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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 been seven months since Bumpgate, but United is still making changes to better handle the dreaded overbooked flight situation. The airline announced last week that it would introduce a new option for passengers who were traveling on overbooked flights....

During a dreary stretch of spring in 1982, I forgot my passport at a hostel in Lausanne, leaving me temporarily stranded in Basel. My train pass hadn’t kicked in yet, and I had a tight budget, three days to kill and no friends or family in the area.So I went to the zoo.I noticed the guy taking tickets had a Jewish star on a chain loop, and — as I had just returned from reporting for a newspaper in Israel — we got to talking about his experience working on a kibbutz....

Papua New Guinea was hit by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Monday, the strongest earthquake to ever hit the Pacific nation. The quake, which struck about 55 miles south of Porgera, triggered landslides that knocked out power lines and damaged roads across the Pacific island. Thus far, at least 20 people have died, according to CNN.Scores of aftershocks, including a 6.0 earthquake on Tuesday, have hampered rescue efforts over the past two days....

Finding award availability to fly in Singapore’s first-class product can be hard. However, right now, we’re seeing fantastic award availability in the carrier’s first-class cabin on the route between Los Angeles (LAX) and Tokyo (NRT).As reported by View From the Wing, Singapore is showing great amounts of first-class availability on the LAX-NRT route — even for two passengers. A one-way ticket in first class will cost you 95,000 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes and fees, or 190,000 KrisFlyer miles round-trip....

After a lovely two day stopover in Paris, which consisted of red wine, stinky cheese and the Park Hyatt Vendome, it was time to head to De Gaulle for our 7:30pm flight to Mahe, Seychelles. Once again, we took the RER to the airport, which was convenient, except for the fact that the trains have no air conditioning and little window ventilation.Terminal 2FAt CDG terminal 2, we checked the board to see which terminal our flight was located- which ended up being 2F, the new international terminal....

The Farnborough Air Show is a week-long display of all the latest and greatest in commercial and military aviation. The Show is held every two years at Farnborough Airport just outside London. TPG Editor-in-Chief Zach Honig was on site checking out all the show had to offer. Here’s a recap of the top stories from the show:Former UK Prime Minster David Cameron at the Farnborough Air Show.Bumping into (Former) British PM David Cameron at the Farnborough Air ShowFollow former UK Prime Minister David Cameron around the Farnborough Air Show....

The People’s Republic of China has rejected a request from the US State Department to hold talks over Beijing’s demands for US airlines to refer to Taiwan as a Chinese territory on their websites.New reports say that in late May, the State Department sent a letter to China’s Foreign Ministry asking for a consultation on the issue. China refused that diplomatic request on June 25, a US official told Reuters.“This has definitely become a foreign policy issue,” an official told Reuters of the refusal to hold talks on the issue....

Here’s a recap of the top points and miles news from this week:Earn 16,500 bonus AAdvantage miles.Reminder: Buy AA Miles and Earn Up to 16,500 Bonus Miles: American Airlines has a limited time offer for AAdvantage members to purchase up to 80,000 miles and receive bonus miles based on how many you buy. In order to maximize this promotion you would want to buy 55,000 miles, since you’ll receive the same amount of bonus miles whether you purchase 55,000 or 80,000 miles....

If flight attendants are front-line defenders, Emirates first-class flight attendants are the airline’s elite forces.In Emirates’ first-class suites, top-notch customer service is as much a part of the Emirates “wow factor” experience as innovations like the digital virtual windows. Joanna Collins, a Dubai-based British flight attendant, recently shared some of the rigorous demands required to qualify for “special ops” within the award-winning airline.Every passenger has a dossierBefore each flight, the flight attendants review the customers who will be traveling on board, including any VIPs....

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.Equifax knows that it messed up big time, and its new interim CEO is trying to earn back the public’s trust. Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., the credit rating agency’s new boss as of this week, wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday apologizing for the company’s massive data breach, when hackers gained access to the sensitive information of more than 143 million Americans....

