Hotel benefits by length of stay
The other day I was looking at hotels for an upcoming weekend trip with flexible dates. I settled on a convenient Hilton property, and was immediately annoyed that I only
Confirming and Tracking Wells Fargo Signup Bonuses
Quick Summary: Wells Fargo has added a tracker that makes it easy to confirm signup bonuses are attached to your account, your progress toward the minimum spending requirement, a..
What Are Your Resort Pet Peeves?
Greetings from the Hyatt Grand Cypress in Orlando. I’m having a stay here that is just, well, off. There is not one thing I could point to as catastrophic but
Keep a Bank of America Card Open for Free Museums
For a long time, Bank of America (BOA) has sponsored free museum days in the US. Currently, select museums throughout the country are free to BOA cardholders on the first full w..
Distinguishing between falsifiable and non-falsifiable claims
Right-wing troll Ben Shapiro has a cliché he deploys whenever he’s confronted by someone who disagrees with his particular brand of snarky malevolence: “facts don’t care about yo..
Disney World Hotels Using Points: The Best Deal in Orlando
Update: It’s rare that a post becomes obsolete a week after writing it. Marriott released its new rewards chart and doubled/tripled the price of this hotel to 25K Marriott points
What if low US labor force participation is driven by low US labor standards?
There is no cliché more beloved by chin-stroking observers of The West than the “sclerotic” labor markets of Western Europe.
France is of course the most notoriously sclerotic l..
Transfer Starpoints to Amtrak Guest Rewards before August 1, 2018
For many years I was a booster of Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to Amtrak Guest Rewards, due to their zone-based redemption system which made it possible to get 3 or
My (boring) Citi shutdown story
For the past few years, I’ve carried three credit cards issued by Citibank:Double Cash;Dividend Platinum Select;and AAdvantage Platinum Select.These are all middling credit cards..
This Week in Bank Points: Stacking AmEx Insider Fares, 35% Rebate, 4x and more for Flights
Quick Summary: Flexible bank points (Chase Ultimate Rewards, AmEx Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points) are often a better way to pay for flights than traditional airline mil..
3PL Review: ShipBob
A 3PL is third party logistics, at a high level they cover all things in the logistics portion of the supply chain like warehousing and transportation. I’ve previously written a..
Follow Our Road-Trip In The Mountains Of North-East Mexico!
I’ll be posting videos every day for the next few days on the TravelisFree Instagram Stories (and eventually Facebook). Hopefully lots of beautiful clips of waterfalls, and more ..
Episode 84 – Guatemala and living in a non hub city with Becky Pokora
Episode Description
Becky Pokora returns to the podcast after her big move to talk one of her favorite countries, Guatemala. We then discuss the best ways to travel when living in
Means-testing and the real marriage penalties (wonkish)
For decades (at least as long as I’ve been alive), people have used the expressions “marriage bonus” and “marriage penalty” to describe what happens to the income tax liability of
Shop Talk: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in This Game.
Welcome to another edition of Shop Talk where we discuss what’s going on in our personal points & miles space and highlight what we think is interesting in the broader
Do this now: register for 2018 3rd quarter bonus categories
With July 1 right around the corner, it’s time to make sure you’re registered for quarterly bonus earnings on some popular no-annual-fee credit cards.Chase FreedomAfter a great f..
JW Marriott Chengdu – Low Category City Luxury
A few months ago, I wrote about Le Meridien Chiang Rai, then a category 2 SPG redemption (now cat 3) for a luxurious 5-star resort tucked away from the bustle. Now I’d like to t..
Potential US Bank Gift Card Fraud Spotted in the Wild
I hate that I have to write a post like this (again), but I would be remiss if I didn’t put this warning out there. Years ago there was an
Absolute versus relative redemption values
In Wednesday’s post about passing on the current IHG Rewards point sale, I mentioned that it’s not enough to get good absolute value from a points redemption if you’re not
PSA: Iberia.com hates Google Chrome. Use Internet Explorer
I am writing this in hope of saving you a few hours of your life in frustration. At least for me, Iberia.com is very buggy in Chrome and Firefox. It wouldn’t let me login 95% o..
Targeted: American Express Business Gold 75k/$5k Offer
Today I’ll go over an excellent targeted 75k Offer for the American Express Business Gold Card that’s starting to show online on some American Express account login pages. This o..
This Week in Bank Points: Stacking Citi Prestige 4th Night Free with Four Seasons Offers
Quick Summary: It’s possible to stack the Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit with free night offers at hotels like the Four Seasons. You can pay with Citi ThankYou points
First flight on Southwest – lessons learned and tips
So I finally flew Southwest for the first time and my hot take is that I don’t really understand why people have such strong feelings about it. Before my flight