There’s one less airline flying to the United States with the Queen of the Skies. Starting December 4, Qantas will remove its Boeing 747 that operates the Sydney to San Francisco route and will replace it with a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.This is currently the last 747 Qantas flies to the mainland US, after the airline replaced 747 service between Sydney and Los Angeles with Airbus A380 and 787 flights last December....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.One of the toughest destinations to reach using points and miles is Australia, especially in a premium cabin, because airlines don’t usually make much award space available. So when space does pop open, it’s important to jump on it while you can if Australia is on your travel bucket list.In recent months, United has released a solid amount of business class award space to the land down under, and today the airline is showing room for two people in both directions between Los Angeles (LAX) and Sydney, Australia (SYD) in May, June and July of 2019....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In light of the relaunch of the 100,000-Avios sign-up bonus (when you spend $20,000 within the first year) of British Airways Visa Signature Card, I suspect a lot of readers will be earning a lot more Avios in the near future, so I wanted to cover a distinctive new feature of BA’s mileage program that lets members redeem Avios for a portion of the cost of flights within Europe....
A British Airways flight out of London bound for Düsseldorf (DUS) accidentally landed in Edinburgh (EDI) Monday morning. Passengers aboard the flight were baffled when the more than 500-mile mix-up occurred.BBC reported that passengers on flight BA3271 had no idea that they were Scotland-bound until they heard the “welcome to Edinburgh” announcement after landing. At first, passengers thought the announcement was some sort of prank. Amid the confusion, the pilot requested people who wanted to go to Düsseldorf raise their hands....
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.If you’ve clicked onto an application page for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card recently, you may have noticed that the line about 5,000 points for adding an authorized user was missing....
After the successful launch of TPGtv earlier this year, I’m excited to announce our new and improved season of TPGtv, which focuses on Japan. It’s no secret that most online videos are now consumed on social media, so we’re changing things up, adding more expert tips and extensive captioning so you can watch the videos on Facebook (or anywhere actually) with the sound off — and still get tons of great takeaways....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available – View the current offers hereWant 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 that 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.(The Chase Freedom is no longer open to new applicants)Starting today, Chase is offering cardholders of the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited a pretty lucrative deal for a limited time. From March 1-31, 2017, Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cardholders can earn a total of 10% cash back on up to $2,500 in combined hotel and car rental purchases made through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal....
“Reader Questions” are answered twice a week by TPG Senior Points & Miles Contributor Ethan Steinberg.Sometimes when you’re booking travel, especially award travel, it’s less about finding the perfect flight times and more about finding award availability that you can make work with your schedule. Sometimes this means booking a good flight and hoping a great one will become available closer to departure. TPG reader Brian wants to know if he can change award flights the same way as paid ones …[pullquote source=“TPG READER BRIAN”]On a normal United flight, I can do a same day change for $75....
TSA PreCheck is offered by many airlines, a time-saver for travelers including families, and a perk of several travel-rewards credit cards. And if you are currently serving in the US military or are a Department of Defense federal civilian employee, you are eligible to receive TSA PreCheck at no charge.You fit the above description if you are:On active duty status in any US military branch;Serving in the Reserve or National Guard component of any US military branch;A cadet or midshipman in one of the US Service Academies;A DoD federal civilian employee....
The number of cruises out of Florida that have been canceled or delayed this week due to Hurricane Dorian continued to grow on Tuesday as the storm continued on a path that will put it “dangerously close” to the state’s east coast over the next 24 hours.As of Tuesday afternoon, eight sailings out of Port Canaveral, Miami and West Palm Beach operated by such major lines as Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line had been canceled outright....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.This is an installment in the My 2012 Points Strategy Series. Posts include: Taking Credit Card Inventory, Future Credit Card Applications, Airline Elite Status, Hotel Elite Status.Hotel elite status is often overlooked, but frankly can be much more rewarding than airline status, which seems to get all of the attention. Frankly, hotels can be a huge portion of travel costs and when you spend enough nights a year in them, you often crave unique experiences from your run-of-the-mill standard room....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.With Thompson joining the Hyatt family following the acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality, we set out to review some of the top properties that we expected to soon be bookable with Hyatt points. Sadly, that’s not exactly how things panned out. One notable Thompson hotel didn’t make it on Hyatt’s list — the property I chose to review in Playa del Carmen, Mexico....
As part of my recent visit to the new Istanbul Airport to experience the world’s largest airport terminal building, I was eager to check out the jewel in its crown. Turkish Airlines had won praise in frequent-flyer circles for operating possibly the best business-class lounge in the world at the old Istanbul Ataturk Airport.I had visited the Ataturk lounge several times and was blown away by its stunning design as well as the delicious food, though I observed that the increasing numbers of passengers using the lounge meant the overcrowding was seriously detracting from the allure of the facility....
Some people love it. Some people can’t wait for it to be gone and replaced by more modern airplanes. But whatever their opinion, everybody definitely notices it, because it’s the loudest commercial jet in the United States by far.The McDonnell Douglas MD-80, which first flew in 1979, is also the oldest jet in airline service in the US. American Airlines, which used to be the largest operator of MD-80s in the world, is retiring them from service on Sept....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week:Up to 3,000 Avios for Hilton Stays: Members of British Airways’ Executive Club who are also members of Hilton HHonors and who stay once before the end of 2013 will earn between 1,000-3,000 Hilton HHonors points. The number of bonus Avios you get is based on your Executive Club tier status at the time....
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.Two Utah teenagers are being held in a youth detention center after allegedly stealing a small plane. The incident, which took place during the day on Thanksgiving, is connected to the theft of a tractor after the teenagers escaped from a group home near Salt Lake City, Utah....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Have you ever been the last kid picked at dodge ball, just standing there against the wall looking at your feet, far away from the rest of the “cool kids”? Well, I am pretty sure that is me today in the miles and points blogging world. You see, unlike most miles and points bloggers (such as Lucky and Gleff), I actually like the new British Airways miles program, Avios....
Since its initial launch in October 2011, the Transportation Security Administration’s expedited screening program, PreCheck, has become so popular (used by about 5 million out of the 14 million weekly airline passengers at the US’s 450 airports) that these days it’s sometimes the slowest security lane at the airport. That hasn’t stopped its forward march, however, and after expanding eligibility to some international itineraries last May, the Associated Press has just announced that PreCheck is expanding its international reach once again....
