Posts

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.FlyHomes brings a fairly unique approach to real estate transactions — the company will give you frequent flyer miles when you purchase a home, at no extra cost. Recently launched in the greater Seattle area, FlyHomes provides home buyers with up to one frequent flyer mile for every dollar spent on the final purchase price of a new home....

TPG reader Nancy emailed me to ask:“My business partner and I are looking for a business credit card that earns miles, but we want to share them. All of the companies I’ve contacted allow miles to be shared only with a spouse or domestic partner — not a legally documented business partner! Do you have any suggestions?“Nancy, you can absolutely get a business card like the Chase Ink Plus (which has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months) and add your business partner as an authorized user so you accrue points in the same account....

Today I want to share a story from TPG reader Kasey, who trimmed the cost of an award by nearly one third. Here’s what he had to say:I booked Southwest flights to Salt Lake City for my wife and kids so they could see my sister-in-law’s new baby in January. We have a decent amount of Chase Ultimate Rewards points stashed up from sign-up bonuses and category spending, and we were able to transfer those points to Southwest to get three round-trip tickets for 20,700 points each (about 62,000 points total) — worth around $930 according to your valuations....

Have you ever heard of BlaBlaCar? Probably not — most Americans I know haven’t — but I just took the carpooling service for a spin during my last trip to Europe and ended up saving a ton on transportation.Currently available in 17 European countries, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and India, BlaBlaCar is centered around the the idea of connecting people who need to go somewhere with drivers who have empty seats, making it a fun way to get around while also meeting your fellow travelers....

Friday night around 10pm Central Time, Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, packing top sustained winds of 130 mph. This makes it the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charlie in 2004 — a storm that caused over $15 billion in damage. For reference, the devastating Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005 with 125 mph top winds.However, unlike with most hurricanes which sweep through an area before moving onward, Hurricane Harvey’s story is far from over....

JetBlue will begin selling seats on semi-private jets beginning in May as part of a new codeshare partnership with public charter operator JetSuiteX. The seats will be available to book on JetBlue.com, the airline announced on Monday.Starting May 1, JetBlue will place its “B6” airline code on several JetSuiteX Air-operated flights, departing out of private terminals and fixed base operators (FBOs) throughout the western US, including Burbank (BUR), Concord (CCR), Oakland (OAK) and Las Vegas (LAS) airports....

Uber and Shop Your Way have teamed up to offer users holiday bonus points for each ride you take. The new promotion, which runs through January 2, 2018, allows you to earn $4 CASHBACK for every ride you take with Uber.Once you link your accounts and ride with Uber, you’ll earn $4 CASHBACK points, which can then be redeemed online or in store. The CASHBACK points work at the following retailers: Sears, Kmart, Lands’ End or shopyourway....

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.Here’s your feel-good story of the day — because let’s be real, you know you need one.Grace Li is a “writer sometimes” (same) who “likes genetics, mythology and Asian-American representation in the arts.“She’s also, according to BuzzFeed, a high school biology teacher living in New York who had a pretty bad headache this past Friday....

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced Wednesday an amendment that bans doors-off helicopter tourism from operating out of the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (DMH).Formerly, DMH was the only heliport in the city where tourists flights were allowed to take off. The new policy comes about one month after a doors-off helicopter crashed into the East River, killing all five passengers on board. Before the amendment, there were no doors-off helicopter flights operated out of DMH — the policy will ensure that practices “will be codified as permanent policy,” according to a press release from NYCEDC....

Federal investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board released a new report Tuesday on a 2017 near-miss that almost ended in disaster at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).On July 7, 2017, the pilot of arriving Air Canada Flight 759 confused SFO’s taxiway, which had four other aircraft lined up on it, for the runway. The four aircraft waiting on the taxiway — two Boeing 787s, one Boeing 737 and one Airbus A340 — were filled with hundreds of passengers....

