Posts

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been an institution of New York City since it opened its doors in 1872. In fact, the city owns the building on Fifth Avenue and supports the museum operationally with millions of dollars every year. Because of its large operating budget — $305 million — paired with generous private donations, the famed museum has been able to operate on a pay-what-you-wish policy since 1970. Now, to fill the woes of a recent budget deficit, the Met will remove its unique admission policy and replace it with a $25 admission for everyone who does not live in the state of New York....

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)....

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 most travelers, getting stuck in the middle seat on a plane is just as unfortunate as sitting next to the lavatory. (Let’s not even talk about getting stuck in a middle seat next to the bathroom.) While some airlines have tried to combat the middle seat stigma — Frontier Airlines, for example, expanded its middle seats to 19 inches in 2015, making them a full inch wider than the chairs on either side of them — one California hotel is rewarding travelers for their willingness to be slightly uncomfortable as they take to the friendly skies....

TPG reader Apurva writes:“I’m trying to plan a trip using BA miles. Flying out of WAS/IAD/DCA .. for 3-4 week trip in Oct 2012. We would like to get hit the following destinationsGuayaquil (stop for 1 week trip to Galapagos) Lima (spend 1 week, including road trio to Cusco/Machu Picchu and back to Lima) Santiago (maybe stop, 1-2 days) Easter Island (2-3 days) Buenos Aires (2-3 days)Back to WAS/IAD/DCAAny tips on how to maximize the award miles using the stopover rule?...

TPG Reader Karin writes:“Would you please consider an analysis (… or point me to someone else’s) of airlines whose awards can be shared, and under what conditions? With family or non-family; with restrictions; and at what cost?BA’s conditions appear very rigid - award miles are shareable only with family members, only if you live at the same address, and a max of 19,000 points a year - and you pay for the privilege....

I’m as big a Hyatt fan as they come, but for the third time this year, Hyatt has unacceptably changed a property award category without notice. On September 13, the Hyatt Place St. Petersburg Downtown was moved from a Category 1 to a Category 3 property. A free night went from costing 5,000 points per night to 12,000 points per night without notice.Here’s Hyatt’s statement, which was received by The Points Guy at 7:50am Central time, ten minutes before the category change occurred:“Effective as of today, Thursday, September 13 at 8:00 am CT, the following property has shifted into a higher award category....

President Trump signed an order officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital in a news conference in the White House on Wednesday afternoon, as the State Department braced for the backlash by issuing a travel advisory for Americans and banning government officials and their families from traveling in Israel.Saying that decades of diplomacy have left the parties “no closer to to a lasting peace agreement,” Trump argued that his move, which is to eventually include moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, will jumpstart the possibility of a negotiated peace....

Looking to get your workout on while traveling in America? Read on as TPG International Contributor Lori Zaino explores some of the most elaborate hotel gyms around the United States.Getting a workout in while traveling can be difficult—so choose a hotel gym that makes it easy. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.Most hotel gyms are a bit of a snooze, offering little more than a few machines, a handful of free weights, and floor mats that have probably seen better days....

In an effort to grow its South American route network, United Airlines announced today that it’s expanding service to the continent with new service between Newark (EWR) and Buenos Aires (EZE) and additional frequencies to Bogotá (BOG). The new route and additional flights are set to begin later this year, which will make United the US carrier with the largest offering from the New York area to South America, according to its press release....

United Airlines announced that it’s launching new service between the West Coast and Germany. Specifically, United will begin new nonstop service between San Francisco (SFO) and Munich (MUC), beginning on May 24. The MUC-SFO nonstop will begin the following day.Here’s the schedule, which will operate daily:UA194 San Francisco (SFO) 2:05pm Departure ⇒ Munich (MUC) 10:25am (+1) ArrivalUA195 Munich (MUC) 12:10pm Departure ⇒ San Francisco (SFO) 2:55pm ArrivalThe new route will be operated by United’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which offers three classes of service — Polaris, Economy Plus and economy....

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.Travelers flying to and from Australia now have an excellent new option for business class travel. After a lengthy delay, Virgin Australia unveiled its new business class cabin for its 777-300ER aircraft on its Facebook page. The first aircraft equipped with the new cabin will be flown on the airline’s Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) route, which means flyers based in the US have a great chance to try out this impressive new product....

Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic hit a major milestone Thursday afternoon.The company marked its first successful powered spaceship flight since the fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury in October 2014.A crew of two pilots at Virgin Galactic’s test site at Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV) flew the jet-powered mothership, dubbed Eve, and dropped the spacecraft, Unity, mid-flight. Before the test, CNBC reported that Unity would fire its engines for up to 30 seconds and shoot to fly as fast as 1....

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’ve seen our fair share of crazy crosswind landings at TPG, but this one might take the cake.This video takes us to Dusseldorf (DUS) where a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 was attempting to land last Thursday. Eurowings, a low-cost German carrier owned by the Lufthansa Group, was flying the plane from Bologna (BLQ) to the airport in western Germany, which is known for its tricky crosswinds....

New mother Kelsey Myers did not expect her 2.5-hour delay at LAX to result in public shaming.Myers, a passenger on Flight #1243 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago (ORD) on May 6, was stopped at the gate by an American Airlines employee named Daniel who insisted that she needed to check some of the items she was bringing with her: a carry-on bag, a personal item, a small cooler for breast milk, and her breast pump....

This week we have a question from an anonymous reader regarding proper reimbursement for sharing points with friends:“If you use points to book a flight for you and a friend or a hotel room that a friend shares, what do you think is the appropriate protocol for sharing the cost? For instance, if you book a Starwood hotel with SPG Cash & Points and get $0.04 of value out of each point, would you split the cash paid and charge them a certain amount per point?...

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.To celebrate that time-honored institution of excess, sunburn and shenanigans - Spring Break! - JetBlue’s TrueBlue loyalty program is offering new members who sign up, book a flight and fly by April 30, 2014, 5,000 bonus points.To sign up and register, here’s what you do....

Airline food has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple decades, but there are still a few items that remain mostly off the menu, for various reasons. Here are some of the ones experts told TPG you’ll rarely find on a flight.1. BroccoliBecause they contain sulfur compounds, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli give off an unpleasant odor that tends to fill a cabin when they’re heated. In addition, they (like beans) tend to give people gas and make them feel bloated....

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 think Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are the only world-famous celebrities opting for an airline seat in coach when they fly, you’re clearly mistaken. From royals to politicians to actors, these famous faces decided to ditch their private jet suites and first-class seats for a spot in the back....

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.Are bogus foreign transaction fees becoming a thing of the past? I hope so! These fees, generally around 3%, are a huge scam in my opinion. For those of you who haven’t checked your credit card statement after a trip abroad, you may be paying an extra 3 cents for every dollar you spend- just because the credit card companies feel like charging such a fee....

A couple of Air India passengers are itching with anger after bed bugs swarmed their children on board a 17-hour flight this week.The victims of the bed bugs were two babies seated in business class on Thursday’s flight AI144 from Newark (EWR) to Mumbai (BOM). The two infant girls were continuously crying on board the Boeing 777. When the mother removed the younger, 8-month-old baby’s clothes, she discovered that the child was covered in bug bites....