Posts

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 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. Remember: Fares may disappear quickly, so book right away and take advantage of Orbitz’s courtesy cancellation if you’re unable to travel....

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 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. Remember: Fares may disappear quickly, so book right away and take advantage of Orbitz’s courtesy cancellation if you’re unable to travel....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here - The Platinum Card® from American Express, Chase Sapphire Preferred CardFor bookings made now through September 20, 2013, for travel from now through the end of its award availability schedule (about 11 months out), Virgin Atlantic is offering discounted economy awards of just 25,000 miles roundtrip between destinations in the US and London. Tickets normally require 35,000 miles, so this is almost a 30% mileage discount....

This is an installment in my March 2012 Asia Trip Series which includes: A Birthday Present To Myself: Business Class on the World’s Longest Flight for $2.50, Help Me Plan My Asia Trip Starting With Singapore, Flight Review: Singapore Airlines All Business Class Flight From Newark To Singapore, Hotel Review: Intercontinental Singapore, Video Trip Report: Singapore, Hotel Review: Le Meridien Bangkok Avantec Suite, Video Trip Report: Bangkok, Hotel Review: Le Meridien Angkor, Video Trip Report: Siem Reap, Hotel Review: Intercontinental Phnom Penh, Video Trip Report: Phnom Penh and the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields, Hotel Review: W Hong Kong....

Whatcha doing this weekend? If you’re in North America, South America, parts of western Europe or Africa, you can catch a glimpse of what people are calling the “Super Blood Wolf Moon” – a rare astronomical occurrence combining two unrelated events: a total lunar eclipse and a super moon.The eclipse will begin Sunday evening, January 20, and last for a total of three hours and 17 minutes. Totality — the total eclipse of the moon — will occur between 11:41pm EST and 12:43am EST the following morning....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Opening new credit cards to take advantage of sign-up bonuses and limited-time offers is a great way to build up your account balances and unlock valuable award redemptions. Every once in a while, issuers sweeten the pot even more, and today, two of the best cards on the market have announced increased sign-up bonuses the likes of which I’ve never seen....

[tpg_rating tpg-rating-score=“81” ground-experience=“8” cabin-seat=“21” amens-ife=“6” food-bev=“23” service=“23” pros=“Impressive, varied food and beverage selection, personalized service that shines.” cons=“Aging aircraft with outdated IFE and Wi-Fi, seat lacks storage space.” /]To complete my trip around the world, I decided to see if Japan Airlines’ business class really lived up to the hype. After all, TPG Reviews Editor Nick Ellis praised the hard product and the restaurant-quality food, so I was curious to see how my experience would compare a year later....

For the latest update on Hurricane Dorian, check thepointsguy.com/hurricane.As Hurricane Dorian makes its way toward the US with wind speeds of about 150 miles per hour, the category 4 storm has caused major disruptions to the busy Labor Day travel weekend and perplexed forecasters with its ever changing path.On Friday afternoon, Orlando International Airport (MCO) announced its closure ahead of Dorian making landfall, but as the storm’s predicted path has shifted farther north, MCO has lifted its planned closure and decided to continue operations on Monday, September 2....

Aircraft liveries don’t materially impact the passenger experience, but to the general public, they are the brand — while most of the world’s population will never set foot on a United plane, many would recognize the carrier’s blue and gold colors, and the prominent globe tail design.Now, following years of flying a design that was more or less a holdover from Continental — and a long, storied livery lineage — United has finally unveiled its new colors, falling more in line with the airline’s revamped overall aesthetic....

At 36,000 feet over the Indian Ocean, it’s quite a view. Clear pale blue sky reaches down from above until it meets the rich turquoise of the ocean below. Dabs of cotton wool cloud create tiny dark shadows on the water, giving the surface a speckled effect. Even though the air outside is a chilly minus 60F, in my pressurized Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the environment is just like being on the ground on a pleasant summer’s day in Denver....

Construction has begun on — you guessed it — a massive cruise ship that could set yet another size record.This week at the giant Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, the first piece of steel was cut for a new Royal Caribbean vessel that is expected to be at least a tad larger than the current size leader, Royal Caribbean’s much-ballyhooed, 18-deck-high Symphony of the Seas.Photo by Bernard Biger/Chantiers de l’Atlantique....

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.Royal Caribbean has signed a Letter of Intent with the Government of the Bahamas to purchase the Grand Lucayan Resort on Grand Bahama, according to The Bahamas Weekly. The government purchased the property about a year ago for $65 million and is selling it at that same price....

TPG Special Contributor Eric Rosen swung by LAX yesterday for an exclusive tour of Virgin Australia’s new business-class cabin aboard the 777-300ER. There, Virgin Australia Group CEO John Borghetti and Tangerine design-firm Chief Creative Officer Matt Round gave a group of media an inside look at the plane and its new classes of service.After a few lengthy delays due to some issues related to licensing the B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats, Virgin Australia publicly unveiled its new international business class back in May and started flying a newly-refitted 777-300ER on its flagship route from Sydney to Los Angeles....

Each week in his column “The Critical Points,” TPG Loyalty and Engagement Editor Richard Kerr presents his opinion on a loyalty program, card product or recent news that he believes is overlooked, unsung or the result of groupthink taking mass opinion in a direction with which he doesn’t agree. His goal is not necessarily to convince you to agree with his position but rather to induce critical thought for each of the topics and positions he covers....

Even though you buckle and unbuckle them several times per flight, you might not have given much thought to your passenger seat belt. And you may or may not have noticed that sometimes, in business class or first, you’ll have a thicker and heavier leather belt.Whichever kind of seatbelt you have, it probably came from Phoenix, Arizona.That’s where AmSafe, which makes 95% of all airplane seatbelts sold worldwide, is based. Every year, the company ships 1....

New hotels open every day. But it’s less common for an entirely new hospitality brand to appear — especially one that wants to completely rebuild the industry.On Tuesday, the Life House hotel collection began accepting reservations for its first hotel: a 33-room estate in Little Havana, Miami. The colorful, distinctly Caribbean space will welcome guests on Dec. 28, and the second property in the portfolio —a beachy landmarked cottage — is slated to open in South Beach in April 2019....

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....

Update: Unfortunately United is no longer offering the ability to maintain an upgrade when utilizing same-day change.One of my absolute favorite benefits of being a United elite is the ability to move to an earlier or later flight for free within 24 hours of departure. The carrier’s same-day change benefit isn’t quite as straightforward as that offered by JetBlue, which lets you move to a new flight between the same city pairs for $75 without fare class restrictions (and is free for Mosaic elites), but United’s is still easy enough to use, assuming the following conditions are met:The ticket must be issued by United (i....

During the COVID-19 crisis, our team has temporarily ceased taking review trips. However, we have resumed the publication of new flight, hotel and lounge reviews, from trips taken before the lockdown. We hope this will help you choose once we’re all ready to start booking trips again.As part of our final trip of 2020 before the coronavirus lockdowns became our reality, TPG UK head of video Jean Arnas and I flew from Paris to Beirut on board Middle East Airlines (MEA)....

In a move that will expand its role in the travel space, Airbnb has inked an agreement to acquire the last-minute booking app, HotelTonight.If HotelTonight’s most recent valuation of $465 million is accurate, it would be Airbnb’s largest acquisition to date, according to The New York Times.In a statement, Airbnb CEO and co-founder, Brian Chesky, said the deal fits into Airbnb’s plan to build “an end-to-end travel platform” that accommodates all travelers, whether they “plan their trip a year or a day in advance....