Posts

Nobody wants to have a medical emergency inflight.But if you do, you’re in excellent hands: You are guaranteed that there are a doctor and a team ready to assist you. It just so happens that they’re physically located in an emergency room in Phoenix, Arizona, at a company called MedAire. There, MedAire helps passengers, airlines and flight crew around the world with medical issues ranging from routine to deadly serious.I recently visited the MedAire operations center to see how the company does its job....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Sean sent me a message on Facebook to ask about earning points for hotel stays:“I’m a Marriott Platinum member, and I have both the Marriott Rewards card and the new Sapphire Reserve. Which one will get me the most points when staying at a Marriott property?”It’s important to maximize the points you earn with each purchase, whether you’re shopping for groceries or paying for hotel stays....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.It’s no secret we love testing out new luxury hotel spots like Aman, Six Senses and the Bulgari — the 4th night free benefit on the Citi Prestige card comes in handy when you can’t use rewards to book your stay. But what we love even more here at TPG is a brand-new luxury hotel that we can stay at using our points....

We’re just a couple of months away from New Year’s resolutions. What are you looking forward to in 2020?Amsterdam, for one, has its answer all ready to go: The Dutch capital will raise its tourism taxes come January 1.Amsterdam will charge a flat fee of €3 — around $3.25 USD — per person, per night for any visitor staying in a hotel, on top of the existing 7% hotel tax per room, up from 2018’s 6% (3% outside of the city center)....

How do you choose which seat to grab after booking a flight? Whenever possible, we try to guide TPG readers with our “Where to Sit” posts, but there’s one resource that everyone seems to turn to, from first-time flyers to road-warrior pros.SeatGuru has been advising travelers since 2001, though the site — and its database — has grown quite a bit in recent years, following an acquisition by TripAdvisor.On a recent Air Tahiti Nui 787-9 Dreamliner delivery flight, I had a chance to shadow one of the site’s top flyers, tasked with rating seats based on personal experience, reader reports and even TPG reviews....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.On September 1, 2011 Cathay Pacific begins flying Chicago to Hong Kong non-stop. To celebrate, they are selling $100 roundtrips (including tax) for the next four Thursdays. Each day there will only be 25 tickets on each day (100 total), so have your browser loaded and ready to go at exactly 3:25pm CT on this special offer page....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.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. We recommend that you use Google Flights to find dates to fly, then book through an online travel agency, such as Orbitz, which allows you to cancel flights without penalty by 11pm Eastern Time within one day of booking....

Qatar is one of the few Oneworld airlines that offers an arrivals lounge – and it offers not one, but two lounges in Doha. My husband JT and I recently flew through Doha a few times and we had enough time during one layover to check out the arrival experience while flying business class on Qatar.Note that the Doha arrivals lounges are only for passengers arriving on a Qatar first-class or business-class ticket – Oneworld elites flying in other cabins as well as first- and business-class passengers on other airlines won’t have access to either lounge....

“Please give us your attention as we show you one of the safest worlds there is: the world of the safety card.“So says a clever Delta Air Lines inflight safety video. Commercial aviation is extremely safe, but as you read those safety cards, you might even admire the beautiful graphics.Most of them are the product of Interaction Research Co., based in Olympia, Washington, and headed by CEO Trisha Ferguson. IRC has been designing the safety cards for the vast majority of airlines around the world since 1971....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.I don’t know why, but Hertz normally charges $60 for membership in their Hertz #1 Club for Gold status. The only real benefit to membership is expedited check-out; when you arrive at the rental location your name is displayed on a board and you can drive off the lot (just showing your ID at the exit). Most car rental companies offer this service for free, so it really baffles me why Hertz feels the need to charge $60....

United Airlines has long hinted at the possibility of adding a new small narrow-body aircraft to its mainline fleet, a move that would follow in the footsteps of Delta Air Lines with its Airbus A220s and Boeing 717s.The Chicago-based carrier may finally be thinking seriously about adding a so-called “100-seater,” as the family of planes that includes the A220 and Embraer E-Jet-E2s are known despite often having more than 100 seats, to its fleet in the next five years....

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.Wow- surprised to see this back again- even if it is only for “first time” transfers.http://dmn.delta.com/offers/getmore/Already took advantage of the last one? You probably won’t be able to get the MQMs from this one, but you can get the 50% transfer by creating a new Skymiles account....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In the latest installation of our “By the Sea” summer destination series, TPG Contributor Drew Limsky holes up in serenely beautiful Nantucket, Massachusetts, just before the summer season hits.A breezy day on the harbor in Nantucket Town. Photo by Drew Limsky.Set 30 miles south of Cape Cod and sprawling over almost 50 square miles, Nantucket feels like it inhabits another era....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.If you’re a Marriott Bonvoy credit card holder, you may want to check your email as several people in the TPG office – including TPG himself – have been targeted for a new $25 anniversary credit.Here’s how it works.If targeted, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to register your card for the promotion, which you’ll need to do before Oct....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Great news if you’re planning to travel internationally this spring and summer: Hilton recently launched a flash sale for stays between March 11 and July 3. You’ll save up to 35% at Hilton brand hotels and resorts, including properties like Conrad or Waldorf Astoria. The final price varies depending on the destination and when you go. Among the lowest rates being advertised are about $66 per night in Istanbul and $83 per night in Amsterdam, but you might be able to find lower rates, especially in more off-the-beaten-path places like Lisbon (from $75 per night) and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (from $68 per night)....

In the wake of the Lion Air flight 610 crash, the largest operator of the aircraft type — a Boeing 737 MAX — that plunged into the sea is reportedly making adjustments to an instrument investigators believe reported faulty information and played a role in downing the flight.Southwest Airlines will be activating large display screens in the flight deck to show the cockpit crew information from a sensor that measures the angle of the plane’s nose....

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.Southwest Airlines will keep the 737 MAX off its schedule through Labor Day. The largest US domestic carrier joins the world’s largest airline, American, in extending its grounding expectations for the aircraft.The airline is now set to reintroduce the MAX to its schedule on September 2....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Citi is a TPG advertising partnerOver the past several years, Citi has made significant improvements to its ThankYou Rewards points program, not the least of which has been adding 15 airline transfer partners. Transfers are typically at a 1:1 rate (except for JetBlue) but sometimes there are bonuses which make these transfers even more appealing.One of those bonuses is underway right now, and at an opportune time to boot....

We’ve spent the last few weeks going over the different ways to maximize your Las Vegas trip, from taking advantage of luxury hotel programs to leveraging status matches to gain elite status at Vegas hotels. Of course, while this all sounds good in theory, we here at TPG know that not all elite statuses are equal. So after completing the whirlwind of status matching that made me a Wyndham, Caesars, MGM and Hyatt elite, I set about investigating what exactly it means to be a Diamond member at Caesars Palace, the crown jewel of the Caesars brand....

When suitcases or carry-ons at US airports can’t be traced back to their owners, they might head off to another destination: the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. TPG Contributor Michele Herrmann spoke with the center’s Brand Ambassador Brenda Cantrell to learn more – and find out how to prevent your bag from going there. (All photos courtesy of the Unclaimed Baggage Center.)The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama: the store of last resort for your lost luggage....