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United Airlines wants its flight attendants to improve their “personal grooming” and appearance, two internal memos obtained by Skift show. The memos state that the flight attendants’ lackadaisical approach to their personal presentation might be hurting the United brand.Cabin crew members who wear wrinkled or stained shirts, worn out shoes or “skirt lengths that don’t conform to the standard" should take their appearance more seriously, the memos say.“Perhaps because of the distractions of our industry or the merger of our airlines, over time, we became too relaxed in compliance with established standards,” United Vice President for In-Flight Operations John Slater wrote in one of the internal messages....

LaGuardia is changing. The smallest and arguably most dilapidated of New York’s three airports is getting a huge, very expensive makeover with the first major results visible this fall. The airport is famously hard to reach using mass transit, something that will change in 2022, although not with a direct subway line but with an AirTrain from the subway, like at JFK.On Thursday, a new flyover opened to get cars directly to terminals and to limit traffic....

We came across this provocative article on Quora (“What it’s like to be that fat person sitting next to you on the plane”) and asked our very own Flight Attendant Insider, Carrie A. Trey, to share her thoughts. Here, she explains how you can best deal with this potentially awkward situation, whether you’re the passenger of size or the person sitting next to them. [This story has been updated February 9, 2018, with information on individual airline policies....

TPG reader Nicholas tweeted me to ask@thepointsguy—“Which airline has the best lie-flat transcontinental product?“The top contenders are for best lie-flat on transcontinental flights are American, United, Delta, and JetBlue. I’ve flown all four, and I think my favorite may surprise you.Delta flies 767’s and 757’s with lie-flat seats between JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO.Here are the dimensions of the lie-flat seats you’ll find on transcontinental flights with each of those carriers:American First: 82....

A new federal law that eliminates the fees credit bureaus charge for freezing your credit is set to take effect Friday. The measure, a part of a larger financial bill signed in May by President Trump, requires consumer credit rating companies to fulfill your freeze request within one business day if made online or over the phone, or within three business days if the request was made via mail.A credit freeze, also known as a security freeze, lets you restrict access to your credit report, making it difficult for scammers to open credit accounts in your name....

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:The W South Beach, a gorgeous Starwood property.The Award Traveler’s Guide to Starwood Preferred GuestIt’s no secret that Starpoints are the most valuable loyalty currency....

Sometimes it can be hard to know if a hotel belongs to a particular chain or loyalty program. This is especially true when it comes to some of the brands within brands, like Starwood’s Luxury Collection or Marriott’s Autograph Collection — if the name of the hotel group isn’t reflected in the name of the property, you may never know you could have used points there until it’s too late. Likewise, there are so many different hotel brands in Europe that you simply might not be familiar with all of them, especially if they aren’t in familiar destinations like London or Paris....

A flight free of work is a beautiful thing, but don’t out your device away just yet. A span of unclaimed hours is the perfect time to tune into Netflix and check out, distraction free.There are so many movies and shows out there, choosing a few to download can be downright overwhelming. But we pulled together all of the new titles coming to Netflix in September and did the hard work of choosing the best ones for you....

Mt. Agung, a volcano in Bali, Indonesia, has begun erupting after months of warning from authorities and residents being advised to evacuate. However, Tuesday night’s eruption was small, and there has been little panic reported on the island.The initial eruption sent a dark grey plume rising about 700 meters above the peak of the volcano. According to ABC, since the initial eruption, there have been no new evacuations on the island....

One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about how award travel has affected their lives — the exotic vacations they’ve planned, the trips they’ve made to be with family and friends, the premium seats and suites they’ve experienced and so much more, all made possible by points and miles. I love to travel and explore, and it’s an honor to be able to help so many of you get where you want to go....

Now through November 29, 2013, Hyatt is offering a promotion where you can buy Gold Passport points at up to a 30% bonus. It’s a tiered promotion where the bonus yet get depends on the number of points you buy, and here is how the bonus is calculated:Purchase 10,000 to 19,000 points and get a 10% bonusPurchase 20,000 to 39,000 points and get a 20% bonusPurchase 40,000 points and get a 30% bonusGold Passport points normally cost 2....

