Thinking about booking the new Delta One Suite on the airline’s inaugural Airbus A350 flight in October? So are we at TPG! I hope you’ve been saving up…Currently, Delta is charging a whopping $13,005 for a one-way ticket from Detroit to Tokyo on the October 30 inaugural.Or you can book the flight for just 240,000 SkyMiles — while that’s an awfully high sum, given the cash fare you’d actually be getting a redemption value of 5....
Earlier today, we spotted a story that made us cringe. In his moving blog post, Mark E. Smith — a frequent flyer who has cerebral palsy — shared the story of how he’d been removed without warning from American Airlines flight #121, a domestic flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Philadelphia (PHL). Having boarded the plane and taken his window seat, there was a delay and eventually, some commotion at the front of the aircraft....
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.It’s a question I get constantly — with frequent travel and caloric in-flight meals, snacks and beverages, combined with hours and hours of sitting, how do you stay fit? For me, it’s walking — a lot of walking....
One of the greatest perks of loyalty programs is that you’ll earn points that you can redeem for a free stay. So, for example, a consultant spending 20 nights a month at a Hyatt House can use the points they earned from a work trip to book an incredible three-night family trip to, say, the Andaz Maui at Wailea. Except they can’t, because the Andaz Maui is currently using an inventory trick to make most shorter stays impossible....
Update 11/17/2017 at 3:48pm ET: When re-running the same searches as before, now we’re not finding any additional surcharges on awards for either Delta flights or partner redemptions. It seems clear this was just an IT mistake and not a major change to the SkyMiles program.It’s not clear yet whether this is intentional or an IT bug, but Delta appears to have begun adding carrier surcharges on its award tickets for its own flights originating in the US....
Health officials are sounding the alarm that travelers through Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) were exposed to the measles in early January of this year.On January 2, 2018, a traveler with a confirmed case of the highly contagious disease arrived in Newark from an international flight. The New Jersey Department of Health statement notes that the traveler was “infectious on that day” when she arrived into Terminal C. After a layover, she “departed for Indianapolis from a domestic terminal,” but “may have traveled to other areas of the airport....
Scandinavian low-cost carrier Norwegian Air is making all kinds of waves of late on February 8, Flight DY7014 traveled from New York (JFK) to London (LGW) in 5 hours and 9 minutes, beating its own commercial subsonic transatlantic speed record set just a few weeks prior by 4 minutes.A powerful jet stream contributed to the accomplishment, pushing the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to a top cruising speed of 799 mph, more than 20 mph faster than last month’s record....
Since my first “First” class flight on British Airways was during the flight attendant strike and in the old first class cabin, I wasn’t too impressed (besides the whole Madonna encounter). I was curious to see how different service would be ex-LHR and with the full crew.For this trip, I ended up using 110,000 BA points and about $1,000. I generally try to redeem for business class, but since Club World (business class) was not available for my dates, I decided to spring for First....
In a blog post titled “On Virgin America,” Richard Branson shares his opinion about today’s merger news. Basically, he isn’t thrilled:I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the US Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it....
Like many frequent flyers, I try to avoid Spirit Airlines whenever possible. The crammed economy seats, lack of recline, pitiful legroom and fees for more than you even thought possible aren’t worth mild savings over a non-budget carrier. But I recently found myself booking a last-minute trip, and Spirit was less than half the cost of any other option. I decided to take it, intent on finding a way to make the flight a bit more tolerable....
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.Every month at TPG, we create a list of the craziest things flyers have tried to get through the golden gates at TSA checkpoints. The lists range from outright funny things like pizza, to quite frightening things like a hand grenade or even a knife set....
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 one-day only, you can earn bonus Delta miles on many Apple purchases. Monday’s elevated Apple bonus offer through the SkyMiles shopping portal will earn you 4 miles per dollar spent on select Apple purchases as opposed to the standard offer of 1 mile per dollar....
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.It can be hard to figure out where to eat when you’re traveling, leading many to consult guidebooks or Yelp reviews to figure out the best place to find some food in a new city. Now, in an effort to make it easier to order food to your new home-away-from-home, TripAdvisor has partnered with Grubhub, integrating an “Order Online” button on the restaurant review pages you’re probably browsing anyway....
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.United is ditching Houston in favor of Washington, D.C. — for its Dreamliners, that is. With the change coming this winter, the airline is closing its 787 pilot base at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), one of its largest hubs....
Update: The offer mentioned below for the US Airways Premier World MasterCard is no longer available. View the current offer here.Yesterday, I wrote that the US Airways Mastercard from Barclaycard is going to be around for a while longer (my guess is probably about a year) and that Barclaycard had sent out letters to cardholders assuring them so. Making this news even better is that a sign-up bonus offer of up to 50,000 miles for this card has resurfaced....
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 you frequently travel to Singapore, this could be good news for you: Starting today, citizens of both the US and Singapore can apply online for a just-launched Trusted Traveler Program (TTP), which grants expedited immigration clearance at the countries’ respective checkpoints....
On Thursday, Chase announced new limited-time sign-up bonus offers on the Ink Bold and Ink Plus of 60,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months. Because this is as high as the bonuses on these cards have ever gone, many readers are interested in getting one if not both cards while these offers last, and TPG reader HiHello left a comment:“Which card is easier to get approved for?...
“Reader Questions” are answered twice a week — Tuesdays and Thursdays — by TPG Senior Editor Julian Mark Kheel.We’re only a few days away from that dreaded date — January 31 — when the elite status membership year ends for most US airlines, and some people will find themselves dropped to a lower elite tier… or even worse, as a [gulp] general member. So TPG reader Rooh asks if this means his upgrade certificates are disappearing too…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Rooh”]I am a Gold elite member on AA and my Gold eliteness expires January 31st....
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.Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Marriott Rewards Premier Credit CardMarriott and Chase have teamed up to promote the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card, which is currently offering a sign up bonus of 80,000 points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months....
American and Vinesse Wine Club are offering 2,000 miles, free shipping and a steep discount on your first wine purchase - no contract required. The wine prices out to just $6.99 each for the first 6 bottles. You’ll also get 4 miles per dollar spent, so overall this deal is worth roughly 2,168 miles along with 6 bottles of decent vino for around $42.I did this for the US Airways Grand Slam promotion and was moderately satisfied with the wines....
