Posts

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.Yesterday, United moved all of its p.s. Premium Service transcontinental flights from JFK to Newark, and now the airline’s trying to drum up excitement among certain passengers with a targeted promotion. I’ve flown in paid BusinessFirst a couple times within the past year and didn’t receive the bonus offer, however TPG Assistant Editor Matt Zuzolo, who hasn’t flown in paid United BusinessFirst yet, received the following offer this morning:All three offers are potentially lucrative, depending on what you’re after....

Being an SPG member, I usually prefer to stay at a St. Regis property in any city. However, since my latest trip was an actual vacation with friends who were all staying at the well-situated Soho House Istanbul, I decided to leave The Points Guy at the door for a bit and stay with them. After all, everyone deserves a break from their routine once in a while, right?I’m a Soho House member and previously enjoyed a stay at Soho House Berlin, so I was eager to experience another Soho House property — and I’m reviewing my stay because I know that other travelers to Istanbul will be curious about it, as well....

Perhaps it’s playing catch-up in anticipation of American’s new fleet of aircraft with lie-flat beds in first and business on transcontinental routes, but Delta announced it plans to begin operating Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft with a full BusinessElite seat overhaul on all flights between New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle out of its new Terminal 4 at JFK.Don’t get excited just yet, though. The first 767 is not scheduled to begin flying until March 2013 between JFK and LAX and will be timed to connect to the airline’s LAX-Sydney flight in both directions....

Aman hotels are known in the travel world as being the best of the best. I had wanted to stay at the Aman Summer Palace in Beijing, China, during a recent trip to Beijing with my parents, because my first trip to an Aman resort, the Amanyara in Turks & Caicos, was nothing short of magnificent. For my first two trips to Beijing years back, I’d stayed at the St. Regis and the W Beijing, which were both amazing, but the Aman Summer Palace was in a category all its own....

Norwegian Air is a hot commodity. After two rejected bids to acquire it from IAG, British Airways’ parent company, now Lufthansa is after the low-cost airline as well.Norwegian has already rejected two bids from International Airlines Group earlier this year, and now Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr says his group is “in contact” with Norwegian about a possible acquisition.“In Europe, everyone is talking to everyone,” Spohr, who leads the biggest airline group in Europe by passengers carried, told a German newspaper on Monday....

If you think being in the middle of a bomb cyclone on land is unpleasant, be thankful that you didn’t experience one on the ocean.According to CBS New York, the Norwegian Breakaway, a cruise ship on a round-trip from New York to the Bahamas, ended up sailing directly into the huge storm that has battered the US east coast over the past week during the ship’s return to New York on Tuesday night....

A report from the US Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration could be caught in a very bad situation if a major air traffic control outage were to take place. The report was completed on the request of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Subcommitee on Aviation.The 23-page report (caution: PDF link) outlined the FAA’s problems in responding to situations where parts of the American air traffic control infrastructure declared “ATC-Zero;” the inability to provide any air traffic control services....

Southwest is currently running a Fall Travel Sale through Thursday (tomorrow!) for travel from August 13 - November 14. Check out the detailed list of the fares by city here.Depending on distance theses prices apply for nonstop flights:Flights 0-500 miles: $49Flights 501-1300 miles: $99 Flights over 1301 miles are $139Travel is valid every day of the week for nonstop flights except Friday or Sundays and the blackout dates are August 18, August 30, September 3 and September 4 (Labor Day holiday)....

According to the Punctuality League Report for 2018 from OAG, the airline with the best on-time record in the world is not a major carrier. In fact, it does not even have real long-haul aircraft.The air travel intelligence company analyzed 57 million flights in 2017, the most the group has ever combed through to come up with the most punctual airlines, airports. New this year, it also features the busiest routes....

Police had to intervene with tourists in England who scaled the edge of a narrow cliff all for the sake of a cool Instagram post…we assume. The unreliable landform at Seaford Head in East Sussex stands 200 feet tall and is known for its chalky cliffs that are prone to collapses.So, common sense would say that it is not fit for humans.Nonetheless, one woman climbed to the edge for a picture –and even had her legs hanging off the edge of the cliff, pictured below....

