Posts

Many SkyMiles members (myself included) received the following promotion today:“Book a Delta or Delta Connection® round-trip Award Ticket and earn a 20% mileage rebate in BusinessElite®, First or Business Class and a 10% rebate in Economy Class. Plus, earn a 25% mileage rebate for each additional BusinessElite, First or Business Class Award Ticket and a 15% mileage rebate for each Economy Class Award Ticket.Here’s how the savings add up:Award Tickets must be booked by October 31, 2011, and travel must be completed by April 30, 2012....

Recreational space travel is starting to become more of a reality. On the heels of Virgin Galactic successfully flying its first passenger rocket since 2014, we have another exciting announcement for those who want to travel to space.Orion Span has announced that it will build the world’s first luxury space hotel.Announced at the Space 2.0 summit in San Jose, California, the Aurora Station plans on launching into space in 2021 and opening to guests in 2022....

Since June 5, several Gulf nations including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia together with Egypt cut ties with the peninsular nation of Qatar, which led to a complete blockade of all land, sea and air borders between the four nations and Qatar. In addition to the immediate suspension of flights between Qatar and its hostile neighbors, they implemented an additional blockade by banning all Qatari-registered aircraft from their airspace as well as flight information regions, or airways (which can be thought of as the freeways of the sky)....

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.Who says high society can’t have a little flair? One 19th-century castle in France’s Loire Valley got a whole new look this summer as street artists from around the world turned the nearly 100-acre estate into a masterpiece of urban art....

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.JetBlue and ride-sharing service Lyft have a unique partnership that rewards you just for using Lyft on your trips to and from the airport. Once you’ve connected your JetBlue and Lyft accounts, you’ll earn 30 TrueBlue points for each Lyft ride to or from an airport where the ride-share service operates....

Yesterday, New York City took a big step toward regulating Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing companies. The city council passed legislation that will cap the number of for-hire vehicles in addition to a bill that will create a minimum pay rate for drivers.It’s huge blow to ride-hailing companies in one of the most profitable US markets. New York was becoming inundated with for-hire vehicles, with the number of cars growing drastically over the last few years....

At the Super Bowl, travel was super, too. Between all the ads for the Holy Trinity (Trucks, Beer, and Soda), airlines and destinations made a showing with some clever ads that cost a cool $5 million for each 30-second spot.As Brian Braiker, Editor-in-Chief of Ad Age, told TPG: “The Super Bowl is the last place where a single audience this size congregates all at one time. There is nowhere else where an audience of this magnitude — 100 million people — are looking at the same screen at the same time....

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.Housing Works is an organization the gives housing and legal support to some of the most underserved New Yorkers — those homeless and living with HIV/AIDS. I’ve been a board member for the past couple of years, and part of my role as a board member is to bring awareness to the organization....

Beginning late this summer, the National Air and Space Museum, one of the 19 world-class Smithsonian museums located on the National Mall in Washington DC, will undergo its first renovation in the building’s 41-year history. What’s more, nine major airlines are donating $28 million as a gift towards the renovations.News of the 2018 revitalization comes off the heels of the announcement of the rare joint venture between the competing airlines. The $28 million will go towards the “America by Air” gallery....

Actress Rose McGowan is still dealing with major repercussions of losing her wallet on a plane last year, when she flew to Washington, DC to participate in the Women’s March.After arriving at Washington Dulles (IAD) on January 20, 2017, McGowan left her wallet at seat 6L on board United flight 653 from Los Angeles (LAX). (McGowan later told The New Yorker that she never removed her wallet from her backpack, but that the backpack had been left unattended for a few minutes during a trip to the plane restroom....

Through its “Night At” series, where Airbnb users can register to win a stay at once-in-a-lifetime accommodations, the vacation rental company has given away free one-night stays at Fenway Park, Ellis Island, Maracanã Stadium in Brazil and a shark aquarium in Paris. Now, it’s headed back to the sea — this time in Australia — for an unforgettable sleepover on the Great Barrier Reef.To celebrate the premiere of “Finding Dory,” Airbnb and Pixar recently partnered up to create a one-of-a-kind stay in a floating home on the Great Barrier Reef, the setting for the new animated sequel, which hits theaters this Friday....

Changes to frequent flyer programs are typically never good. And they’re even worse when they happen with no notice to members. Well, unfortunately, ANA did just that last night with its Mileage Club program.As of August 1, award tickets on ANA metal incur higher carrier-imposed surcharges. The reason? Increasing fuel costs.Up until July 31, awards from North American to Japan incurred $86 in fuel charges each way.Now, they’ll run you $129 each way....

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.iPhone users, get excited. As a part of iOS 12.1, Apple is adding 70 new emojis to the roster — and some of them can be used to describe your travels.“More than 70 new emoji(s) will be coming soon to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, including new characters with red hair, gray hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food,” an Apple press release stated....

Some British Airways crew members are currently in the middle of a 16-day strike period, from July 1 through July 16, with approximately 1,400 “mixed fleet” cabin crew walking out on the airline. This is a result of the continued row over pay between mixed fleet cabin crew (who, as the name of contract suggests, operate both short and long-haul routes) and their employer, British Airways.In order to minimize disruption to passengers during this current strike period, BA has wet-leased nine Qatar Airways aircraft, and these Qatar planes are now flying on behalf of British Airways across the short-haul network....

Thousands of British Airways customers were disappointed Wednesday when the airline canceled a number of mistake fares to Tel Aviv and Dubai.Due to a glitch in the carrier’s booking system, fares which usually cost around $265 plus airport taxes were listed for just £1, or $1.35, plus airport taxes (which can add $100-$200 to the final price), according to Travel Up, a UK travel agency that sold more than 2,000 of the discounted tickets between June 11-12....

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 2/22/2017: TMZ has acquired a video that shows Harrison Ford landing on a taxiway at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. In the video it appears that Ford’s plane passes over an American Airlines’ 737.The FAA is currently investigating an incident involving actor Harrison Ford today when he landed his private aircraft (a single-engine Aviat Husky) on a taxiway instead of runway 20-L at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport (SNA) as he had been assigned by ATC....

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.Dreams of getting paid to eat and travel are becoming a reality through these companies that are currently hiring. Noosa Yoghurt, Moe’s Southwest Grill and Ultimate Earth are all currently accepting applications to fulfill their respective positions — and the lucky new hires will get to travel the world for free....

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 Obama Administration announced Friday that US travelers can now return home from Cuba with an unlimited amount of Cuban cigars and rum. The move, which comes as a continuation of the president’s aim to ease travel restrictions to the country, means visitors can bring home the items as souvenirs for personal use only, not to be sold in stores or anywhere else....

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.A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Philadelphia (PHL) was forced to turn around after hitting a bird mid-flight on Thursday.Two and a half hours into Lufthansa Flight 426, the A340-300 aircraft (registration D-AIGV) struck a bird and began encountering vibrations in two of its motors....

I always say that frequent flyer miles generally lose value over time (as programs raise award levels and start levying new fees and taxes) and that hoarding them is a bad long-term strategy. I do understand why people hold onto miles for a long time - we often get caught in the mouse wheel of chasing elite status so we pay for flights and then rack up tons of miles in the process that we hope to use “on a rainy day....