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TPG reader Eric is apparently having a hard time booking business class award tickets to Europe for his parents using 200,000 United miles, prompting him to ask:“I am trying to book a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe for my parents who never travel and never splurge on anything luxurious. They really deserve this trip! I have 200,000 United miles ready to go for business class roundtrip tickets for the two of them, but so far there has been no saver award availability for their dates....

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.Booking awards with Delta SkyMiles can be extremely frustrating, as the airline doesn’t publish an award chart, and low-level award space is rare, to say the least. Now, however, we’re seeing tons of low-level award seats available on board the airline’s brand-new Airbus A350....

Virgin America is hosting a contest in conjunction with the San Francisco Giants to throw out the first pitch televised live on Virgin America flight. By entering the contest, however, you also earn a 20% discount on Virgin America itinerary this fall.Enter by August 15, 2012, and you’ll be emailed a discount code that you can use on a non-refundable Main Cabin itinerary for travel between August 22-November 14, 2012 (with blackout dates August 31-September 3)....

With nonstop flights to Edinburgh (EDI) now available thanks to a new Norwegian Air flight from the New York City area (SWF), Scotland is closer and more affordable than ever. One thing that keeps visitors coming to the city each year? Festivals. And while the Fringe and International Festivals, among others, are certainly worthy of your time and money, there’s so much more to this vibrant part of the country. Here are four things to add to your Scotland bucket list the next time you’re visiting Edinburgh....

Yesterday, on board Air Canada Flight AC 316 with service from Calgary (YYC) to Montreal (YUL), 6-year-old Elliana lost her tooth. And if that wasn’t exciting enough for her, she was greeted by a Princess Belle upon landing in Montreal with greetings from the one and only Tooth Fairy.Ellie lost her tooth before take off at Calgary, and her dad Conor Tapp (@conortapp) tweeted about the milestone before takeoff. That’s when Air Canada sneakily arranged for the Tooth Fairy’s good friend Princess Belle to meet up with her before their connection to Charlottetown (PEI)....

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.American Airlines has finally announced a launch date for its Main Cabin Extra enhancements; namely, the “free alcohol” portion of the upgrade.Back in January, TPG’s resident AA expert announced the internal memo that went out to American Airlines front-line employees about the impending changes, as shared by The Forward Cabin:It turns out that “enhanced bin access” simply means that the bins over Main Cabin Extra seats will bear notices that the bins are reserved for MCE guests....

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 year hasn’t been kind to British Airways. Early this month, the London-based carrier experienced a massive IT outage that caused it to cancel all flights arriving at and departing from London’s Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW) airports for almost an entire weekend....

British Airways will soon offer passengers on many short-haul flights less legroom than they’d get on Ryanair. That’s right, next year the legacy carrier is decreasing seat pitch on a couple of aircraft types in its fleet in order to squeeze in more seats.On its short-haul A320 and A321 aircraft, BA is planning to add two new additional rows of seats. The A320, which currently has 28 rows of seats, will soon increase to 30 and instead of offering 30 inches of pitch, each seat will offer 29....

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.Every so often, IHG offers its members the opportunity to earn bonus points, with individual offers for each member. The challenges as part of the promo, which IHG calls “Accelerate,” can range from completing a certain number of nights to staying at a specific number of brands and much more....

Like many other airline fees, checked bag fees have become a fact of life, so we asked TPG contributor Adee Braun to take a detailed look at how much you can expect to pay to check your suitcase and compare airline fees to the services that will ship your bags for you.With a baggage shipping service, there’s no need to lug your baggage through the airport.With checked bag fees climbing each year and the fact that these fees have become one of the best ways airlines can make a profit (domestic airlines took in over $3 billion in checked baggage fees in 2011), it’s no surprise that travelers are looking for alternative ways to get their bags to their destination....

TPG reader Clayton tweeted me to ask:"@thepointsguy: Is there ever a reason to cancel a card with no annual fee? I have a Macy’s card I used in the past, but now sits in a drawer.“The largest factor in having a high credit score is paying off your balances on time. But there are several other factors that play a part in your credit score as well, such as the average age of your accounts....

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 constantly preach about earning miles for “no-brainer” things like dining and online shopping. If you aren’t already in on the game, you should start now. Most airlines have shopping portals that allow you earn miles on purchases from major retailers....

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.We’ve seen commercial airliners carry some pretty remarkable people, objects and animals, but Dorothy’s ruby red slippers? That’s another level entirely. Turns out, the iconic red slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota....

Note: I am not a tax advisor, so before you make any decisions, you need to consult your personal tax professional.Update: You can no longer purchase Vanilla Reload cards using a credit card and Vanilla Reloads are no longer available in Office Depot.Chase is now offering Visa gift cards of denominations up to $500 and waiving the $4.95 shipping fee. Just note, you need to be a Chase customer (meaning you have to use a Chase credit card) to purchase these....

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.Social media is an increasingly important aspect of each major airline’s customer service strategy. There are those that perform well and respond quickly on social media, and there are others that travelers know to avoid. But consumers are largely unaware of how airlines handle things behind the scenes — we’re used to opening our Twitter app, typing a message and sending a tweet without knowing how the actual human on the other end handles the response....

Qatar Airways is offering passengers discounted fares, double Qmiles and the chance to win prizes with a new promotion. The “Global Travel Boutique” promotion, which runs from now through September 19, 2017 will give travelers up to 40% off fares in both economy and business classes, 2x or more Qmiles and the chance to earn bonus prizes.In order to get these perks, you must book by September 19, 2017, and travel by May 31, 2018....

National’s One Two Free promotion will be returning on September 9, 2013. The new promotional site is up but has minimal details on if this year’s deal will change much from last year, but my guess is it will generally be similar to years past. The only information given so far is that it that the earning period will run from September 2013-January 2014.National’s One Two Free Promotion returns in September....

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.Booking a Marriott stay is now easier for businesspeople — easy enough that you can book it through Slack. Marriott and Slack have teamed up to offer Slack users an extension for booking Marriott stays right through the chat interface....

Here’s a recap of interesting points and miles news and promos from the week.US Airways offering up to 25,000 bonus miles: Now through December 15, 2012, travelers can earn up to 25,000 bonus Divedend miles (in addition to any regular flight miles) when flying US Airways and any other Star Alliance member carrier. The more Star Alliance partners you fly on, the more miles you can earn. If you travel on 3 partner carriers you will earn 2,500 bonus miles, 4 will yield 5,000 and 5 will earn you 15,000 bonus miles....

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 mentioned in my post earlier today, about 15% of Starwood properties are not participating in their double/triple miles promotion. This is the first time I’ve seen a Starwood promotion with such a substantial list of hotels opting out....