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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Hurricane Florence continues its fateful march toward the Carolina coast. Ahead of the major hurricane’s landfall, numerous airports are closing Wednesday night. Already over 1,000 flights have been canceled due to the massive storm as tropical storm winds are expected to move onshore Thursday night.As of 8:00pm ET Wednesday, Hurricane Florence’s top sustained wind speed dropped slightly to 115mph....

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.A passenger arrived from Georgetown, Guyana, at New York’s JFK over the weekend with some unusual contraband in their luggage. While inspecting the passenger’s luggage agents found 70 live finches. The birds were packaged in hair rollers and concealed in a duffle bag....

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.Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Most likely due to the flurry of activity with the recent sign-up bonus changes for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, the Ink Bold Business, and the Chase Freedom card (No longer open to new applicants), I have recently received several questions about how to transfer Ultimate Reward points from one account to another....

Winter weather took aim at the Chicago area once again this weekend, dumping up to 8 inches of snow in parts of the Midwestern city. While Chicago is accustomed to dealing with nasty winter storms, the most recent round of winter weather managed to heavily impacted travel, canceling more than 900 flights on Saturday at the area’s two airports, Midway (MDW) and O’Hare (ORD). In addition to canceling flights and delaying hundreds more, a minor runway incident is being blamed on the winter weather at Chicago O’Hare Airport around noon on Saturday....

Virgin Atlantic’s aging Airbus A340-600 aircraft will live to see another few weeks, including on flights from London to New York. The original plan had been to retire them next month as the airline’s newest jet, the A350 sporting the new Upper Class seats, comes online.Virgin has changed its plan to phase out the fuel-guzzling, four-engined aircraft on October 26. Virgin’s A340-600s are now scheduled to stay in service until December 8....

Hurricane Dorian has started its long-expected northward turn after devastating the northern Bahamas over the past few days. While that’s good news for those in the Bahamas and South Florida, it’s not good news for northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.Hurricane Dorian was always expected to make a close pass when heading north, but models now show the expected path shifted slightly west — increasing the chances of a landfall along the South Carolina or North Carolina coast....

Seat manufacturer Haeco has unveiled a new premium economy seat and revealed that the launch customer, a “Middle East-based carrier,” will begin flying the product from early next year.The clues strongly suggest the airline is Emirates. There are a limited number of Middle East airlines that would consider introducing a premium economy cabin, and the timing lines up with Emirates long-awaited launch of premium-economy.The seat, known as the Eclipse Cabin, was unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg this week....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.One of the things I love most about being The Points Guy is getting to hear stories from readers about how points and miles have helped them get where they want to go. If you’re interested in sharing your own award travel success story, email it to info@thepointsguy.com; be sure to include details about how you earned and redeemed your rewards, and put “Reader Success Story” in the subject line....

American Airlines announced on Thursday an 18-route regional and Canada network expansion, as well as an increase in frequencies to two of its European destinations. The timing of the route expansion from AA comes in time for the busy summer 2019 travel period, with all of the additions being either year-round or strictly summer seasonal service.On the international front, American is adding more seats from its hub in Dallas (DFW) to Europe — specifically Paris (CDG) and Madrid (MAD)....

American Airlines announced a positive change for its youngest AAdvantage members on Tuesday. Starting July 1, AAdvantage members under age 21 will be exempt from mileage expiration.“This change makes retaining miles easier for members who may have fewer opportunities to earn miles,” the airline told TPG.For more TPG news and deals delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.Once a member turns 21, the program’s 18-month activity requirement will take effect....

American Airlines is in the midst of a war with its mechanics that no one seems to be winning. The airline’s operations have been abysmal the past few months as maintenance cancellations have spiked, in what management has alleged is a slowdown by the airline’s mechanics. Yet, workers still haven’t gotten what they wanted from the airline. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of passengers have become victims of the apparent conflict.A day after American Airlines filed a lawsuit against its mechanics alleging an illegal work slowdown, Transport Workers Union (TWU) union president John Samuelsen publicly threatened American Airlines president Robert Isom with the “bloodiest, ugliest battle that the United States labor movement ever saw....

“Reader Questions” are answered twice a week by TPG Associate Editor Brendan Dorsey.One of the benefits of booking a stay directly with a hotel chain is the ability to cancel your stay without incurring fees. TPG reader Eric wants to know if he can get his points back after booking an award stay…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Eric”]Are hotel stays booked with points refundable?[/pullquote]In general, when booking a stay directly with a large hotel chain (i....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Chase just launched a new enhanced version of its AARP Visa Signature card that includes 3% cash back on gas and restaurant purchases with no caps and no annual fee.The card comes with an introductory offer of $100 cash back when you spend $500 in the first three months of account opening and 0% APR on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months (after that a variable APR rate of 16....

[tpg_rating ticket-class=“first” tpg-rating-score=“84” ground-experience=“15” cabin-seat=“17” amens-ife=“12” food-bev=“23” service=“17” pros=“An exceptionally large seat, vastly improved soft product and delicious food.” cons=“Unfriendly ground experience, no Wi-Fi and some dated hard-product elements.” /]When thinking about some of the best first-class products out there, Cathay Pacific’s typically comes to mind immediately. Among its most notable characteristics are its massive seat, outstanding service and great on-the-ground experience in Hong Kong by the way of its lounges....

Following new travel restrictions announced by President Trump Wednesday night that were meant to stem the spread of coronavirus, U.S. airlines began announcing changes to their transatlantic schedules on Thursday.The restrictions bar most non-U.S. citizens from entering the country if they had visited any of the Schengen countries 14 days or fewer before their flight.U.S. citizens and some foreign nationals are still permitted to enter the country from the restricted zone, but should expect extra screening upon arrival....

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.Want to see the latest flight deals as soon as they’re published? Follow The Points Guy on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to text message alerts from our deals feed, @tpg_alerts.Airfare deals are typically only available on limited dates....

Delta Air Lines is one of the airlines that has taken actionable steps to battle human trafficking.In addition to a previous video informational campaign, the airline is now donating $1.5 million to help combat human trafficking, both in the sky and on the ground.According to the International Labor Organization, there are about 25 million people enslaved today worldwide. Recent studies also found that 71% of victims trafficked specifically for labor have traveled on planes to the United States at some point during their recruitment....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.For our 2017 staff holiday party, we had a very TPG-appropriate twist on the classic white elephant gift exchange. Mixed in with your standard kitschy presents (surfer Santa doll, anyone?) were some real travel gems.While the jackpot item of $2,000 toward flights booked through Amex Travel was quickly swiped away from me (so rude that my coworkers wouldn’t just let me leave once I unwrapped this gift), I still ended up with a pretty sweet present: my choice of Delta Silver Medallion status or Delta SkyClub membership for a year....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.“Reader Questions” are answered three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — by TPG Senior Writer Julian Mark Kheel.With American and United now joining Delta in marketing stripped-down Basic Economy fares in an effort to compete with the low-cost carriers, TPG reader Lillian is wondering how this affects her co-branded credit card benefits…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Lillian”]If I purchase an American Basic Economy fare, do my Citi AAdvantage credit card perks still come into play?...

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.I often purchase airline miles, especially when they’re offered at a good rate during a promotion. I never purchase them from the airline kiosk, because those rates can be up to $0.05 per mile, which is highway robbery. Usually when airlines do run specials, they’re processed through a third party called Points.com. The purchase isn’t billed through the airlines, so you generally won’t get that juicy 2x or 3x bonus like you would for buying airfare with a co-branded credit card, but there are some exceptions to the rule....