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This past weekend our family had a great time in Charlotte for FT4RL2. It was a really fun chance to connect with people, familiar and new, who play (or want to play) this game that gives us so many great opportunities. [continue reading…]

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When we started playing the miles-and-points game, our goals were simple: four tickets to Europe, and a few domestic trips on Southwest. Citi, Chase, and later Barclays and AMEX, took excellent care of us. In fact, none of US Bank’s offerings really interested me until I decided to try for [continue reading…]

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Mexican mix-ups: a Cancun trip report

I’ve figured out a couple of things while playing the miles and points game and enjoying the fruits of it. Apparently hotel bookings are not among those things. I hope you’ll enjoy laughing with (or at) me and our last trip, a quick weekend to Cancun. [continue reading…]

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We’re working on strategies for booking award tickets on various airlines (not necessarily using that airline’s own program). Next, an airline that doesn’t see a whole lot of attention, is LAN Airlines. [continue reading…]

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Last spring Barclays took away the last application for the US Airways Mastercard that had the annual fee waived for the first year. Since then the signup bonus has gone up from 30K to 50K miles but the $89 fee must be paid. This larger bonus combined with the fact that it’s on its way out has made this a popular card. Barclays seems to be testing bonus offers to see what will get these cards out of the sock drawer and into our wallets, so you might want to check and see if there’s a bonus offer worth registering for! [continue reading…]

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FT4RL2 is going to be awesome! I guarantee it!

Family Travel for Real Life, or FT4RL, is coming back! I wasn’t able to make it to the first one but it went so well that Dia decided right away to organize a second one. The conference is for families of all ages and sizes who want to learn more about traveling more, traveling better or traveling for less. Or all three!

In my [continue reading…]

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We’re going to try to dive in to strategies for booking award tickets on various airlines. First up, since we picked up an additional two months of schedule this morning, is Southwest. It might seem like the easiest program to use, but there are a few extra things worth keeping in mind. [continue reading…]

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If you’ve been anywhere near any miles and points related blog in the past couple of days, you’ve seen the news of the bomb that Delta dropped on all of its Skymiles members. There is no more award chart of any kind, and we are supposed to just assume that Delta’s often-flawed IT has priced our award searches and bookings correctly. [continue reading…]

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This year, there have been a couple of changes that completely alter the picture for getting award seats to The Land Down Under. Let’s check them out, and run through a guide to booking the seats and routing you want. [continue reading…]

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Last fall I posted about wide-open award availability to Europe with AA miles that lasted a few days. It’s back! And both ways this time! I’m seeing 6 or more seats on many weekdays for US Airways routes to Europe in both coach and business class. [continue reading…]

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