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Welcome to the fourth and final installment of TPG Editor-at-Large Zach Honig’s coverage of the 2017 Star Alliance MegaDo. This year’s event takes AvGeeks from around the world on the adventure of a lifetime, including stops in Vienna, Brussels and Mallorca. Check back for daily reports, and follow along in real time on Instagram and Twitter.Thursday night, I went to bed excited about the day ahead, which included a full day at one of my new favorite hotels, the Park Hyatt Mallorca....

If you’ve ever been “randomly selected” for enhanced screening at a US airport, the thought of seeing “SSSS” appear at the top of a boarding pass likely sends shivers down your spine. For TPG in 2015, Secondary Security Screening Selection (SSSS) became a months-long ordeal — for me, it simply caused some inconvenience over the weekend, assuming those four letters aren’t here to stay.It all started when I booked a round-trip ticket from Newark to London, with just four hours on the ground before my return....

Update 1/11/18 12:55pm ET: Both Norwegian and Rolls-Royce confirmed to TPG that contrary to reports by Norwegian media, the replacement of the Trent 1000 engines was part of a commercial agreement between the two in 2016. According to Rolls-Royce, Norwegian’s choice to install the Trent 1000 TEN engines on its 789 was in an effort to make its fleet more efficient and was “not related to current in-service issues with the Trent 1000 engine....

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 just three weeks, United’s Boeing 747 will fly passengers for the very last time. Tickets for the final farewell, United Flight 747, sold out in less than an hour — but there’s still an opportunity to score a spot on the special flight on November 7....

Approximately 3,000 people were evacuated from Paris Orly (ORY) airport and flights were temporarily suspended earlier today when a man attacked a soldier on patrol in the south terminal and attempted to grab her weapon. The attacker was shot and killed by two other soldiers during the attack.The man, identified to the Associated Press as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, had been previously identified by French authorities for suspected Islamic extremism and had a criminal record of drug and robbery offenses, but was not on a watch list....

Henry Rollins loves traveling even though he has been on the road for years with Black Flag, the Rollins Band and as a spoken word artist. Here, the adventurous Rollins — who has as many frequent flyer miles as a network correspondent — reveals what it’s like to backpack through Iran, experience Antarctica and why less is usually more when it comes to travel.What’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?It would have been last year, the trip to Antarctica....

Saudi Arabia is taking a big step in opening its doors by announcing that it will start issuing tourist visas to travelers this spring.Prince Sultan bin Salman announced that tourist visas will be available starting April 1. In the past, visas were mainly allowed for business travelers, those visiting families and religious pilgrims visiting Mecca — although it did run a limited program that allowed tourists into the country from 2006 to 2010....

Our friends at Kayak are among the best at tracking travel trends, and as summer winds down (it’s already August) and travelers start to consider a last (or several) summer trips before fall comes around again, they have put together some handy facts about top destinations for a last-minute getaway as well as tips and tricks to help save you money on your airline tickets.Go SouthThe biggest trend that Kayak points out in its new data release is that airfares to destinations all across the South have dropped by double digits for the end of summer....

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.Virgin Atlantic is the latest airline to join Worldwide by easyJet program, which allows travelers to plan itineraries on both airlines through a single booking. The partnership was announced Tuesday.Where travel convenience is involved, London Gatwick (LGW)-based easyJet clearly believes in the buddy system....

Thanks to early pioneers of Israeli cuisine, like Philadelphia-based chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav, and more recently Alon Shaya of his namesake New Orleans eatery, Israeli eats — and really Middle Eastern food in general — are trending today. Solomonov set the standard for Israeli cookery when he opened Zahav in 2008, shedding light on a then-mostly unsung genre of cuisine rich in salads, breads and sesame-based spreads. In 2015, Shaya setup his own interpretation of the food he grew up eating, earning quick praise for his pillowy pita bread and variety of dips....

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.Virgin Atlantic launched a new bonus offer on their Bank of America American Express card with the potential to net new cardholders 65,000 bonus Flying Club miles (application link) when they meet certain spend requirements). This beats the usual 50,000-mile bonus for getting this card–the extra 15,000 miles from the anniversary bonus when you meet the spending requirements....

JetBlue is discounting last-minute flights from New York City this week up to 90% as part of a marketing campaign called Hot Seats. This deal is valid for flights departing NYC (JFK, LGA, EWR) on July 17th or 18th, and returning July 22nd or 23rd. These are valid for round-trip tickets and only valid on new bookings. To participate in this offer, use promo code HOTSEATS when booking.Save some dough with JetBlue’s Hot Seats offer....

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.Not to be confused with the new ability to freeze your credit for free, Chase is joining the ranks of American Express, Discover and Wells Fargo by launching a lock/unlock feature of its own. The lock/unlock feature will allow customers to “quickly lock or unlock their credit card right from their phones through the Chase Mobile app or by computer via chase....

A few months ago I shared that I thought American Airlines AAdvantage miles had overall become worse than Delta SkyMiles, which is to say they had fallen to the bottom spot of the major US based airline loyalty programs. My dissatisfaction with American AAdvantage was based largely on the reality that saver awards, even just for pretty ordinary domestic hops, were simply not available…or were very, very barely available, and then only on non-logical itineraries where it took three flights at odd hours just to fly a thousand or so miles....

On Tuesday, a man at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) stripped down to his underwear, climbed over the airport’s fence into a restricted area and ran onto the tarmac before jumping onto an aircraft wing and banging on windows.The 19-year-old man, Jhryin Jones, was arrested for criminal trespassing, public indecency and obstruction of law enforcement officers.“He approached an aircraft, jumped on the wing and began to pound on the windows," a spokeswoman for the Atlanta Police Department told Reuters....

A few years ago for my husband’s 40th birthday, we used miles and points to take an amazing luxurious around-the-world trip that we otherwise could have never even come close to affording were it not for award travel. Our biggest stop on our trek was at the Park Hyatt Maldives where we stayed in all three types of villas that they had at the time, with our favorite being the Pool Villas that were on land but had their own private plunge pools....

From cars to sticks of deodorant, the world is a treasure trove of “smart” devices — some of them more useful than others. As we’ve become more and more accustomed to our devices doing the thinking for us, businesses in every sector — including the travel industry — are racing to keep up. After all, if there’s one time where we want our every desire to be intuited, it’s while we’re on vacation....

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.Back in September, Southwest changed its same-day standby policy for A-List and A-List Preferred members. However, the changes ended up not being all that beneficial, as the terms stated that the flight must be “within two hours of your original scheduled departure, between the same city pairs, and on the original date of travel....

Apps have revolutionized the way we travel in so many ways. From booking the best points and miles hotels to helping us pack for a last-minute trip, apps have made traveling around the world much easier. In addition to a standard mapping app and currency converter, apps can be useful in getting around — and even keeping us safe — when traveling alone. Regardless of who you travel with or where you go, most travelers have an app or two to help guide their adventures....

The Transportation Security Administration has compiled a new watchlist of passengers who the agency dubs as potential threats at airport security checkpoints. Offenses such as swatting away a TSA screener’s hand could reportedly land passengers on the list.The watchlist is a collection of passengers whose actions have physically threatened TSA agents at security checkpoints or any type of behavior the agency vaguely perceives as “offensive and without legal justification,” according to documents obtained by The New York Times....