Easy travel rewards for non hackers
One of my favorite Saverocity personalities, Robert Dwyer, and I both enjoy listening to the Mighty Men of Mouse podcast (Disney stuff). On Episode 306 they had a brief discussio..
Save your gift card receipts – and thus you shall be saved
I experienced the nightmare scenario the other week – a lost gift card. Two, to be precise. I had loaded of these Simon gift cards with the standard amount. I
Rewards programs, ranked by reliability
One fun thing about writing a blog is that reader feedback gives you a chance to see how different ideas interact and collide. Last Friday when I wrote “While I’m
Avianca LifeMiles Card enough for 4 Roundtrips to Latin America
Recently I saw on RapidTravelChai a link & code for an Avianca card with a 60,000 mile bonus… and a 50% discount on specific award redemptions (like to Colombia).
A 60k bonus AND..
Quick hit: new Hilton all-inclusive award pricing is great
I earn a lot of Hilton HHonors points, and I’m going to be earning even more than usual this week, so I decided to take a look at some of
Episode 51 – Premium annual fee cards and wasted annual fees
Episode Description
We get together to discuss and debate which of the premium cards (Platinum, Prestige, Preferred) most justifies its hefty annual fee. Then it’s
Best Travel Credit Cards for Beginners
Anyone who writes in this space inevitably gets asked, “So, what credit card should I sign up for?” Experienced vets know that’s a very complicated question, dependent on your tr..
Disney World for the completely clueless
This post is for the truly clueless; those of us that have heard about but never experienced the wonderful world of Disney. The last time I visited Magic Kingdom, I
Ninh Binh, Vietnam
We decided to do a last minute day trip from Hanoi. Really last minute. Like at check out we decided to get an Uber.
Carrie found on Google Maps a weird town called Ninh
The advantages of prepaying for travel at a discount
I have never belonged to the “travel is free” school of travel hackers, not because I don’t think there are free or negative-cost methods of manufacturing spend (there are) or
A child scared of Disney World rides can still have a magical time
Disney World bills itself as the most magical place on earth, and for Disney lovers like myself, it definitely fits the bill! But I never expected to have a child
Credit card annual fees worth paying
Early this week, I started taking stock of my annual fee cards. Although all my annual fees hit at different times throughout the year, I found myself asking “How many
How do you want to think about budgeting for your hotel stays?
I’ve written a series of posts about my preferred metric for evaluating hotel loyalty programs, which I call imputed redemption values. This is a straightforward metric that tell..
Real Life Family Travel: Conflicts
I’ve learned a lot over the past eight years, first through traveling with my wife, then with my daughter, and now as a family of four. It’s easy to blog
Episode 50 – Singapore, AMEX, and cheap Europe fares
Episode Description
We celebrate 50 episodes chatting about Singapore devaluation, AMEX platinum “enhancements”, what to do with all these cheap Europe fares, and reflection on
Doubt, skepticism, and risk management
Late last week there was a widely-publicized deal allowing you to earn 150 Avios per dollar spent at Match.com (with follow-up here). I had an exchange on Twitter with Ralph at
Rebook your Hilton award reservations, but carefully
Some friends recently told me that since the latest changes to Hilton Honors went into effect they’d seen prices go down at some properties where they had existing reservations. I
I’ll be holding off on solo dad vacations for awhile
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have caught the Instagram story I posted a few weekends ago: my first solo dad flight with my two kids. For background,
Blending earning and redemption rates
When an affiliate blogger is trying to sell you a credit card that allows you to redeem bank points against a travel purchase, they sometimes pull this fairly ingenious, if
Irrational Investment Influence
I’ve been thinking about irrational investment influence a lot lately (a term I just made up – one not nearly as catchy as funge). Here’s how I define irrational investment
Why staying at an on site Disney resort is worth it
Staying off site makes sense for a lot of families visiting Disney World, especially those on a tight budget. I’ve written before about how we rented a condo off site
Money is fungible, but only if you funge it
Back in October, over at the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast Joe Cheung interviewed Noah from Money Metagame and they discussed a post Noah wrote last year asking the questio..
Load prepaid gift cards to Amazon to get rid of small balances
Here’s a quick hit for your Sunday morning. Maybe you knew this already or maybe someone wrote about this already, in which case why didn’t you tell me? Anyway, I