A MAN, A PLAN, AN ANA PRIMER: The best pure travel hacking blog I’m aware of is Travel Is Free, as I can’t think of any other site that consistently tells me cool things I didn’t know. (If I’m wrong, please tell me what else I should be reading.) The latest post is no exception, so here’s the intro to pique your interest:

Over and over and over again, I compare prices across the mileage board and ANA has the best prices. And it’s totally an option for any mileage collector because of transfer opportunities. Yet, it’s hardly used or talked about.

Even better! It’s a little known fact that you get 4 stopovers with ANA! That means a trip planned for one city could have stops as long as you want in 3 other cities.

The only downside is the fuel surcharges, and you can avoid those!

Full article here. Note that you can get ANA miles via both Amex and Starwood.

RITZ-CARLTON CARD IMPROVED: In case you haven’t noticed, there has been a lot of good credit card news lately. The latest news is that the Ritz-Carlton card just became more attractive–One Mile At A Time points out that the travel credit has just been increased from $200 to $300. The card’s annual fee is $395, so if you’re fly enough the travel credits can offset a lot of that. You also get gold status for your first year and three room upgrades per year. So it’s not for everybody, but there’s enough there for a savvy traveler to capitalize on.

DEAL MOMMY COMES THROUGH: A few weeks ago I jokingly tweeted that with Amex thinning the ranks of its affiliates, it would be a good time for a contrarian to review the Amex Platinum. Well, the Deal Mommy just did that, with nary an Amex affiliate link, so good job. She even told me something I didn’t know which is that the Platinum can pay for car towing–multiple times in Dia’s case, alas.

MORE ON CHEAP RESORTS: I just wanted to draw your attention to a good comment from Andy at Lazy Travelers, following up on a great deal he had posted that I had linked to, an all-inclusive resort room going for $19 / night. He writes:

I’m really bewildered why these deals don’t get more traction with our crowd. These promos are so crazy cheap that even local expats buy them. It’s even cheaper than cooking (and drinking) at home. Sometimes, I have a feeling that miles and points have become the all-consuming and self-fulfilling purpose for many in this hobby.

Indeed! Oh, and Andy pointed out something else I didn’t know: the periods during which the IHG credit card free night can be booked sometimes overlap, meaning that it’s possible you can get two consecutive free nights with this card.

ON BOOKING REWARD FLIGHTS 330 DAYS OUT: A friend writes in:

One phenomenon that I’ve found by booking reward seats at the 330 day mark is that when you do that, airlines almost always make some kind of schedule change before your trip. When they do that, you can call in and request seats on another flight, even on a different day, with different routing, and they’ll put you on it even if it doesn’t show reward availability. For instance, we’re going to Hawaii with the kids. Originally booked tickets on United with the routing Charlotte to Chicago to LA to Kona. (Getting to Hawaii is a haul.) But then they changed the time of the LA-Hawaii leg, which messed things up, and they had us with all these crazy long layovers. So I called and said, is it OK if we fly the night before to San Francisco, then leave the next morning for Kona? They said no problem. So essentially getting a stopover in SF, visiting family for a day, getting refreshed, then flying out the next morning. Much better.

Same thing just happened to me on the return trip. Was going to have to go Maui to LA to New Orleans to Charlotte. But they changed the time of one of the legs so I couldn’t make a connection, then gave me another crazy routing. Called, and now I’m going with the much easier Maui to Chicago to Charlotte.