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Kathy Klass! Kathy was an active participant - submitting numerous entries via Facebook and Twitter (@katruns26point2). Her winning entry, which was randomly drawn using random.org, was submitted via Facebook on Monday at 7:10pm:Kathy Klass I will share my tutu with you.How generous!A little bit about Kathy:“It all began when I was 10 and collected pen pals from around the world! In 1982, I took my first trip to europe and never stopped traveling....

This week, Boeing vs. Bombardier/Delta completed another round of fighting. And again, this round went to Boeing. Delta flyers have a vested interest in this battle, as a ruling in Boeing’s favor would surely cause Delta to cancel its order for 75 CS100s — a plane you’ll love thanks its massive overhead bins, larger windows and large seat width. Delta has already insisted that it won’t pay the tariff.In a ruling Wednesday, the US Commerce Department confirmed its proposed 300% tariff ruling on all Bombardier CSeries aircraft sold to US buyers....

Delta was one of the airlines to get routes (Los Angeles and Detroit) to the Tokyo Haneda airport, but they suspended the service soon after the tsunami hit Japan. Now that things are picking up, they are reinstating the route and to incentivize travelers, they are introducing super low fares for June and July travel and instituting a double miles promotion to entice customers back on this route. Note: double miles are only from LAX/DTW-HND and do not count towards elite qualification....

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.While the Virgin group of airlines; Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, V Australia, and Virgin Blue, are owned by different entities (with the common denominator being Richard Branson), they have a tight marketing alliance.Virgin Atlantic just announced a promotion allowing their Flying Club members to earn double miles when they fly any of their other partner airlines....

“Now departing: Finnair Flight 666. Destination: HEL.” Passengers boarded Flight 666 from Copenhagen (CPH) to Helsinki (HEL) on Friday — and not just any Friday, but Friday the 13th.It really doesn’t get more superstitious than this — flight 666. To HEL. Friday the 13th. At the 13th hour. Why anyone actually booked this flight is beyond us.Not only that, but HEL itself made an effort to outdo Finnair, assigning gate 26 for the flight’s arrival....

Gunmen in Cancun, Mexico, shot at a beach vendor from jet skis in the water on Friday. The incident occurred in the middle of the resort city’s main beachfront hotel strip, and is thought to be the city’s first shooting of its kind.Fortunately, there were no injuries. Authorities recovered four bullets from the scene on the beach, which was then closed off to the public, but they were not able to identify the gunmen or exactly who the target of the shooting might have been....

Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Jeff, who changed his travel plans too early when his flight was oversold. Here’s what he had to say:Recently, while traveling to Chicago on United just prior to a snowstorm, I was informed that my flight was overbooked and looking for people to give up their seats. I was only going for one night, so when the offer for compensation rose to $1,000, I volunteered....

According to the latest World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world. As for Americans, we seem to be getting less happy — even as the country gets richer. The study by the Sustainable Development Solution Network, released on March 14, ranked 156 countries according to GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.Finland, which was ranked fifth in the 2017 SDSN report, rose to the top spot, citing access to nature, safety, childcare, good school and free healthcare as some of the best things about their country....

One of the most notorious planes in history, the Lufthansa Boeing 737-200 dubbed Landshut, finally returned to Germany 40 years after it was hijacked and flown around Europe, the Middle East and Somalia by terrorists before being retaken by German special forces.Image by KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images.The battered 737’s fuselage and separated wings were flown from Brazil to Friedrichshafen in late September in a Volga-Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124, with its passenger seats and engine brought over separately on a Volga-Dnepr Ilyushin Il-76....

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.Hands down, the most valuable United elite benefit is the six Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) you’ll receive when earning United Premier 1K or Global Services status. United issues two more for every additional 50,000 Premier-Qualifying Miles earned — if you travel a lot for business on premium fares, you can easily end up with more upgrades than you can reasonably use in a calendar year....

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.Well, it turns out Delta isn’t the only US-based airline to announce a Tumi partnership this week — United’s flight attendants will soon be outfitted with a Tumi luggage set, along with brand-new uniforms.First up is the luggage — all 24,000 flight attendants will get be getting spiffy new luggage this fall, including their choice of a two-wheel or four-wheel rolling bag, but new uniforms are still a few years out, with the airline targeting a launch in 2020....

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 it turns out, the $174 round-trip mistake fare from the US to Australia was, in fact, too good to be true. As reported by several TPG readers, Virgin Australia is emailing those who purchased tickets, informing them that it’s not proceeding with their booking....

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.Sometimes, the best way to plan your trip is by seeing someone else do it. Deciding whether or not to splurge on the zipline in Vegas? Leave it to someone else to do it first — and then you can pull the trigger if it’s right for you....

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.I am switching to a dedicated web hosting server this weekend, so you may experience some hiccups with posting comments, but overall this should drastically speed up the site. In the past couple weeks I’ve gotten way too many “error connecting to the database” messages and several of you have emailed me about errors when posting comments, so I decided to switch to a better host....

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.An aircraft engine caught fire as the Saudi World Cup soccer team flew to its second game of the international tournament in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Monday.A video shows flames shooting from the right engine of the plane, which reportedly was a Rossiya Airbus A319 registered VP-BNB....

If you thought “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was epic, meet this 12-year-old boy from Australia who skipped school to catch a flight to Bali by himself. The boy—who has only been identified by the pseudonym Drew— used his family’s credit cards to book a four-day getaway trip to the island paradise in Indonesia.After his mother told him that he couldn’t go on trip to Bali, Drew took matters into his own hands....

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you may 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 may have missed this week:Air India may provide convenience, but you’re sacrificing a lot for saving a few hours on your trip....

Anbang purchased the Waldorf Astoria New York from Hilton in 2014 in a noteworthy deal. Now, the Chinese insurance giant has been seized by the Chinese government, and the company’s former chairman has been charged with “economic crimes.“Over the last few years, the Beijing-based holding company made a series of high profile real estate purchases, including the acquisition of the properties like the Westin St. Francis and Fairmont Chicago. Anbang even attempted to purchase Starwood Hotels in 2016 but pulled out of the deal, leaving Marriott to purchase the hotel chain....

Following an announcement on November 16, we’ve been progressing under the assumption that Marriott would be acquiring Starwood sometime in the middle of this year. We’ve heard from Marriott’s CEO, the chain’s VP of Loyalty, TPG himself attended a forum to discuss potential changes to Marriott’s program, and Hyatt even made a play for Starwood’s top-tier elites. Without a competing bid on the table, it seemed that everything would move forward as expected — that is, until today....

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.Japan is no stranger to high-tech hospitality innovations. In addition to being home to the world’s first robot hotel and an airport that offers toilet paper for your smartphones, it’s also the birthplace of the “pod hotel” concept, a sort of micro-hotel room where budget-minded travelers can trade in frills for dollars....