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The Alaska Airlines-Virgin America merger has been a long time coming. Since Alaska first announced its acquisition of Virgin in December 2016, the merger process has advanced at a slow pace. The carriers have been working to integrate the Mileage Plan and Elevate programs, allowing elites to earn reciprocal benefits, and now we know when the Virgin America brand will cease to exist.April 24, 2018, will be the last date you can fly with Virgin America....

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 installment of crazy aviation videos, we bring you a sight to behold: a takeoff of the world’s largest aircraft. The Antonov An-225 is a Soviet-era strategic airlift cargo aircraft built in 1988. Designed to transport the USSR’s Energia rocket booster, it currently holds the world record for delivering the heaviest payload ever — a staggering 559,580 lbs....

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.To celebrate a year of the new TrueBlue program, JetBlue is giving away a ton of prizes.Register here by November 30th.Where would you go with a million TrueBlue points (roughly $10,000)?[card card-name=‘Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express ’ card-id=‘22035076’ type=‘javascript’ bullet-id=‘1’]

While not the most exotic hotel points program, Best Western Rewards is trying to make a splash with a massive 115 million point “Go. Get. Rewarded.” giveaway now through Cyber Monday. In addition to over 155,000 awards between 100 and 10,000 points, there will be ten 100,000 point winners and four 1 million point winners. Make sure to enter daily through 11:59pm Eastern on November 27 to have a chance to win one of these prizes....

UPDATE: Deal now has updated T&C that state a $1,000 minimum purchase. Effectively this is now dead.TPG reader Jamison just tipped me off about a great deal to get super cheap AA flights and hotels with a AAvacations.com promo code DOUBLE100. See Flyertalk thread here (Thanks Janetdoe).Simply book a flight + hotel package at aavacations.com and use DOUBLE100 (update: to be safe, get the code emailed to you by playing the Blackjack game here) at check-out and $100 will get taken off the price of your package....

Tokyo is a massive metropolis with many corners to explore. But with its array of parks, frenetic markets and ancient shrines in stark contrast with gleaming skyscrapers, it can be difficult to know where to begin. To best capture the city’s famous, colorful cuisine and distinct aesthetic, grab your camera and head to these iconic — and seriously photogenic — Tokyo spots.1. Meiji ShrineLocated next to Harajuku Station, the Meiji Shrine is a quiet respite for overwhelmed travelers....

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.From the Nintendo Switch, which lets you play Mario Kart at 30,000 feet, to Narita Airport’s smartphone toilet paper, technology and travel go hand-in-hand. But few places seem more excited — or willing to embrace new high-tech ideas — as the hotel industry....

Since the Obama administration eased restrictions on travel to Cuba, airlines were quick to add destinations on the island nation to their route maps. Generally speaking, those moves may have proven to be too quick, as the market became oversaturated with options and demand decreased. As a result, airlines such as Alaska, Spirit, Frontier and Silver have pulled out of Cuba altogether, and JetBlue, American and Southwest have all scaled back service....

American is making more changes to its elite status program. This time, it’s the elite status match challenge options that are being altered.The changes — which were first reported on Flyertalk and confirmed to TPG by an AA agent — are for both Gold and Platinum level challenges. Effective immediately, in addition to the usual Elite Qualifying Miles requirement, you will now need to also meet an Elite Qualifying Dollars metric....

Austrian Airlines has revealed a new paint job that it will apply to its fleet over the coming years. Just two months after Lufthansa introduced a new livery, Austrian, which is actually a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, will be getting a makeover of its own.The airline shared renderings of what the new livery will look like on one of its Boeing 777s.Image courtesy of Austrian Airlines.For comparison, here’s the old livery on a 777:The six major changes to the new livery appear to be the change of font and size in which “Austrian” is written, the expansion of red on the tail of the aircraft, the bolding of the Austrian chevron on the tail and removal of the logo’s shadow, the elimination of the chevron toward the nose of the aircraft and the transformation of the engines and underbelly of the aircraft from blue to white (although the Austrian greeting “Servus” will remain on the aircraft belly)....

