PointsHound is running two promotions this week. The first is a Twitter contest with Hawaiian Airlines. The way to enter is to watch for any PointsHound tweets that contain the hashtag #winHawaii. Retweet one of those messages, and you get one entry. You can enter up to three... Read more

Excited about her vacation to Turkey, Emily Harris, from Wales made a toy passport for her design-a-bear unicorn named Lily. Her mother Nicky said  ”The passport doesn’t even look real – it’s got gold teddy bears on the front and was a completely... Read more

Today’s Daily Getaway promotion (Day  8) is selling Club Carlson points at a significant discount. 50,000 Club Carlson Points Cost: $194 ($174.60 with Amex card) Available: 142 Max quantity: 2 Additional details 100,000 Club Carlson Points Cost: $385 ($346.50 with Amex card)... Read more

I missed this when it was announced late last month (hat tip to @airlinetrends for tweeting it earlier this week), but Turkish Airlines now has its very own scent. According to their press release: (On May 30), Turkish Airlines introduced the fragrance “TK 1933” that will be... Read more

A visit to Tokyo is, to me, incomplete without a stop at The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, better known as Tsukiji Market. Early mornings in the market are packed with people (employees, shoppers and tourists alike) and the energy and action is hard to match. Or... Read more

Here are some funny videos to help you all through the week.  It is crunch time at my real job so I apologize for less content until July 1, but I will try to post daily, just maybe not at 10 am. Don’t be this person.  Stow your bag! No, don’t bring your giraffe... Read more

Yesterday I wrote about the change United made to add a revenue component to elite status.  Later in the day I discussed that even though I did not like the changes at all, there were some semi “upsides”.  One of those was that it did not impact those who... Read more

We are giving away a Briggs & Riley TORQ collection travel bag on Thursday afternoon this week. There is still time to enter. Simply head on over to the official entry page here, and enter by answering the entry question in that post’s... Read more

Key links: Ink Bold® Business Card Ink Plus® Business Card Chase Sapphire Preferred® This week only, Chase is offering 60,000 points as a signup bonus (after $5000 spend within 3 months) on the Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards. That’s 20% more than the usual bonus, running... Read more

Some of you may remember the completely unexpected and uncharacteristic problems I ran into during my first ever Singapore First award trip to Bali back in January. I flew from IAH-DME-SIN-DPS for 70k United MileagePlus miles (booked during the Singapore glitch), but had a... Read more

Here’s a pretty interesting video that was posted on LiveLeak, which looks like it was taken at a United gate at Dulles. Obviously the guy is being a total drunk idiot and should be removed from the flight, but am I the only one that thinks the pilot is completely out of... Read more

United Airlines (UA) announced what I have said before was coming… they have added a minimum spend component to qualify for UA elite status. Very similar to the Delta program I wrote about earlier this year, it will also take effect at the beginning of next year. Details... Read more

So what? Google Reader goes away on July 1. That’s a bad thing for a lot of reasons. I have historically monitored all my favorite blogs using Google Reader, and will miss its simplicity. That said, I’ve discovered Feedly, and I like it a lot. Others have different... Read more

United has increased fees for general members who wish to change awards on tickets issued on June 19, 2013 or later. I’ll start with the good news: anyone holding United status (Silver and up) will not be impacted.  Additionally, all previously issued tickets (prior to... Read more

I know every other blogger is writing about United’s announcement, but I noticed some good news today in the fact that Alaska Airlines has added another EQM-earning partner, Aeromexico, to its list of AA, DL, and EK.  I know writing about Alaska’s FF program is a... Read more

Yesterday United Airlines announced a coming change to its MileagePlus program, which will apply for travel during 2014 in order to qualify for status in 2015. Nothing has changed for those who have status now or are earning status toward next year, but it is worth considering... Read more

News and notes from around the interweb: Hertz still hasn’t solved the Jerry Seinfeld problem: When taking the reservation doesn’t actually hold the reservation. US Airways is rolling out online pre-order o paid meals in coach. You’ll no longer need to game... Read more

As the title says, United has changed its award fees, not for the better. This is really horrible, after what happen with PQD’s (Premier Qualifying Dollars) being implemented for US residents (luckily we Canadians are not affected by this). United previously allowed... Read more