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Starwood is offering Cyber Monday savings of up to 25% on North American and Latin America properties for reservations made now through November 30, 2012, for stays between November 21, 2012 - March 31, 2013. In order to secure the discount, use the promo code CYBRLT when booking online or calling (877) 782-0108.While the site says you can save up to 25% off, I found some hotels the discount is as much as 33% off, so be sure to check out any properties you are thinking of booking or have already booked, as some of these rates may be worth the look....

The CEO of Realtytrac just contacted me to let me know that the current 3,000 free point promotion with the British Airways Estore is unauthorized and they will be canceling every single account signed up through this promotion so no one will be charged a dime. At this point, I do not know if the points will be honored.This is a major flap between the British Airways Estore and the affiliate marketing company who offered the deal with Realtytrac (which apparently was against Realtytrac’s agreement with that company....

After bombings and the closure of the US Consular Agency in Mexico’s Playa del Carmen, the US government has lifted the travel restrictions in the popular tourist destination.The US Embassy in Mexico eased some of the travel warnings last week but has now announced that it’s completely lifting all restrictions for US government employees and warnings for US tourists.On March 16, the US Embassy released an updated statement saying US government personnel are permitted to travel to all parts of Playa del Carmen and permitted to use to use ferry services between Playa del Carmen and Cozumel....

US sanctions on Iran continue to have a crippling effect on the country’s aviation market. Greek carrier Aegean has nixed its only flight to Iran, it announced Tuesday.The airline will end all service between Athens (ATH) and Tehran (IKA) on October 11. Aegean flew an Airbus A320 three times a week to the Iranian capital.Aegean joins Air Asia X, Air Astana, Air France, British Airways, Etihad Airways, KLM and Thai Airways in cancelling their Iran flights to Iran....

The results are in on my recent survey about travel rewards, and while it’s clear that not everyone with travel rewards credit cards is using them to their full potential, I offer you my congratulations: as a regular reader of The Points Guy, you’re already learning how to maximize your points and miles to travel the world at a discount (or even for free)!I’d like to offer a toast to all my loyal readers—and say hello to all my new ones!...

Step one: Develop the world’s leading series of regional jets.Step two: Design a brand new series of aircraft, paint it with a tiger livery and name it “The Profit Hunter”.Step three: Profit!It may not be quite so easy for Embraer, but they’re giving it a go with their shiny second generation E-jets, called the E2.Tiger Livery on the E195-E2. Image via Embraer.2018 will be revealing for the program. Embraer and its main competitor Bombardier are now battling head to head for buyers worldwide for their 100+ seat twinjets, the E2 and C Series, respectively....

On Monday the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) fees on airline tickets went into effect. The old fee structure was $2,50 for each leg of a flight with a $5 cap on each one-way trip and $10 cap on each roundtrip. Now there’s no cap on the fee, and the TSA will charge you $5.60 for each leg of a flight, while domestic layovers longer than four hours and international layovers longer than 12 hours will qualify continuing travel as additional legs of a flight....

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 Swiss seem to have a knack for constructing massive structures — having built the world’s longest stairway and the world’s longest rail tunnel — and this time they’re at it again. According to Zermatt Tourism, the newly opened Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge in Switzerland spans an awesome 1,621 feet and rises as high as 279 feet — and is officially the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge....

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 and Korean announced intentions to form a joint venture in 2017, with Delta hoping to rely more on Korean when connecting passengers in Asia.Now that the joint venture has been approved by both the US and Korean governments, Delta has revealed its expanded mileage earning chart....

Theme parks, expensive vacations and traffic jams come to mind to those who have visited the Orlando area. But there is more to the home of the Magic Kingdom and there are plenty of alternatives in terms of activities, restaurants and hotels — all of which will provide a very different Central Florida experience. Here are 10 ideas for your next trip to Orlando.1. There are rides outside of the theme parksThe Epcot ride, Soarin, is understandably one of Disney World’s most popular rides; it really seems like you’re flying over the orange groves and theme parks of California....

