Topping up accounts, or, throwing good points after bad
Marriott Rewards is the worst hotel loyalty program: it has all the low earning rates and high property costs of IHG Rewards, with none of the potential upside offered by
47 Days of Hotels in Egypt for $0
We decided to take advantage of all the cheap points hotels in Egypt so we spent 47 days in different parts of Egypt.
That’s 264,000 hotel points that can be earned fairly easily..
Are office supply store Visa gift cards cheap or expensive?
This post was inspired by a comment left by reader net netty to my post on dealing with the new Visa gift cards being sold at Staples. S/he wrote:”And I agree that
Episode 15 – Family, MS, and Other Stuff
Episode Description
Wherein we start by discussing how our family lives affect our games, and then allow alcohol to cause our conversation to meander to…who knows. Recorded LIVE..
Is the 100k British Airways Avios offer the worst major signup bonus?
Regular readers know I don’t chase signup bonuses any more, for two simple
Quick hit: new Bluebird/Serve/Redbird scheduled adds
When writing about simplifying and automating debit card transactions back in July, I
Round-The-World On Discount Airlines
One day I started noticing how many cheap long haul flights there are.
Norwegian and WOWair opening flights from USA to Europe for $149. Air Asia was flying to Europe, which they..
Timeshares?
Everything I need to know about timeshares I learned from The Queen of Versailles. Still, it’s the kind of product — complex, opaque, little-understood — that should be worth at ..
British Airways 100,000 Avios Bonus
The British Airways 100,000 Avios card is back, after a two year hiatus. I want to discuss the details of the 100,000 bonus, and why I’m excited about it.
The exciting
Fun with award mapper and Hotel Hustle
There are two free, online tools designed to help make it easier to find the best values when searching for paid or award stays at chain hotels: award mapper and
Earn the miles you redeem, redeem the miles you earn
While I didn’t coin the aphorism, I repeat it every chance I get: the least valuable point is the one you don’t redeem.It doesn’t matter how big the portal bonus,
Is the American Express Rocketmiles deal a dud?
If you followed the instructions in this post, all your American Express cards, including authorized user cards issued by American Express, should now be enrolled in an offer for..
Portland the Third: Travel with Four
As I mentioned in my parking post (thanks for all the feedback calling me crazy after I said so myself, btw!), we were back in Portland, Maine, our favorite local
How Long Did The Southwest Companion Pass Last Us?
It’s been 1 year since we got the Southwest Companion Pass, and most of our points are gone. So in honor of the 50,000 point card being back, and using up
Optimizing Hilton points and nights earning across cards
In general, I prefer the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass to the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve. To review, the American Express card’s three big advantages are:issuance by A..
I am not addicted to Amazon
Earlier today I pooh-poohed the Chase Freedom’s earning of 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at Amazon.com in the 4th quarter of 2015. While I do make purchases at
Do this now: activate Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend 4th quarter bonus categories
Registration is now open for the Chase Freedom 4th quarter bonus categories. It’s also supposed to be open for the Citi Dividend, but as of this writing I have not
Best No Annual Fee Travel Credit Card Strategy
It’s not only important to know what the no annual fee options are, but why.
The why is pretty simple, and especially important to beginners. Your credit score takes into conside..
Thinking about ethics in travel hacking
I spent this past weekend in Austin hanging out with a friend who’s heavily involved in travel hacking, and he mentioned a few techniques that he had used to manufacture
Best Use of Fairmont Free Night Certificates
Hyatt free nights got a ton of talk when affiliate commission got involved, and there’s been so little talk about the Fairmont card, which is in some ways better.
As Stefan (from..
My free parking dilemma
After two months of adjusting to a new addition, we’re back on the road again. No flying, but after a two hour drive we’re in our favorite local weekend destination:
Breaking: Hotel IT is not very good
One reason I love meeting travel hackers is that every one has a unique “origin story” for how they became interested in the game in the first place. For example, I
1 Best use from every program
Pretty simple post concept. Here I list what I find the single best use of the biggest airline and hotel miles/points programs.
Normally I try to get out of “the best” with “it