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These days the in-flight meal service can get pretty swanky when dining in first or business class. It can even parallel (or surpass) a high-end restaurant experience when flying on uber-exclusive products like Etihad’s Residence.Now, if you happen to be in Northern India and would like to have a memorable meal on a plane without having to actually go anywhere, look no further than the recently-opened Hawai Adda restaurant.Located in Punjab, Hawai Adda (which means ‘airport’ in Hindi) is a hot new vegan restaurant located on board a retired Air India Airbus A320....

Hello from Doha, Qatar! Last week’s news of the ban on carry-on electronics came suddenly, giving airlines just 96 hours to implement procedures to eliminate large electronics from aircraft cabins for flights to the US. To get a real sense of how the carry-on electronics ban procedures have been unfolding and impacting passengers, my wife (and TPG contributor) Katie and I flew to the Middle East to experience it ourselves. If you’re flying from or through Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways, here’s the current situation....

Update 6/29/2017: Lyft is rolling out Lyft Lux and Lyft Lux SUV in 16 more cities today. You’ll now be able to order one in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Orange County, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.Lyft is adding two more options to its ride-hailing service with the introduction of Lyft Lux and Lyft Lux SUV.Lux and Lux SUV are premium options for Lyft customers, essentially described as a black car or a luxury SUV....

Last night, American Airlines sent out a new elite status fast track offer. This new offer allows qualifying AAdvantage members to fast track to any status — including the top-tier Executive Platinum status — starting at just 7,000 elite-qualifying miles (EQM) and $1,000 elite-qualifying dollars (EQD):If you’re targeted, you’ll need to register by June 30 and complete the flight requirements between the date you registered and September 22. If you do, you’ll keep to keep the elite status through January 31, 2019....

Every year Starwood readjusts the award categories of their hotels to align with their projected average daily rate, since it doesn’t make sense for them to have a hotel that goes for $500 a night be available for 10,000 points while a cheap $150 hotel requires 12,000 points. Last year many customers were annoyed with mass increases in categories (when the economy was in recession), but this year Starwood seems to have righted some of those wrongs....

Today I want to share a story from TPG reader Yang, who teamed up with his travel companion to book an upscale hotel stay. Here’s what he had to say:A friend and I recently took a hiking trip to Arizona, and we wanted to finish with a relaxing day in an upscale resort in Scottsdale. We looked at a few properties like the W Scottsdale and Arizona Biltmore, but at $400+ per night, we were hesitant to book even if we split the cost....

Over the weekend I finally got to utilize Silvercar car rental for the first time, and I want to share some details about the experience in case Silvercar operates somewhere your family will be vacationing in the near future.If you aren’t familiar, or have tuned out other reviews assuming it isn’t a service that can work for families, then keep reading because you might be pleasantly surprised. Silvercar exclusively rents silver Audi A4s (in addition to the Audi Q5 SUVs in Denver)....

Has this ever happened to you…..you are super excited about a trip you have been anticipating for weeks/months/years, and as it gets to be a day or two before departure, you start to get sick. You hope that with a good night’s sleep you will wake up feeling fine, but you don’t. You get sicker. You are now less than 24 hours to departure and you aren’t sure whether or not you should even attempt to go on the trip due to your illness....

This summer I went to Spain and Mauritius using miles and I just realized the other day that I never actually blogged about my experience in Mauritius outside of the hotels. (See my experience at the Intercontinental Mauritius as a Royal Ambassador and as an SPG Platinum member at the Grand Mauritian).When I got back to the Intercontinental for my second stay, I decided to book a tour of the island for a day so I could see all the natural splendors that I’d heard about....

Uber announced Wednesday that it’s partnering with immigration advocacy group FWD.us to donate rides and warm meals through UberEATS to reunited families that had been separated at the US-Mexico border as part of President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.Earlier this summer, US President Donald Trump began a hotly contested policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, holding children (many being toddlers under 5) in detention centers without their families. After political pressure, Trump signed an executive order reversing his policy near the end of June....

Like all good United-loyal miles and points addicts, the first thing I did in 2014 (after turning on cartoons, wishing my family Happy New Year, and drinking coffee) was to log into United.com and check out how my account looks with the new “Premier Qualifying Dollars” requirement tracker. As you likely know, beginning today, if you have a United States home address and want to qualify for elite status with United for 2015, you have to not only fly enough, but spend enough with the airline to get it....

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.For more than a year, the US and Cuban Governments have slowly been working to normalize relations between the two countries. After an easing of travel restrictions, and an update in late December, both countries are taking one more step to facilitate transport by permitting airlines to now operate nonstop scheduled flights between the US and Cuba....

Tuesday night, United’s management held an earnings call to discuss its earnings in the fourth quarter of 2017. The last time United’s CEO Oscar Munoz took the mike during an earnings call, the stock price tumbled 12%, erasing $2.5 billion from the company’s market value. Turns out Tuesday’s call was followed by another drastic drop in stock price. But this time, the selloff spread across all airline stocks in the US....

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.Virgin Atlantic is getting a new boss. Effective January 1, 2019, Shai Weiss, the current commercial head for the carrier, will take over as CEO for Craig Kreeger, as Richard Branson cedes his majority stake in the airline....

When passengers on Middle East Airlines Flight 308 from Beirut (BEY) to Cairo (CAI) boarded their flight on Sunday, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, that was quickly about to change when the roughly 150 passengers were deplaned. Instead of transporting paying passengers, the plane was abruptly assigned to carry Lebanese President Michel Aoun to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.The aircraft’s paying passengers, who had already boarded, were forced to disembark....

United miles are currently my favorite airline currency. MileagePlus offers one-ways (at half the price of roundtrip), low fees, a robust website for award booking, flexible routing rules and access to Star Alliance partner awards. In fact, when I ranked airline frequent flyer programs last fall, United came in at #1.However, United miles aren’t as easy to accrue as others - like British Airways miles which are being thrown around like rice at a wedding and Delta, which offers tons of ways to bank boatloads of SkyMiles....

Air travel sure has changed a lot in the past 100 years. Things that used to be commonplace on airplanes — like sleeping berths, piano bars and passengers with lit cigarettes in their hands — are now, for better or worse, relics of the past. As are “stewardesses” in leisure suits, and “stewardesses” in general — it’s been “flight attendant” for a while now.As the commercial aviation industry has evolved, so too have the uniforms of the people who make it work....

On Sunday I was scheduled to fly on three of the very first Southwest revenue flights utilizing the airline’s brand new 737 MAX 8. Unfortunately only one of the flights took place, as a technical issue prevented the plane from departing Houston Hobby (HOU) on its second flight. But before the aircraft (N8707P) cut our journey short (along with its own), WN1 from Dallas Love Field (DAL) to Houston Hobby went off without a hitch, and passengers got an idea just how comfortable the hard product is....

Will someone please give this man a Father of the Year Award?This dedicated Dad (who wishes to remain anonymous) didn’t want his daughter to miss out on Halloween fun because of their October 31 Virgin America flight from Boston (BOS) to San Francisco (SFO), so he brought trick-or-treating to her at 30,000 feet.During the flight, he passed around candy to the other passengers with a note explaining that he’d love for them to get in on it as well....

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.Emirates is bringing a whole new meaning to mobile check-in. No, it’s not on your phone, but it is on your doorstep.Starting April 25, the Dubai-based carrier will send a representative to meet you anywhere in Dubai to help you check in for a flight....