My favorite ways to earn points during the winter holiday season
Some people love to shop. But I’m not one of those people. So when I do have to shop, like during the holiday season, I want to give myself a little incentive to make it more fun! My incentive is trying to earn the most points I can. Then each purchase isn’t just a gift—each…
Keep readingThe Flying Blue Award Map and the Case of the Missing Business-Class Saver Awards
Flying Blue is a really useful award program for lots of reasons—it’s easy to earn their miles because they’re transfer partners with all the major banks, they usually have a solid amount of economy saver award availability to and from Europe, and kids get a 25% discount on award fares. I find Flying Blue to…
Keep readingHotel review: Andaz Bali (Sanur, Bali, Indonesia)
Stay: July 2024 Paid: 18,000 Hyatt points per night per room (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards); Andaz Bali was a Category 4 when we booked but was moved into Category 5 in March 2024 Status: Discoverist with a Guest of Honor award Rooms: 2 rooms (standard king + standard two-twin) Would I stay again: I would live here if they…
Keep readingWhen to book family award travel
This is it: the shortest blog post I’ll ever publish. Because it’s all you need to know. This is when you should ideally book family award travel when your travel dates aren’t flexible and you need flights and hotel rooms for 3+ people.
Keep readingHow new airline routes can supercharge your award travel
The story Let’s go back in time to 2017, when I was in the process of booking business-class award flights for my family of four from Houston to Australia for a trip celebrating my husband’s 40th birthday the next year. Australia was his dream trip for decades, and we were finally going to make it…
Keep readingHotel review: Park Hyatt Milano (Milan, Italy)
Stay: July 2024 Paid: 40,000 Hyatt points per room per night (2 rooms total) Status: Discoverist with a Guest of Honor award Rooms: Standard king rooms (no upgraded rooms) Would I stay again: Any time I wanted to go to Milan and feel like the poshest version of myself, yes, no question about it Would I recommend to friends: Yes, absolutely…
Keep readingHow to skip to the front of the airport security line for free
If you don’t want to wait in a potentially long security line at the airport, you have a couple of options you can get for “free” by having the right credit card—going in the (hopefully) shorter TSA PreCheck line or going through the CLEAR line. (I say “free” because you did pay an annual fee…
Keep readingVirgin Atlantic discounted companion award seats
Update: Since the Virgin Atlantic award-chart changes in late October 2024, the Companion Fare 50% discount does not seem to exist anymore. I have a confession to make: I didn’t know until recently that Virgin Atlantic offered discounted award seats when you fly with a companion. My family has flown on Virgin Atlantic more than…
Keep readingCiti ThankYou Points 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Miles & Smiles
Turkish Airlines’ Miles & Smiles loyalty program is offering a 50% bonus to points transferred from Citi to Turkish by June 15, 2024. Now, because Turkish has recently devalued its award chart, this immediately struck me as a great way to get another fantastic Turkish business-class award redemption for a lower number of miles. That…
Keep readingDeciding which Chase Sapphire card you need, in two easy questions
I think this decision tree speaks for itself, so here you go: Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve have some benefits that are really similar, slightly different, or greatly different, and lounge access versus no lounge access is the one “greatly different” benefit I think this all really boils down to.…
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