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Eighteeen years ago today, on the sunny morning of Nov. 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 bound for the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from Kennedy Airport in New York City.Seconds into its climb, the flight encountered wake turbulence spun from a Japan Airlines 747 that had departed a few minutes earlier. The wake itself was nothing deadly, but the first officer, Sten Molin, who was at the controls, overreacted, rapidly and repeatedly moving the widebody jet’s rudder from side to side, to maximum deflection....

This week, a privacy bug in Apple’s inbuilt FaceTime calling software was discovered. In a nutshell, it allowed users to hear (and in some cases see) another person they dialed without the other party even answering. Apple has since disabled group FaceTime calling on its side until a fix is issued, which should come later this week per an official statement.While you’d be wise to turn FaceTime off completely until the bug is fixed, it’s also worth pausing to check your privacy settings more broadly so you’re aware of what’s tracking you and when....

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.With the holiday season around the corner, people are scrambling to find the perfect thing to gift their loved ones. Well, if you happen to live far away from your family, are in a long distance relationship or perhaps just want to take the opportunity to travel somewhere free of charge, JetBlue is offering flights to five lucky people to surprise their loved ones....

An ice cream shop with a specialty shake in Denver and a bathtub with a view for planespotters in San Francisco are a few of the new airport attractions to help you pass the time waiting for that next flight.Here’s what to check out on your next layover:Bag storage/delivery service at San Diego AirportA new service called Baggage Nanny at San Diego Airport (SAN) will help you with your bags if you’ve arrived in the city but it’s too early to check into your hotel or Airbnb....

Update: Some of the offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express, Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card From American ExpressToday American Express launched a new welcome offer for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express. The current bonus is 30,000 miles when you spend $1,000 in 3 months, and a $50 statement credit on your first Delta purchase in the first 3 months- all with the $95 annual fee waived the first year....

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.One of the biggest perks of Priority Pass is the more than 1,000 lounges in its portfolio around the world. Now, it’s continuing its non-traditional lounge expansion by adding the Corona Beach House in Miami International Airport (MIA) to its network....

If you were hoping to take a jump on the SkyPad trampoline/bungee/VR experience on your next Royal Caribbean cruise we might have some bad news. The cruise line has temporarily closed the attraction following a passenger injury on board the Mariner of the Seas that sparked at $10 million lawsuit, according to the Miami Herald.Casey Holladay, a passenger on board the Mariner of the Seas, was injured in February after the harness he was in on the SkyPad failed....

Earlier this year, American Airlines retired its fleet of McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 aircraft.The planes were a workhorse for American, having served short and medium-haul routes for the airline since the 1980s.While the retirement signaled the end of the MD-80 era at American — the airline invested in more modern, fuel efficient aircraft — some of the planes will carry on with a new purpose.Sign up for the free daily TPG newsletter for more airline news....

Each Saturday, we round up news stories that you might have missed from the week before. Here’s the top miles, points and travel news you might have missed on TPG this week.Southwest Airlines Is Now Selling Tickets to HawaiiHere’s what you need to know.Where Are All the Women CEOs in Aviation?In honor of yesterday’s International Women’s Day, TPG takes a look.At Long Last, The First Commercial Flights in Decades Are Taking Off From Paine FieldIt’s the newest commercial airport in the US....

Italy is effectively on lockdown in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The government has extended to the whole of the country the restrictions it had introduced previously in Milan, Venice and surrounding areas. The measures include curtailing freedom of movement, canceling all public events, shutting down museums and most public places and closing all schools and universities.That means a nation of 60 million is sequestered indoors, and tourism, while not banned outright, will become extremely difficult....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Last week, American Express rolled out some significant changes to its line of premium cards. For the personal Platinum Card® from American Express, you’ll now earn a whopping 5x points on all airfare purchases. Perhaps even more significant are the changes to The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN— it’s currently offering a sign-up bonus of 75,000 bonus Membership Rewards points after spending $10,000 within the first three months of account opening and an extra 25,000 bonus points if you spend an additional $10,000 in the same period of time....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.I’d started off my first-ever trip to Vietnam by spending a few nights checking out the nightlife and learning to cook my favorite dish in Hanoi, then flew by seaplane to Ha Long Bay for an overnight cruise. Now it was time to head south to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, as it’s called today, where I stayed at the Park Hyatt Saigon and got a rare chance to participate in a play at a local theater....

So far in my series on my trip to Australia with TPG Managing Editor Eric, I’ve covered how I used miles to book my award ticket, my flight from LAX-MEL in United GlobalFirst, the day I spent wine-tasting out in the Yarra Valley, a restaurant review roundup of all the fantastic places we ate in the city, and my review of the Westin Melbourne. For today’s trip report, here are my thoughts on the Jetstar flight we took from Melbourne to our next destination, Hamilton Island....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Ben asks:“What is the minimum credit score needed to get approved for all these reward cards? What is the lowest credit score you have heard of getting approval for a premium product like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card?“There is no one magic score that will automatically get you approved for any credit card. Credit card companies will take into account a lot of different factors in addition to your 3-digit score when determining an approval:1) The ratio of your amount of debt to available credit2) Your relationship with that bank (do you already have a bunch of open credit with them)?...

2019 has already seen its fair share of changes to hotel loyalty programs. From award chart changes at IHG Rewards Club, World of Hyatt and Radisson Rewards along with the official launch of Marriott Bonvoy (and the upcoming implementation of Category 8 pricing), it’s been a busy several weeks, and we’re not done yet.Today brings yet another round of updates, this time from Wyndham Rewards. These changes are slated to take effect April 3, giving you roughly six weeks to prepare....

A new report from Second Measure shows that vacation travelers spent more with Airbnb than they did with Hilton, HomeAway and IHG in 2018. While the report doesn’t include business travel, it does show that Airbnb is a formidable opponent, taking more and more market share from traditional hotels.Airbnb is also positioning itself to give platform users even more options in the future. The company recently acquired HotelTonight, a platform that allows users to book last-minute hotels at discounted prices....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.If your travel plans are flexible this October 31, today’s deal is tough to beat. JetBlue is offering a $31 price tag for many domestic flights — including transcons — on Halloween. This is the only travel date JetBlue is offering at this price point, so unless you plan on flying back the same day, you’ll have to spring for a normal-priced ticket on one of your flights....

Did you know that American Airlines has a secret score for each of its passengers? And this score determines whether the airline will bend the rules for you, whether that’s for extending the deadline for expiring systemwide upgrades or waiving change fees.The airline won’t say anything officially about the program, so we are left to gather information from loose-lipped agents and leaks from those with inside connections. Here’s what we know:The BasicsThe program is referred to as the “Helix Score” and is based on a rating of one to five Eagles....

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 past week, The Points Guy teamed up with Starwood Preferred Guest to throw an amazing party with GRAMMY-nominated artist Lil Uzi Vert. Between the wanderlust-evoking digital exhibition and the booming performance by Uzi, it was a night to remember....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.With Tax Day looming in the United States, the last thing anyone wants to think about is shelling out more money. Mercifully, a number of credit cards and airlines/hotels are offering easy ways to reduce the cost of using tax-filing software.A host of American Express cards are offering $20 off TurboTax’s Self-Employed or Self-Employed Live software, while you’ll get $10 to $15 back on its lower-tiered products....