One of the biggest misconceptions about award travel is that all your flights are completely free. If you’ve been collecting and spending points and miles for a while, you know that this is far from true. Today, TPG Senior Points & Miles Correspondent Nick Ewen takes a look at the notoriously high taxes on flights originating in the UK.Planning an award flight on British Airways? Be prepared to open up your wallet!...
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.Calling all dog lovers! MUTTS Canine Cantina, a canine-friendly bar and restaurant with an off-leash dog park, is looking for a puppy-loving individual to take on the role as its first-ever Puptern. Mutts co-founder Kyle Noonan announced in a press release, “In this role, the Puptern will greet MUTTS members with a friendly face, while offering to play and pet with their dogs and that’s it — we Shih Tzu not!...
It had the makings of a very special day. After months of work, the brand new $38 million, 130,000-square-foot facility near 100-year-old Ellington Airport (EFD) would open to the public on Sept. 1 as the new home of Houston’s Lone Star Flight Museum. Then an uninvited guest showed up: Hurricane Harvey, with 130-mph winds and 50 inches of rainfall, and suddenly, it didn’t seem right to have a grand opening. Even though the damage to the building was minor and its planes were fine, employees and visitors had bigger things to deal with — of the 30 employees, at least four families were evacuated and several more lost cars and property in the floods....
European plane manufacturer Airbus said it will boost production at its new assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.The airframer said it will produce seven A320s per month at the plant by the end of 2021, up from the current monthly rate of five.“This increase in commercial aircraft production in Mobile is an exciting expansion of our significant industrial investment in the U.S., and it continues Airbus’ positive contribution to American aerospace,” Jeffrey Knittel, Airbus Americas’ CEO said in a Thursday statement announcing the increase....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.We love to help our readers avoid as many fees as possible. If you’re able to take advantage of credit card benefits, checked baggage fees are some of the easiest charges to avoid. However, that hasn’t stopped airlines from hitting yet another new baggage fee record. From July through September 2016, US-based airlines collected just over $1.1 billion in baggage fees....
Mobile apps have undoubtedly made travel a smoother process. They allow even minimally tech-savvy travelers to avoid some lines and cut down on the documents they need to keep track of.For international travelers though, the apps have had some limits. Though most airlines allow passengers headed to destinations in other countries to check in on their devices, an in-person passport check was still often required prior to boarding.But American Airlines has announced an update to its app that would eliminate that step....
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.This week, we learned that United Airlines is officially retiring its Gift Registry, which has been “under renovation” for a couple of years. Prior to 2017, this had been a great way to use your airline fee credits available on a variety of credit cards....
Sunday evening we reported that Avianca LifeMiles was experiencing a complete system outage. There was no way to make, modify or view reservations or even check account balances online or over the phone.TPG readers wrote in saying that they were experiencing similar issues for several days. Avianca LifeMiles customer service agents did not have an idea of when the website would be live again. With little information why and no end in sight, things were not looking good for fans of this undervalued program....
On Thursday, Brazil’s government approved Boeing’s purchase of a majority stake in Brazilian-based airline manufacturer Embraer — marking a major milestone toward completing the deal to merge the two companies together.The deal, valued at $4.2 billion, will give Boeing an 80% ownership stake in Embraer and therefore control of the company’s operations.In December, a Brazilian court blocked the deal from moving forward because of the upcoming presidential election — stating that because of the government’s veto powers to stop deals like this, the court wanted the new government to make the decision, which could have decades of impact on the country....
Eurowings and Germanwings flight crew are set to vote on whether or not to take industrial action in the coming weeks. Reuters is reporting that the union representing flight crews at the two airlines would walk off the job and strike in July if their members vote in favor of industrial action. With summer travel in full swing during July, any industrial action taken by flight crew could potentially lead to major disruptions throughout Europe and even at airports in the US....
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 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.Jet off to the Caribbean or Latin America with Delta as part of its latest flash sale, with awards from 24,000 SkyMiles round-trip. While it’s not the first time Delta has offered awards to the Caribbean and Latin America as part of a flash sale — and it probably won’t be the last — these are great redemptions that could be worth taking advantage of....
On Friday morning, passengers on Frontier flight 260 experienced a terrifying ride. During the takeoff roll at Las Vegas International Airport (LAS), a portion of the Tampa-bound aircraft’s “engine cover (…) came loose and separated from the aircraft,” according to a statement from the airline.Chicago-based news anchor Dan Ponce tweeted a photo that his aunt took of the engine in flight:Another Twitter user shared a photo of the same aircraft on the ground in Las Vegas after the incident:Sure enough, a Frontier Airlines spokesperson confirmed that part of the engine cowling “separated from the aircraft” in the following statement provided to TPG:During takeoff on Frontier flight 260 from Las Vegas to Tampa this morning, a section of an engine cover called a cowling came loose and separated from the aircraft....
This past week, Luxury Action, a travel company that specializes in luxury travel in the Nordic and Arctic regions, announced that it would be opening up igloos in the North Pole. The catch? This once-in-a-lifetime experience will set you back $105,000. Per night. Oh, and did we mention that the hotel will only be open for one month out of the year?Anyway, it got us thinking: What are the most expensive hotel rooms in the world and what does a high price tag like that get you?...
Frontier likes to loudly announce new routes, often rolling out splashy announcements heralding “major” expansions.This summer has been no exception. In June alone, Frontier unveiled nine at once, seven of them involving Las Vegas. That would be a big day for most airlines, but it’s a modest expansion for an airline that once announced 85 new routes (not a typo) in one day.It’s probably no surprise then that among the 10 largest US airlines, Frontier adds new routes at a faster clip than any other....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.After using my points to stay at a few historic hotels, I started wondering how many other unique properties participate in one of the major loyalty programs. It turns out, there are quite a few! Today, I’ll continue my series on historic hotels that are part of major loyalty programs by taking a look at Starwood properties in the US....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Today, I want to share a story from TPG reader Corina, who ran into trouble while returning from an international trip. Here’s what she had to say:I recently traveled out of the country with my husband and our eight-month-old son. Both my husband and I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and we used the $100 application credits to enroll in Global Entry and TSA PreCheck....
JetBlue’s fleet is certainly getting up there in age. The airline’s first Airbus A320, N503JB, was delivered way back in 1999, and is still flying for the carrier today. Soon, however, passengers boarding even the oldest aircraft in the carrier’s fleet will feel like they’re traveling on a brand-new plane, thanks to a massive fleet-wide overhaul program aimed at bringing the carrier’s workhorse aircraft up to date.JetBlue is undergoing a two-stage retrofit process, with 15 aircraft now complete as part of “Phase 1,” and the first “Phase 2” A320 re-entering service any day....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Citi is a TPG advertising partnerOne of my favorite phrases in the miles and points game is, “It never hurts to ask.” In the past year I’ve gotten thousands of miles, better seats and even money - simply by being nice and asking your preferred credit card company or travel provider. While I recommend not pushing this to the extreme, it’s known that some credit card companies will do almost anything to keep your business....
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Mahon112 tweeted me to ask:“What do you consider a valuable point redemption for airline and hotel (cents per point)?“So just how much are airline miles and hotel points worth? There’s no easy answer to that question and there’s no set value, which is at the heart of what I talk about every day on ThePointsGuy.com.Everyone gets a different value out of their redemptions, and people argue all the time about whether they’re getting the full value of the face value of a ticket or hotel room from the miles or points they redeem for it....
