Posts

Last month, Air France flight 228 landed in Buenos Aires (EZE) after a 14-hour journey from Paris (CDG). Upon arrival, the crew were detained for six hours by the authorities at the airport. Why? Because they refused to upgrade a passenger, who it turns out is the daughter of a former Deputy Minister of Justice in Argentina. There is, of course, more to the story.The Plea for an Upgrade and DetentionThe young lady apparently demanded to be upgraded to business class upon boarding, and was refused because there were no available seats....

[tpg_rating ticket-class=“business” tpg-rating-score=“69” ground-experience=“14” cabin-seat=“18” amens-ife=“5” food-bev=“18” service=“14” pros=“Full and tasty meal, reasonably priced Wi-Fi, top-notch service.” cons=“Outdated cabin, uncomfortable seat, broken power outlets.” /]As a low-cost subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge flies on both short- and long-haul leisure routes from multiple Canadian hubs. The airline operates both narrowbody Airbus jets and larger Boeing 767s. While these 767s primarily fly to Europe, you’ll find them operating flights up and down the East Coast during the winter, since there’s a lot more demand to fly from Canada to Florida in January than there is to Greece....

Officials in France are bracing for the ninth straight weekend of protests by the yellow vest movement. National police chief Eric Morvan in an interview with France Inter radio said officials are expecting the number of protesters to be back to the levels that were seen prior to the holidays and are expecting the protests to continue to be violent. Last weekend saw around 50,000 protesters, a number up from the holidays but nothing near the 300,000 that turned for the first protest in November....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Flying, staying at hotels and spending money on your credit card aren’t the only ways to get more miles — many programs offer the chance to purchase points and miles outright directly from the brand itself. Hyatt recently made available a 30% bonus when you purchase 5,000 points or more at one time. The offer is available through March 7, and you’ll be able to purchase up to 71,500 points for $1,320....

So, it’s -22 degrees out, the wind chills are unbearable and your flight out of Chicago to somewhere warmer has been canceled. Now what?Well, first and foremost – welcome to winter in the US Midwest and Northeast. Cancellations this time of year aren’t a rare occurrence. In fact, so far, 1,400 flights have been canceled this week alone due to the polar vortex. But what do you do when the weather gets between you and your destination?...

La Compagnie has made a name for itself with unbelievable (and very frequent) business-class sales between the East Coast and Europe. But, until a few weeks ago, the carrier’s product was lackluster — to say the least.At the end of May, one of the carrier’s daily round-trips between Newark (EWR) and Paris (ORY) got a massive upgrade, in the form of a brand-new Airbus A321LR with true lie-flat seats, on-demand entertainment and speedy ViaSat Wi-Fi....

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 5/29/19 3:08pm: Hilton says that the system issue has since been corrected. Everything should be up and running as usual.If this summer weather has you looking forward to your next vacation booking, you might have to put a pin in that....

Today may be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but it’s also the winter solstice — the day with the least sunlight — if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. Friday, Dec. 21, is the shortest day of the year.How little sunlight depends on how far north you are, of course. Iceland, for example, only gets about four hours of sunlight per day during this time of year....

For many travelers, a safari is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The logistics involved in getting to southern or eastern Africa from the U.S. and the cost can pose a challenge to even experienced travelers, and planning a safari is not something typically done on the spur of the moment.TPG just published a story, in fact, dedicated to planning a bucket-list safari — which says, essentially, that a safari like you’ve seen in National Geographic documentaries does require a lot of planning and won’t come cheap....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Uber is now letting passengers in three US cities tip drivers, a feature that the ride-sharing company has been reluctant to implement in the past.In an email titled “180 days of change,” the company proposed solutions to problems that have often drawn the ire of drivers. Listed front and center in its proposal was one of its more pressing issues, the topic of tipping....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard, Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard, Chase Sapphire Preferred CardTPG Reader Steven tweeted me to ask:@thepointsguy: “I value free/low-cost economy flights to London Heathrow. On which credit card should I concentrate my spending? I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, and the Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.“Reader Questions” are answered three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — by TPG Senior Writer Julian Mark Kheel.Both the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card are popular options with points enthusiasts. So TPG reader Kunal wants to know which one he should use on an upcoming Alaska Airlines purchase…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Kunal”]Should I use my Alaska Visa credit card for an Alaska Airlines ticket or should I book it through my Chase Sapphire Reserve?...

You can now bring a bit of the Emirates first-class experience on any plane ride or even at home.Yes, Avgeeks, you’ve just gotten one step closer to immersing yourself in the world of luxury commercial airlines wherever you go because as of Oct. 10, you can now purchase first-class amenities from Emirates online.In addition to the selection of Emirates merch already sold in its e-store, the carrier is now offering items that were formerly only available onboard a first-class cabin, including pajamas, blankets and headphones – no boarding pass required....

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.The E190-E2 is one of the newest aircraft on the planet at the moment. Embraer has been widely promoting the new aircraft, dubbed the “Profit Hunter,” and it’s been making news along the way —from its first public showing to its recent first delivery to Widerøe....

From tropical storm to devastating Category 4, Hurricane Michael has been causing destruction since its landfall in the Florida Panhandle. With the number of relief workers and people left displaced due to the severe conditions, Airbnb has reinstated its Open Homes program to those in need of shelter.The program allows hosts to list properties for $0 on the Airbnb website in designated locations for a temporary period. For Hurricane Michael, the dates in which the free shelter is available are from Oct....

Air Canada offers one of the best business-class lounges in North America at its hub in Toronto. That location opened in 2017, and now the carrier is ready to open its second location in Vancouver (YVR).The Signature Suite in Vancouver is opening on Saturday, March 14 in YVR’s international terminal. This will be a welcome addition for passengers flying Air Canada’s well-regarded business-class product. The lounge will be located one level above the Maple Leaf Lounge by gate 52 in Pier D....

Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321LR aircraft.The airline plans to deploy the new long-range variant of the A321 on “extended, thinner routes” that connect Canada to destinations in Europe, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.“The arrival of this new generation of aircraft is an important moment for our company and our passengers in many respects,” Air Transat COO Annick Guérard says in a statement....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.One of the perks that comes with the United MileagePlus Explorer Card and the United MileagePlus Explorer Business Card is two day passes to the United Club. This benefit alone is worth $118 per year, as day passes at the lounge cost $59 each and the passes are provided when you first sign-up for the card and again each year when you renew the card....

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.Ever since the restrictions on nonstop flights from the US to Cuba were lifted, airlines have somewhat oversaturated the market. There are so many options and so much competition that fares to the island nation have plummeted. And since discounting fares doesn’t seem to be doing the trick, JetBlue is trying to influence its customers to travel to Cuba even more....