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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.What’s better than a great Black Friday or Cyber Monday discount? A sale before the sale. The all-business-class French airline La Compagnie is offering travelers a pre-Black Friday promotion with flights from Newark (EWR) to Paris (ORY) from $1,187 round-trip....

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 you use Google Flights to find dates to fly, then book through an online travel agency, such as Orbitz or Expedia, which allows you to cancel flights without penalty by 11pm Eastern Time within one day of booking....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Steven sent me a message on Facebook to ask about earning rewards while traveling internationally:“Does the Chase Freedom 5x bonus work at international locations? Could I earn bonus points this quarter at, say, a drug store in Australia?”Credit card bonus categories are the bread and butter of award travel. By using the right card for each purchase, you can earn rewards more quickly and maximize the return you get on all your spending....

The calendar says that Tuesday is the first full day of fall, but in most places around the country, the leaves say otherwise.Y’all, fall is officially late.I just took a quick trip with my family to Colorado to see some gorgeous Aspens in all their golden fall glory, which should have been an easy task in late September. But planning trips tied to anything remotely weather-related is a gamble at best — and whether you’re seeking fall foliage, cherry blossom blooms or a perfect beach day, you need be ready for anything when Mother Nature is dealing the cards....

Update: This lounge was re-opened in May 2017 as the Flagship Lounge, with better service, food and drink options. However, the overall look of the lounge is the same as photographed below.American Airlines’ newest lounge is now open in New York’s JFK airport, and it looks like a big improvement. The newly remodeled and renamed International First Class Lounge opened its doors last week in Terminal 8, and TPG reader David C....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Airfare deals are typically only available on limited dates. We recommend you use Google Flights to find dates to fly, then book through an online travel agency such as Orbitz or Expedia, which allows you to cancel flights without penalty by 11pm Eastern Time within one day of booking. However, if you’re using The Platinum Card® from American Express, you’ll need to book directly with the airline or through the Amex Travel portal to get 5x MR points....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Ultra low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines and Barclays have overhauled the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard, creating a rather unique value proposition. Along with the card revamp come a few changes to Frontier’s myFRONTIER Miles Elite Status, as well as the ability to earn top-tier status through credit card spend alone. Let’s take a look at the new offering which has the potential to give traveling families and leisure travelers significant value....

Last weekend, some friends and I traveled to one my favorite places in the world, Zermatt, Switzerland, with the hopes of trying out summer skiing. Things didn’t quite go to plan (the mountain was closed due to rain), so we ended up spending two days with some pretty hilarious Valais Blacknose Sheep, instead.As wild as the locals were, though, I imagine you’re here to read about my United experience — you can head over to my Instagram Story highlights (@zachhonig) for loads more from my furry friends....

A commotion rippled through the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) Friday morning as the distinctive notes of “Scotland the Brave” rang out through the terminal. “Please join us in the middle of the terminal to thank our veterans for their service as they depart on the 60th Honor Flight departing out of Austin,” a booming voice announced over the public service system.Half a dozen Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, looking particularly sharp, marched forward bearing flagpoles as two officers from the Austin Police Department marched behind them, dressed in kilts and sharp regalia, one beating on a marching snare drum and the other expertly playing a set of bagpipes....

There’s an awful lot to love about Munich all year round, but there’s nothing quite like visiting the Bavarian capital during Oktoberfest; or so I hear, at least — this is the first year I’ll actually get to go!Today, my good friend and TripSavvy general manager Molly Fergus joins Miles Away to share her Oktoberfest booking strategy, including securing flights, hotel rooms, and — perhaps most important of all — a table in one of the festival’s more popular tents....

Tourism in the Big Apple is alive and well, according to new numbers released by NYC & Company, the tourism and marketing company for the city. New York City welcomed 65.2 million visitors in 2018, an increase of 2.4 million since 2017, and the ninth straight year the number has risen. NYC & Company expects the number to hit 67 million in 2019.The agency expects that increase in 2019 to be lead by events for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.For the next Award Redemption of the Week, I want to share a story from TPG reader Sven, who redeemed AAdvantage miles to visit South America:My girlfriend and I are recent college graduates living in Austin, which is a city that rarely sees any international flight deals. We both have two weeks of paid time off per year, so we try to squeeze every bit of vacation we can out of it....

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is testing out a new plan that would make it the one of the only airports in the US to allow non-travelers in the restricted passenger-only areas beyond security.Dubbed the “Visitor Pass Program,” the plan allows guests without same-day tickets to reach domestic gates within the terminal. According to a statement from the airport and reported by the Seattle Times, the program is set to begin Nov. 9 and is available to people who meet Transportation Security Administration requirements....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: Chase Sapphire Reserve"Reader Questions" are answered three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — by TPG Senior Writer Julian Mark Kheel.There are a plethora of ways to book a hotel room — online travel agencies, bank travel portals or even with the hotel itself. So TPG reader Nick sent us a Facebook message to ask about the value of one specific option over another…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Nick”]Should I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve through the Chase portal to book hotel rooms or use the hotels....

Doha, Qatar, is the host city for the FIFA World Cup 2022 soccer tournament, which is one of the world’s most-watched (and most-attended) events. Host cities around the world go on construction frenzies in the years leading up to the World Cup, building everything from infrastructure such as drainage systems and new bridges to housing for the athletes and hotels for the guests who will descend on the city once the tournament starts....

We’re partnering with Capital One to launch our new Purposeful Travel Hub. If you have unique ways you like to give back when you travel or just love exploring new places with family and friends, we want to hear about it. Share your most treasured travel moments and purposeful travel tips with us using #MeaningfulMoments.Every trip has a purpose. We travel for business and for pleasure, sometimes to relax or to explore, to accomplish work or completely unplug....

Would you turn off your phone if it meant a free hotel stay?Traveling used to be all about being in the moment and experiencing a new destination. Now, for many of us, it’s also about getting that perfect Instagram picture. In fact, according to combined research, the average person spends more than four hours a day on their device. That’s a quarter of your waking hours.Well, one hotel in Sweden is trying to change that....

ExpertFlyer is joining the Cyber Monday mania and offering a 15% discount on its Premium subscription. The promotion is valid today, Dec. 2 only, so if you’d like to take advantage of it, act quickly.For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.For those unfamiliar with the website, ExpertFlyer is a service that allows you to check award availability for flights. It has a vast inventory of information and you can check seat charts, set email notifications and more....

Life has given us all a few (or perhaps a lot of) lemons over the last couple of weeks. The entire TPG staff has been hard at work not only reporting everything you need to know about COVID-19 but also thinking about how we can take those lemons and turn them into lemonade for you, our readers.This led us to develop our new #TPGLemonade sessions: a series of 15-minute overview trainings on one loyalty program at a time....

There’s UberX, UberPool, UberXL, UberBlack and now Uber Copter. Uber Copter is Uber’s newest ride-hailing service, this time allowing users to book on-demand helicopter rides. Uber Copter will begin flights in New York City on July 9 to take passengers from Lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in just eight minutes.Uber Copter will only be available to those with Platinum and Diamond status of the Uber Rewards loyalty program....