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I know many of you were waiting for me to comment on yesterday’s launch of British Airways’ new Avios program. However, I wanted to give them a day to launch and then respond to any customer concerns before making any judgement.Unfortunately, they confirmed yesterday that Avios will be more confusing and less valuable than Executive Club - at least for most redemptions beginning in North America.My main gripes with the new program:1) The award pricing is now by sector, thus eliminating free connections and stopovers, which used to be a huge perk of Executive Club....

TPG reader Ruth sent me a question on Facebook about maximizing points with online shopping:“Hi Points Guy, I have a question about double dipping in the AAdvantage shopping portal. If I go to gift certificates.com and buy a $100 cert at a store that is also on the portal, can one then turn around and use that certificate at said store via the portal?“Shopping through online portals is one of the best ways to rack up bonus miles and points on every dollar that you spend....

Potty training is one “crappy” task that all parents need to tackle with their toddler. There’s definitely a time and a place for potty training, and that place does not include the aisle of a commercial airplane. An Instagram account called PassengerShaming shared a photo of a passenger holding her young child on a potty right in the middle of an aircraft aisle.According to the post, a woman put the potty in the aisle for her toddler to use in front of fellow passengers....

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.In August, Delta announced that it would be launching service from JFK to Iceland in June of 2011. I’ve been monitoring this route and there were only medium/high awards loaded for a long time.I just checked and there seems to be a decent amount of low level business (100,000 miles) and coach (60,000) awards in June....

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 a very busy week for Delta’s A350. Tuesday, we had a chance to join the very first passenger flight, a two-hour trip 37,000 feet above Atlanta, and this morning Delta CEO Ed Bastian hosted a media breakfast to chat about the airline’s new flagship plane....

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a… birdplane?On Tuesday, a bird slammed into the nose of an American Airlines A319 and created a large hole in the body of the aircraft. But what made the collision even more strange was that the bird remained stuck in the side of the aircraft for the remainder of the flight. Thousands of bird strikes happen every year, though it’s rare to see a bird stay attached to the plane....

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.CNN reported that yesterday, 11 commercial flights were targeted with laser pointers in New Jersey, both near Newark airport and in other parts of the state. Laser pointers have a place in a meeting room or lecture hall, perhaps, but that’s about it....

I was excited to try out ANA for the first time while positioning back from Taipei (TSA) to Tokyo (HND) after a series of mileage runs. Having flown 34 other airlines over the past decade and plenty of Japan Airlines flights recently, I was interested in finally testing out Japan’s other global airline.BookingIn order to save a few hundred dollars on my positioning costs, I booked this double-open-jaw flight out of Houston (IAH) into Hong Kong (HKG) and back from Taiwan (TSA) to Austin (AUS)....

In the frequent guest world, Hyatt has been working hard to oust Starwood as the top loyalty program (in my humble opinion). For years, Starwood was voted and respected as the best program and for good reason: it has a long list of well respected partners, valuable points and a ton of redemption options for hotels and flights - oh, and pretty solid customer service to boot. However, lately they’ve been resting on their laurels a bit too much, especially with their promotions, and Hyatt has been quick to pick up the frequent guest who craves a program with real value....

Ahhhhhhh. I failed. I was almostohsoclose to being able to do something really cool and I missed it before I even knew that I could do it.Earlier today I saw an email from Starwood Preferred Guest about SPG Moments, one of my very favorite programs where you can use your SPG points to access amazing events ranging from sold out Adele concerts in London to Luxury Boxes at Wrigley Field to the US Open....

I am in Asia this week. I flew American Airlines from Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG) on the carrier’s 777 Flagship First Class. On our descent into HKG, we had an aborted landing and had to do another take. It was a pretty crazy experience, but everything is fine now — don’t worry. The best part? I got it on Snapchat.I’m now writing this from Bangkok, and I’ll be going to Koh Samui this weekend and staying at one of the most aspirational points hotels out there....

A new US airline will launch with the Airbus A220 as its first airplane. A group of investors lead by David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue, signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase 60 A220-300 aircraft. The plane is the rebranded C Series aircraft manufactured by Bombardier.The announcement was made today via press release. The airline has been dubbed “Moxy,” which is so far only a working name for the new startup....

In a previous post on RBC’s Visa Infinite Avion, TPG contributor Ola briefly described the benefits of the Avion Redemption Schedule. In this post, he elaborates on how it works and how to maximize it. The Redemption Schedule is available exclusively to RBC’s “Avion” brand card holders.Air Travel Redemption ScheduleRBC Rewards Points RequiredRedemption ClassificationsDescriptionMaximum Ticket Price15,000Short-haul: Canada/United StatesWithin or to an adjacent Province/Territory/U.S. State$35035,000Long-haul: Canada/United StatesAnywhere in Canada/U.S except Hawaii and Alaska$75045,000Long-haul: Bermuda, Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, CaribbeanFrom any location in Western Canada/U....

JetBlue, the sixth-largest US airline by passengers carried, has had a tougher year than usual in 2018. Faced with costs rising faster than the industry average and a stock price that’s dropped about 16% since January, it announced a round of staff reductions in July and followed up this month by introducing higher passenger fees. It aims to reduce operational costs by up to $300 million a year by 2020, as fuel prices rise....

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.Norwegian has adorned one of its Dreamliner aircraft with the Babe. The carrier’s latest Boeing 787 aircraft (the 20th in its fleet) is the first of its type to feature an American on the tailfin.The Boeing 787, registration G-CKMU, was delivered from Boeing’s Charleston factory to Norwegian’s hub airport Oslo (OSL) on Friday....

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.Earn double points on Priority Club Rewards partner activity from July 1- Aug 31, 2010.For example, you earn 6,000 points for signing up for Netflix- better than the 1,500 Delta miles you get for the same activity.Also, 30,000 for DirecTV (though to be honest I didn’t even realize that still existed....

Following the tragic attack at a concert in Manchester earlier this week, the United Kingdom has raised its threat level to critical. Yesterday, Prime Minister Theresa May raised the UK’s terror threat level, indicating that intelligence agencies believe another terror attack is imminent. And now, as a result of the increased threat, we’re seeing an affect on the country’s tourism industry.Today in London, several of the main tourist attractions in the city were closed as a precaution....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card, Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit CardWith the 50,000-point sign-up bonus on the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card and the AirTran Airways A+ Rewards Credit Card with 32 A+ points both available, you might be wondering which card to get. As a reminder, here are the terms of the two cards....

Travel blogger and friend Parag from @FrequentFlyerU Tweeted me this past weekend with “@thepointsguy What ever happened with your Swiss First Class @United fiasco?“For those of you who don’t remember, in September I was supposed to fly from Miami to Nice via Zurich on a United airlines business class saver award using 50,000 Chase points that I transferred to United. When I showed up to the airport, the agent couldn’t check me in and after numerous calls to United and even Swiss corporate in Zurich, they couldn’t figure it out and I wasn’t allowed to board the plane....

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 Airlander 10, a.k.a. the world’s largest aircraft, took the aviation world by storm when it first launched. Not only for its massive size, but also because it just so happened to look like a certain human body part from behind — giving it the nickname “The Flying Bum....