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.There’s no reason to be miserable at your 9-5 desk job — we just found another dream job, and you’re going to want to apply right meow.God’s Little People Cat Rescue is looking for “a mature and genuinely passionate cat lover who knows how to handle many cats....

It really wasn’t until about a year ago that I started to take airline miles seriously. But in 2017, I went from having no status anywhere to the highest-tier elite on Delta Airlines. Here’s how I did it, and how the last step of the journey turned into a daylong adventure for the ages.My parents signed me up for frequent flyer programs when I was a kid and, typically taking one family vacation per year — usually a skiing trip to Colorado or Utah — it took me until I was in my 20s to have accrued enough miles on Delta to earn an award ticket....

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.Follow Alice down the Rabbit hole and to NYC because there is a new “Alice in Wonderland” themed pop-up bar coming to Brooklyn in April.The party planning group Mad Hatters G&T Party will host an immersive dining and bar experience that is inspired by the classic “Alice in Wonderland” tea party ....

Despite having scrubbed all direct references of the country of Taiwan on their websites, four US airlines are not out of hot water yet with Chinese aviation officials.China’s main aviation agency said it was not satisfied with the changes to the references to Taiwan, which it wants airlines around the globe to refer to as a Chinese territory and not a self-ruled state.In April, the Civil Aviation Administration of China sent letters to 44 airlines around the world, demanding they change all references to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on their websites to reflect that the regions are part of China....

Earlier this year, we told you that Delta Air Lines was planning to launch a new premium economy product on its A350 aircraft, but there weren’t many specifics. Now, Delta has detailed that it’s adding the new premium economy cabin to its aircraft and calling it Delta Premium. The carrier will debut the new Delta Premium cabin on select international flights beginning in fall 2017.Here are the highlights of the new Delta Premium experience:Seats feature 38 inches of pitch, 19 inches of width and 7 inches of recline....

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.If I had a browser toolbar for every time an airline wanted to give me free miles for downloading one, I probably wouldn’t have any more space left in my window to see the actual web page.However, I wanted to put this one out there since I think United miles have some of the best value in the frequent flying world, and you can score 1,000 of them just for downloading United’s Shopping Assistant toolbar and performing one search through it....

Dubai is set to introduce the newest member of their police force: a 5 foot, 5 inch, 222-pound robot which will be equipped with facial recognition technology and have the ability to broadcast live video feeds. The first model, which will begin patrolling the streets of futuristic city today, will not be on the front lines making arrests but will be interacting with the community. Residents of Dubai will be able to report crimes, pay fines and ask the robot questions (though what sort of questions is unclear)....

Earlier this year I got in on a pretty good deal on round trip flights to Hawaii on United. The flights were from Dallas and went for a little under $400 RT each. My husband and I booked two tickets for our anniversary and then applied some regional upgrades to secure a business class seat. If you want tips on redeeming miles for flights to Hawaii read this post. Currently, some of the United Hawaii flights that connect through Houston and on to Honolulu are on three-class Boeing 777 airplanes, and ours was one of those planes....

Plane and train nerd alert! TPG Special Correspondent John Walton recently discovered that Google Street View is now available inside the world’s largest model railway and airport combo, Miniatur Wunderland. Get ready to geek out.If you’ve ever used the internet and have even a passing interest in planes, you’ve probably heard of the amazing Miniatur Wunderland’s Knuffingen Airport — it would be even more surprising if you hadn’t yet had the video sent to you by friends....

Today I want to share a story from TPG reader Daniel, who was able to buy last-minute flights to Europe without spending a fortune. Here’s what he had to say:When my wife and I moved to the U.S. from Europe a few years back, I immediately started collecting travel rewards. If anything I started off a bit over-enthusiastic, as I tend to be impatient to get another credit card as soon as we’ve earned the sign-up bonus from the last one....