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American Airlines flyers: prepare yourself for 30-inch pitch. According to AirlineRoute, American loaded the first scheduled flight for its new 737 MAX over the weekend. The first scheduled revenue flight for AA’s newest aircraft type will be November 29, 2017 from Miami (MIA) to New York’s LaGuardia (LGA). However, the 737 MAX might be substituted into service before then.AA’s first 737 MAX 8 rolled off the assembly line two weeks ago, but AA may be waiting to have a few before it puts these aircraft into service....

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.Scott Mayerowitz of the Associated Press just wrote a story about family summer travel and how often families are split up on airplanes with individual members having to sit alone unless they pay fees to sit in preferred or premium seating (or even just to have a chance at seat selection before check-in)....

We’ve all hoped to snag that biz-class upgrade before a flight only to come up a day late and a dollar short. Jasper Francis, a nine-year-old from Australia, wanted that upgrade before an upcoming flight, but he approached it a little differently — he wrote a note to Jetstar Airways saying he was saving up for an upgrade and wanted to know how much more he needed to save.In his note, Jasper said: “My name is Jasper Francis and I am 9 years old and live an hour outside of Melbourne....

We often publish stories from readers that illustrate how points and miles can help you get where you want to go. However, it’s important to learn from our mistakes as well as our successes, so I’m calling on you to send us your most epic travel failure stories. Email them to info@thepointsguy.com and put “Reader Mistake Story” in the subject line. Tell us how things went wrong, and (where applicable) how you made them right....

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.Imagine the legs of a Kraken emerging from the Colosseum in Rome; a snowboarder sliding down the rails of London’s Tower Bridge; a young Leonardo DiCaprio cradling Christ the Redeemer Jack-and-Rose-style in Rio de Janeiro (pictured below). Rich McCor, an artist who goes by Paperboyo on Instagram, has brought all of these scenes to life on his account, using clever paper cutouts to transform the way we see some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks....

After a rejuvenating vacation at the Baros Resort in the Maldives, I was looking forward to flying Asiana A380 first class (stay tuned for full reviews of both!) home to NY, but I first had to get myself to Seoul, and Asiana does not fly to the Maldives. With that decision made, the next best option was Korean Air on its A330 from Male, Maldives (MLE) to ICN, with a brief stop in Colombo, Sri Lanka (CMB)....

A man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Monday after scaling a fence and sprinting onto a runway as a Delta Air Lines aircraft prepared to takeoff.Around 2:00pm PT, a man later identified as 23-year-old Luis Aguilar, scaled a fence near Lincoln and Sepulveda boulevards at the northernmost part of the airport, according to ABC News. Officers quickly responded and apprehended Aguilar on runway 24 Left, arrested him and removed him from the scene in a police car....

An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to return to its origin on Wednesday after a passenger got naked and refused to follow crew instructions.Alaska Airlines Flight 146, which departed Anchorage (ANC) for Seattle (SEA) on Wednesday morning, was forced to return to ANC. According to The Associated Press, a male passenger locked himself in a lavatory, took off his clothes and proceeded to behave in a disrupting manner.“While no emergency was declared, the decision was made to return to Anchorage,” an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said....

Taking the stage to call itself the “world’s fastest growing airline” (although it doesn’t make the top 10) Qatar held an entertaining press conference Wednesday at ITB Berlin. While the news that the airline had to share this year was much less monumental than last year, that didn’t keep Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker from over-dramatizing the event.After a fittingly dramatic unveiling of Qsuite last year, press were invited to an unveiling again this year....

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week:Virgin’s redemption chart - with this promo, you’d need less than 60,000 miles for an Upper Class ticket.American Express 35% Transfer Bonus to Virgin Atlantic: In case you missed this, we posted earlier this week about this new American Express transfer bonus. As a recap, now through December 29, 2012, American Express cardmembers who transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will receive a 35% bonus....

The SkyTeam Lounge at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) opened in early 2017 and instantly gave the alliance’s Chinese members, China Southern and China Eastern, a credibility boost. Including Beijing, the SkyTeam alliance now has seven branded lounges around the world: Vancouver, Dubai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Istanbul and London Heathrow. I visited the lounge before my Delta One flight to Detroit on the Airbus A350.LocationThe SkyTeam Lounge is in the international departure area of Terminal 2 at Beijing Capital International Airport, near gate 11....

Uber is going from four to two wheels with its latest acquisition. The ride-hailing company has bought JUMP Bikes, an electric bike-sharing startup that’s operating in Washington DC and San Francisco.Uber wants to expand the service of the dockless bike-sharing service and had been trialing an integration of Jump into the Uber app over the last two months. It’s unclear how much Uber paid for JUMP, but according to reports from TechCrunch, the deal was valued from $100 to $200 million....

Update 5/10/2018: In a tweet and confirmed by email with an airline spokesperson, United has reversed its plan to phase out tomato juice on flights:Last September, United angered its elites and first class flyers by “testing” reductions in meal services on “select” domestic flights. Now it appears United is making some permanent changes to its on-board catering. Through a mass update to its website on Friday, United unveiled a score of changes in its on-board food and drink service — from cutting first class meals on some flights to removing tomato juice as an option....

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.In this episode of Passengers Behaving Badly — which, by the way, is finding way too much air time of late — a United Airlines flight to Washington (IAD) was forced to turn back to London after a woman on board caused quite the stir....

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.Have a Google Home? Are you a frequent traveler? Well, Google is about to make finding your preferred flight more seamless than ever. Beginning today, you can search for flights and track prices through Google Flights with your Google Home device....

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 announced on Wednesday the latest feature of its high-tech guest room: complimentary Showtime programming.Guests can now access premium streaming, including Showtime original series such as “Homeland,” “The Chi,” “Billions,” “Ray Donovan” and enjoy comedy specials, sports programming, documentaries and more on demand – all free of charge....

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 23-year-old surfer off of the Hawaiian island of Oahu was taken to the hospital in serious condition after being bitten by a shark on Saturday morning.The unidentified male surfer was sitting on a eight-foot surf board off of Pounder’s Beach when the shark bit him on his arm and elbow around 8:30am, KHON 2 news reports....

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.One of the biggest benefits of having American Express Membership Rewards points is taking advantage of transfer bonuses to the program’s airline and hotel partners. Unfortunately, these bonuses used to be offered much more frequently. While we are going through a drought, I figured I’d put together a list of past bonuses so you can see any past trends and decide whether it makes sense to redeem now or wait for a new bonus....

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.Today’s deal in American’s 30th Anniversary promotion is a chance to get 3,000 AA miles. You need to do 3 things in order to get the 3,000 miles:1) Spend $30 at their Eshopping portal (tip: if you don’t have an account, sign up here for a 1,000 point bonus)2) Spend $30 with AA dining (tip: if you don’t have an account, sign up here for a 1,000 point bonus)3) Either fly on American (not on a codeshare or Oneworld partner) on a paid ticket (not award) or get AA miles with a hotel or car partner (note: this does not mean redeem AA miles for hotel or car, you must pay for a rental and then choose to earn AA miles)All three of these things need to be done by May 27, 2011 in order to get the 3,000 mile bonus....

I just got an email from British Airways that nearly made my heart stop - they are changing their frequent flyer program starting November 16. Immediately I thought, “Oh crap, here we go - a major devaluation!,” but instead it seems like an attempt to expand the program and include Iberia’s frequent flyer now that the two carriers are as closely aligned as ever.However, after looking into it, I don’t think this will be an earth-shattering change (like a move to a revenue-based redemption system like JetBlue/Southwest, etc) and it may even make the rewards you redeem cheaper....