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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.As part of a week-long winter vacation, TPG contributor Michael Spelfogel stayed at the St. Regis Punta Mita for five nights. Read on for his impressions. All photos are by the author.While Christmas and New Year’s are probably the busiest times to travel to the Caribbean and Latin America, my family always looks for a warm-weather locale to escape the frigid New York weather....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card, Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American ExpressAfter an unveiling at ITB Berlin, Qatar Airways’ first aircraft with the brand-new Qsuites debuted at the Paris Air Show this week. And, it looks spectacular. In the words of TPG himself, it “feels like first class.” But, thankfully for award pricing purposes, it’s classified as a business-class product....

It’s “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile was responsible for Wednesday’s crash of a Boeing 737 near Tehran, officials from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom said Thursday.The claim is a dramatic development in the crash, which killed all 176 onboard the Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800.“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday from Toronto, according to The Associated Press....

Hey you, you’re at work and reading The Points Guy? Surprise, you’re not alone — at least according to Kayak’s study. In fact, most Americans (57%) are planning their next trip during the workday. The one major problem: Don’t let your boss see!Kayak is making travel browsing easier while at work with a new version of its desktop site. The version, which is a guise for a traditional spreadsheet, has Kayak’s search tool built in to the cells....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.With the current 30% Amex transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic – which is available now through November 30, 2013 – I’ve had a lot of readers writing in and asking questions about whether transferring to Virgin makes sense for their flying needs. So I wanted to put together this post to discuss some other options for transferring Amex points into miles with other airlines who are partners with both Membership Rewards and Virgin Atlantic for flights on Virgin to help you compare your options and whether actually transferring to Virgin makes sense....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.The Northeast is bracing for its second winter storm in less than a week. This time around, it’s Winter Storm Quinn. The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings from eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey to New York’s Hudson Valley and throughout much of New England. Several cities along the East Coast are expected to see the brunt of the storm, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, Hartford, Portland and — to a lesser extent — Baltimore and Washington, DC....

Autonomous cars are one thing, but planes? We’re a ways away from the days planes fly themselves — intentionally, anyway. So imagine the surprise of those at the Modesto Airport (MOD) in Northern California when a Beech V35B began moving with one small detail missing: the pilot.But that’s exactly what happened recently to the single-engine plane. Unable to get the plane to start, the owner had “walked away from the plane, the engine engaged and [the plane] started rolling down the runway,” according to Fox News....

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.Back in 2013, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) introduced the “Wag Brigade,” a team of trained dogs that help stressed and frenzied travelers relax before their flights. As of this week, the Wag Brigade welcomed its first non-canine member — a pig named LiLou....

After red-eye flights, there’s nothing like a proper shower to get refreshed for the day ahead. American Airlines knows that well and has an arrivals lounge in London Heathrow (LHR) that’s packed with 30 showers. But there’s more to love about this lounge than just the showers. Let’s take a look inside this small but very nice lounge.AccessIn order to enter the lounge, you must be arriving on a long-haul flight into London Heathrow Terminal 3....

While it’s common in other cultures to celebrate upon landing, Airplane Clappers are generally scoffed at here in the US (Puerto Rico excluded). From a Seinfeld episode to a Saturday Night Live skit, society’s message is clear: there’s no need to clap upon landing, unless there’s a good reason such as an emergency landing.On Thursday, one Twitter user spelled out a truly nightmarish scenario for those that can’t stand Airline Clappers: unknowingly marrying one....

View this post on Instagram Baltimore/Washington Concourse A extension (opening ~2020), by WSP. #airportarchitecture A post shared by Airport Architecture (@airportarchitecture) on Dec 18, 2019 at 7:02am PST View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram Baltimore/Washington Concourse A extension (opening ~2020), by WSP. #airportarchitecture A post shared by Airport Architecture (@airportarchitecture) on Dec 18, 2019 at 7:02am PST

We know we don’t have to tell you this, but attending the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will cost you.The Summer Olympics draws hundreds of thousands of spectators, competitors and support staff to one city, which means that everything from flights to hotels and event tickets can be hard to find (and afford). Japan is even building a temporary terminal at Narita International (NRT) to handle the surge of visitors.For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter....

One week after an American tourist and a safari field guide were kidnapped and held for ransom in Uganda, the US State Department has decided to add a new risk indicator to its list of travel advisories.In a statement released on Tuesday, the department said a new kidnapping indicator, marked by the letter “K” has been introduced “in order to communicate more clearly to US citizens the risks of kidnapping and hostage taking by criminal and terrorist actors around the world....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.To some, 15+ hours on a plane is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment. To others, it represents the chance to book premium-cabin award tickets and enjoy a few of the best products in the sky for as long as possible. Today, I’ll look at the five longest flights currently operating and explore award-booking opportunities for seats in first and business class....

As you walk down the jetway to board your aircraft, you may smell exhaust fumes — it’s the peculiar tang of jet fuel, usually burned by the small, auxiliary engines in aiprlane’s tails that keep the air conditioning and power going while the main engines are off.But what, exactly, is jet fuel?Fueling a Southwest Airlines 737 at Oakland International Airport, California (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)“Jet fuel is diesel,” says Scott Martin, Research Faculty at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, an expert in propulsion technologies with experience at Boeing and federally-funded research grants under his belt....

Virgin Voyages wants to make a major splash into the cruise market when it debuts in 2020. But instead of jumping on the industry-wide trend of building oversized vessels and fighting for the title of “biggest” at sea, Virgin’s hoping to win over cruisers — and even never-would-I-ever cruisers — by offering a product that’s simply unlike anything else.Not only is the cruise line taking the adults-only route, by offering its sailings only to passengers who are older than 18, but it’s aiming for a more yacht-like experience....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.When I think of flying from the US to Hong Kong, my mind immediately jumps to Cathay Pacific. Hong Kong’s largest carrier has long dominated the market for flights between the US and the Southeast Asian megacity. Over the years, it’s built up a large amount of brand cachet, mostly thanks to its terrific first- and business-class products....

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.Even if you’re skeptical about allowing emotional support animals aboard planes, you should still take a minute to look at this dog flying coach on China Southern.If you weren’t sure, what you’re looking at is a 13 second video of a massive, brown Alaskan Malamute aboard a passenger plane....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Frontier Airlines is having an election day sale today with flights starting at $29 from several cities that they fly from including Denver, Omaha, Phoenix, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Washington-Dulles, and Trenton, NJ for select dates this November and December.Frontier is having a fare sale with flights from $29 each way.If you are interested in scoring any of these fares for $29, be sure to book sooner than later because during the past several sales that Frontier has offered, the fares usually sale out rather quickly....

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....