How We Booked a Flight to Europe for $300 Round Trip
4m | Oct 12, 2026📩 Join the newsletter: https://go.departuredigest.com/subscribe
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Flights from New York to Madrid for $300 round trip, with a checked bag included? Deals like this have become rare, but Thrifty Traveler Premium's cash and points alerts can help you find them. Premium costs about $130 a year, and one or two good deals could cover it if you're flexible about where you go.
Meanwhile, Amex dropped big news for its Centurion Lounge network. Newark's lounge opening has been pushed to 2027, but the delay comes with an upgrade. It'll now be more than 30,000 square feet, making it the largest Centurion Lounge yet, complete with a gelato terrace that might even make flying out of Newark worth it. London Heathrow is also getting a second location, and Houston's lounge is nearly tripling in size. Before any of that opens, though, Philadelphia's lounge closes this week for renovations and isn't expected to reopen until the end of 2027.
Even more surprising, Southwest could be eyeing Dreamliners, wide-body jets built for long-haul routes. It'd be another big shift for an airline that only recently added assigned seats and stopped letting bags fly free. We'll believe a Southwest flight to Rome when we're boarding it. And if you'd rather spend New Year's Eve in flip-flops than snow boots, Andrea Bocelli and Ludacris are both headlining in the Bahamas.
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Timeline
0:00 Start Here
0:17 A $300 Round Trip to Madrid
0:51 How Thrifty Traveler Premium Works
2:14 Amex's Biggest Centurion Lounge Expansion
3:16 Southwest Eyes Long-Haul Routes
4:00 New Year's Eve in the Bahamas
4:33 Sign-Off
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