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Category"Lombard Street" is a marvelous little book
This is a review of “Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market” by Walter Bagehot. You can find all my previous book reviews here. If you’re interested in buying
On Chase Hyatt stay credits
Last year I did a fair amount of waffling back and forth on whether to requalify as a Hyatt Diamond for 2017. After the new World of Hyatt program was
Quick hit: how American Express cards treat refunds towards annual spend thresholds
Late last year I tried to take advantage of an increased portal payout at an online merchant by buying a few thousand dollars of electronics which, if the portal had
Real Life Family Travel: The Glue
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
On booking channels
If you’ve been travel hacking for any length of time you likely have access to a range of points currencies and credit cards, each with its own strengths. Rewards programs
Best Buy credit card: $50 reward for $500 of spending
Store card marketing offers have been respectable lately–see here and here. Today I got this in my inbox:So $500 of spending outside of Best Buy gets me $50. Hopefully the rest
Booking Virgin America to Hawaii: the bad, the good, and one weird old trick
While Virgin America doesn’t have very many flights from where I live, I was still intrigued by the new, as of January 9, 2017, ability to book Virgin America flights
The world is full of nice people trying to give you advice
I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to periodically get together with travel hackers around the country, whether it’s at organized DO’s, subscribers-only meetups, or spontan..
Thoughts and feelings about BankAmericard Travel Rewards
The best deal in travelIn my opinion the best deal in travel hacking is likely the BankAmericard Travel Rewards credit card with Bank of America Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors..
Retail card offer roundup
I’ve had a flurry of offers from my various retail credit cards in both my inbox and my mailbox the last few weeks so I thought I’d share. Let’s start
Booking Southwest flights with Flexpoints and Ultimate Rewards
I previously wrote up my experience booking a Hyatt all-inclusive resort in Jamaica. That left the question of how to get there. While I’m not ready to be seduced by
Fuel surcharges on Korean's SkyTeam partners
Last week I saw a flood of posts about Korean Air adding the ability to search and book SkyTeam partner awards online (for example). Since Korean Air SKYPASS is an
Los Angeles (LGB) to San Jose (SJC) – $36, JetBlue
One of the better short-haul flash sales offered by JetBlue. Works in reverse SJC -> LGB as well. Fare Availability & Sample Date January 2017. Both weekday (Mon/Wed/Thurs) and ..
Avoid paying sales tax on Amazon
Avoiding sales tax while shopping on Amazon is actually pretty simple. But at the risk of stating the obvious (did everyone already know to do this?!), I figured I’d share
Seattle to Amsterdam – $430-471, Delta / IcelandAir
A great sale from Seattle to Amsterdam, nonstop on Delta – with 1 stop on Icelandair for about $40 less. Dates & Fare AvailabilityRelatively open availability starting in Februa..
San Francisco / Los Angeles to Larnaca, Cyprus – $675, British Airways
A good deal to Cyprus from San Francisco or Los Angeles. Dates & Fare AvailabilityWide open availability from late January to May 2017. Shorter stays may increase fare up to
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
The Win/Loss Report
I thought a rambling 2016 recap post would be a good idea, looking at some wins and losses. Overall, it is Win orientated, which comes from my personality, I’m not
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..
Retail card roundup: my two cards currently giving me ten percent rewards plus some other news
Doctor of Credit has a good review of retail credit cards worth getting. The only omissions I can think of are maybe the Marathon credit card and the Kohl’s credit card. I don’t ..
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
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,
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