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.Flight Review: Norwegian Air (737-800) Economy From New York (SWF) to EdinburghTPG Editorial Director James Cury had the chance to fly Norwegian’s inaugural flight between New York (SWF) and Edinburgh (EDI)....

Air Berlin’s TopBonus program hasn’t been covered much by TPG in the past, and there’s a reason for that: Mediocre award rates compounded by fuel surcharges make it a less-than-desirable transfer partner. The best use of the TopBonus program so far has been to get free Oneworld status.Starting September 1, the TopBonus award chart is getting even worse. Economy-class flights between the US to Europe are increasing from 25,000 miles to 30,000, and business-class flights are jumping from 40,000 miles to 60,000 miles each way:Along with these negative changes comes a positive one: TopBonus is reducing fuel surcharges on all award flights....

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 run across an American Airlines employee with an extra spring to his or her step, it might be because of the carrier’s new maternity and adoption policy. Effective March 1, many AA employees will receive “up to 10 weeks of fully paid time off to recover from pregnancy and delivery” and/or “up to $4,000 in financial support and positive space travel related to adoptions....

El Al, the national carrier of Israel that flies nonstop from Tel Aviv to JFK, Newark, Los Angeles and Toronto, has been a member of the Membership Rewards program for a while, yet I’ve never considered using them as a transfer partner because the ratio was 70 Amex to 1 Matmid point. New York to Tel Aviv is 1,400 credits in coach, 3,000 in business class and 5,000 in first. That translates into 98,000, 210,000 and 350,000 points for coach, business and first respectively....

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.Yesterday I wrote about fare wars between a lot of carriers on flights to Tokyo and I’m happy to report there is still a lot of availability.In fact, one of the most jaw dropping is Delta’s attack on American hub Miami: Miami to Tapei for $587 TOTAL roundtrip including taxes....

The bad news keeps on coming from ExpertFlyer. After last week’s revelation that Star Alliance searchability on the site had become much more limited with award search and seat alerts for airlines like ANA, Asiana, EVA, Lufthansa, South Africa, Thai, United and US Airways and a dozen more completely gone, as well as the fact that both Delta and United have revoked its ability to search their upgrade inventory (elite upgrades for Delta) the site has also just announced via this FlyerTalk thread that British Airways has hidden their award inventory once again....

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.Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas already has a decent loyalty program for its travelers, offering free hotel stays and more. Now, a new Total Rewards program will cater to veterans, providing exclusive deals to the men and women who have served our country....

As Cuba gears up for increased tourism numbers, the communist country is bulking up its tourist infrastructure to accommodate the recent spur in visitors from the United States and beyond. By 2024, Cuba’s cruise ship terminal will be able to hold three times as many boats as it can today.The terminal expansion project is part of a 15-year management agreement with Global Ports Holding Plc, an Istanbul-based company that operates 14 cruise ports, including Havana....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: The Miles & More Premier World MasterCard, US Airways Premier World MasterCard, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MastercardBarclaycard has been making a (welcome) forceful push into the travel credit cards marketplace recently with all-time high offers on several of its credit cards.However, with news that the current 50,000-mile sign-up bonus on the Barclaycard Lufthansa credit card is ending June 30, as well as the fact that American Airlines has designated Citibank as its post-merger credit card issuer - meaning that Barclaycard’s popular US Airways World Mastercard might be going away sometime within the next year or so - plus taking the Arrival card’s current high sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles, now might just be the time to consider applying for one or several Barclaycard travel credit cards, especially if you’ve applied for the best offers on American Express, Chase and Citi cards for the moment and have been wanting to look at other issuers....

American Airlines is in the midst of a massive multi-year “fleet transformation” process. If you haven’t flown on American Airlines in a few years, you might be surprised at the changes. Some of these changes are good — such as no more angle-flat business class seats, excellent new business class seats and new premium economy cabins being installed on all widebody aircraft. Others changes are bad: removing IFE screens, smaller bathrooms in economy and reduced legroom in economy....