As if Universal Orlando doesn’t have enough excitement on the horizon with an entirely new theme park opening in 2025, it is planning a blockbuster summer of entertainment. On Monday, Universal announced a new parade, a nighttime lagoon show, a projection show in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and more. The first of these new experiences debuts June 14. Here’s the “mega” movie fun you can experience this summer. Cinesational: A Symphonic Spectacular UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT On June 14, Universal Studios Florida will debut an all-new nighttime show that will bring the park’s lagoon to life ..read more

Looking to book a last-minute trip to Japan? Well, if so, you’re in luck. There is decent award availability in business class, but you’ll need to act fast. Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways consistently releases award seats in premium cabins to partner airlines, and the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club option is one of the best sweet spots in the industry. As first reported by Upgraded Points, you can use the award search tool Seats.aero to find business-class availability. To search, click “Explore,” then click “United MileagePlus,” as this program shows ANA availability online. There are ..read more

“Yeah, right,” I muttered while staring at a deal on Royal Caribbean’s homepage last week. A countdown clock just below the promotion told me that I only had seven hours, 40 minutes and 28 seconds left to pounce on the offer before it would magically disappear. I knew it wasn’t true. That deal would be back the next day. I’ve been tracking the big promotions from the major cruise lines since November. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line and a handful of other brands have been running the same standard bargains on their websites for months, each one claiming to have lim ..read more

It’s official: Scandinavian Airlines will become a full-fledged SkyTeam member Sept. 1. SAS’ switch from Star Alliance has long been known, but the exact date that it would officially join SkyTeam had been uncertain. Most recently, the sides would say only that SAS would exit Star at the end of August. Now, frequent flyers in SAS’ EuroBonus program have an exact date that they can expect alliance perks such as reciprocal mileage earning and elite benefits to begin. Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free biweekly Aviation newsletter. “EuroBonus Silver members will be recognized ..read more

Are you looking to take a cruise between now and the end of the year? We have some bad news: You might have a tough time finding a cabin — at least if you want a specific type of room on a specific ship. Bookings for cruises have been on fire for months, pacing at record levels. As a result, nearly nine of every 10 cabins available for 2024 sailings are already booked, the top executive of one of the world’s biggest cruise companies revealed Thursday. “We only have about 12% load factors left to build for the year,” Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean Group CEO, noted in a conference call with Wall ..read more

Here at TPG, we believe travel has the power to change the world. Since 2017, we have raised and donated more than $5,000,000 and 70,000,000 points and miles to charitable organizations, including one that is changing the world one family at a time by granting life-changing wishes to deserving kids. Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has made more than 500,000 wishes come true for kids diagnosed with critical illnesses and their families. About 80% of those wishes involve travel. In fact, Make-A-Wish needs more than 2.8 billion miles — the equivalent of 50,000 round-trip tickets — to cover the travel wis ..read more

Marriott PointSavers lets you book select room types at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels at lower award rates on some dates. I figured PointSavers rates would disappear after Marriott adopted dynamic award pricing, but they’re still around. So, here’s what you need to know about Marriott PointSavers. What is Marriott PointSavers? Marriott PointSavers lets you save up to 20% off the regular point redemption rates when booking select standard or premium room types at participating properties on select dates. There’s no published list of Marriott PointSavers properties; the properties that ar ..read more

Frontier Airlines is getting set to launch two new intra-Caribbean routes this summer as part of a significant scaling up of its service from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Between mid-June and early July, the Denver-based ultra-low-cost carrier will launch new nonstop service from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) to Cibao International Airport (STI) in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, and to Grantley Adams International Airport (BGI) in Barbados. Want more aviation news? Sign up for TPG’s free biweekly Aviation newsletter. Here’s a look at the schedule and frequencies ..read more

American Airlines’ newest onboard innovations won’t be flying as soon as flyers might’ve expected. It’s all part of major changes that the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier is making to its wide-body network, reducing service on 12 routes due to delivery delays from Boeing. The news was first communicated to flight attendants in an internal memo obtained by TPG and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson. Perhaps even bigger news is that as part of this network update, American is delaying the introduction of its new Flagship Business Suites and premium economy products that were supposed to d ..read more

For centuries, dogs have been bred to work and perform specific tasks. For example, Pembroke Welsh corgis often work as herding dogs and were “once invaluable to farmers in Wales,” according to the American Kennel Club. These days, though, dogs that were originally hard at work are now frequently found hardly working. Like my own corgi, Splenda, whose “job” is helping me — one of TPG’s senior hotel reporters — to review luxurious pet-friendly hotels, like The Plaza in New York City. Ruff life, right? In Nashville, at the Bobby Hotel, there’s another type of job available to our four-legged fri ..read more