Posts

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.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, which allows you to cancel flights without penalty by 11pm Eastern Time within one day of booking. Remember: Fares may disappear quickly, so book right away and take advantage of Orbitz’s courtesy cancellation if you’re unable to travel....

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.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....

Hawaiian Airlines has launched its newest route with service between Boston Logan (BOS) and Honolulu (HNL) on Friday, now the longest domestic route in the United States. Flight HA89 left Boston on Friday morning with almost 1.5 tons of live lobster onboard, along with TPG’s own Wallace Cotton, who will be reviewing the new route for TPG.An announcement from the airline about the new route referenced the fact that Boston was the largest US market without a direct flight option to Hawaii: ticket sales for passengers flying from New England to the islands last year generated almost $80 million dollars....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.After a business trip to Germany earlier this year, I needed a way to get back home to New York City. I’d flown over to Europe on Air France’s premium-economy product, which disappointed me, and I wanted to try out a competing airline’s premium-economy product to make a comparison. Since I was in Germany, it seemed only natural to give the country’s flag carrier, Lufthansa, a try....

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.Several hotel programs incentivize travelers to book on their websites rather than on OTAs by offering Best Rate Guarantee promises. Generally, they’ll match the lower rate and then bump up the offer a little by giving you a bonus....

Life has given us all a few (or perhaps a lot of) lemons over the last couple of weeks. The entire TPG staff has been hard at work not only reporting everything you need to know about COVID-19 but also thinking about how we can take those lemons and turn them into lemonade for you, our readers.This led us to develop our new #TPGLemonade sessions: a series of 15-minute overview trainings on one loyalty program at a time....

India’s Jet Airways has canceled all international flights for the next few days, raising fears that another carrier is in danger of losing it all. The airline said in a statement that it was nixing all flights from Friday through Monday, April 15.Jet Airways is India’s largest privately owned airline but carries more than $1 billion of debt. This lack of immediate liquidity has led to the cancellations. Reports indicate that the airline is only operating 14 aircraft after it had to ground 10 more planes due to missed lease payments....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MastercardOver the course of this week, I’ll be going through ideas on how you can score some last-minute elite-qualifying miles on the US legacy carriers to put you over the edge for elite status qualification before the end of the year. Posts so far include Last-Minute MQM Ideas for Delta Medallion Qualification, Last-Minute United Premier Status Qualification Ideas, Last-Minute US Airways Preferred Status Qualification Ideas, Last-Minute Virgin America Elevate Elite Status Qualification Ideas....

Update: Category 8 redemption rates went into effect as of March 5, 2019. For details on Marriott redemption options, please visit How to Redeem Points With the Marriott Bonvoy Program.One of the long-awaited changes in the Marriott/SPG integration will be the introduction of new, top-tier Category 8 pricing in 2019. Once this takes effect, standard award rates at roughly 60 luxurious hotels and resorts around the world will jump from 60,000 points to 85,000 points per night....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Annual airline lounge membership – when it’s offered at all – can be an expensive proposition. However, several airlines let you redeem miles for membership rather than paying cash. TPG contributor Nick Ewen takes an in-depth look at the miles options out there and whether any of them are a good value.Airport lounges offer many benefits for all types of travelers....

It’s an inconvenient truth of the airline industry that it’s one of the worst polluters in terms of carbon emissions. Fortunately some airlines have realized their impact on the Earth and are starting to do something about it.Qantas, the Australian flag carrier, has trialed the first-ever flight that will allegedly produce no landfill waste. This is part of a pledge by the airline to eliminate 75% of its on-board waste and cut 100 million single-use plastics by 2021....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG Contributor Nick Ellis recently returned from his second trip to Sin City within a two-week period. Here’s his review of a stay at the Wynn Las Vegas.Just 10 short days after visiting Las Vegas with Team TPG for Vegas Uncork’d, I was scheduled to return to Sin City to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. I had just experienced a great stay at The Palazzo Las Vegas and was excited to try out a different property this time around — I’d heard great things about the Wynn Las Vegas from many people and decided to give it a try....

Air New Zealand’s new holiday commercial is a surprising ode to those who didn’t quite make the nice list this year. On top of that, the airline drops a “Make Christmas Great Again” reference.In the video, Santa accidentally sends out his naughty list to one of the children on it, Elvis Anderson, instead of to the elves. When the boy receives the email notification while in detention, he calls for desperate measures: “The Very First Summit of All the Naughty Kids....

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from the week:Get United MileagePlus miles with Rocketmiles hotel bookings.Rocketmiles Offers United MileagePlus Bonus Miles: Rocketmiles has a new United MileagePlus member offer for 3,000 OR 5,000 bonus miles for the first hotel booking made by May 31, 2014, and completed by December 31, 2014. One offer is for 3,000 bonus miles for a one/two night stay, or 5,000 bonus miles for a stay of three consecutive nights or more....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Starwood Preferred Guest has announced that its three-year partnership with Caesars Entertainment will not be renewed, and is coming to an end on December 31, 2016.The agreement, which launched in January 2014, gave SPG members reciprocal point-earning and redemption opportunities across Caesars hotels in Nevada, New Jersey and Louisiana. In exchange, Caesars Total Rewards members could pick up extra credit for Starwood stays....

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.File this one under one of the coolest things we’ve ever heard of… literally: There’s a jazz festival in the middle of the arctic circle, in a Norwegian town called Longyearbyen, which is known for its views of the Northern Lights....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.The Points Guy is introducing a brand new review format that includes numerical scores for each section of the experience. These scores were used to determine the winners at the 2018 TPG Awards, where JetBlue’s economy product on the A321 was named the Best Domestic Economy Class of the year.[tpg_rating tpg-rating-score=“84” ground-experience=“8” cabin-seat=“22” amens-ife=“14” food-bev=“20” service=“20” pros=“Generous legroom, great IFE system with live TV” cons=“Poor Wi-Fi quality” /]Ever since I stepped off the United elite status hamster wheel a few years ago, JetBlue has been my go-to airline for traveling from New York to visit family in San Diego....

The competition on premium transcontinental routes is fierce. Each major U.S. carrier puts its best planes on these domestic coast-to-coast hops from the New York area to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO).Before the coronavirus pandemic, United was operating a mix of Boeing 757s, 777s and 787 Dreamliners, including the 787-10 from Newark (EWR) to LAX and SFO. But then, following the massive drop in demand at the end of April, the Chicago-based carrier had a strategy shift....

Boeing’s 737 MAX has been grounded all around the world since March 2019, following two fatal crashes attributed to the aircraft’s faulty MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), which was intended to make the aircraft easier to fly.Following modifications, this week, the FAA completed its recertification flights, paving the way for the MAX to return to service. The agency will still need to review data collected during those tests, however, so it could still be months before this latest version of the 737 flies passengers again....