Celebrating 1 year this week!

29 05 2012

One year ago today Carrie and I got married. Since then we’ve gotten to see many incredible places together. Many people I know and have met claim that the travel life killed/nearly killed their marriage from always being away but we’ve been able to do everything together. The other day I said, “the longest we’ve been apart is that time you went on a run alone,” and everyone laughed. But I was serious, we’re together 24/7 and have been at least for the last 8 months and it’s been more than amazing.

It’s been an incredible year not just because of our travels but because of our companionship. We’re together every moment and I can’t imagine it any other way. There’s no one else I want to be around more.

Carrie is the type of extravert that wants to know everything about everyone and somehow becomes close friends to everyone she meets. She cares deeply for others and is especially concerned for the poor and needy. When we started our marriage, somehow a system was naturally adopted where all the cash went in my wallet and all the coins when into the pouch that dangles from her purse. Big mistake, as between subways and average spending she can accumulate a lot money in coins in a short amount of time. And as I charge ahead on sidewalks through cities I can guarantee when I pass a begging person or someone homeless that when I look back all the coins in that pouch will be emptied out into someone else’s hands. Sometimes it agitates me slightly to see how much money was in her pouch and then it’s completely humbling to learn the lesson she teaches everyday. She teaches me how to be giving in many ways.

She teaches compassion, kindness and love to everyone, including me. I’ve never met anyone ask kind as her and it’s hard to believe I snagged her. :-p

We’re celebrating our 1 year in Fiji and I was able to snag a week + at the InterContinental Fiji during PointBreaks. 5,000 points a night for a $400 a night hotel. Not a bad place to be.


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Categories : Trips

How to use ITA Software

27 05 2012

The most complex site for finding airline tickets can be found at matrix.itasoftware.com. Complex meaning it is the best for finding the best fares but not nearly as user friendly as the popular Expedia and similar search aggregators. Hopefully the following will help you navigate and use the wonderful tool (now owned by google).

If you’re flexible like me, you can use the “See calendar of lowest fares and search within a 7 day window (“6-13”). Make sure you uncheck “allow airport changes”, unless it fits your agenda.

In the “Departing from” and ”Destination” boxes you can select your airport or the airports you’re willing to fly out of. If you use multiple airport codes and separate them by comas, the next screen will have a calendar showing best prices that will later explain which airline and airports have the cheapest tickets. Similarly the boxes directly under “Departing from” and ”Destination”, “Advance routing codes”, allows you to enter the airline codes (among other things) that you’re willing to fly. I usually select AA (American Airlines) and/or UA (United Airline) or none at all.

If you are wanting to get more miles out of the route via more connections add a plus sign in the “Advance routing codes” box (“AA +”). This allows you to search the same route with more connections and you go to Greater Circles to figure out if those extra connections give enough miles to be worth your time. After you select your price, look under the “stops” column to find out where your layovers are.

To learn more of the codes, use the help page to expand your ITA knowledge and skills. But hopefully these basics will help you get by for now. (Remember though, ITA Software does not book tickets but instead gives you the information to book your ticket with the airline or third party.)


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Categories : Travel Search Engines

New PointsBreaks are out!

24 05 2012

Check out the list!

All the hotels on the list cost 5,000 points a night and are good for stays through July 31. However, the best hotels tend to get picked off the list quickly. Enjoy.


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Categories : Priority Club

Racking up the Priority Club promotions

21 05 2012

While the current promotion in itself isn’t killer there are currently a ton of decent Priority Club hotels that are stackable. Normally a stay gives 10,000-20,000 points and it gets better as you go (as some promotions are after 3 or 5 stays). But I feel as though I’ll be on the high end for the next few stays and hopefully these rebates come through.


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Categories : Priority Club

Why everyone should have the Chase Freedom card

21 05 2012

The Chase Freedom card is the best no annual fee credit card for travelers hands down. Out of all the credit cards out there it’s not the first one I recommend but it is still a must and is great for building credit, among other things.

The simple reasons:

  • It will build your credit history indefinitely. Because it has no annual fee, there is no reason to cancel it. It will lengthen your average history length and may be your oldest account.
  • You will build a good relationship (and credit line) with Chase. Chase is the bank that is coming out with the big credit card promotions and they want to know that you’re the kind to stick around.
  • 5% back on select categories. They rotate which category get’s 5% back quarterly. It’s pretty generous, seeing how they have multiple categories at a time and gas is in two (half the year).
  • An extra 10 points per purchase if you have a checking account with chase. If you buy something for 1 cent, you will still get 10 points! You can’t go crazy though, Chase has a security system that won’t let you charge the same amount from the same place more than twice.
  • It currently has a decent signup bonus of 25,000 points.

