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Google Flights is one of our favorite tools for searching for flights. While you can no longer use the “old” interface that we all came to love, Google Flights keeps adding new tools for finding cheap getaways. Recently, Google Flights added features such as advising travelers when to book holiday travels, indicators for when you’re getting a good or bad deal and telling you when an airfare will expire soon.One of the best recent features has been the addition of an “overhead bin access” option, which factors in the cost of carrying on a bag into the price shown in the results....

You’ve probably stuck your hand out the window of a moving vehicle in the summertime — pivoted it up and down, changing the angle at which the oncoming wind bends around it. If you tilt it up ever so slightly, your hand goes up.It turns out that your hand can be a pretty good approximation of an airplane wing. Out the window of a moving car, your hand is at once a wing, an aileron, a spoiler and a flap....

Iberia Airlines employees will soon give runways a whole new meaning.The Spanish airline unveiled a new line of uniforms over Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, custom-created for Iberia by one of Spain’s top contemporary designers, Teresa Helbig — the airline’s first woman designer. The uniforms will be distributed to Iberia’s 6,500 cabin crew and ground employees on May 1.Helbig’s designs include more than 20 items of apparel and accessories: Dresses, suits, skirts, trousers, shirts, blouses, overcoats, handbags, cardigans, blazers, scarves, sweaters, neckties and even special uniforms for pregnant employees....

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.If you’re a Lyft customer, check your in app offers for a new pilot program the company has launched. The new offer allows customers to pay a flat $14.99 monthly subscription and save 10% on an unlimited number of rides....

Following a brief connecting flight from London City Airport (LCY) to Zurich (ZRH), TPG Contributor J.P. got a chance to test out Swiss’ brand new Boeing 777-300ER first-class product on a flight from Zurich to Los Angeles (LAX). Here’s his review. (All photos are by the author).After recently flying in first class from San Francisco to Zurich aboard Swiss’ old Airbus A340, I’d gotten a good sense of the carrier’s overall soft product....

The co-pilot of a Sichuan Airlines flight was sucked halfway out of the aircraft on Monday after the plane’s windshield broke off, the flight’s captain told Chinese media.The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday after its windshield cracked and broke off mid-flight, and the aircraft’s cockpit depressurized.The captain, Liu Chuanjian, said there was a sudden ear-splitting noise, and the cabin’s temperature and pressure dropped. When he looked over at his co-pilot, he was hanging halfway out of a gaping hole where the windshield should have been....

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.According to a schedule posted on the Southwest Airlines website by one of its employees, the airline is set to end service between two major US East Coast cities and its Fort Lauderdale focus city in the spring of next year....

With more than 100 flights canceled so far this week, Southwest Airlines is still battling it out with its mechanics.Amid a fiery back-and-forth between the airline’s mechanics and upper management, Southwest has entered a state of “operational emergency” after over 40 of its fleet were out of commission (more than double the average on a typical day) last week. And things have only worsened from there.“We suddenly find ourselves in a period of tension and turmoil surrounding out-of-service aircraft for maintenance and AMFA (Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association union) contract negotiations,’” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a memo to employees late Friday....

Today’s episode is all about TPG, from who we’re hiring to how our content is changing.Kate O’Brien, our director of business development, details our relationship with affiliate partners and why she loves being on the revenue side of operations. She also shares her favorite moment as TPG’s longest-standing employee. Then Scott Mayerowitz, our executive news director, highlights how much we’ve grown editorially, the positions that you, our reader, could be qualified for, and what we value in our TPG employees....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Earlier this year, the Platinum Card from American Express added a set of enhanced benefits that added significantly to the card’s value proposition (though it also added $100 to the annual fee). One of the most interesting to many travelers involved Uber, as cardholders now get $200 of credit every year with the ride-sharing service. However, I learned a hard lesson last month that I wanted to pass along today: You must select (or unselect) this credit before you request a ride with Uber, as there’s no going back to change it after the fact....

