Picture this: you're driving a bakery truck down the New Jersey Turnpike, minding your business at 6am, and a commercial jet on approach to Newark takes out your window. That actually happened yesterday.

That wild United Airlines incident is leading today's newsletter - but we've also got a genuinely good AAdvantage Business card offer, Singapore's long-awaited Starlink news (with a frustrating catch), and a Rakuten shopping event worth bookmarking before Thursday.

Singapore Airlines is partnering with SpaceX to bring free Starlink Wi-Fi to passengers. But which airline actually launched free Starlink service on flights BEFORE Singapore Airlines announced its plans?

The answer is waiting near the bottom of today's newsletter... keep scrolling. 👇

This one is hard to believe even after reading it twice. United Airlines flight UA169, operating a Boeing 767 on the route from Venice to Newark, struck a light pole on approach to EWR yesterday - and that wasn't even the full story.

Video footage and local news reporting indicate the aircraft also clipped a bakery truck traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike, with part of the plane's undercarriage smashing into the driver's window and leaving the driver cut by broken glass. The aircraft landed safely at Newark. Initial airline statements described only a light pole strike, which significantly understated what the evidence showed.

No passengers were seriously hurt, but the incident raises obvious questions about approach paths, obstacle clearance, and how information gets communicated after these events. Aviation investigators are looking into it. For what it's worth, if you're flying into Newark anytime soon, you can check current security wait times at FlightQueue for EWR before you head to the airport.

Singapore Airlines made headlines overnight by announcing a partnership with SpaceX to bring free Starlink Wi-Fi to passengers. On the surface, that sounds like excellent news - SQ is consistently rated one of the best airlines in the world, and free fast Wi-Fi would be a meaningful upgrade.

Here's the catch: the rollout doesn't begin until early 2027, and even then, it will only cover select aircraft. The percentage of the fleet expected to be equipped with Starlink at launch is limited. So if you're booking a Singapore Airlines flight this year expecting free satellite internet, you're going to be disappointed.

This matters in the context of the broader Starlink airline race. British Airways has been rolling out free Starlink on some routes already - we covered that earlier this year. Singapore entering the game is significant for the long term, but "early 2027 on select aircraft" is a far cry from the headline suggesting it's happening now. If you want to check which flights actually have usable inflight Wi-Fi right now, SeatWifi is your best resource before booking.

Citi brought back its best-ever offer on the AAdvantage Business Card: 75,000 American Airlines miles after $5,000 in spend within 5 months, with the $99 annual fee waived for the first 12 months. This is the highest bonus this card has carried, and the fee waiver makes the math even cleaner.

Beyond the welcome bonus, the card gives you elevated earning on American Airlines ticket purchases and - for many cardmembers - additional perks inside the AAdvantage Business program including enhanced earning for the business as a whole. The combination of 75K miles plus fee-free first year means your effective cost to earn those miles is just the $5K spend requirement.

To put that in perspective: 75,000 AAdvantage miles can get you a one-way business class flight to Europe or two round-trips to the Caribbean. If you want to run the numbers on what those miles are worth to you specifically, our American Airlines Miles Calculator will help you figure that out fast.

One more thing on the AAdvantage front: American is also running a 40% discount on bought AAdvantage miles right now at 2.26 cents per mile, good through June 3rd. Buying points is rarely the move, but if you're a few thousand miles short of a specific redemption, that's a reasonable price to top up. Check all current buy-points promotions at our buy points tracker.

Rakuten's Big Give Week kicked off yesterday and runs through May 11th. A handful of merchants are offering elevated cashback or points rates that are genuinely worth paying attention to - especially if you already have travel purchases planned.

Expedia is offering up to 15x back, which stacks nicely with any points you're earning on the purchase itself. Saks is at 15x, Ulta at 15x, and Viator (tours and experiences) at 20x. Dermastore and Bluemercury are both at 20x if you have purchases there. Sixt car rentals are at 15x, which is worth remembering if you have a rental coming up this spring.

