What I'm thinking about headed into 2017
Good morning from Portland, Oregon. If you’re traveling for the holidays, I hope your flights are safe, comfortable, and on time and your roads are clear. As 2016 staggers towards
Where are all the hotel chains in Scandinavia?
Besides the ubiquitous Radissons and regionally-centric Nordic Choice and Accor establishments, you’d be hard-pressed to find international hotel chains just about anywhere in S..
Do this now: activate 1st quarter 2017 bonus categories
With the new year just around the corner, it’s time to activate your credit card bonus categories for 2016. Here’s my quarterly roundup of the available bonus categories and sugg..
Things I have learned about booking Hyatt all-inclusive resorts
In the past few weeks I’ve gone from vaguely speculating about booking a winter weekend at a tropical all-inclusive resort to starting to plan an actual trip. Since, for good
Episode 43 – Interview with Matt Part II (the future of Saverocity, random travel philosophy, and first Disney trip)
Episode Description
Part II of our interview with Matt from Saverocity, we discuss the future of Saverocity, how travel changes you, and a little Disney.
Cost Breakdown of 18 Days in Albania
This is a delayed cost breakdown of all the expenses from our trip to Albania and Macedonia. As usual, we keep track of all of our expenses while traveling, so
I am not ready to be seduced by Southwest
Now that I’m finally a short commuter train ride, rather than an inconvenient bus ride, away from a Southwest hub I assumed I’d be flying Southwest a lot more. After all,
Episode 42 – Interview with Matt Part I (the rise and fall of Matt the reseller)
Episode Description
With Trevor and Joe Cortez off doing Trevor and Joe Cortez things, we sit down with Matt in Part I of a two
Liquidating tiny-denomination prepaid debit cards
If you read yesterday’s post and rushed out to buy up a slew of 5% Back Visa Simon Giftcards, and then triggered 5% cash back on each of them, you
My experience with free 5% Back Visa Simon Giftcards
A number of bloggers have mentioned some current promotions going on related to 5% Back Visa gift cards. One potential money-making approach is to buy $500 cards through GiftCard..
"The Black Swan" is not a very good book
This is a review of “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. You can find all my previous book reviews here. If you’re interested in buying a copy, I hope
ForçaChape
2016 has really sucked. A lot of my thoughts today have been devoted to a soccer team that I didn’t even know existed yesterday. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now,
Review: The Ritz-Carlton Berlin
I’ll say this up front: it is wrong to stay at the Ritz Carlton when in Berlin. It is most inappropriate to associate with a brand that exudes opulence in a
New Unbelievably Low Cheap Points Hotels
Since I’ve now updated our Complete Maps, I decided to go through each chain and pick out the best deals.
The idea is that category 1 hotels can cost a fraction of
Gut-checking the latest and greatest opportunities
Starting today, it should in principle be possible to sign up for the Popular Credit Service Avianca LifeMiles credit cards. Signup bonuses are constantly fluctuating up and down..
11 Best Stopovers with Alaska Miles
Yesterday I not only talked about how Alaska allows stopovers on oneways, but then shared some weird routings to get two tickets out of 1 award.
Today, in this post, I want to go
Alaska Miles’ Legal Boomerang with Stopover
I’m going to show you how to get a oneway to Hawaii and a later ticket to Asia… for the same price.
But this is just one of the many amazing uses
Shutdowns, devaluations, and resiliency
One travel hacking blogger who never disappoints is Vinh at Miles per Day (his Twitter account is a must-follow as well). Vinh attracts shutdowns like an office supply store prom..
Alaska and British Columbia cruise from Seattle
Alaska has been beckoning since we went over 10 years ago, and we returned this time as passengers on the Norwegian Jewel with our toddler.We flew into Seattle, arriving at the ..
Why I'm gunning for Globalist
After I wrote last month that Hyatt’s new loyalty program “made the decision easy” to requalify as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond in 2016, Joe Cheung at As the Joe
Why are Hyatt Diamonds (me) treated so unevenly?
Since I don’t earn status legitimately, I’ve always wondered what status actually gets you. People like Trevor seem to get treated quite well and even is known at places like
The (only?) Delta SkyMiles Award Chart
Just as we made a tool, the Delta Miles Calculator, we now put together an award chart for international flights.
People seem to be confused about the difference, so let me
Best Use of Asia Miles (Cathay)
I first wrote a Best Use of Asia Miles in 2013, and the last time was 2014. That’s a mistake because it’s actually an interesting transfer option for Citi ThankYou Points.
I think