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Etihad Airways Flight 9607 made history when it landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Monday morning.The flight – operated with a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – was touted as first-ever commercial passenger flight to fly between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and it appears that more could soon be on the way.Monday’s flight comes after previous flights between the nations that were more ceremonial in nature. In May, Etihad completed the first-ever known flight from the UAE to Israel on an Airbus A330-200 that brought a load of cargo destined for the Palestinian Authority....

This is part of the Family Travel Series on Choosing a Cruise by TPG Director of Operations, Danielle. Other posts include: Choosing a Cruise While Maximizing Points, Is the Disney Credit Card Worth It For A Cruise?, How to Choose a Cruise Based on Points, Using Frequent Flyer Miles for Cruise Flights, How to Get a Passport for Your Child.Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Earning airline miles using the traditional method (actually flying) is just one option for growing your account balance. While it’s increasingly difficult to earn miles from flying, airlines make it relatively easy to accrue miles without flying — whether through top credit card offers or by utilizing shopping portals and dining rewards programs. If these methods leave you short of your travel goals, you can also purchase miles directly from an airline....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.“Reader Questions” are now answered twice a week by TPG Associate Editor Brendan Dorsey.Global Entry is one of the best programs out there for international travelers, helping them avoid long immigration lines when entering the US. But TPG reader Aaron wants to know how a name change will affect his wife’s Global Entry status…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Aaron”]I recently got married and my wife changed her last name and is reapplying for a new passport....

If you’re subscribed to my weekly email newsletter, you already know that I have been homebound for a little more than three months due to coronavirus concerns. This past weekend though, I took my first flight post-lockdown. I headed to Palm Springs to see some friends.Once in town, being the curious person that I am, I decided to see what it was like to go to a casino and then enjoy a sit-down meal at a restaurant....

First it was Alaska, then Southwest and now finally JetBlue is following suit: All three airlines have left Mexico City in the last two years, with JetBlue the latest to give up on the seemingly over-satiated market. As first reported by the Wandering Aramean, JetBlue appears to have closed all bookings beyond January 8, 2020. A search on the website confirms this, with dates after the 8th showing as sold out entirely:This is despite the fact that JetBlue has been in the market for a little over four years, with improved time-slots and even an exclusive routing (JetBlue flies the only nonstop operating from Boston to Mexico City) helping the airline to compete....

Indonesian airline Lion Air will now be footing the bill for the continued effort to find crashed Flight 610, which plummeted into the Java Sea minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board on Oct. 29.Of top priority for search and rescue teams is the aircraft cockpit voice recorder — one of the so-called “black boxes” that stores audio recordings of the pilots’ conversations and noises like alarms that occur in the cockpit....

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.By the year 2020, Luxembourg will be the first country to have a public transportation system that is completely free. On Dec. 5, the tiny country (about the size of Rhode Island, for comparison), made the decision to allow riders to use public transportation free of charge....

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.I’ve traveled all over the world, to some truly hard-to-reach locales, but one destination right here in the US had eluded me until recently: the Googleplex. The tech company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, is made up of a sprawling spread of buildings, bicycles (more on that later) and busy people — and feels more like a college campus than a Silicon Valley business operation....

My husband and I never planned to homeschool our kids. We were always quick to proclaim we just weren’t “the type.” We thought we didn’t have the patience, the background and could never take that on. And then we found ourselves homeschooling our four kids while we traveled the U.S. and Canada with our family in an RV for more than a year.It turns out, there is no homeschooling “type” and many of our fears were simply misconceptions....

A flippered intruder waddled its way onto the grounds of Oakland International Airport (OAK) and provided an adorable distraction for airport workers early Thursday morning.A sea lion was one of the legions of mammals (most others were human) heading to the airport on one of the busiest air travel day of the hectic two-week Christmas and New Year’s season. Employees at OAK spotted the young sea lion in the wee hours of the morning and called the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office to shepherd the marine mammal back to the safety of the nearby bay....

The old “ski off the top of the roof” – you don’t have to be an Olympic skier to pull off this party-trick. Instead, in 2020, you’re encouraged to do just that at the Audemars Piguet Hôtel des Horlogers in the Vallée de Joux, western Switzerland.The new hotel was designed by architects from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). It features a zig-zagging, sloped roof built to blend seamlessly into the snowy, mountainous surroundings....

Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Monique, who was at risk of losing a hotel reservation due to some crossed customer service wires. Here’s what she had to say:I went to a two-day music festival a couple hours from where I live, and figuring that I wouldn’t want to drive back late at night, I booked a room for the first night. Hotel rates within a 20-minute radius of the festival were much higher than normal due to the event, so, I looked through my points options and found a room at the Aloft Ontario-Rancho Cucamonga for only 3,000 Starpoints per night (before SPG merged with Marriott Rewards)....

The Boeing 737 MAX is the latest mass-market jet, meant to easily transport passengers around the world.And that’s what it has been doing — safely — since its debut in 2017.However, Sunday’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX is the second fatal incident involving the aircraft type in just five months. It’s way too soon to jump to any conclusions. But the similarities between the crashes are going to put additional focus on the popular jet that is now flown by more than 40 airlines around the world, including Southwest, American Airlines and United....

Well, it’s about time — United Airlines finally has a new safety video on the way. This time, the carrier teamed up with Spider-Man: Far From Home for a special themed preflight demo. Also coming for Polaris business-class passengers will be limited-edition Spider-Man themed Polaris amenity kits, which include United’s new Sunday Riley amenities.Additionally, United’s offering up special packages through MileagePlus Exclusives, including opportunities to join various pre-release screenings or to attend the premiere in Los Angeles....

On January 8, TPG Senior Writer Julian Kheel appeared on Cheddar and spoke with Kristen Scholer and Tim Stenovec about JFK’s bomb cyclone mishap and offered some tips for winter travel.First, Julian explained that the first mistake of JFK following the bomb cyclone winter storm on January 4 was the “aggressive schedule for reopening.” The airport officially closed on Thursday, but reopened in the early Friday afternoon, causing hundreds of international flights to enter NYC with nowhere to land....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In September, I stepped foot in an American Airlines Admirals Club for the first time in years, to review the airline’s latest location at LAX. I had just signed up for the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard, so it didn’t cost me a cent to get in — even though I had arrived on a United flight and would be flying Delta later that night....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.As part of my visit to every Centurion Lounge in the US, I’m now in Seattle (SEA). Having spent a fair amount of time in both the SEA and SFO locations in the past, this whirlwind adventure has been a great opportunity for me to take a deeper, more analytical look at the services these lounges provide.My mission: to find out if Centurion Lounges in the US are living up to the hype or succumbing to the same fate as other domestic lounges....

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.Airbnb has announced a commitment to a series of changes designed to ban “party houses” from its platform, as a response to a shooting at a crowded Halloween party that left five dead. The party, which had over 100 attendees and took place in a home meant for only 13, was rented via Airbnb by a tenant apparently looking to host a family reunion, according to Michael Wang, the home’s owner....

In June 2014, JetBlue revolutionized the transcontinental premium-class market by launching JetBlue Mint. Not only does JetBlue Mint provide an exceptional product, but it’s also priced well below the competition — just $599 one-way or $1,198 round-trip. TPG himself was one of the early adopters of JetBlue Mint and has preferred it ever since.Once JetBlue Mint caught on with premium travelers, the legacy carriers realized that they weren’t able to get away with charging their typical $3,600-$4,400 business-class fares on these transcontinental routes....