If you're not signed up for Rakuten yet and you regularly shop online, this is a real hole in your points strategy. The signup bonus alone is worth a look this week.

Four years on from the China Eastern Flight MU5735 crash that killed all 132 people aboard, a bombshell NTSB data leak has revealed what investigators believe actually happened: the pilots shut off both engines before the Boeing 737 entered its fatal nosedive from cruise altitude.

China's aviation authority has been leading the investigation - and has refused to release any findings, citing national security and social stability concerns. The NTSB recorder data, which was shared with Chinese authorities years ago, is now the only substantive public record of what the flight data showed. Whether that data tells the complete story of why the engines were shut off remains unanswered.

This story sits at the intersection of aviation safety and geopolitics in a way that matters far beyond miles and points - but it belongs in this newsletter because many readers connect through flights operated by or codesharing with Chinese carriers. The pressure to release the full report is growing internationally.

Quick tool note for those of you who use AI assistants regularly: FlightSeatmap now supports an MCP server, which means you can manage seat alerts directly from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other AI tools without needing to visit the website. On paid plans, you can list, create, and cancel seat alerts inside your chat. Even on the free tier, you can pull real passenger seat reviews for any flight through your AI assistant. If you're the type who obsesses over seat selection before a long-haul flight, this is genuinely useful.

A couple of transfer bonuses deserve a mention before they disappear. Chase Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy is running a 65% transfer bonus through May 15th - that's one of the better Marriott bonuses we see, and if you're planning hotel stays later this year it's worth doing the math now. Chase to Air France KLM Flying Blue is also live at 20% through May 27th, which is worth knowing if you're eyeing any European redemptions. See the full list of active transfer bonuses at our transfer bonuses tracker.

Speaking of European award redemptions - Award Travel Finder has been surfacing some surprisingly good Business Class availability to Europe this month. Worth a look if you have Chase or Flying Blue points sitting around.

The answer is British Airways. BA was already rolling out free Starlink service on select flights before Singapore Airlines announced its partnership yesterday. We covered the British Airways Starlink rollout earlier this year - Singapore's announcement is significant for the long-term future of the program, but BA got there first. If you're a UK-based reader tracking Avios and British Airways news specifically, Smart With Points has in-depth coverage on exactly this.

The AAdvantage Business Card story today got me thinking - how many of you are actively using a business card to earn miles separately from your personal card strategy? Is it something you've set up deliberately, or have you not gone down that road yet? Hit reply and let me know - I read every response and it genuinely shapes what I cover.

That's it from me today. A plane hitting a truck on a highway is the kind of story that sounds made up - but here we are. Stay safe out there, whether you're on the highway or 35,000 feet above it.

- Jack

A real US flight runs today. Pin the airport on the map, then guess the route in 5 tries. Wordle for plane geeks.

These are the top credit card welcome bonuses we're tracking. Offers change frequently - see all cards.

1. Business Platinum Card: 200,000 points after spending $20,000 in 3 months ($895/yr)

2. The Platinum Card: 175,000 points after spending $12,000 in 6 months ($895/yr)

3. Capital One Venture Rewards: 150,000 points after spending $37,500 in 6 months (No annual fee)

The Award Travel Finder team has been tracking these redemptions - here's what stands out:

Hotels:

Status Matches & Challenges:

• Flying Blue Status Match - Air France / KLM | SkyTeam

• Flying Blue UK (BA Status Holders) - Air France / KLM | SkyTeam

• Flying Blue (Iberia) - Air France / KLM | SkyTeam

Live Transfer Bonuses:

Buy Points & Miles Deals:

Full live tracker → milesandpointsdaily.com/buy-points-promotions

Browse every award deal we track at AwardTravelFinder.com →

Friday Flight Deals finds the best flight deals when paying cash beats using points.

Browse all deals at FridayFlightDeals.com →