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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.The arrival of October means the arrival of a new quarter of bonus categories for the Chase Freedom (No longer open to new applicants). Each quarter, Chase Freedom cardholders can get 5% cashback — or 5x Ultimate Rewards points if they also have a premium Ultimate Rewards-earning Chase credit card, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, on a new list of categories....

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.While many of us get the Christmas holiday off from work, allowing us to spend time with our family, there are some industries in which giving every employee the day off is just not possible. The aviation sector is one of those industries....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Every summer I am drawn to experiencing a family beach trip at least once. It doesn’t have to be a far flung adventure around the world just to dip our toes in the water, but I have found that we seem to enjoy the white sands and blue water of the beaches that are a little too far from home to easily reach by car....

The entrance of JetBlue into the transatlantic market is on the mind of a number of major airlines, including British Airways’ CEO Alex Cruz.While JetBlue isn’t expected to enter the London market until 2021, and the airport to which it’ll fly has still yet to be disclosed, the looming introduction of a JetBlue route — and the ‘Mint Effect’ — seems to have the attention of Cruz.“Airline pricing at the end is based on supply and demand,” Cruz told Skift’s Brian Sumers at the Skift Forum Europe on Tuesday....

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.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....

It’s back! Southwest Airlines launched one of its two big annual fare sales Tuesday, sending round-trip fares below $100 round-trip on dozens of the carrier’s shortest routes as part of a 72-hour flash sale.Southwest’s longer routes are on sale too, with the carrier roughly pegging its sale fares to distance. The cheapest fares in the airline’s sale begin at $49 each way and increase to tiers of $79, $99 and $129 on longer routes....

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....

Almost a year ago to the day, Delta Air Lines made headlines after a controversial decision to cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA), whose members received discounts on group travel. The decision to cut ties came in the wake of the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in the deaths of 17 students and faculty.Many viewed Delta’s decision to cut ties with the NRA as a political statement....

Marriott is already home to some pretty distinctive properties as part of its Luxury Collection, such as Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa in Dubai and The Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu. But there are some independent properties so exclusive, remote and, well, expensive they can make even a St. Regis seem ordinary by comparison.Think: Richard Branson’s Necker Island Resort, which can be booked with Virgin Atlantic miles provided you have Flying Club status....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.If you’re in New York City this weekend, you’ll now have one more reason to consider using Uber to get around. The ridesharing service’s latest promotion gives riders a 50% discount in New York City with the code MDWNYC50. To be eligible, your ride must originate in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island or Queens.There are no indications that your end destination must also be in one of the five boroughs, which means that Uber could be a viable option when traveling in the greater New York area for the holiday weekend....

As the beloved Toy Story franchise suggests, a child’s best friend often is a favorite toy. But when seven-year-old Grayson walked off of Southwest Airlines Flight 933 over Thanksgiving 2019, he left behind his beloved teddy bear.“I know this is a long shot request,” Grayson’s mother, Chrissy Mulligan, wrote on Southwest’s Facebook page, but “If anyone finds this bear could you message me? Again, I know this is a crazy request, but I promised my little guy we’d try to find him....

Today, Hilton announced 2019 as its best year yet for luxury properties, with four of its newest already open and seven more to debut before year end. This follows Hilton’s shift toward high-end hotels, which currently comprise just 65 locations out of its thousands-strong portfolio.Photo courtesy of Muraka Conrad MaldivesThis is good news for Hilton loyalists, as the brand has long lagged behind its competitors when comparing ultra-high luxury hotels. In the past, customers have been limited to properties such as the Conrad Maldives and Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah, which, while beautiful, lag behind the sheer excess that is the St....

Japan Airlines (JAL) is facing a major crisis after airline pilots have failed breath-based sobriety tests 19 times in the past 15 months. Each pilot was found to have alcohol levels above 0.1 mg/L, according to a local newspaper.“This puts a severe dent in [JAL’s] reputation,” said Geoff Tudor, a Japan Aviation Management Research analyst based in Tokyo.The most recent pilot scandal involved a co-pilot who was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport on Oct....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG Contributor Lucy Kafanov recently returned from a trip to Myanmar, where she spent time exploring Yangon and getting to know the culture and people of this once closed-off nation.For more than half a century, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) was cut off from the rest of the world by a military dictatorship — a country whose leaders were brutal and secretive, its people oppressed and desperately poor....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Since Uber launched its credit card, it was only a matter of time before its main ride-sharing rival, Lyft, responded with something of its own. Today, Lyft is launching a rewards program for its business riders that will offer up to 10% back on their rides.To enroll, you’ll first have to sign up for a Lyft business profile, if you don’t already have one, and opt-in to the program via the app or through email....

Quick, name the foreign airline with the biggest passenger count in the New York City area.Lufthansa? British Airways? Pat yourself on the back if you guessed Norwegian Air.The airline says it passed Air Canada to take the top cumulative passenger count for foreign carriers flying out of the five airports run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.Norwegian, citing official Port Authority passenger numbers, says it tallied 2,078,847 passengers across the three New York City-area airports the airline uses during a rolling 12-month period ending in February 2019....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Today’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but it’s also the first day of New York City’s winter Restaurant Week, which runs through February 5 (so it’s actually three weeks long, rather than one). There are hundreds of restaurants in Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond to choose from, with a 3-course lunch priced at $25 or dinner priced at $38....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.I talk about a lot of credit cards because frankly signup bonuses are the single most lucrative source of points and miles out there. After all, last year alone I took in over 600,000 credit card points and my credit score actually increased! But TPG reader Amy had a question about one in particular that I haven’t talked about in a while:“Why do you never (well hardly ever) mention the Starwood Am Ex card for traveling points/miles?...

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you might have missed from the week before, plus a few new stories. If you’re an avid TPG reader, you’ll want to skip ahead to the new stuff. Here’s the top miles, points and travel news you might have missed on TPG this week.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhat Credit Cards Does The Points Guy Have?More importantly: What do his annual fees add up to?Capital One Launches Transfer Partners, Adds Two More AirlinesYou can now transfer to 14 partners rather than the original 12, but these two have a different transfer ratio....