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Before the door closes on 2017, there’s one last thing to do: make your New Year’s resolution.The odds are, you (and millions of others) have set great plans for 2018 — whether it’s to lose weight, get more points, eat healthier or travel more. To help you out, we’ve asked these eclectic group of travel influencers and globetrotters what they’re resolving to do in 2018. You may recognize some of these jet-setting globetrotters, solo travelers and AvGeeks, so be sure to follow this influential dozen on their journey into 2018....

2015 is shaping up to be an interesting year for the art world, with enormous museums, performance and cultural centers opening all over the planet. With that in mind, TPG Special Contributor Eric Rosen has curated (get it?) a list of 15 of the most interesting cultural hotspots that should be on your travel docket this year.The Louvre will open up its second location in Abu Dhabi this year.1. Abu Dhabi: The new Louvre....

Prince’s über famous 1986 song “Kiss”, says, “I just want your extra time and your…kiss,” but I don’t think he was singing sweet-nothings to his luggage.After video surfaced showing AirAsia employees mishandling bikes coming off a plane, an AirAsia baggage handler took to his personal Facebook to show that they’re taking the extra step to ensure all baggage is handled carefully…and with lots of love.In an odd — albeit unique — photo shoot, Mohd Amir Izzat, an AirAsia baggage handler, posted photos of him and his fellow employees kissing AirAsia passengers’ checked bags as they load them onto their fleet....

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article by Scott McCartney who writes “The Middle Seat” column with the first line: “If you’re making travel plans for this fall, avoid American Airlines. American has become too unreliable.” You don’t need a decoder ring to get his point!Pinpointing The ProblemSo what brought on the strong words? As many of you no doubt have seen, read or heard about this week already, American has been having huge problems with its unions and flight delays that brought its on-time availability down to a miserable 48% in recent days, and an even further disheartening 39% of flights arriving on time on Monday with 29% of the total flights coming in excessively late....

TPG reader Dennis flies Delta often and counts on getting upgraded for long flights:“I am a Platinum Medallion on Delta and noticed that for certain multi-city itineraries I am upgraded 5-6 days before my scheduled departure for the 2nd leg of my trip. Why am I not upgraded for the 1st leg at the same time even though half, if not more, of the Business/First class cabin seats are still open?...

US Customs officials at JFK Airport arrested a woman on Sunday after they found six pounds of cocaine in her possession. After landing in New York from Kingston, Jamaica, Stefisha Miller — a Jamaican citizen — was stopped by authorities after they discovered two bottles of Bailey’s Irish Cream in her duty-free box — one of the bottles reportedly contained a bag of white powder.After testing the white substance, the results came back positive for cocaine....

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 I mentioned the other day, I love being a Hyatt Diamond. However, one of the more… interesting aspects of the program is that they are very scattered with promos and their IT is pretty bad. So what this means is that you almost always have to call after a stay to have the appropriate points added....

I had a chance to experience American Airlines’ new A321T transcontinental plane in January when I flew first class from LAX-JFK, but TPG Managing Editor Eric Rosen put expiring AA Executive Platinum EVIP Systemwide Upgrades to use on a recent roundtrip from Los Angeles to New York and got to fly business class on the new plane in both directions. Here’s his review.American Airlines’ new A321TAfter covering American Airlines’ new A321T’s for a while now, including the launch of transcontinental service between Los Angeles (where I’m based) and New York back in January (and the SFO-JFK route launched last week), I was excited to experience the new plane for myself....

My ideal vacation right now would consist of a dark room, a comfortable bed, a white noise machine, unlimited sleep, and no responsibilities for a few days (or even a few hours?!). However, since that is still unattainable, the next best thing is a trip to a quality resort with fun pools for kids, good food, yummy drinks, and on-site child care that is available using points. In other words, the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun was as close to perfect as we are currently going to get....

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.Alas, overweight tourists are officially banned from riding donkeys in Santorini.Animal activists have been fighting to keep tourists off donkeys’ backs for months now, saying that overweight tourists are crippling the animals. A successful meeting in July between animal welfare societies, animal rights group and animal owners and the Municipality of Santorini led lawmakers to agree to make immediate changes and improve the welfare conditions of the country’s donkeys and equines and update its legislation regarding how much weight the animals can hold....

One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about all the positive ways award travel has affected their lives. That being said, while I love hearing about your successes, I think there’s also a lot we can learn by sharing our mistakes, and I’m calling on readers to send in your most egregious and woeful travel failures.From time to time I’ll pick one that catches my eye and post it for everybody to enjoy (and commiserate with)....

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 United States Secretary of State has one of the most high-stakes jobs in the world, and certainly one of the most exhausting. One aspect that everyone can’t help but be a little jealous of is the near-constant travel schedule that the Secretary maintains....

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:Marriott Rewards will benefit from the addition of three programs from SPG.Marriott’s Integrating Some SPG Benefits Long Before the MergerMarriott announced Tuesday that it would be making positive changes to the Marriott Rewards program....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View all current offers here.Just over every three months, I apply for rewards credit cards. It is no secret that credit card sign-up bonuses are the quickest and easiest way to rack up a ton of miles and points in a hurry (at least for those of us lucky enough to be based in the US where the offers are plentiful). Sure, there is the “work” of having to keep up with more credit cards than the average bear, manage deciding when to cancel the cards, and occasionally have to call in to get approved, but really it is pretty simple given the massive rewards payout we get for doing it....

While I spend the majority of my flights in economy/coach/the back of the bus, I will never pretend that I sit back there because that is my preference. If given the chance, I would move up to First/Business eight days a week. However, given that I clearly am not going to pay full fare for a ticket at the front of the plane, I don’t currently have airline elite status that would grant me complimentary First Class upgrades, and I don’t usually want to spend twice the number of miles to sit upfront, my opportunities to sit in first are usually pretty limited....

Air travel tends to bring out the worst in us — especially when you don’t have lounge access and are cramped into a middle seat at the rear of the plane. It could be a crying baby, a seat kicker or an overly chatty seatmate that really aggravates us most, but according to a new study, that isn’t usually the underlying cause for our frustrations. In fact, air rage is more likely to be triggered by the presence of a first-class cabin....

A few months ago I stood in line with hundreds of other would-be-travelers to get certificates for 20,000 free Spirit miles in celebration of their new Houston routes. Including my parents, my family scored 100,000 free miles that day just for waiting in a pretty short line. It was great! Spirit is a very no-frills airline, but I didn’t care. Free travel is free travel, and I was happy to try Spirit out for myself....

Sometimes it seems like domestic airlines are racing to see which one can offer the worst service. Today, TPG Contributor Richard Kerr explains how vastly different things are across the Pacific.Living in Japan has some incredible perks. There are aspects of Japanese society that I dearly wish were incorporated into the American way of life. For instance, each morning while riding my bike to work, I pass line after line of kindergarten and elementary school aged children taking the bus, train, and walking to school - all by themselves....

Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Jessica, who ran into trouble with an expired credit card. Here’s what she had to say:I decided to plan a surprise welcome home getaway for my husband, who was scheduled to return from his deployment a week before the Fourth of July. In April I found awesome deals online for a trip to D.C. over the holiday. I booked our flights, and reserved our hotel on the company’s website (not through a third party)....

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.I got this email today from Delta, which I nearly ignored:Hello Mr. Points Guy,Starting today you can earn 3 miles for every dollar you spend on eligible FedEx® shipments through March 31, 2011. Plus, just for enrolling in the FedEx and Delta SkyMiles® program, you will earn 1,000 miles....