Raise your hand if you’ve ever tried to follow Google Maps’ instructions only to end up in a completely different place than your intended destination.Well, we most definitely have, and let’s be real, the app’s instructions aren’t the most user-friendly. “Turn left in 1.3 miles?” People don’t exactly check their odometers for precise mileage counts when they’re trying to get from place to place.Thankfully, the app just released an update that might alleviate some of those problems....

In what’s becoming a regular occurrence at Hyatt, the hotel chain has once again suffered a security breach in which customer credit card data was accessed by unauthorized parties. The affected data includes names, card numbers, expiration dates and verification codes from credit cards swiped or manually entered at 41 Hyatt properties in 11 countries.The company’s Global President of Operations, Chuck Floyd, published a letter to the chain’s customers stating that the breach occurred between March 18 and July 2, 2017, and was caused by malicious software code being placed onto the hotels’ IT systems....

Starwood has Tribute Portfolio, and now Hyatt has The Unbound Collection — a brand consisting of new and existing upscale hotels around around the world. The idea is similar to the Tribute Portfolio in that properties will maintain their individual name and character, with Hyatt providing management, marketing and loyalty program support (which it does with the four hotels that have already been announced).The Hotel du Louvre in Paris.Current Unbound Collection properties include:The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas (Rates start at $249 or 20,000 points)Hôtel du Louvre in Paris, France (Rates start at €239 or 20,000 points)Carmelo Resort & Spa in Carmelo, Uruguay (Rates start at $260 — not currently bookable with points)Coco Palms Resort in Kauai, Hawaii (Available beginning spring 2018)All of the properties above are already part of Hyatt’s portfolio, so they’re simply being moved to the new brand as part of this announcement....

Lufthansa announced Monday that its board has approved an order for two long-haul Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, among others. The two wide-body jets will go to the airline group’s subsidiary SWISS and are expected to enter service in 2020.The order is part of an ongoing effort since 2016 by SWISS to update its long-haul fleet with 777-300ERs, according to the airline’s website. Lufthansa says the two new 777s will be used to expand SWISS’ route network....

Electric scooters are becoming more and more synonymous with city transportation, whether you like it or not.Now, ride-hailing company Lyft is thinking about entering the fray. The Information reports that Lyft is seeking permits to start an electric scooter sharing service in San Francisco.Popping up throughout the US in cities like San Francisco and Washington, DC, these services offer users the ability to grab a scooter anywhere they see one and drop it off practically anywhere throughout the city....

Membership Rewards started August off right by bringing back one of our favorite promotions: a 30% transfer bonus when transferring Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. If you don’t know better, that news might elicit a yawn. But, if you’re interested in flying to Japan in style, you’re going to want to read on.There are excellent Flying Club redemptions on Virgin Atlantic’s Japan-based partner ANA. A first-class round-trip from the US to Japan starts at just 90,000 Flying Club miles from Honolulu (HNL) — which will soon feature ANA’s new A380 — or 110,000 miles from the contiguous states....

With the merger announcement of US Airways and American last week, I thought I’d take a look back at some of the other major airline mergers of the past 15 years or so and what they have meant for the industry in general.DomesticThe domestic airline industry in the US has been rife with mergers and takeovers in the past decade or so, trundling along a path toward consolidation while still maintaining some fierce competition among the major players....

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.When you go to Burger King, it’s generally for one reason — the food. Whether you’re a traditional Whopper lover or like to spice things up a bit with a Bacon & Cheese Whopper, or even if you’re just a fan of the fries, chances are that you’re not going to Burger King for its amenities....

Saudia Airlines Flight SV3818 made an emergency landing at Jeddah Airport (JED) in Saudi Arabia Monday evening.An eyewitness video shared on Twitter showed the plane dramatically scraping and scratching its way down the runway, with sparks and what looked like flames erupting from the front end of the plane. Several accounts on Twitter said the plane had made repeated landing attempts.Additional images show the A330-200 resting nose down, with emergency escape slides deployed and flame retardant foam sprayed on the runway....

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.This video takes us to Matthews Lake, where a 737 landed directly on the ice-covered body of water on Monday. The cargo plane that landed on the iced-over lake belonged to Nolinor Aviation.Based at Mirabel in Québec, Nolinor is the largest airline carrier offering specialized commercial charter flights in Canada....