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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.Many people received out-of-the-blue emails from US Airways last night, notifying them about a deposit of 1,000 free miles in their accounts. I was lucky enough to get one as well, thus bringing this week’s haul of US Airways miles to 11,000 - all for $0....

Tel Aviv has a lot going for it, from one of the best urban beach scenes anywhere to a fantastic array of restaurants and thundering nightlife. But ask a native for a list of the city’s prettiest sights, and you’re likely to draw blank stares. Whenever friends visit, I tell them to ditch the guidebook — especially if they’re looking to document their adventures on Instagram. While many of Israel’s most picturesque spots are located in Jerusalem, over the years Tel Aviv has become synonymous with an ebullient urban beat that’s unique in the Middle East, if not the world....

Singapore is most commonly otherwise known as the Little Red Dot — a reference to how the city-state is depicted as a red dot on many maps of the world. Small as it may be, the Lion City sure does have a lot to offer as a modern country with a rich diversity of cultural and ethnic traditions. Whether you’re stopping by for a quick work trip, or as part of a larger tour of Southeast Asia, be sure to add these nine spots to your itinerary — your Instagram followers will thank you for it....

American Airlines flight attendants will soon have the technology to offer inconvenienced passengers with in-flight compensation for their troubles. The technology, which is called iSolve, will allow flight attendants to offer on-the-spot compensation to passengers via their tablets. According to the Chicago Business Journal, the function is set to be rolled out later this month.The iSolve technology won’t allow flight attendants to compensate passengers with cash or vouchers. Instead, flight attendants will be allowed to compensate passengers in the form of AAdvantage miles....

It’s been a crazy few weeks in commercial aviation. What started with United then continued on to American and Delta (twice) was bound to make its way to an international carrier. Sure enough, another viral, onboard incident happened yesterday on an ANA flight.All Nippon Airways Flight 6 was supposed to take off from Tokyo (NRT) for Los Angeles (LAX). But after the Boeing 777-300ER was boarded and ready for takeoff, a violent fist fight erupted in the economy cabin....

One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about how award travel has affected their lives — the exotic vacations they’ve planned, the trips they’ve made to be with family and friends, the premium seats and suites they’ve experienced and so much more, all made possible by points and miles. I love to travel and explore, and it’s an honor to be able to help so many of you get where you want to go....

I have to admit, I’m a little bit skeptical of all the companies rushing to cash in on social media. My eyebrows are raised mostly because a majority of companies don’t think out long term strategies and simply encourage people to “like” them to boost their number of followers or fans. I mean, how many times in the past month have we seen individuals hotels handing out points to anyone in the world for “liking” them and then shutting down the promos in an unprofessional fashion when they realize it got out of control?...

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.Hilton is currently running a promotion for United Airlines elites, but at the moment it’s allowing anyone to register. Per this link, you can get instant Silver status and Gold within 4 stays.Silver status (benefits listed here), isn’t going to get you a ton, but does give a 15% point bonus and health club access....

A Jet Airways flight was forced to return to its origin on Thursday after about 30 passengers experienced ear and nose bleeds because of low cabin pressure.Jet Airways Flight 9W697, which was traveling from Mumbai (BOM) to Jaipur (JAI) with 166 passengers and five crew on board, took off normally from BOM. However, shortly after takeoff, the aircraft was forced to return to Mumbai, where it landed normally. An official with India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told CNN that the crew forgot to pressurize the cabin....

About a month or so ago I saw an option to redeem 7,500 Starwood Preferred Guest points for two luxury suite seats at a Cub’s home game at Wrigley Field. I value SPG points at greater than two cents per point value, but I value this experience even higher than that. It just so happened that the deal appeared as I was trying to plan something special for my husband’s birthday, so this became the cornerstone that we planned his birthday weekend around....

Toxic airline cabin air could be putting billions of annual travelers at risk, according to a new study published in the June issue of the Public Health Panorama medical journal. The study focused on the impact of contaminated bleed air — compressed air used to pressurize cabins — on a sample of more than 200 pilots suspected to have been exposed to it. Researchers found evidence of short-term health issues, including headaches and dizziness as well as long-term neurological and gastrointestinal problems....

TPG reader Chris writes:“I was recently on the Membership Rewards website looking to transfer some miles and noticed the various e-certificates the airlines where offering for either free flights for a fixed amount or companion pass certificates. Do you rate any of these as a good deal or are generally mileage transfers (% bonuses) better?“In my opinion, you will get the most value out of your American Express Membership Rewards points when you transfer to certain airlines, specifically Aeroplan, British Airways and Delta and especially when they run transfer bonuses (like the current British Airways 30% and Delta 30% rebate)....

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.Qatar Airways flight #920 officially became the new world’s longest regularly scheduled commercial flight when it touched down just a short while ago at 7:15am local time in Auckland (AKL), New Zealand, which is equivalent to 1:15pm Eastern here in the United States....

Despite owning more than 700 aircraft, United chartered a private jet this week — for a dog.In case you somehow managed to miss the news, the airline has had a particularly disastrous week where traveling pets were involved. Early this week, Irgo, a 10-year-old German Shepherd whose family meant to send him to Wichita, ended up in Japan after the airline mistakenly sent him to Tokyo. The Great Dane who was headed to Tokyo was wrongly routed to Wichita in Irgo’s stead....

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.Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American ExpressI wrote about choosing the right Delta card a couple weeks ago and basically, if you want valuable benefits like free checked bags and priority boarding without a huge annual fee, the Gold and Business Gold cards make a lot of sense - especially since the $95 fee is waived the first year unlike the other two....

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.More consolidation could be coming to the airline industry soon with rumors that part or all of Virgin America might be sold off. No official decisions or plans have been made as of yet, but the airline is reportedly reaching out to potential (and unknown) buyers about a full or partial sale of the carrier....

If you’ve been involved in the points and miles hobby for a while, chances are good you’ve had the horrible experience I had earlier this month. You find that perfect award availability, transfer your hard-earned points from programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards, and then go to book… only to find that the inventory is no longer there! Today I want to go through some strategies for handling these situations to ensure that your trip plans don’t grind to a halt....

Delta SkyMiles just became a little more useful, as Delta has announced that you’ll now be able to use miles to upgrade your seat on Virgin Atlantic flights.Delta and Virgin Atlantic formed a transatlantic joint venture in 2014,so there have been some benefits when travelers with status travel on the airlines, as Diamond Medallion members have been able to use Global upgrades on Virgin Atlantic.Now SkyMiles members will be able to use miles to upgrade from a paid on ticket on Delta-marketed, Virgin Atlantic operated flights between the US and UK....

As some of you may know, I recently became a certified scuba diver to prepare for my 2013 trip to the Maldives. Less than a year later, I’ve become a full-fledged diving addict with dives in Grand Cayman, Australia, Brazil and various other spots under my “weight” belt. And I have many more to tackle on my bucket list.Lately, readers have asked for great snorkel destinations, and I realized that in in my scuba diving-obsessed haze, I’d all but forgotten that many times great dive spots can also make for excellent snorkeling destinations....

Airlines mostly do one thing, fly people and cargo from A to B, but many carriers around the world also happen to be skilled at social media, specifically Instagram. While not all of us will be able to fly with the world’s largest airlines to new destinations, the photos on their Instagram pages can help to take us there — at least in the form of pixels. From total AvGeek content to a behind-the-scenes look at the cabin crew — plus tons of wanderlust-inducing pics — here are our nine favorite airline Instagram accounts....