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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Loyalty programs change their terms and conditions all the time, affecting the value of their points. But today we get a pretty unique opportunity to analyze a brand new transferable points currency from scratch. Capital One has announced that beginning in December, you’ll be able to transfer miles earned on cards such as the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to the following 12 airline programs at a 2-to-1....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.For the last several years, the three major U.S. airlines — United, Delta and American — have all included a revenue requirement for customers to qualify for elite status. In addition to flying a certain number of miles or segments per year, customers also need to earn Premier/Medallion/Elite qualifying dollars which roughly correspond to the cost of their tickets (though earning rates are based on flight distance for certain partner flights)....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.With the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card currently offering a 50,000-point sign-up bonus, the airline’s popular Companion Pass benefit is relatively easy to earn. TPG Senior Points & Miles Contributor Jason Steele shows you how below.The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is not just extremely valuable; it’s invaluable. Once you earn this benefit, as long as it’s valid you never pay any additional airfare to add a companion ticket to any reservation made in your name, either with cash or points....

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.As promised, today’s post is JFK-Lima, Peru on LAN. For this example, let’s assume we want to try something new and want to fly Lan, which is arguably the best business class product to South America....

Errrrbody’s getting into the augmented reality bag scan game. A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about KLM’s new AR feature, which allows you to use a camera phone coupled with the KLM app to check if your bags will qualify as carry-on luggage. The problem with that tool, however, was that 1) you can only access the feature through an existing KLM booking and 2) the measurements obviously are calibrated for KLM restrictions alone....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Citi is a TPG advertising partnerWe recently learned the end date for the current elevated offer on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard: October 16, 2018. As discerning minds might note, that’s tomorrow, so now is truly your last chance to sign up with the increased bonus. The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy....

Miles Away turns 15 today! Well, 15 weeks, at least. But hey, I’ll take it — that’s a big milestone in the wild world of podcasting, and it wouldn’t have been possible without your support!If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts (right here!), or wherever you choose to listen (more links below). It’ll help other listeners discover Miles Away, empowering the TPG team to continue producing episodes for weeks, months and hopefully even years to come....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Almost exactly a year ago, I experienced my worst business-class flight to-date on a United 777-200 from Frankfurt (FRA) to Washington, DC (IAD). Among the strikes against that flight were a business-class cabin that had eight seats across, a seat mate that was chewing tobacco, a crew that wouldn’t enforce the airline’s policies, a grossly undercooked meal, a broken seat and a malfunctioning in-flight entertainment system....

Qantas has quite the plans these days. After declaring yesterday that it wants to operate a nonstop flight from Sydney (SYD) to New York (JFK) even though the technology doesn’t exist yet, the biggest Australian airline has also announced a major overhaul of its A380 cabins.Due to an increase in demand for premium cabin options, the airline plans to remove 30 economy seats from the upper deck and some crew workstations, replacing them with six more business class seats and 25 more premium economy seats....

If you’re afraid that robots will soon take over the travel industry, fear not — that day has yet to come.The Japanese hotel that made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s first robot-staffed hotel when it opened in 2015 has just laid off about half of its 243 robots, according to The Verge.Though robots are being deployed in hotels around the world to help with mindless tasks such as transporting luggage and delivering room service, it turns out they don’t always save humans time and effort....

We all can appreciate some unique, custom liveries to gaze at from the airport window from time to time. Just yesterday, Spirit debuted its “Dumbo”-themed Airbus A321 to celebrate the premiere of Disney’s new live-action take on the classic.Clad with a blue sky of clouds, circus-themed font and the big-eared elephant himself, you can catch the aircraft (registered as: N662NK) flying from Orlando (MCO), San Juan (SJU), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Baltimore/Washington (BWI) for its first three days of service before embarking across the country for the next two months....

Family travel can create lasting shared memories and provide the platform not only for fun, but for bonds to grow even stronger. However, I warn against confusing the term ‘family trip’ with ‘vacation’, at least when you have young children. Very often after a family trip, you may feel like you actually really need a vacation as sleeping in and sitting by the pool with an umbrella drink in hand may or may not happen when you are traveling with little kids....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.“Reader Questions” are answered twice a week by TPG Associate Editor Brendan Dorsey.In June, Chase launched its new co-branded World of Hyatt Credit Card with the hotel chain. But TPG reader Art wants to know if he should still hold onto his old Hyatt Credit Card or convert to the new one…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Art”]Should I get the new Hyatt card or maintain the old card as long as possible?...

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Mike writes in with an interesting scenario that is of particular interest to me and I’m sure many of you as we calculate whether it’s worth it to retain our Amex Platinum cards:Background: Last May, I took advantage of the Amex Platinum sign-up bonus and the Delta/Membership Rewards transfer promotion. It left me with a lot more Skymiles, a fair amount of leftover Membership Rewards points, and bumped me up to Delta Platinum Medallion....

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....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.This week’s Thursday Giveaway is the chance to win a $500 United Airlines gift card to use for your next flight. The carrier recently announced that it would begin flying its flagship Dreamliner aircraft — usually reserved for long-haul international service — on domestic transcons between Newark (EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX). If you’re looking for a retro experience, you might even be able to get on one of the United’s 747 planes, which will be retired by 2018....

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.Next time you’re in the air and looking to purchase a Wi-Fi package, make sure to look at what you’re actually purchasing before entering your credit card number. Specifically, look at how much data you’re getting for what you’re paying — the wording can be very deceiving....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Update 2/9/17 6:22pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Citi ThankYou Points are eligible for transfer to British Airways Executive Club. This error has been corrected.In recent years, we’ve seen increasing competition among international carriers on popular routes including those from North America to Europe. That’s meant cut-rate discount fares from carriers like Norwegian and WOW, but airlines have also invested in their premium cabins in the hopes of luring high-paying passengers to fly business and first....

After the Twitterific fiasco I went through trying to secure KLM Economy Comfort seats for my upcoming trip to Cape Town while booking my flights through Delta last week, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at strategies for getting a better economy seat with the major airlines.Delta’s Economy Comfort seats onboard a 757-200ER.The difference between a regular old coach seat and a premium one like Delta’s Economy Comfort, American’s Main Cabin Extra and United’s Economy Plus can be several more inches of legroom, pitch and recline – and the possibility of escaping a long flight of cramped, crumpled discomfort for…well, slightly less cramped, uncomfortable arrangements (let’s be honest, the airlines still pack you in tightly, but every inch counts)....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.2013 has started off as a pretty solid year for credit card sign-up bonuses. This year has brought some amazing deals via sites like CreditCard.com’s Card Match Tool, which has recently offered now expired 100,000-point Amex Platinum and 50,000-point Amex Premier Reward Rewards Gold deals. Word on the street is that more lucrative bonuses are in store as the economy picks up and consumers are starting to feel comfortable spending again....