TPG reader Julie passed on a promo she received from Emirates where two round-trip tickets from New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP) are going for just $880 including all taxes and fees - that’s just $440 per person roundtrip!You must book travel by February 8, 2014 with an outbound departure date up to and including February 28, 2014. To find the fares pricing out correctly, when searching, you must look for two tickets....

Well it looks like after all the political posturing over the air traffic controller furloughs brought on by “sequestration cuts” that Congress is finally getting its act together and has approved a bill that will end the furloughs and should keep the air traffic control system operating normally…at least until September 30.Hopefully air traffic will get back on schedule quickly.The House passed its bill this morning while the Senate unanimously passed an identical bill last night – just in time for them to adjourn for a weeklong vacation and avoid air traffic delays on their own way home to districts, unsurprisingly enough....

For today’s Destination of the Week, we are getting into the spooky spirit of the season and instead of giving you a rundown of a single destination for mileage runs and points-specific hotels, we’re getting spooky and taking a tour of some of the most ghoulish Halloween festivities around.Whether child-friendly trick-or-treating or elaborate costumes are you thing, here is a rundown of some of the best places both in the US and around the world to celebrate the year’s scariest holiday!...

Shopping portals can provide a great way to earn extra miles — if you’re making online purchases, there’s no reason not to double-dip by going through one to boost your earning rate. Earning rates through these portals are known to change pretty much constantly, and American’s portal is now offering some limited-time elevated earning rates for a variety of business and office-supply merchants.From today, November 5, to Wednesday November 11, you can take advantage of increased AAdvantage miles-earning rates with a handful of business-related vendors....

For at least two more days, you can book SkyTeam member Air Europa from Miami or New York to Madrid for 62,500 Flying Blue miles and $23.90 one-way from the US.Live and Let’s Fly reports that Flying Blue has dropped the fuel surcharges for Air Europa flights — typically they’re just under $1,000, but now taxes and fees on a round-trip award flight will come in at just about $100.Air Europa has taken delivery of 787 Dreamliners, which are flying on the Miami-Madrid route and offer lie-flat business-class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration....

Two major US airlines recently reported that their airfares are rising — which means higher prices for passengers across the board. Last week, American and Delta both shared that their passengers paid more for tickets than they had in previous quarters.Delta said that travelers paid higher fares on average from April through June for the first time in two years while American said that it will report large fare growth, with total revenue per available seat mile to increase between 5% and 6% ....

Today I want to share a story from TPG reader Owen, who pieced together an itinerary to New Zealand that saved him some serious money. Here’s what he had to say:I was looking to book a mid-November trip to New Zealand to visit my girlfriend, who will be studying abroad there for the semester, but I anticipated some difficulty given the tight constraints of my student budget. Because the trip was going to take place right before Thanksgiving, I needed to fly from Boston (where I’m in school) to Auckland, and then return to my home in Chicago....

Crawling right behind Air Asia’s “Hot Watergate” and the Korean Air “’nutroversy,” Tennessee mom Nicki Gazlay and her baby were kicked off a Frontier Airlines flight yesterday for arguing with a flight attendant.Frontier Airlines is looking into the incident. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.Gazlay and her five-month-old son were boarding their connecting flight from Denver (DEN) to Memphis (MEM) when a flight attendant demanded Gazlay take her son out of his Ergobaby Carrier, something she was not asked to do during the boarding process of her previous Frontier flight....

I’ve been a pretty happy Delta Diamond (125,000 mile a year elite level) for the past couple years, but that may be changing as I evaluate my airline elite status strategy for 2012. There are two key factors that recently have made me change my plan:1) I recently moved to Miami and though I still spend a lot of time in NYC , you just can’t beat American’s route network from Miami....