to give me the 60,000 points?“This is one of the most vexing questions in the points world. Credit card offers change all the time - bonuses go up, bonuses go down; annual fees are waived the first year then they’re not; statement credits appear then disappear from offers - it’s enough to drive you crazy making sure you get in on the best offers....

While I love slipping off for a weekend or overnight getaway, there’s much to be said for longer trips, which give you the opportunity to fully unwind and explore your surroundings. Today TPG Contributor Jason Steele chats with family travel blogger Shawn Coomer about the benefits, challenges, and logistics of traveling for an extended period, and offers some tips for planning your own journeys.Have you ever felt like quitting your job, selling your house, and living on the road?...

Lyft’s already making moves to cement its position in the bike and scooter sharing space. In a blog post, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer wrote about the company’s plan to partner with cities to introduce its bike and scooter sharing services to connect commuters with public transit.Lyft’s goal is to have 50% of its rides be “shared” or Uber pool-type rides as well as to encourage users to use a combination of Lyft services and public transit, Zimmer writes:“The Lyft app will be unique in its emphasis and ability to bridge the first and last-mile gap....

A few weeks ago I first heard about the new hotel discount booking site, Travel Pony. These hotel booking sites are a dime a dozen, so I didn’t take notice of it at first. However, when I realized how lucrative the stacking discounts were on top of their pretty good rates, I pulled the trigger and booked a stay via at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport as part of our recent family trip to Whistler....

US-based flyers will soon have another way to fly on the new Airbus A350: Philippine Airlines is introducing it on its Manila (MNL) to New York (JFK) service later this year, when it will replace the airline’s current one-stop flight via Vancouver (YVR) with a whopping 16-hour nonstop.The airline had previously announced plans to make the service a nonstop by eliminating the stop in YVR starting in October 2018, but now it has also decided to swap the Airbus A350-900 on this route for the Boeing 777-300ER....

As ThePointsGuy.com continues to grow I’ve learned that much of our success is due to having many hands on deck. Next week we are welcoming our first ever Editor in Chief, Zach Honig, and would also like to bring on a few summer interns to help with our day-to-day tasks.If you’re a college student (currently a sophomore, junior, senior or graduate student), or know someone who might be interested who is located in New York City and meets the requirements below, please email a resume and a brief introduction, along with the internship you’re applying for, to internships@thepointsguy....

For spring break this year we ditched our complicated and extensive itinerary to Australia and New Zealand and instead made the much smarter and closer to home decision to head to the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun. With two young kids, and especially a baby who doesn’t sleep well, this was the best decision we could have possibly made. Of course, it helped that the resort was amazing, bookable on points, and we scored a two-story 1,300 square foot suite!...