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Washington, D.C. and the fictional kingdom of Westeros collided in June with the unveiling of a Game of Thrones-themed pop-up bar in the city’s Shaw neighborhood. Spread across the former locations of the Southern Efficiency and Mockingbird Hill bars, this fantastical watering hole recreates sites and scenes from HBO’s hit show, which unveiled its seventh season on July 16.Winter is coming…Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, New York, has taken the lead in creating specialty cocktails that any fan of the Seven Kingdoms will enjoy....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.In 2010, I created The Points Guy to help teach travelers how to better use their miles and points for free travel. Over the years the site has grown to include extensive coverage of all things credit cards, aviation, hotels, points, miles and travel. In the process we’ve created an app to help maximize every dollar of your spend (which is currently undergoing a significant revamp) and helped launch cards with massive welcome offers like the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s incredible 100,000 point bonus....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG reader Tim recently emailed me that he wants to get at least two points per dollar for every single dollar he spends on his credit card. I think that’s a pretty interesting goal and one that’s more attainable than ever as more and more credit cards have added category spend thresholds. Here is a listing of the main cards and their special spend bonuses....

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.After undergoing a $5 million historic preservation project, the iconic Mission Control room used in the Apollo 11 moon landing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will be reopening to visitors on July 1, 2019. And it has been restored to its former, 1960s glory — meaning that everything from the command consoles to the polyester-covered seats will be modeled to look just how it did on July 20, 1969, the day the US landed the first man on the moon....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.Sign-up offers on credit cards are a great way to boost your account balances and unlock a variety of valuable redemptions. Today Chase announced two increased offers on a pair of very popular cards: the Ink Plus Business Card and the Ink Cash Business Card.You can transfer points from the Ink Plus to Hyatt for luxurious redemptions like the Park Hyatt Maldives....

On Thursday, Norwegian Air posted a net loss of 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($175 million USD) for 2018.Now another airline, Emirates, is trying to poach its pilots.An internal memo from the Dubai-based carrier on Jan. 29 states that Emirates is eyeing fellow Gulf airline Etihad as well as struggling Norwegian to help patch its enduring shortage of pilots, according to Bloomberg.“The current situation with several airlines in financial difficulty globally leaves Emirates in a good position to be sourcing and selecting good-quality pilots,” the internal note said....

The Mega Millions Jackpot is getting close to the $1 billion mark. As of Oct. 18, the prize amount has reached a total of $970 million, the second-largest jackpot ever behind the $1.6 billion Powerball Prize in 2016. With entries from 44 states plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands and the game’s long odds in general, the current probability of winning is at about one in 302....

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.Thanks to some recent changes to the American Express Platinum cards, it’s now possible to earn 5x Membership Rewards points on hotel reservations when you book through Amex Travel. But TPG reader Darcy wonders if you’re better off aiming for a different perk…[pullquote source=“TPG Reader Darcy”]Is it better to take the 5X bonus points through Amex or to book directly through a hotel chain if I would like to progress beyond the base elite status from my Amex Platinum?...

Update 06/29/2020: It’s still Pride Month! We’ve raised almost $12,000 from over 130 people so far for the Ali Forney Center to help homeless LGBTQ youth, and there’s still time to donate. Click here to donate and I will personally match your donations up to $50,000.I am a proudly gay entrepreneur who has been fortunate enough to start and grow a successful business. And I’ve had the support of my family and the business community along the way....

The Taj Mahal thinks visitors are overstaying their welcome.In this week’s battle against overtourism, the Taj Mahal has made yet another attempt to whittle down the nearly 50,000 visitors that pass through its doors every day.Now, guests at the Taj Mahal will have a three-hour time limit when visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site upon entry. And if they exceed this limit, they’ll be fined.Vasant Swarakar, the superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Agra Circle, told The Times of India that tourists who spend more than three hours in the Taj Mahal will be charged an extra sum equivalent to the ticket, which will have to be paid at the exit gate....

Every week, the TSA blogs about items (mostly weapons) that agents have confiscated at airports around the country, and the agency posts some of the crazier items on its Instagram page. Check out the 5 items that we at Team TPG think are the most ridiculous items that were confiscated this month. Once again, we’re happy to see that the TSA has prevented these items from being smuggled on board aircraft with hundreds of other passengers!...

Each week in his column “The Critical Points,” TPG Loyalty and Engagement Editor Richard Kerr presents his opinion on a loyalty program, card product or recent news that he believes is overlooked, unsung or the result of groupthink taking mass opinion in a direction with which he doesn’t agree. His goal is not necessarily to convince you to agree with his position but rather to induce critical thought for each of the topics and positions he covers....

What to pack and what not to pack are always a concern when planning a trip. But how you should pack is just as crucial. You can roll clothes, for example, which allows you to pack more. Or you can fold, which tends to leave your clothes less wrinkled. Then there are stuff sacks, compression bags and packing cubes.The latter allow you to segment your travel wardrobe, and that’s the difference between having six drawers in a dresser or just one....

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ned Russell (@airbus777) on Jul 20, 2018 at 7:10am PDT View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ned Russell (@airbus777) on Jul 20, 2018 at 7:10am PDT

Virgin Atlantic is vowing to offer its passengers more choice with 84 new routes from London Heathrow. The new services would include 12 domestic, 37 European and 35 long-haul destinations out of its main hub airport, but it comes with a major caveat: The carrier says the new routes will be introduced by 2026 and would happen only “if the Government reforms the way new Heathrow slots are allocated to enable the creation of a second flag carrier at the airport”....

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.TPG Contributor Steven Ganeles shares a cautionary tale about what happened to him on a recent trip to China, and why he thinks you should consider using Uber or Lyft as an alternative to local taxis abroad.Public transportation is usually a great way to get around when traveling internationally — it’s cheap, easy to use and tends to run frequently and reliably....

Last week, the New York State Legislature sent a bill to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s desk that, if signed, would ban many Airbnb listings — specifically short-term rentals lasting fewer than 30 days — throughout the state.While many short-term listings in Manhattan that offer an entire apartment are technically in violation of ordinances that were passed last year, these regulations are not yet actively enforced. But the new regulations would be statewide and could have an immediate effect on almost 2,000 rentals in the city and many more in the state as a whole....

I love Istanbul almost as much as I love a super cheap business class airfare, so I got pretty excited when I saw business class fares from JFK to Istanbul on Delta for only $1,288 total roundtrip for travel this spring/summer!You need to stay for at least 10 days - so this fare isn’t for everyone and it’s probably not ideal for mileage-running purposes. These fares book into S class, which is discounted business, but you still accrue 150% award miles and 150% MQM’s....

How do you make a hundred aviation geeks, including one lucky TPG reader who won a contest, really happy? First, take them on a guided tour behind the scenes at Amsterdam’s mighty Schiphol airport. Then, one-up that awesomeness by gving them their own airliner for a day and taking them to more airports, for more exclusive looks at how commercial aviation really works.That’s right, we had a commercial jet all to ourselves....

California’s bullet train system is on hiatus until further notice.In his first State of the State address Tuesday, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, scaled back plans for the Golden State’s high-speed rail project, saying that construction was costing far too much due to issues along the way.“Let’s level about the high-speed rail,” Newsom told assembly members. “Let’s be real, the current project as planned would cost too much and, respectfully, take too long....