We’re just a few weeks away from the end of 2018 and as always, it’s a fantastic time to reflect on the best and worst of the past 365 days when it comes to airlines. (It’s also that time of year when travelers come to the harsh realization that they haven’t flown quite enough miles or stayed quite enough nights to requalify for status.)While our readers might be busy completing their last flights of the year or planning a mileage run, they still took the time to respond to our end-of-year poll — inspired by a recent ABC affiliate report that listed the ‘13 Biggest Air Travel Complaints of 2018’ — asking what they disliked most about air travel and the airline industry this past year....

It’s impossible to operate a global airline in 2020 without negatively impacting the environment. But with United Airlines’ latest sustainability plan, that hopefully won’t be the case forever.Over the next three decades, United plans to go “100% green” — primarily through the use of a technique called “carbon capture and sequestration,” or CCS, which could prove to be far more impactful than the industry’s current “carbon offset” approach.Carbon offsets typically provide funding for projects that reduce our carbon footprint through the use of environmentally friendly practices, like building wind farms or planting trees....

I started the Points Guy website 10 years ago this month.At the time, it was just me, writing stories about earning and using points and miles on nights and weekends. TPG was a hobby, a side hustle, a small operation.But TPG has grown into an international travel brand that employs 90 full-time employees and serves millions of readers every month. As it grew, TPG employed many distinct voices and began to highlight a broader range of topics in the travel space, well beyond just points and miles....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In case you’re just tuning in, we’re launching the inaugural TPG Awards in December, and we’re also continuing our “10 Days of Travel” contest to reward our loyal readers for taking time to vote in the Readers’ Choice categories. We’ve already given away more than $1,000 in prizes, and all you need to do to enter is complete the secure Google poll and let us know which credit cards, airlines and hotel programs are worthy of an honor....

The 103 survivors of Tuesday’s AeroMexico crash realize they are lucky to be alive.“I feel that it’s kind of a miracle that we all made it," passenger Alberto Herrera, 35, told NBC’s Today Show. “It’s just a blessing that I’m here to tell the story the next day.”On Tuesday night, Aeromexico Flight 2431 attempted to take off from Durango, Mexico (DGO) for Mexico City (MEX) during bad weather and strong winds....

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.Getting your travel stress under control may have just gotten a bit easier.Wellness app Calm is making further expansions into the world of aviation. Following its partnership with American Airlines in which it placed peace-inducing and meditative entertainment options in flights, Calm announced a $3 million equity investment in ubiquitous airport chain XpresSpa Group....

With Winter Storm Avery already powdering parts of the country with snow and more than a foot expected to accumulate in sections of the Northeast, winter has officially reached the US. And though a few die-hard skiers were able to get in early season turns at a select few ski mountains earlier in October, it’s time for the rest of us to hit the slopes.On the East Coast, skiers should keep their eyes on Smuggler’s Notch, Jay Peak and Magic Mountain, all of which are scheduled to open on Black Friday....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.When we launched the private Facebook group TPG Lounge this summer we had no idea how fast it would grow. Today, amazingly, it has more than 20,000 members. It’s not only a meeting point for readers to connect in incredible ways (like getting the United Way to donate one million pounds of food to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico), but it also serves as a resource for the travel tips, tricks and hacks you love....

A traveler who volunteered his Air Canada seat recently found himself rewarded with a 15% coupon instead of the $800 travel voucher he had been promised.“It didn’t make any sense,” said Daniel Tsai, a business lawyer and professor at Humber College in Toronto. “Just bafflement. And, yes, I was angry.“Tsai was scheduled to return home to Toronto on Flight AC 1314 on Jan. 4 after spending the holidays with his family in Vancouver....

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.Turns out that tacky, technicolored sweater your Grandma gifted you last Christmas is actually worth something. Because now, aside from some weird looks on the street, you can also redeem early boarding on Alaska Airlines flights if you wear it to the airport....