Posts

Summer means road trips - and not always in your own set of wheels. So whether you are driving up the West coast in a convertible or need a minivan big enough to transport the family between amusement parks in Orlando, saving money on car rental is a priority.Choosing the right rental car can have a dramatic affect on both the cost and the quality of your trip.With that being said, I wanted to take a look at some of the summer rental car promotions out there and how you can maximize earning bonus points and miles with hotel and airline partners....

It’s safe to say Singapore Airlines has had better weeks. The Southeast Asian carrier is presently working to recoup its losses after a computer error in the global distribution system used by travel agencies caused about 900 business-class tickets from Australia to London to be sold at coach prices.Singapore Airlines had a pricing glitch for Business Class, and now is asking passengers to pay up! (Shutterstock)Sold between Saturday, November 29 and Monday, December 1 by various online travel agencies in Australia, these tickets were entered into the global distribution system by Singapore Airlines....

A few people have been curious about what the outcome was in regards to my recent trip back from Atlanta on United where we had documented problems with our upgrades never being processed, and our daughter being told she has to be removed from her FAA approved car seat. I’m happy to share the outcome, but also want to take this chance to remind others that it really is sometimes worth the extra effort to provide the airline or hotel some feedback when things really don’t work out the way they should....

Avgeekery.com is an aviation news site where content is written and edited by its team of professional pilots and aviation geeks. Occasionally we syndicate content from the site if we think it will interest TPG readers. This article originally appeared on Avgeekery.com under the headline, The 10 Worst Special Airline Liveries Of All Time and was written by Holly Riddle, an Avgeekery contributor.Airlines love to unveil special liveries to promote everything from tourism to cartoon characters....

Thousands of travelers have been stranded in the Lisbon airport (LIS) after a fuel pump broke down on Wednesday. Some passengers were left waiting for over 24 hours, with flights canceled or delayed on the tarmac for hours.TAP Portugal said all 14 of its planes in Lisbon were grounded at the airport with many flights canceled. Airlines started diverting planes into nearby airports. Eurowings, easyJet and Ryanair flights have also been affected, with many canceled or massively delayed....

Many travelers who plan to visit every major city in Australia often forget that the Land Down Under is not just a country, it’s a continent. In other words, it can take several hours or even days to drive between its most popular cities, making it impossible to see everything on your list if you’re short on time. Flying between major metropolises and using each as a base to explore that particular region can save you a lot of time but isn’t always the most economical route, although prices are often comparable to flying domestically within the US....

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you might have missed from the week before. Here’s the top miles, points and travel news you might have missed on TPG this week.United Raises Requirements for Premier 1K Status, Devalues UpgradesMore spend, less upgrades and everything else you didn’t want to read about United’s elite status.Passengers Can Now Fly With Weed at LAXExpected rules apply, like, “don’t smoke on the plane and don’t act like a maniac....

As aircraft are getting bigger and airports are getting busier, it seems that there are either more accidents happening on the ground or we are just hearing about more of them. Either way, there was yet another aircraft accident today that thankfully left no one injured.Sunday morning at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport (IST), a taxiing Asiana Airlines Airbus A330-300 (registration HL7792) struck a stationary Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-200 (registration TC-JMM), wrecking the Turkish aircraft’s vertical stabilizer....

In case you missed the news Friday night, American Airlines and Boeing announced that the world’s largest airline would be buying an additional 47 Dreamliners. This massive order is valued at $12.3 billion at list price, but — as with all aircraft purchases — the airline will likely only pay a fraction of that.As part of this order announcement, AA also stated that it’d cancelled its Airbus A350 order. In all, this announcement is a huge win for Boeing and a sharp blow to Airbus....

Avis is offering 7,500 Club Carlson Gold points and a 25% discount to members on qualifying car rentals of 3 or more days at participating locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East from now through December 31, 2013 – giving Club Carlson members over a year to score bonus after bonus.Make your reservation here and use coupon # MUHA018 and present your Club Carlson number at the time of reservation or at the rental counter to earn your bonus points....

American Express’s annual Small Business Saturday, where Amex cardholders can receive statement credits on purchases made with their American Express cards at local businesses, will be taking place on Saturday, November 30 (right after Thanksgiving) this year. Since it launched in 2010, the has become a part of the “post-Thanksgiving” shopping craze, joining Black Friday and Cyber Monday as one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and one on which merchants welcome shoppers with arms wide open in the hopes of spurring a record holiday sales season....

This is a time to be thankful — especially for products that make traveling easier (think better shut-eye and on-demand jet service). Lucky for us, there’s something else to add to the list: Hopper mobile app.This nifty app predicts future flight prices “with 95% accuracy” according to the company and offers suggestions on whether to buy a plane ticket now or wait it out, in which case you can set up notifications to get alerted once the price has dropped....

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.Cathay Pacific is donating the first-ever Boeing 777 aircraft to the Pima Air & Space Museum on Tuesday. The Pima Air & Space Museum, located in Tucson, Arizona, opened in 1966 and is one of the largest facilities devoted to space travel and aviation....

Delta has been in the news a lot lately, and not all of it was good publicity. Despite the carrier’s operational struggles last week, the airline is attempting to rebound quickly.Right now, Delta is running a flash sale offering award flights from the US to select destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico from just 11,000 SkyMiles each way. Normal prices are 35,000 SkyMiles round-trip, so this represents more than a 37% savings on the usual cost....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – The Hyatt Credit CardIf you like to visit Las Vegas and are interested in earning benefits through MQM’s M Life program, this just-announced card could be worth a look. The M Life Rewards MasterCard offers complimentary low-tier elite status, bonus points on select purchases and more.The card was just announced today, and you can currently apply for it online, though you’ll need to create an M Life Rewards account if you don’t have one already....

March has been a busy international travel month for me. In 5 weeks I’ll make 4 trips to Europe, racking up a ton of miles and passport stamps. However, on my return trip from Spain, I was somewhat bitched out by a US Immigration officer at JFK for not having enough open spots to stamp in my passport.First of all, why do we need manual stamps? Isn’t everything about our lives recorded electronically anyway?...

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.It’s clear that Marriott is in the Starwood deal for the long haul. Just last week, the future of Starwood was in the news again as the Chinese firm Anbang announced its bid to acquire Starwood — for $78 per share, or a total of $13....

Historically, flying transatlantic between the US and Europe has required travelers to fork over a pretty substantial chunk of cash. But that all changed when low-cost carrier Norwegian Air stepped on the scene, taking the transatlantic market by storm. Since its first European flights from New York (JFK) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) in 2012, the carrier has expanded its network at an alarming (and exciting) rate, offering travelers a low-cost option for travel to and from Europe....

The SPG Hot Escapes is a promotion that offers weekly hotel discounts, allowing customers to stay at Starwood properties for a more economical price. Each week, I will select and feature some of the best deals and options.Get great discounts with SPG Weekly EscapesHow It WorksThe SPG Hot Escapes go live every Wednesday at 6:00 am EST and must be booked by that same Saturday in order to obtain the discounted price....

TPG reader Doris writes:“My family of four would like to go from Houston to Europe (Amsterdam or Germany) in early August. We have the Amex Platinum card with 240,000 points. What are your recommendations? Should we transfer our points to Flying Blue? Will they come out with promotions for August?“Flying Blue can be a smart option if you can book within 2 months of travel and want business class and don’t mind paying fuel surcharges of about $800 per ticket....