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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.As I reported yesterday, I spent the first four days of my South of France holiday at the Four Seasons Terre Blanche in Provence. I had never been outside Paris before, though, and I had one more day to kill before my flight back to Miami, so I decided to spend my last night in one of the area’s best-known destinations, Monaco, where I stayed at Le Meridien Beach Plaza....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Duc tweeted me an interesting question this week that I get all the time and is foremost for when booking hotel stays. He asked:"@thepointsguy If you had to choose between a much better reviewed hotel vs one which gets you points (Hilton, etc.), which do you pick?“It really depends on the situation. If I’m on a business trip where I’m not actually spending much time in the hotel or taking advantage of its amenities, I would rather stay at the points hotel to maximize my earnings, any ongoing promotions and my elite status....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.No, you’re not dreaming. Starbucks is offering customers free coffee and tea through the month of January. That is, if you purchase its 16-ounce 2019 Brewed Refill Tumbler.The tumbler, currently retailing for $40 (which should bring you closer to gaining that coveted Starbucks Gold Status) in any Starbucks store while supplies last. It has an understated, stainless steel design – so you can use it year-round without feeling like you’re overdoing the Christmas thing when the holidays are long over – with an insulated interior, to keep your beverage of choice at the optimal temperature....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.JetBlue is changing up the way you get on board. Effective October 17, the carrier will switch to a boarding process that’s segmented by group rather than boarding based on which section of the cabin your assigned seat is located.JetBlue let Mosaic members know about the new process first in an email sent by the Director of Loyalty Marketing, Monique Mammoli:Historically, JetBlue boarded its aircraft from the rear of the cabin to the front....

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 commuting to JFK or LAX via BLADE has been on your bucket list, tomorrow is your lucky day. For one day only on Nov. 22, Friday, purchase a BLADE Airport seat for travel through Dec. 31, 2019 using the coupon code BLADEFRIDAY, and either bring a friend for free or bring [just about] as many bags as you want with you....

It hasn’t even been a week for Los Angeles International Airport’s new taxi and ride-hailing pickup lot, “LAX-it,” and already things have gone from bad to worse.Tweets from the program’s account show some pretty astronomical wait times since the launch of the initiative. Passengers hoping to jump in a Lyft faced wait times of 60 minutes, while Uber and taxi services were running at 30 minutes and 25 minutes, respectively:As of Sunday night, things were better, but not certainly not ideal....

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.Feisty Canadian low-cost carrier Porter is known for being the only carrier that flies to Toronto Island airport, which is within the city limits and much more convenient for many people than Toronto Pearson Porter only operates one-class Q-400 Turbo props and prides itself on simple fares and in-flight service....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Back in November I wrote a post about Maximizing the 30% Amex transfer bonus to British Airways’ new Avios program. This is just a reminder that this promo ends January 31, 2012.The bonus is hard coded into the transfer ratio, so 1,000 Amex points = 1,300 Avios points and they transfer instantly. Also remember, you can transfer Amex points to anyone else, so this might be a good time to top up your family or friends’ accounts to get them to levels needed for awards....

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.About 750 passengers and staff evacuated Rome’s Ciampino International Airport (CIA) Thursday after three undischarged bombs were found during on-site construction work. The explosives are believed to be leftover from World War II.Flights scheduled to land or depart from CIA have been momentarily delayed, diverted and canceled following the discovery of the bombs....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Southwest Airlines is currently running a fare sale on many of its routes for flights booked by June 4 for travel from August 25 through December 16, 2015 with fares starting at just $49.Here’s a look at some sample fares that are currently available:Los Angeles, CA to Phoenix, AZ for $49:Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN to Milwaukee, WI for $49:Orange County/Santa Ana, CA to Las Vegas, NV for $49:Another great thing about this sale: It means Southwest Rapid Rewards redemptions are also on sale, with flights starting at 2,273 points each way....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Great news for those who love points and miles and shopping for bargains: As of this month, online retailer eBay has partnered with the airline shopping portals for Alaska, American, Southwest and United, allowing you to earn points and miles on your purchases. And now, to celebrate eBay’s 20th year in business, these shopping portals are offering limited-time bonus promotions....

Spirit Airlines may be best known for its low, unbundled fares and endless upsells (including a TPG favorite, the Big Front Seat), but now the ultra-low-cost carrier’s looking to boost its reputation as a technology leader, with what it’s calling “the check-in experience of the future.“Now available at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and New York LaGuardia (LGA), the carrier’s new lobby areas use biometric photo-matching to help speed up the check-in process....

One of the things I miss about having little children is the bounce houses. The staple of elementary school functions, over-the-top birthday parties and spring flings, it always made me nostalgic for the days when I could bounce my cares away.Fortunately, The Big Bounce House creators felt my nostalgia for the “good old days” and have erected the world’s largest bounce house — and it’s going on tour.The main edifice, a 20,000-square-foot castle, holds a Guinness World Record for largest bounce house....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Last month, TPG Contributor Adam Erace burned a mix of miles, bonus nights and other loyalty-program and credit-card benefits for a three-city, three-country holiday in London, Istanbul and Paris — the latter, unfortunately, during the recent terror attacks. Here’s how Erace planned a luxurious European vacation with minimal cash outlay — and managed to get home amidst a city-wide emergency....

This week, United Airlines flipped the switch on its new PlusPoints upgrade platform, giving elite flyers more options for moving up a cabin or two — frequent flyers can book economy and fly in Polaris business class by booking with a combination of cash and PlusPoints, for example.One especially intriguing new redemption option is something United is calling Skip Waitlist, which lets flyers redeem additional PlusPoints to confirm an upgrade at booking, when they would have had to take their chances with the waitlist in the past....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – View the current offers hereTrinidad and Tobago wasn’t a place I’d dreamed of visiting until an unexpected work event brought me to Florida with a few days to kill. In what would be the first of several inspirations from the Explore Destinations tool on Google Flights, I saw that the cheapest flight out of the country during my window of opportunity was a nonstop route on American Airlines to Port of Spain (POS) for $308 round-trip....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Update 4/12/18 8:30am ET: American Express has confirmed that its newest Centurion Lounge will open at Denver International Airport (DEN) in 2019. The lounge, which will be located in the C Concourse, will be the second-largest in the network (behind JFK) at 14,650 square feet.American Express has released two renderings for the upcoming DEN Centurion Lounge:American Express is making the Platinum Card® from American Express even more valuable, as it continues to expand its network of Centurion Lounges....

Weather is a major traffic disruptor for airlines, crew and passengers. When a big storm is on the way, how does American Airlines prepare to cancel flights? The question is timely, as a storm is bearing down upon a large swath of the US before a holiday weekend.I recently spoke with Scott Ramsay, Managing Director of American Airlines’ dispatch center in Dallas. Ramsay leads a team in charge of dispatch for the entire American Airlines network—from Sydney to London and everywhere in between....

After years of back and forth, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020, is the day that the United Kingdom will officially leave the European Union. As of 11 p.m. GMT (6 p.m. ET), the U.K. will end its 47-year relationship with the EU. But what does Brexit mean for travelers? Will U.K. citizens be able to continue to travel freely throughout Europe? Will flights between the U.K. and EU continue to operate as scheduled?...

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – View the current offers here.TPG reader Suzette sent me a message on Facebook asking:“Hey - need your help, how can I convert my Chase Points to SPG Points?“I always get questions from people wanting to convert one type of frequent flyer mile, hotel point, or credit card point into another. Generally you don’t do that - once you accrue miles and points in a certain currency, it’s usually pretty difficult to turn it into another currency....