Posts

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.While we’ve recently seen some enticing Delta award flash sales (e.g. domestic: 10,000 miles round-trip, Mexico: 12,000 miles round-trip, Asia: 40,000 miles round-trip, Australia: 58,000 miles round-trip), today’s might be the best ever. Nonstop flights to Europe are currently pricing as low as 22,000 SkyMiles round-trip. It’s rare to book an award ticket to Europe for anything less than 34,000 miles round-trip through any mileage program....

At the end of 2018, American Airlines began testing biometric boarding at one gate in Los Angeles (LAX). It’s been nearly nine months since then with little news from AA about its plans to expand biometric boarding, but that ended this week with big news.Since Aug. 13, AA passengers on select international flights have been using biometric boarding to board at the carrier’s largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). The airline currently has the process installed at three gates in its international Terminal D (gates D25, D27 and D29)....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Kevin sent me a message on Facebook to ask about earning Delta Medallion status:“I have a Platinum Delta SkyMiles card, and I’ve passed both thresholds to earn bonus Medallion miles. Can I get another Delta card to earn even more elite miles, and if so, is that a good strategy?”Several airlines offer paths to elite status through spending on co-branded credit cards, but Delta is perhaps the most generous....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Last month, I took what ended up being by far the most expensive car ride of my life. My girlfriend and I decided to “Uber” from New York City to Boston, a trip that spanned 232 miles and took nearly six hours from door to door. As you might expect, this ride didn’t come cheap — after factoring in tolls, tax and tip, we were on the hook for a whopping $587....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Citi is a TPG advertising partnerLast week, we began hearing from readers who have been experiencing issues redeeming ThankYou points for American Airlines business and first-class flights at the advertised 1.6-cent rate for Citi Prestige cardholders. Generally, it appeared that the premium-cabin fares listed through Citi’s ThankYou Travel Center were far pricier than those available elsewhere. Naturally, this impacts the value of ThankYou points, so we reached out to Citi for clarification....

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....

Those considering traveling to Egypt have two more reasons to visit. Egypt has opened the “bent” pyramid for visitors to explore for the first time since 1965, as well as a satellite pyramid. The pyramids, located 25 miles south of Cairo in UNESCO World Heritage Site Dahshur, re-opened to visitors on Saturday.The “bent” pyramid, formally known as King Snefru’s Bent Pyramid, allows tourists to venture down a 260-foot narrow tunnel into two rooms....

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.Drumroll, please.It’s one of our most frequently asked questions. How many points and miles has Brian Kelly, The Points Guy himself, accrued over the nine years since founding TPG? “It’s kind of a personal question,” Brian says. But hey, we get it....

Our adorable and fun-loving Baby S just turned 9 months old, and while we are beyond thrilled with all the fun things she is learning and exploring at this great age, we are less than thrilled that her sleep schedule is still as choppy (bad/horrible/borderline intolerable) as a newborn. I mean, it is really, really bad despite all of our best efforts.It is so bad that we have earned quite a few miles and points hiring a sleep specialist and paying her with our rewards earning credit card....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.A couple of months ago I found myself in a situation where our big summer family trip had fallen apart and I had the opportunity to plan a new relatively last minute summer adventure. Somewhat unexpectedly given how hot it is in Orlando in July, my heart fell in love with the idea of taking the girls to Disney for a few nights....

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 10/11/16: Icelandair is back with a free “Celebration Stopover Buddy service.” It sounds virtually identical to the promotion from earlier this year. Here’s how it works, in the airline’s words:On a transatlantic stopover, all passengers can request a free Buddy and are matched according to their celebration request, however big or small....

TPG Contributor “Vic Vector” is an air traffic controller at a major ATC facility in the United States. In this installment of our Insider Series, he talks about the infamous amount of stress associated with the job and how controllers deal with it.The first thing everyone says to me after finding out my occupation is, “Oh, air traffic control? I hear that’s so stressful!“There’s an old, unattributable adage that’s been applied to everything from war to spaceflight to baseball that describes all of the above as “hours of interminable boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror....

Orlando International Airport (MCO) employees are continuing to monitor one of its longest runways for damage as a result of a massive fuel spill that occurred in late June.Last month, Norwegian Air flight DI7058, an Airbus A340 operated by Hi Fly, erroneously dumped a large amount of jet fuel on one of the airport’s runways following an unplanned diversion shortly after takeoff from MCO. The plane was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport (LGW) and had enough fuel on-board for the more than 4300-mile flight from Orlando to London....

If it takes a village to raise a child, a Boeing 737 full of Southwest passengers is a great start.Dustin and Caren Moore recently shared a heartwarming story about how more than 60 strangers on a flight from Denver to Long Beach made their newborn daughter’s first journey an unforgettable homecoming.Photo courtesy of Dustin and Caren Moore.“I’d like to share with you the kindness strangers offered us the day we brought our daughter home,” Dustin recently shared on Twitter....

After a nearly two-week delay, the rooftop pool at the TWA Hotel at New York-JFK is officially open. The pool was originally slated to be ready for the hotel’s grand opening on May 15. However, with construction still on-going, the first guests to stay at the TWA Hotel were unable to go for a swim as planned and instead could only catch a glimpse of the iconic pool.According to the hotel, the pool area officially opened on Monday, May 27, with the grand opening that evening....

AvGeeks could one day get a new vantage point for plane spotting from the observation deck of the historic control tower at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) – if the right developer comes along.Under a new proposal outlined in a recent report from the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA), the airport authority is looking for a company to turn the under-utilized space beneath the control tower at Dulles into a lounge with access to the historic tower’s observation deck, as reported by View from the Wing....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.[tpg_rating tpg-rating-score=“83” ground-experience=“8” cabin-seat=“22” amens-ife=“7” food-bev=“24” service=“22” pros=“Private seat, delicious food and excellent service” cons=“Many IFE troubles and poor Wi-Fi performance” /]Since starting at TPG almost three years ago, I’ve heard great things about Japan Airlines, specifically its business-class product. The airline flies to several cities in the US, and I finally got the chance to fly it when we set out to determine the world’s best business-class product for the TPG Awards....

DONATE NOW TO SECURE YOUR SPOT AT DELTA FLIGHT ATTENDANT TRAININGEver wondered what it takes to wear the wings of a Delta flight attendant? Well, now’s your chance to find out. TPG and Delta have teamed up to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a day of training at Delta’s Atlanta headquarters in exchange for a donation to Rainbow Railroad. From opening doors and windows in emergency situations to serving a meal and mixing an expert cocktail in Delta One, participants will learn it all....

The coronavirus pandemic has snarled flight schedules everywhere, and in the process has created the new longest scheduled flight in the world — at least for one day.Air Tahiti Nui, a small long-haul carrier based in French Polynesia, has beat the Singapore Airlines record for scheduled flights with a one-off nonstop from Papeete to Paris on Sunday, at 9,775 miles. Singapore to Newark, the daily nonstop on Singapore Airlines, is only 9,534 miles....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Chip and Pin cards are commonplace in Europe, but most US credit cards aren’t issued with this functionality. This renders many US credit cards useless at overseas unattended purchasing machines, like train ticket machines.One of the few excellent travel cards that has Chip + PIN technology is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard,making it an excellent option for a trip to Europe - especially because you can use your points to wipe out these travel purchases....