Cheers Emirates Is Upgrading Its First Class Champagne

Emirates, arguably, offers one of the best first-class products. Its new suite on the 777-300ER is no exception to that. From amenities to food and drink, the luxury airline offers the highest quality available to its customers. In 2014 alone, Emirates invested $500 million in a wine program — more than any other airline — to obtain some of the best vintages in the world. And some of the vintages won’t even be ready to drink until after 2020....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 327 words · Jolynn Valentine

Could Your Next Credit Card Application Require A Selfie

Especially after the recent massive Equifax data breach, financial institutions are realizing that a credit card application that asks for your social security number, date of birth and address just may not be secure enough — that data may be in possession of people impersonating you. Now, banks and credit card platforms are scrambling to get new, more secure ways to verify identities.And one of those high-tech tools coming down the line is the plain old selfie....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 428 words · Brad Swartwood

Data Shows Winter And Fall Are Cheapest Times To Fly Within The Us

Depending on your destination, the cheapest time to see the United States could come in the dead of winter or the heart of fall, while flights to Canada may be the most affordable during the spring months. The findings come from Hipmunk’s annual review of when to visit 120 destinations across North America.To determine the lowest overall prices for domestic flights, researchers used booking data for dates between July 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 418 words · Georgia Olson

Delta Adds Bag Tracking Functionality To App

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.Delta recently added a cool new feature to it’s Fly Delta app - bag tracking. Now, you can enter your bag number (from the sticker they put on your boarding pass whenever you check a bag) and the app will let you know where it is....

December 17, 2022 · 1 min · 158 words · Gary Clifton

Delta S Amex Relationship Is Very Profitable For The Airline

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.The partnership between Delta Air Lines and American Express is proving to be extremely profitable, at least for Delta’s bottom line.Delta announced higher-than-expected earnings in its report for the first quarter of 2018 on Thursday, mostly due to revenue from passengers and its cargo operations....

December 17, 2022 · 1 min · 191 words · Calvin Crofton

Emirates Crew Member Falls From 777 300Er In Uganda

Update 3/15/18: Several reports confirm that the crew member died after arriving at a nearby hospital on Wednesday night.Update 3/14/18 1:55pm: Emirates has confirmed the incident. A representative provided the following statement:We can confirm that a member of our cabin crew unfortunately fell from an open door while preparing the aircraft for boarding on flight EK729 from Entebbe today (14 March 2018). The injured crew member was brought to the nearest hospital....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 318 words · Wilfredo Figueroa

Finally Today Delta Operates Its Final Final 747 Flight

Delta seemed to be shooting for a Guinness World Record for the “most ‘final’ 747 flights by one airline.” But, today is actually Delta’s final 747 flight. At least for now.As of this writing, Delta flight 9771 is the last 747 flying in Delta colors, from Atlanta (ATL) to an airplane boneyard at Marana, Arizona. The aircraft with the distinction of flying the last Delta 747 flight is N674US, which first flew for Northwest in September 1999....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 447 words · Filiberto Moore

French Minister Warns Air France Might Disappear

Air France-KLM’s employee strikes raged into Monday after the latest round of failed negotiations wrapped up on Friday night and forced the resignation of the airline group’s top executive.Air France said 15% of its flights would be canceled Monday due to pilots and cabin crew striking over pay disputes. The workers are demanding a 5.1% pay increase in 2018 — down from their original demand of a 6% raise earlier this year....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 427 words · Alice Hickman

Hotel Review Westin Seoul Chosun

Continuing our Seoul Hotels series (other reviews include the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt and W Walkerhill), we continue with this dispatch from TPG reader Daniel, who just stayed at the Westin Chosun Seoul. While nothing flashy, according to Daniel, this Westin features an Executive Club floor which can take your stay from “good” to “great.“The Westin Chosun’s Club Lounge.He booked a standard king room through American Express Travel at a rate of 405,000 KRW a night (roughly $373 USD a night)....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 528 words · Mark Salazar

Hotels Com Free Night And Elite Status

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.I’ve never booked a hotel stay through Hotels.com, but I have several family members who swear by it and who have earned free nights through their Welcome Rewards program. However, my name is The Points Guy, so I just can’t imagine booking through sites that could possibly invalidate my point earning....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 416 words · Pedro Garrett

If I Get A New Passport Do I Need New Foreign Visas

“Reader Questions” are answered three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — by TPG Senior Writer Julian Mark Kheel.If your travels have taken you to a foreign country multiple times or if you’ve stayed there for more than just a few months, you might have obtained a visa for that country. But what happens if you have to replace the passport your visa is already in, as TPG reader Mark asked us in a Facebook message…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Mark”]I just renewed my US passport....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 583 words · Jason Perez

