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CategoryHow to feel about the Fidelity Rewards 2% cash back Visa Signature
The Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express has long been popular in the travel hacking community. The reason is simple: transactions are processed on American Express’s net..
Still can't get your Hyatt status to match to Mlife? Do this now.
Last month I shared my experience getting a Haytt Gold Passport Diamond tier match. I mentioned that I was unable to use Hyatt’s online tool to match my Diamond status
mLife Math – the bet, the ROI, and the next step
Whenever I get a new offer through from mLife I want to write about the gig again. The reason is that it’s just working.. and better than expected. I’m going
My top 10 most popular (and one least popular) posts of 2015
In the spirit of shamelessly ripping off Frequent Miler, I thought it would be interesting to see what my most popular new posts in 2015 were. Since I don’t use
The 5.5 cards I'll use to manufacture spend in 2016
Happy New Year’s Eve to all my readers (and especially to my beloved subscribers)!2016 is almost upon us, so I thought it might be interesting to share my manufactured spend
Pro tip: keep your free bags when crediting Delta flights to Alaska
BackgroundFrom my local airport, Delta is by far the most convenient airline to fly. With daily flights to Salt Lake City, Detroit, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and New York City, it’s ..
Things US Bank told me about Flexperks Travel Rewards
It’s difficult to know how to frame information you receive from US Bank over the phone. For example, a US Bank representative once told me I could product change my
Overpay by booking Cathay Pacific premium seats with Avios
There’s a tempting intuition that says high balances across a variety of programs are a goal worth pursuing, since they allow you to deploy the right rewards currency for the
Can you get matched mLife Platinum perks on Cruises?
One of the first questions people ask, after finding out that comped cruises don’t come from mLife matches via Hyatt is: what about the shipboard perks? If you recall the
Rethinking Loyalty – the next frontier
I’m undecided as to whether loyalty programs are stupid or genius at this time. I see them as stupid as I can gain huge value from them, but in the
You should never buy points for what they're worth
The frame of reference for my manufactured spend practice is not usually the cost I pay per point that I earn, although I naturally privilege cheaper techniques above more expens..
Extending the Two Browser Trick
The two browser trick is a way in which to multiply an event for your benefit. There are a number of applications of it already known, some published openly, and
My Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond tier match experience
BackgroundAs my regular readers no doubt already know, on November 19, 2015, the official Hyatt Concierge Twitter account sent out a tweet asking, “Looking for a new loyalty prog..
Do this now: activate Chase Freedom Q1 2016 bonus categories
When it rains it pours. Just as Discover it, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash+ bonus categories are now available for registration, so are the Chase Freedom bonus categories for the
mLife Gold Complimentary Cruises
Part of my talk at TravelCon was a theory that I might be able to obtain cruise benefits from mLife based on an unwritten rule system. Upon my return, I
Do this now: activate Citi Dividend Q1 2016 bonus categories
The Citi Dividend credit card is absolutely the most frustrating of the quarterly cash back bonus category cards. That’s for two reasons:Cash back is capped at $300 per calendar ..
Kiva loan duration and repayment schedules
I don’t write about making Kiva loans very much anymore, mainly because I don’t make Kiva loans anymore! But Kiva loans are a still-working technique to manufacture an uncapped a..
Use these 3 weird programs to search Star Alliance award space
In Chapter 5 of my occasionally-selling ebook, I discussed the technique of using All Nippon Airways’ search tool to find Star Alliance award space. Recently, they made some chan..
Do this now: register for Discover it Q1 2016 cashback bonus
Registration is now open (log into your Discover account first) for the Discover it cashback bonus categories of “Gas & Ground Transportation” for the first calendar quarter of 2..
Use Hipmunk to find positioning flights
There are a lot of websites you can use to search for paid flights. Kayak is one of the most popular, but Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline will all find you
"Pop Finance" is a pretty good book
This is a review of “Pop Finance,” by Brooke Harrington. You can find all my previous book reviews here. If you’re interested in buying a copy, I hope you consider
I just bricked my Bluebird account (for the next 28 days)
Today I’m going to share a very simple, very stupid mistake I made. In fact it’s so simple, and so stupid, that it’s unlikely to help any of my readers.
Anatomy of an Award Trip: Summer in Europe
I’ve written a few times about this trip before (as recently as yesterday), but now that it’s locked down, I thought I’d share one of my patented Anatomies of an