Update:Based on a comment below it is possible this is not actually a new term, but potentially something that has always been there, just not enforced. I can’t say with 100% certainty, but either way it is worth noting as anything that is being done in practice beyond what is required per the terms is always subject to change without notice.In light of many of us scrambling to determine which Chase credit cards, if any, to add to our wallets before it quite possibly gets much harder to get approved, I just received a very interesting question/comment related to the Hyatt Credit Card....

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 part of its event sponsorship for 2018, United Airlines will soon unveil a Team USA Olympics Winter Games -themed advertising campaign that will air throughout the US during the Games. The airline’s hosting a party in New York City to celebrate the campaign, and is extending an invitation to five TPG readers and their guests....

As part of an ongoing modernization project to help bring LAX into the 21st century, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has begun construction of a brand new terminal, which will allow it to handle more international flights. The new space will be located just to the west of Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT), connected by an underground tunnel with 1,000-foot moving walkways. It’ll house 12 new gates, including two that can accommodate very large aircraft — like those behemoth Airbus A380s....

With Delta and United both planning full fleet retirements later this year, time is very quickly running out to get on board a US-based 747. In Germany, though, you’re about to have more options than ever — Lufthansa just added a bunch of 747-400 flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Berlin’s Tegel Airport (TXL).Flight times and frequencies vary from day to day, but it looks like the first 747 flight is scheduled for November 13, 2017, and service runs through the end of the month, with the final domestic flight scheduled for 5:45pm on November 30....

Hundreds of passengers on a Norwegian Air flight at Orlando International Airport (MCO) were forced to deplane Sunday night after a male flyer made a hoax bomb threat because he was upset about his seat.According to the Orlando Police Department, fellow passengers on the plane bound for London overhead the unidentified man make a comment about a bomb because he was unhappy about his seat. Police responded to a call from the plane’s gate (87 at MCO) just as the flight was preparing to close its doors and pull away from the gate....

Last year, Marriott was busy focusing on successfully completing its merger with Starwood after fending off challenges from Chinese company Anbang. Now that the merger is complete and guests can take advantage of status matches, points transfers and more, Marriott’s able to once again focus on making improvements to the guest experience. Now, the chain is betting on extensive customer research to provide new, high-tech features in a revamped mobile app that aims to provide a thoroughly modern and seamless experience from the time you plan a stay to when you check out....

There’s a new airline in Europe, and if its powerful Qatari backers are right, you’ll be hearing about it a lot. Air Italy, which just took delivery of the first in a massive influx of 50 airplanes, has a five-year plan to turn itself from a niche player into the biggest international airline in Italy and possibly a member of the Oneworld alliance. If it succeeds, it will also turn Milan’s Malpensa Airport (MXP) into a major hub — something it’s never really been, depriving Italy’s economic center of a connection to the globe on a par with its aspirations....

Milepoint is an online frequent flyer community, similar to Flyertalk, but newer and with less attitude. While it lacks the content and history of Flyertalk, it’s a great community and I personally know the founders, who are all bonafide frequent flyers (including fellow blogger Gary Leff).They recently created a Premium Membership option for users which includes free points (which alone are more valuable than the annual fee) plus a number of added benefits for $59....

The New York helicopter company whose aircraft crashed in the East River on Sunday night had previously had two other crashes, one of them also fatal, in the past 11 years, CNN reports.With a fleet of 10 European-made Eurocopter helicopters, Liberty Helicopters claims to be the “the largest and most experienced helicopter sightseeing and charter service in New York City.” The company had crashes in 2007 and 2009.The first crash occurred in July 2007 when one of Liberty’s helicopters was on a tour and had an in-flight separation of a main rotor blade....

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.Amid all the bad news coming from the airline industry — particularly United — it’s a breath of fresh air to see something positive coming from a carrier.As you may have heard, 16-year-old Carter Wilkerson went on a mission in early April to get free chicken nuggets for a year from Wendy’s....