Is The Us Airways 50 Share Miles Promotion A Good Deal

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.US Airways constantly runs bonuses on buying and transferring miles and they just announced another 50% bonus on transfers. My rule of thumb is generally that 100% bonuses can be worthwhile, 75% maybe and anything less than 75% usually isn’t worth my time or money....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 308 words · Robert Kilmer

Officer Who Dragged Dr Dao Off United Flight Is Suing Airline Chicago

James Long, the ex-Chicago Aviation Police officer who infamously dragged a passenger off of an overbooked United flight at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), is suing United Airlines, Chicago Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans and the City of Chicago over the incident, which happened almost exactly one year ago.In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Long says he was not properly trained to handle the April 9, 2017, situation on board a United flight....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 400 words · Mee Buck

Otto Warmbier American Student Dies Soon After Release From North Korean Prison

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.The New York Times is reporting that Otto F. Warmbier, a former University of Virginia student, died today today at the age of 22, just days after being released from a North Korean prison. He was sent back to his hometown of Cincinnati on Tuesday June 13 and was receiving treatment at a hospital there, after spending 17 months in captivity and over a year in a coma in North Korea....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 233 words · Olinda Savitch

Passenger Screams I Am God While Trying To Open Aircraft Door Mid Flight

An unruly passenger was detained after trying to open an aircraft door on her flight Monday.The incident occurred on SkyWest Airlines Flight 5449, which was flying from San Francisco (SFO) to Boise (BOI). The United Express-operated flight took off at 8:46 a.m., but soon after, passengers noticed something strange was going on.Scott T. Smith was seated behind the woman when her seat started to shake.“She wasn’t acting right, or normal, from the very beginning [of the flight],” Smith told the Idaho Statesman....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 396 words · John Ferry

Srq Will My United Miles Be Redeposited After A Canceled Flight

TPG reader Mary had a travel setback during Snowstorm Nemo that almost kept her from getting to Cancun for vacation. Luckily she was still able to get there, but she wants her unused United miles back. Here’s her situation:“We were booked on a United flight from Newark to Cancun on Saturday, February 9, but were notified by email only that our flight had been canceled on Thursday, February 7 so we rebooked ourselves on American out of Dallas on February 8 at a cost of $1,900 (we were desperate to get to Mexico!...

December 17, 2022 · 4 min · 649 words · Terry Tokarski

Success Story Using Delta Miles To Upgrade Flight To Hawaii

I recently had a client who wanted to go to Honolulu in business class from ATL on the non-stop flight. Due to medical issues, business class was the only option, and if she had to, she would pay the discounted business class fare. However, she had heard about my services through a friend and wanted to see what I could work out for her- trying to use her healthy bank of SkyMiles for the best deal....

December 17, 2022 · 3 min · 439 words · Isabelle Banuelos

Tracking Your Points With Awardwallet Com And 6 Months Free Premium Membership

I speak with people every day about miles and points and one of the questions I get asked most is, “How the heck do I manage a million different accounts?” Luckily, the answer is easy: get them all together in one place - awardwallet.com. In fact, once people pull all of their balances together in a consolidated place they are almost always surprised by how many they actually have.While there are a bunch of mileage trackers out there, in my opinion AwardWallet is the most robust and popular with frequent flyers....

December 17, 2022 · 4 min · 672 words · Harvey Geren

Travel Myths Water Drains The Opposite Direction In The Southern Hemisphere

In his Travel Myths column, Brian Biros will be debunking common misconceptions about travel, with topics ranging from toilets to terrorism. No myth is safe.Maybe you learned about it when Bart Simpson called collect to Australia to see if it was true. Or maybe you saw it in effect on Michael Palin’s documentary Pole to Pole or you heard it from someone who watched one of these programs, or they referenced the spinning of hurricanes and cyclones....

December 17, 2022 · 7 min · 1456 words · Luis Hewitt

United Revamps Boarding Process Again

United announced plans to update their current boarding process and reduce the number of different groups (which no one seems to follow anyway!). Ever since the merger with Continental, it seems like United is constantly changing how they are boarding planes and the amount of groups they have. Below is the new boarding procedure with only 5 groups.Simplified Boarding Groups (January 8-9, with full implementation January 10): Starting today, United plans to reduce the number of boarding groups from 7 to 5 (plus pre-boarding)....

December 17, 2022 · 2 min · 426 words · Jacqueline Hunt