Posts

We reported earlier in November that Air Canada was going offline for a few days while it updated its system. Unfortunately, while that update is complete, booking issues remain rife between Air Canada and Aeroplan, the operator that handles its award bookings. As noted by Live and Lets Fly, the system is currently unusable and any attempts to book award tickets fail completely.TPG’s own tests to book a ticket failed as well, confirming the seeming disconnect between Air Canada’s new backend system, Amadeus and the processes that Aeroplan uses in order to ticket awards....

We’re partnering with Capital One on our Purposeful Travel Hub. If you have unique ways you like to pay it forward when you travel or just love exploring new places with family and friends, we want to hear about it. Share your most treasured travel moments and purposeful travel tips with us using #MeaningfulMoments.There are plenty of good reasons to hop on a plane and fly halfway across the globe, but should food really be one of them?...

For the fifth year in a row, international frequent flyer Peter Shankman has donated his airline miles to help strangers get home for the holidays.https://imgur.com/t/home_for_the_holidays/I5xnNHjShankman, an entrepreneur and public speaker, first came up with the idea because “there are only so many times I can send my assistant and her boyfriend on free trips,” he said. Each year, Shankman uses the hashtag “#HomefortheHolidays” on popular community-sharing website Imgur for interested candidates to share their stories of where they want to go for the holidays....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In light of the news that the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard will be raising its sign-up bonus minimum spending requirement from $1,000 in 90 days to $3,000 in 90 days any time now, I know a lot of you are considering a round of applications to get in on some of the great deals out there at the moment while you still can....

As expected, on Wednesday, Samsung introduced a suite of new traveler-friendly smartphones. One, the Galaxy Fold, costs $1,980. Yes — just 20 bucks short of a cool two grand. That is one bold move.But before I dig into the Fold, I’m going to focus on what’s sure to be Samsung’s more popular option: the Galaxy S10. Just as with Apple’s current iPhone X lineup, Samsung’s offering three models: the 6.1-inch S10 ($899), the 6....

Getting the opportunity to travel may be one of life’s greatest luxuries. Visiting a new destination means you can try new food, meet new people and experience a different culture. And it seems that women are the ones hitting the road more often.According to George Washington University School of Business, almost two-thirds of travelers today are women, and an earlier Booking.com survey revealed that 72% of American women are going on their journeys alone....

In an Oval Office meeting earlier this month that featured “a lot of yelling,” according to one attendee, President Trump took US airline executives to task over their ongoing dispute with Middle Eastern carriers.NBC News first reported on the meeting, which was attended by the CEOs of American and United, as well as Qatar Airways, JetBlue and cargo carriers FedEx and Atlas Air.The meeting revolved around the claim by American, Delta and United that the three biggest airlines in the Middle East — Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad — are violating the so-called Open Skies agreements regulating air traffic between their nations and the US....

The Airbus A220 is regarded as a customer-friendly aircraft thanks to its large windows, spacious overhead bins and only one row of middle seats. Although there’s a plant in Alabama now producing A220s for US airlines, Delta is the only US airline currently flying the aircraft while JetBlue waits for the 60 Airbus A220s it has on order.International airlines have been quicker to adopt the new aircraft type, and now one of those will be launching A220 service to the US soon....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Here’s a unique situation for this time of year: the forecast doesn’t call for snow, ice, sleet or even freezing weather, but airlines are setting up travel waivers — allowing you to change your flight with no fees — for New York City airports for flights on Monday.It turns out an “intensifying” Nor’easter storm is moving up the east coast and threatening to ground flights just with its strong winds....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Offer Expired: October 25, 2013The current public offer for the Business Gold Rewards card from American Express carries no bonus or spending requirements, but for a limited time, American Express is offering new cardholders 50,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months and the $175 annual fee is waived for the first year.Every so often, American Express offers limited-time bonuses on this card that last anywhere from a day to a few weeks....

Aviation museums usually follow a standard formula: static displays of aircraft alongside memorabilia cabinets and airplane models galore. Although pegged to a fast-changing industry, the museums themselves often are dated temples to the past, appealing mainly to die-hard enthusiasts and industry employees.The American Airlines CR Smith Museum is bucking that trend, reimagining what it means to be an airline museum with a 21st-century interactive bent.Located on the American Airlines campus just minutes from Dallas/Ft....

American Airlines was the first of the major US airlines to install a true premium economy seat, starting in October 2016. And now AA is about to be the first to complete its premium economy retrofits.On Tuesday evening, the final aircraft to get a premium economy retrofit, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration N816AA, was ferried from Dallas/Fort Worth to Everett. In a couple of weeks, this aircraft should return to service to complete the international retrofit process....

Japan Airlines has unveiled the cabin of its new Airbus A350-900 which will operate high-volume domestic routes. That’s right: JAL is using the airplane flying the longest nonstop in the world to cover domestic sectors in Japan. Both JAL and competitor ANA have long used big twin-aisle jets for domestic routes, since Japan’s dense population makes them economically viable on short flights.JAL’s domestic Airbus A350s feature 369 seats spanning three cabins....

Airlines sometimes give us surprises, and this Monday night, JetBlue gave us a surprise that I was really excited about. It scheduled the brand-new Airbus A321neo on its first commercial flight, two weeks before the plane’s official debut.Naturally, I was excited by the opportunity to get a first-hand look aboard, since JetBlue has been tight-lipped about what it’d look like inside. Aside from promising that the plane would feature a similar interior to the ‘Phase 2’ retrofit program for the carrier’s Airbus A320s, we didn’t know much else until Tuesday morning’s flight to Orlando....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Citi is a TPG advertising partnerA brand new transfer partner has been added to Citi’s ThankYou points program: Avianca LifeMiles. Avianca is a Colombia-based Star Alliance airline — the third-biggest airline in South America by passengers carried. But what’s more important is that the airline’s LifeMiles program provides some exceptional award value, especially on partner bookings.The Points Guy’s Richard Kerr recently did a comprehensive write-up about the LifeMiles program....

Boeing is pledging to pay out $100 million over several years to aid families, municipalities and local organizations in affected by two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft.The aerospace giant has been under intense scrutiny for months following the crashes, which happened about five months apart and left 346 dead. Now, as the company continues efforts to get MAXes re-certified for passenger service, it is also working to restore faith in communities most affected by the crashes....

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.I was excited for my first trip to Paris, and had heard great things about the Hyatt Paris Madeleine from a coworker at The Points Guy. It’s in a great but quiet neighborhood, and is a top-tier Hyatt hotel, so I decided it would be the perfect venue for my first trip to the City of Light.BookingThe Hyatt Paris Madeleine was a Category 6 hotel requiring 25,000 points per night for a queen room....

In this fifth installment of “Carrie’s Galley Gossip,” TPG Insider Carrie A. Trey — a flight attendant for a major airline — shares some of her favorite stories from life at 35,000 feet. Be sure to also check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.Horses vs. CowsLate one Sunday evening in November, I left Amsterdam on the night’s last flight to New York, traveling as a passenger. The 747 was mostly filled with a laid-back crowd of business travelers bound for Monday meetings and such, and the back section had been converted to take large, precious cargo around the world....

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.If you spent more than 60 nights with Hilton in 2018, time is quickly running out for you to take advantage of one of your perks from the Honors program: Gifting status to another Honors member. When Hilton refreshed the program in 2018, it added the ability for members to gift their level of status to someone else....