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Alaska Airlines announced on Wednesday that it’s cutting partner ties with Air France-KLM. As of April 30, 2018, you’ll no longer be able to earn Mileage Plan miles with Air France or KLM.This move is the latest Mileage Plan partner reduction, though you’ll be able to continue to earn Mileage Plan miles with the European carriers until April 30. On its Mileage plan partner pages for both carriers, Alaska says:“Effective April 30, 2018, the partnership between Air France [and KLM] and Alaska Airlines will end....

Back in October 2016, American Airlines debuted its new premium economy product on a flight between Dallas (DFW) and Los Angeles (LAX), which was operated by a 787-9. Since then, AA has rapidly expanded this product to more aircraft types as well as the routes on which it serves. While much of the focus for American has remained on its international routes, now AA is adding premium economy on several popular domestic routes....

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.After American Airlines had a disastrous uniform rollout in 2016 that resulted in lawsuits, the airline will be debuting new uniforms by the end of 2019.The new uniforms offer a wide selection of shirts and scarves, designed with deep blues and reds....

Cape Town authorities announced today that they’re pushing back, yet again, the estimated day the South African city’s water taps will run dry. In an apparent sign that water-saving efforts are working, Day Zero has been pushed back 35 days, from June 4 to July 9.South Africa has declared its three-year drought a national disaster, and authorities are requiring that Cape Town residents use less than 50 liters of water per day....

Over the next two months, I’ll be appearing at both the New York Times Travel Show (January) and the Los Angeles Times Travel Show (February), so if you are around either city on the dates listed below, I’d love for you to come by and hear me speak and for the chance to meet some of my readers in person.The New York Times Travel Show, January 18-20, 2013Following my appearance at the New York Times Travel Show last year, I was invited back again this year to give not one, but two seminars over the course of the weekend, which is coming up next month....

One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about all the positive ways award travel has affected their lives. That being said, while I love hearing about your successes, I think there’s also a lot we can learn by sharing our mistakes, and I’m calling on readers to send in your most egregious and woeful travel failures.From time to time I’ll pick one that catches my eye and post it for everybody to enjoy (and commiserate with)....

There’s been a lot of chatter about Starwood’s next promotion, but no official word from Starwood. As a Starwood Platinum, I’ve been pretty unimpressed with their offerings thus far this year and was hoping for a killer promotion for this fall, something like the You Choose promo of 2008 where I was getting 25k bonus points for each 10 stays.The rumor is that the promo will be double or triple points based on how many nights you stay through the end of the year....

On our way to the Middle East to cover the new carry-on electronics ban, my wife Katie and I booked last-minute flights from Texas that had us connecting through Boston (BOS). After a disappointing visit to the Air France lounge in Terminal E, we decided to swing by the British Airways lounge we’d seen signs for. As Oneworld Emerald members traveling internationally on a Oneworld carrier, we knew we could get in — but we didn’t expect to enter a brand new lounge that had just opened five hours earlier!...

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.Hawaii might’ve just grew another island after the ongoing Kilauea Volcano eruption created a small block of land in the ocean.Hawaiian Volcano Observatory field crew discovered the tiny island during a morning flyover on Friday. This island is about 20 to 30 feet in diameter, so don’t expect to be booking a vacation here any time soon....

Periodically, the major hotel chains adjust their hotel categories - some hotels move up a category and require more points for an award stay, and some move down, requiring fewer points for an award night. Marriott announced their changes last month with a whopping 21% of their properties moving up a category, while Starwood announced theirs in February with 9% of hotels moving up and 11% moving down. Now it’s Hilton’s turn....

In October I went to Budapest and since I already told you about my suite (and the monster upgrade fee!) at the Four Seasons Gresham Palace in Budapest, I wanted to fill you in on the other hotel I stayed at while I was there, Le Méridien Budapest.Location, Location, LocationWhat I loved most about this hotel was its fantastic location on Erzsébet (Elizabeth) Square, named after the Hapsburg Empress Elizabeth (her nickname was Sissi), on the Pest side of the Danube with picture-perfect views of the medieval hillside streets of Buda and its Castle District....

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.We love our pets. That’s why stories such as the one that surfaced today about a dog dying on-board a United Airlines flight after being stowed in an overhead bin are especially painful to read.My husband JT and I recently started traveling full-time with our cat, Grace....

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.Lufthansa Unveils New Livery and Branding With a BangLufthansa unveiled its new livery at an event in Frankfurt this week....

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.Berlin police arrested a suspicious man at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport (SXF) Friday morning around 8:00am. Authorities say the man was behaving erratically, dressed in a vest with “cables and wires hanging out” and wielding a beer bottle at security personnel....

Some kids dream of becoming astronauts with NASA. Some dream of a lifetime of saving lives as a firefighter. And some, like 6-year-old Blair, dream of becoming a pilot. But not just any pilot: a pilot with Southwest Airlines, and she’s so serious about making her dream a reality that the carrier actually already helped her to achieve it.According to her father Jared Smith, the 6-year-old from Dacula, Georgia, has wanted to be a pilot for about half of her life now....

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.Orbitz, a subsidiary of Expedia, said on Tuesday that information from about 880,000 payment cards has potentially been exposed to hackers after the company experienced a security breach.Orbitz said customers who used its website to book a flight between January 1, 2016, and December 22, 2017, are at risk of having their personal information compromised....

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 Starwood and Marriott have both announced their Q1 promos, Hilton and Hyatt are still yet to announce what they have to offer.A Flyertalker posted what they heard the promo will be from a reportedly credible source. I can’t vouch for the information, but it seems reasonable, especially since Delta and Hilton’s relationship has been hot and heavy lately, like with this MQM promo....

Singapore Airlines is currently offering discounts on award bookings made through the carrier’s website. Book between now and November 16 to save 30% when you redeem KrisFlyer miles for flights on Singapore Airlines or its regional subsidiary SilkAir in economy and premium economy classes only between February 6 and May 31, 2017. The discounted fares begin at 5,250 miles each way for short economy flights all the way up to 49,000 each way for long-haul flights in premium economy between New York and Singapore....

More than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in the early hours of March 8, 2014, the latest search for wreckage has returned no new findings.According to a statement from Ocean Infinity — the technology company leading the search by collecting high-resolution seabed data — “There has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and further north.”As the Associated Press noted, a 9,650-square-mile area had been earlier identified as the “most likely” section of the Indian Ocean to contain wreckage....

Wednesday morning, Singapore Airlines quietly confirmed plans to launch a nonstop flight from Changi Airport (SIN) to Los Angeles (LAX) this year. The flight was loaded to SQ’s booking system without much fanfare, with paid and award flights available to book beginning today.The Los Angeles route will launch on November 2 — coincidentally just a few days after United terminates its nonstop service — flying from SIN to LAX as Singapore Flight 38....