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Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Brian, who booked a hotel award without checking rates for his entire stay. Here’s what he had to say:Every year my wife and I take our kids on a week-long trip somewhere in the U.S. One of our favorite destinations is Lincoln, Nebraska, which is where I earned my master’s degree. As I was making preparations for our trip there last year, I noticed Choice Hotels was having a flash sale on points with a discount of as much as 40 percent....

TPG reader Jill emailed me to ask about reclaiming expired miles:“My daughter’s frequent flyer account went unused for a bit and over 48,000 miles expired. United will let us buy them back for $300, which is a lot less than it would cost to buy miles outright. Is that a good deal?”Letting points and miles expire is one of the cardinal sins of award travel, and it breaks my heart to get questions like this....

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.Icelandair announced today that it will be the first airline to provide high-speed internet on transatlantic flights when it installs the new service on board 16 of its upcoming Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The service will be provided by ViaSat, which already provides in-flight Wi-Fi to several other carriers....

Last month, Emirates Airline announced it was cutting back on service to select US destinations because of slowed bookings. The move came in direct response to news from the White House that it would hinder travel from the Middle East (and other countries) to the US, including limits as to what people can bring on the plane with the electronics ban. Emirates’ original announcement included five US cities: Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Orlando (MCO), Seattle (SEA), Boston (BOS) and Los Angeles (LAX)....

If there’s one thing that gets aviation enthusiasts fired up, it’s a livery change by a major airline — and on Wednesday, one of the biggest of them all rolled out a new color scheme. Germany-based Lufthansa, the largest airline in Europe by passengers carried, officially revealed the newest iteration of its livery at an event in Frankfurt, only days after images of new paint job surfaced on Twitter. TPG Assistant Editor Brendan Dorsey covered the unveiling ceremony-turned-party....

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you might have missed from the week before, including several that already appeared on The Points Guy and some more that we haven’t covered yet. If you’re an avid TPG reader, scroll down for the new stuff. Here’s the top miles, points and travel news you might have missed this week.Marriott and SPG Announce Details of Their New Unified Loyalty ProgramTPG breaks down the new loyalty program between Marriott and SPG....

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 offers one of the best products flying in the skies right now, its new Qsuites business class. Between the closing doors at every seat, top-notch dining and amenities, Qsuites (and the experience on Qatar’s other premium products) is hard to beat....

I can honestly say I never once bought a dollar coin, but I know many of you have. Recently the practice caught a LOT of press with an NPR piece and as of today, you can no longer buy dollar coins with a credit or debit card (per the announcement below). I know this is a sad day for many of you, but all I can say is to pick your head up and focus on the next deal....

If you want in on the private jet lifestyle, this week’s giveaway is for you. We’ll be choosing two winners to receive a one-month subscription (worth $1,950) from SurfAir, as well as waived initiation costs ($1,000) for the membership-only flight service — in total, you’ll be getting about $3,000 in value! With SurfAir, you can fly as many times as you’d like among the carrier’s destinations in California, including Burbank (BUR), Oakland (OAK) and Palm Springs (PSP) for the duration of your one-month membership....

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 not very often you have the chance to ask questions directly to the CEO of a major airline. But, today you do. Join TPG on Facebook Live today at 3:30pm ET as he sits down with the CEO of British Airways, Alex Cruz....

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.Uber will appeal London’s decision to ban the company’s service in court on Monday, June 25th.Uber, which has been riddled with controversial and scandalous behavior in the past, lost its license to operate in London last September because the Transport for London deemed the company “unfit and proper” to operate in its city....

A United Airlines flight heading to Sydney, Australia (SYD) from San Francisco (SFO) made an emergency landing when one of its engines caught fire shortly after takeoff.Passengers on board UA Flight 863 reported hearing two loud noises and seeing two large sparks about 30 minutes after the Boeing 787-9 took off from SFO. The flight returned to SFO, where the pilots executed a safe emergency landing. There were no injuries reported....

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.Another blockbuster Delta promotion where you can rack up a bunch of MQMs, which count towards elite status, and donate to some great charities while doing so. You can also write off these donations, because the actual value of the MQMs is zero....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – The Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card from American Express, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MastercardMost airlines and hotels have co-branded credit cards that offer a good (or sometimes great) return on spending within the brand. Many gas brands have similar card offerings, but today TPG Contributor Jason Steele explains why the value of these cards just doesn’t measure up....

Thanks to its Tuscan location in the middle of the Chianti wine region, Florence offers plenty of delicious red wine as well as the perfect cuisine to pair it with. Here’s a look at what you should be eating on your next trip to this fabulous Italian city.Florentine SteakTravelers wanting a large, hearty plate of meat should order the bistecca alla Fiorentina. It’s meant to be sliced up and shared with others, but if you’re really hungry, you can always attempt to go it alone....

A female passenger fell overboard on a Norwegian Epic cruise ship and was rescued by the ship’s crew Tuesday night.The boat was sailing near the Bahamas when, around 9:00pm, an announcement came over the ship’s loudspeaker system three times: “Code Oscar portside.” The announcement means there is a passenger overboard.One passenger on the cruise, Kareen Kennedy, was finishing dinner when the announcement occurred. “My server looked out my window, and just the way he looked out … I was about to order dessert, and I said, ‘What happened?...

Another day, another special livery.Alaska Airlines has been repainting its entire fleet, both its own sizable Boeing 737 fleet and the nearly 70 Airbus A320 and A321s it acquired from Virgin America following the merger. In late January, it unveiled the first Airbus ever to be painted in Alaska Airlines colors — one of Virgin’s older A320s, after Virgin America officially ceased independent operations. On Friday, Alaska revealed yet another livery, this time on a brand spanking A321neo — the latest version of the European twinjet....

Saguaro National Park has a message for some of its visitors: Stop stealing the cacti. Cactus theft has become so common that officials at the Arizona national park have placed microchips in its famous Saguaro cactus plants in an attempt to deter visitors from stealing them, KTAR News reported.Officials have placed microchip IDs in about 1,000 cacti along the park’s most accessible areas to help identify stolen plants. The digital tags will serve as identifiers to help determine if a cactus was stolen from the park....

Just weeks after Delta announced plans to end service between Seattle (SEA) and Hong Kong (HKG), Cathay Pacific has swooped in to announce a new flight of its own.Cathay’s new service will launch on April 1, 2019 and will operate four days per week with the airline’s Airbus A350-900, which I reviewed on one of the world’s longest flights earlier this year.Image courtesy of Great Circle Mapper.The flight will operate with the following schedule....

Chrissy Teigen, Twitter-fanatic, travel-expert, emotional support casserole visionary and mom-extraordinaire, is on a mission to alert young moms on the dos-and-don’ts for traveling with their young-ins.Teigen, who’s married to singer John Legend, has one daughter and another child on the way. Both Teigen and Legend travel regularly and more often than not, they bring their daughter, Luna, along with them. In a recent interview with The Cut, Teigen talked traveling with children and revealed some travel hacks that every parent should know....