Reminder: Starwood Preferred Guest transfers to Amtrak Guest Rewards
It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve written about Amtrak Guest Rewards! That’s mainly because the program underwent a dual devaluation in late 2015 and early 2016:On Decem..
Complete Map of Hyatt Hotels
Updated: Oct 14, 2016
Here is the updated Hyatt GoldPassport Complete Map of all Hyatt property hotels sortable by category. Click Here to see the other Hotel Complete Maps (like..
Wyndham Rewards is a pretty good program. But is it necessary?
The “news hook” for this post is the launch of a new landing page for Barclaycard’s Wyndham Rewards Visa cards, raising the annual fee on the Visa Signature card from
Episode 39 – AA IRROPS, AMEX “Enhancements”, and more
Episode Description
The Observation Deck is back to talk about AA’s regular irregular operations, AMEX “enhancements”, and how to use 75K Virgin America miles! Recorded 6 Oct, 20..
The essential Ritz-Carlton properties
Long-time readers know that I can sometimes have an unfortunately literal approach to travel hacking. So when I decided to look into the Ritz-Carlton program to see if there were..
Complete Map of Starwood (SPG) Hotels
Updated: Oct 10, 2016
Here is the Complete Map of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Hotels. Check the other Complete Maps Here, which we’ve been updating.
(Click in the top right c..
Chase Sapphire Preferred trip delay insurance for authorized users
When I periodically trash the Chase Sapphire Preferred as inferior to the Chase Ink Plus (because of its better bonused earning categories) and the Chase Freedom (because of its ..
In which the new Walmart POS software briefly messes with my game
I don’t keep track, but if I had to guess, I’d say I swipe cards through point-of-sale terminals around 50-100 times at Walmart store locations every month. That doesn’t make
On thought leadership
As regular readers know, I’m a podcast fanatic. The only thing better than being able to conveniently manufacture spend is being able to listen to great audio content while you
I wonder what's going on with all these Hyatt promotions
I just updated my Hotel Promotions page with yet another Hyatt promotion, meaning there are currently 4 concurrently running Hyatt promotions (although two are only available to ..
Drew’s Guide to Albania (& Macedonia)
As I mentioned in my complete guide to Eastern Europe, there were 4 countries we hadn’t been to – Albania, Macedonia, Moldova and Belarus… and Kosovo (although the UN doesn’t
Transfer large blocks of Starpoints using Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages
Today Marriott closed its purchase of Starwood Hotels & Resorts and introduced point convertibility between the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs. After link..
Quick hit: my content around the web
Although my posts this week have had a little bit of a focus on the personal finance side of travel hacking, I primarily use this website to write about the
The many flavors of negative-interest-rate loans
A negative-interest-rate loan is one which, over the course of the loan, requires the borrower to repay less than they originally borrowed. Such loans have received a lot of atte..
Solo Travel Part Two: Asia Edition
Ever since my most recent solo travel attempt didn’t pan out as expected, I’ve been eager to give this another shot. I had some free time over the next few weeks,
This may be only amusing to me…
When Matt took me on at Saverocity, he had one overriding message: write what you enjoy and write what you want. Normally I avoid writing about other blogs but I’ve
What's the return on a diversified portfolio of hip alternative investments?
There’s a healthy overlap between people with an outside-the-box attitude towards funding travel and those interested in alternative approaches to savings and investment:Kiva has..
Qantas Miles in the Pacific (the best for hopping around Polynesia)
Qantas miles is a Citi transfer partner, and it has unique partnerships, making it one of the best networks for covering the Pacific.
The route options are limited, so it’s a short
Do this now: Fall, 2016, registration roundup
Registration is now open for a range of Fall, 2016, hotel promotions and 2016 fourth quarter credit card spending bonuses.2016 fourth quarter credit card bonusesIf you have one o..
How to think about the "single best" rewards currency
Last week I joined Joe Cheung for a recording of the Saverocity Observation Deck and among the many subjects we touched on was the idea of the “most valuable” loyalty
Episode 38 – Talking shop with Free-quent Flyer
Episode Description
With Trevor and Joe Cortez preoccupied, Free-quent Flyer returns to talk moving and MS, whether the hobby really is dying, the currencies he
Pro tip: booking premium cabins with US Bank Flexpoints
As fans of US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards know, and people who recently applied for a personal or business card during the recent Summer Olympics promotion will soon find out,
Travel Planning Routine
Here is my complete travel planning routine. Everything from what booking sites I check, to how I put it in my calendar.
This is the nitty gritty details. I realize I