October 2020. I visited Zion National Park for the first time. When I reached the town of Springdale and the Zion canyon wall appeared before my eyes, it was a sight I'll never forget. I thought: surely this is the most majestic of all red rocks in the country, other than maybe the Grand Canyon? Less a month later, after spending 4 days in Sedona, a new thought … [Read more...]
Low Category IHG Redemption – Staybridge Suites Palm Springs
In a normal year, I'd tell you about some great low category hotel redemptions around the world. But in the year of Covid, I have been checking out things near my base of Southern California. I wanted to share a good points redemption at home. I'm talking about Staybridge Suites Cathedral City Palm Springs. It's a limited service hotel, so don't expect … [Read more...]
Extend Old Cathay Pacific Asia Miles during Covid
TL;DR: Transfer 3000 miles from 2 different partners; miles will be extended after 36 hours. I had a sizable amount of Asia Miles expire Jan 31, 2021, I just extended them and now they have the "new" 18 months expiration policy (resets with activity). It's not straight forward, so I wanted to share the process. First of all, shame on Asia Miles for not automatically … [Read more...]
50k MR or $500 Retention Offer on NEW Amex Platinum, No Spend Required
This is the most generous retention offer I've ever encountered. Today I called Amex to see if there was any retention offer on my Aspire card, since I barely used the benefits this year. There was a marginal offer of 10k Hilton points with no spend required, which I value at around $50 now that Hilton improved points value. But that's not why I'm … [Read more...]
PSA: Use Firefox to link Rakuten to your Amex account
Rakuten is in the news a lot lately. Between various 15% cashback deals at stores like Saks 5th Avenue, and the 90-100% cashback on the LifeLock, there are some good deals. Furthermore, you can elect to earn Amex Membership Rewards points instead of cashback, at the generous rate of $0.01 per point. However, there's an obstacle. You have to link your … [Read more...]
Surprise Surprise: IHG not (yet) extending Free Night Certificates beyond Dec 2020
Back in April, IHG blanketly instituted Dec 31, 2020 as the expiration date for all unexpired free night certificate (FNC) as of Mar 1, 2020 that had already been issued. That means if yours originally expired Dec 15, 2020, you get a whopping 15 extra days. New certificates issued in 2020 would get 18 months from the issue date. Well, Dec 31 is quickly … [Read more...]
Yes, Triple Dip is possible with your new Amex Platinum
If you are the owner of a new Amex Platinum card because of the extraordinary signup bonus (here's the coverage by Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler), you might be wondering whether Triple Dipping (TM) the $200 airline credit with one annual fee is possible. The premise is that if your card membership starts at the end of year 1, you can get the airline credit (which … [Read more...]
Exciting: Hilton Improves Points Redemption Value!
I'm seeing an exciting development with Hilton Honors that I haven't seen reported in the blogosphere (but I also haven't read every blog). The value of Hilton points has hovered around 0.4 cents per point (CPP) for a while. There were still some rare good values if you looked hard, but 0.4 CPP was the norm. However, now I somewhat consistently see a redemption … [Read more...]