If you’ve been through Dallas/Fort Worth’s newly remodeled Terminal A, you know it: Airports are looking like shopping malls more than ever. From candy stores and restaurants to jewelry stores and high-end fashion, DFW’s Terminal A is packed full with 82,222 square feet of retail space — 55% more than was even planned during the first stages of the remodel in 2011.There’s a reason for this. Airlines and airports get a significant chunk of revenue from airside concessions....

Even though we aren’t even half way through the year, it’s never too early to start planning for New Year’s Eve, which is probably my favorite holiday. It’s a celebration where you can look back and smile at everything you’ve done and with the other foot, step into a new year of adventures and excitement. 2016 was an amazing year and to cap it off, I decided to stay at Travel + Leisure’s number one hotel in the world, Nihi Sumba Island....

There are a few stores I have loved for a long time - much before I could even come close to affording any of their merchandise. One of those stores is Pottery Barn. Their catalogs and overall style just kind of call out to me. I’m weird, I know. Anyway, over time a few PB items have crept into our home - usually during sales, by picking up heavily discounted floor models, or after saving and debating over the purchase for quite a long time....

Oh, how time flies: 49 years ago on Friday, the iconic Boeing 747 first took to the skies — and proceeded to rule the aviation world as the “Queen of the Skies” for nearly five decades. The Jumbo Jet’s reign is coming to an end these days, with the retirement of the last one serving with a major US airline last December.But you can still get on one from a variety of international carriers, from Lufthansa to Korean Air to British Airways....

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:TPGtv is Coming February 1, 2016I’m thrilled to announce our latest project, TPGtv....

On Tuesday I wrote about an amazing deal at The Phoenician Hotel where you could book a stay for $30 per night between December 11th and 31st through spg.com.As of today it seems that Starwood has sent out a batch of emails to those who booked:“I am contacting you today in regards to your December 2013 reservations for The Phoenician.Unfortunately, due to a systems error on March 27, the resort temporarily listed the incorrect and very low accommodation rate of $30 per night....

Unlike up in Polaris biz, where the seats are physically identical to those on the 777-300ER, United selected an entirely new product for economy class in its 777-200.The new seat, manufactured by Rockwell Collins, is called Aspire, and will eventually be used on United’s 787-10 Dreamliners, along with Airbus A350s and 787s headed to other carriers.Aspire isn’t a complete reinvention of the economy seat, of course — the design is very similar to recent models, including those on the United 777-300ER (77W) — but according to UA these are a bit wider, at 17....

Update: As it turns out, the man died after drugs burst in his stomach.Strange things have been known to happen in the air. Most recently, on an Aer Lingus flight from Lisbon to Dublin on Sunday, a man died and a woman was arrested after authorities confiscated four pounds of amphetamine in her luggage. The man reportedly became “agitated,” bit a passenger and was attended to by a doctor and nurse on the flight, but was pronounced dead when the plane landed in its diverted destination of Cork....

Air Berlin, Europe’s fifth largest airline, will soon be an official part of the Oneworld alliance and in the meantime their awards are already bookable using American Airlines (and soon other Oneworld airlines) miles. It was announced last summer that they’d be joining Oneworld and as part of my blog post last July, I highlighted a couple interesting aspects of Air Berlin:1) Air Berlin will allow east coast Oneworld flyers non-stop access to Germany via JFK, Miami and Ft....

Los Angeles-based flyers will soon have yet another option for nonstop flights to China, when Air China launches a route between LAX and Shenzhen (SZX). The new flight will begin on December 7, 2017 and will operate three times per week — on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays — with the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.Image by VCG / Contributor via Getty Images.The flights will operate with the following schedule:CA769 Shenzhen (SZX) 11:30pm Departure ⇒ Los Angeles (LAX) 8:00pm ArrivalCA770 Los Angeles (LAX) 10:50pm Departure ⇒ Shenzhen (SZX) 5:40am (+2) ArrivalAir China’s 787-9s have 30 lie-flat seats in business class, 34 recliner seats in premium economy in a 3-3-3 configuration and 229 economy seats, also in a 3-3-3 pattern....