Posts

Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey, is known for its cave hotels, and the Aydinli Cave Hotel may be one of the most luxurious ones out there.The boutique guesthouse is located in Göreme, Turkey, and has been restored to offer all the modern comforts of home while still retaining its historical charm — some parts of the hotel are thought to be up to 500 years old. The building itself was carved out of the natural stone of Cappadocia, which is ideal for creating rooms, but also holds up under pressure and withstands extreme weather conditions....

It’s not every day that an airline rewards its most loyal customers with an appreciation dinner, but recently Etihad Airways did just that. TPG Senior Points & Miles Contributor Richard Kerr shares his experience attending a carrier-hosted event at the UAE embassy in Washington, DC.Etihad recently invited select elite Etihad Guest members in the Washington, DC area to join North American senior management at the United Arab Emirates embassy. The event included an appreciation dinner for loyal Etihad customers and an opportunity for the airline to share what it currently has in the works....

Through the Avios Part Payment program, British Airways allows its members to use Avios to reduce the price of a paid fare. Generally, the rate has yielded a savings of about 1 cent per Avios, but BA has run promotions to raise the redemption rate as high as 2.55 cents for certain deals. A couple of months ago, British Airways temporarily raised the rate to 1.5 cents per Avios, which is a fairly good rate for reducing the cost of a paid fare....

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.One of the more heartwarming stories from the past few weeks has been the recovery of a young soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand. Now, two of the British rescuers that were key in finding the lost team have been awarded medals and promised free travel to Thailand for life....

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.Great news for honeymooners or anyone looking for a romantic escape: You don’t have to go all the way to the Maldives or Bora Bora to stay in an overwater villa anymore — they’re now available at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay, Jamaica....

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.Most of us run on caffeine so getting a free cup (or two) of coffee is no joke. Luckily, Starbucks has you covered.According to Doctor of Credit, Starbucks is shelling out 300 Bonus Stars to customers using Chase Pay to add $20 or more to their Starbucks app anytime from now until November 21st....

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.Earlier this month, I told you how we’re launching the first annual TPG Small Business Week, and earlier this week, we held our first event in Chicago. I was so thrilled with the overwhelming response from small business owners in the Windy City who attended and wanted to learn more about how to best maximize their travel using points and miles....

The frequent flyer program of Air France and KLM, Flying Blue, is undergoing a big makeover in 2018. As of April 1 of next year, the Flying Blue program will be moving from a distance-based mileage earning to a revenue-based program, among other changes.Because Flying Blue is completely overhauling its program in a rebranding it’s calling “Flying Blue Reinvented,” there are many changes to most areas of the program — from earning and redeeming to elite-status qualification and more....

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 your first or last name is Phillip, or any of a few dozen variations of it, you could be in store for $25 of free gas courtesy of GasBuddy, the the leader of crowdsourced pit stop information....

Does it ever make sense to buy points or miles? While it’s always better to earn points through credit card spending and sign-up bonuses, the question as to whether buying points makes sense depends on what you’re going to do with them. Sometimes there’s a buy points/miles promotion that’s really tempting once you know how to maximize it. And a new one of those just popped back up for possibly the last time....

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.My parents recently stayed at the Andaz Wall Street in NY and overall were impressed by their stay. Since I wasn’t there to take a million pictures, I can’t do a full report, but it was overall a very positive visit....

American Airlines’ fleet can be frustratingly inconsistent. Some long US domestic routes will lack power or in-flight entertainment, even in first class. Meanwhile, you can find lie-flat seats sold as economy on one-hour flights. If you’ve got some flexibility to your travels, knowing American Airlines’ fleet schedule can mean getting a superior experience.Problem is, AA’s schedule can vary from month to month. So, we at The Points Guy dig into the airline’s schedule to unveil where you can find these excellent seats....

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.Think you know your airplanes? Are you that person who’s always looking through the gate’s windows while waiting for your flight, and recognizing the tails on the aiprlanes that taxi by?We at TPG know we are. Points and miles experts often come with a side of aviation enthusiasm, and on any given day, it’s not hard to find in our office a serious AvGeek or two....

The flying bug is a common ailment, with symptoms including sudden head movements when aircraft fly overhead and an intense desire to be a pilot someday. Yet until recently, the cost to treat this condition had been out of reach for most people. A traditional pilot’s license requires over 40 hours of flight training, with a total cost of about $10,000. Furthermore, a new, four-seat Cessna Skyhawk starts at $370,000, with typically equipped models selling for about $410,000 (used aircraft are plentiful, and much less expensive)....

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.Remember the story of the man who spent two weeks in jail after 18 days of unauthorized lounge hopping in Singapore? That’s not an isolated incident — many people try to enter airport lounges using fraudulent credentials, from Photoshopped boarding passes to award flights booked before entry and canceled once inside....

In a first for a US city, New York City is considering pay regulations for drivers for all ride-hailing companies, like Uber and Lyft.And city officials are saying it’s the companies who will have to shell out the money to make it happen.App-based car services, including Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno, make more than 10,000 rides per day in New York City, and now officials are looking more closely at how they are paying their drivers....

Primera Air turned many heads when it announced in mid-2017 that it’d start selling tickets between the US and Europe starting at just $99 one-way. Since its transatlantic launch — which one of our TPG reviewers was on board to cover — we’ve seen almost an equal amount of new route announcements and cancellations. And it seems that the $99 fares weren’t enough to fill up aircraft as fares have dropped as low as $63 one-way....

Travelers heading to Australia from the continental US will have fewer options if their goal is to fly a 747 across the Pacific. We now have more details about when Qantas will end its 747 service on some routes from Australia to the US.On December 3, 2018, the Australian flag carrier will replace the aging 747 with a combination of flights on its Airbus A380 and Boeing 787. The Tuesday flight from Sydney (SYD) to Los Angeles (LAX) (QF11/12), currently served by a 747, will be replaced with an A380....

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.Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his entourage are currently in the United States, and they aren’t exactly roughing it during their three-week long tour.Last week, the prince and his crew took over the Plaza Hotel in New York City....

What’s red and gold and accepted all over?The answer: the Singaporean passport, which now ranks as the most powerful passport in the world.Now what’s blue and gold and in for trouble?That’s the US passport, which is likely to lose power and be denied easy access to more countries because of the Trump administration’s controversial foreign-policy decisions as other countries seek to tear down, not build up, borders.Those judgments come courtesy of the Passport Index, a service of Arton Capital, a Montreal-based financial advisory firm that keeps a running tally based on how many countries don’t require a visa or will grant visas upon arrival to a given country’s passport holders....