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Take the TPG AvGeek Bucket List Challenge For Your Chance to Win a $500 Airline Gift Card

May 13, 2019
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4 min read
An Air France A340 landing at SXM
Take the TPG AvGeek Bucket List Challenge For Your Chance to Win a $500 Airline Gift Card
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If you're reading this article, chances are you're an AvGeek like us. Or, maybe you like free stuff. Or both! We're not here to judge.

No matter what brings you in, get ready to see just how far your travels can take you. In the first-ever TPG AvGeek Bucket List Challenge, we're giving you a list of aviation-related activities to complete for the chance to win a $500 airline gift card of your choosing (American Airlines, Southwest Airlines or Delta Air Lines). The first person to complete the challenge and submit their entry through our Google Form below will take home the prize.

Without further ado, here's your TPG AvGeek Bucket List:

  1. Eat a burger at In-N-Out in LAX. Not only does In-N-Out have arguably one of the best burgers around, but the plane-spotting views from this location at LAX, just short of the airport's runway 24R, are hard to beat, especially considering you'll be cheesin' (pun intended) while doing it.
  2. Spend a night at the TWA Hotel. The TWA Hotel, when it opens on May 15, will be a living remnant of a bygone age of air travel. Eero Saarinen's spectacularly unique terminal — originally built for TWA in 1962 — will serve as the "heart" of the hotel, with bars, restaurants and shops. The 512 guest rooms will feature some incredible views of JFK's active taxiways and runways and sport retro interior designs, including TWA-inspired toiletry kits and more. It's a must-stay for any AvGeek, and connects directly to JetBlue's Terminal 5 and the airport's AirTrain system, making it easy to access.
  3. Touch down in all six inhabited continents. Although you can technically land on all of the seven continents, you can't use points to get all the way to Antarctica, so we're keeping this figure at six. What cooler way to feel like global citizen than to have flown to the six inhabited continents on our planet?
  4. Sit in the nose of a 747. While the number of airlines operating passenger 747s is dwindling, there are more than enough to let this AvGeek dream become a reality. Sure, being in the nose means you are in front of the pilots operating the plane on the second level, but if you manage to snag a seat in very first row, the fuselage is angled to such a degree that you can actually see forward. Plus, with the possibility of great award redemptions (like on British Airways, KLM, or Thai), this must-do doesn't need to break the bank.
  5. Take a shower in the air. Fewer things are cooler than taking a shower literal miles above the earth. UAE-based airlines like Etihad and Emirates have stocked their A380 superjumbos with onboard showers, and you can try it yourself with the right points strategy.
  6. Plane-spot at the Panorama Terrace at the Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) airport or Maho Beach in St. Maarten. True AvGeeks can watch planes takeoff and land for hours, and these two locations offer some of the very best views (and a diverse assortment of airlines and aircraft) to do just that. Plus, the terrace at AMS is airside, so you can hang out during a layover. As for Maho Beach, it was battered by Hurricane Maria, but the famous beach is back again!
  7. Fly an inaugural flight. Flying is one thing, but flying on a brand-new route is something special. Not only are inaugural flights often filled with festivities, food and drinks, but they occasionally write themselves into the history books as well.

Activities may have been completed anytime in the past as long as you can provide proof of completion (photos, receipts, boarding passes, etc). You have until December 31, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. ET to complete the challenge and submit your entry.

Once completed, follow both @thepointsguy and our newly launched @thepointsguyuk Instagram accounts. Then, post on Instagram with the hashtag #TPGBucketList to tell us where you'd fly to with the prize money. The winner will be contacted via email and will have two weeks to choose which gift card they'd like, or the entry will be voided.

Submit your TPG AvGeek Bucket List Challenge entry here.

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