Other banks are offering cards that give 3 points per dollar on categories but the Freedom out-performs with 5% if you time your shopping well.

The biggest reason that the Chase Freedom card is so valuable is because you rack up points quickly with spending and then combine them with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The Sapphire Preferred card allows you to transfer Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points to airlines and hotels. The points are suddenly way more valuable than the other cards because of this ability to transfer. Even my modest spending amounts to a fair number of points with the Freedom card. With other banks you can redeem modest amount of points for gift cards at steep rates. American Express’ Membership Rewards are the only bank points to come close and you don’t earn 5 points per dollar and definitely not with a no annual fee card.

My recommendation is that if you start with this card, save all of your points until you get the Sapphire Preferred card. I don’t care if you wait a year – hold onto those points. If you have no credit history, start with a retail card and student card and try for the Freedom after 6 months or a year. After another year apply for the Sapphire card.


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Categories : Chase Ultimate Rewards, Credit Cards

Checking For Airline Promotions

18 05 2012

Before you buy a flight check for promotions! Most of the time it’s best to go to the airline’s website and check for promotions but now I found a way to look for promotions by route. Check out FrequentFlyerBonuses’ promotions list, by route. It’s not perfect but someone spends a fair amount of time updating this site manually.

For example a quick check for flights to San Francisco will show double miles for routes to/from Chicago with American Airlines. This particular segment will produce about 7,350 miles (round-trip). So if you are wanting to fly to San Fran from Atlanta it’s important to try to route your flight through Chicago in order to earn double miles. Same concept applies for international flights.

Some ItaMatrix skills definitely come in handy for finding the best price. Once you find the lowest price consider your return in value. Most people don’t want to pay a few bucks more to fly with AA but stop and calculate the miles earned. With A simple cross country trip on AA during a double miles promotion you could bring in 10,000 AA miles. Would I be willing to pay $300 instead of $275 for 10,000 AA miles? Heck yes! I value each mile at a minimum of $.02 per mile (but I know other people value them at $.0015 each). With that logic I’m getting $200 of flying back.

In fact, I could get way more than $.02 per mile, and this discovery is what inspires people to mileage run (fly for the sole purpose of earning miles). But all that is simply to say, if you are one who pays for your flights check for a good promo.


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Categories : Miles and Points

This Quarter’s Hotel Promotions!

16 05 2012

The next batch of hotel promotions are out, which is always an exciting time. Unfortunately Hyatt hasn’t brought back an exciting promo still and Marriott is running the same/same but for someone who lives in hotels it’s not a bad quarter.

  • Club Carlson – This is the best promo by far. Maybe the best promo of the last two years and definitely worth visiting for a matress-run (staying at a hotel just for the points). Essentially you get 50,000 points for one stay at a Radisson and/or 44,000 points for a stay at a Park Inn and/or 44,000 points for a stay at a Country Inn. The trick is that you have to be one of the first to register starting yesterday, May 15th (and the 22nd for Park Inn). Definitely read my overview here.
  • SPG – This is a complex promotion where you get to choose from a list of goodies and choose when you stay. You have to register by June 30 (take your time) but you have three different options for when you want to earn: May 1 – July 31 OR June 1 – August 31 OR July 1 – September 30. Personally I choose the the latest date because it works for me and I hope to double dip promotions. Out of the goodies you can choose from, I will most likely choose option 2 or 5. The goodies are:
  1. Double points.
  2. 3,000 bonus points for each 6 nights (up to 9,000 bonus points).
  3. Triple points after 15 nights.
  4. 500 bonus points per night at a Sheraton.
  5. Free weekend night after 10 paid nights (limit of two free nights).
  6. 25% off a redemption award after 20 paid stays (limit of two 25% off awards).
  7. US $50 award certificate after 4 nights (limit of 3 certificates).
  8. $50 Westin Discount code (limit of 3 certificates).
  9. $50 Sheraton Discount code (limit of 3 certificates).
  10. Elite Qualifying Night after 5 nights (limit of 3 EQN).
  11. 3 Elite Qualify Nights every 10 nights (limit of 9 EQN).
  • Marriott – Log into your Marriott account and go to promotions to take a look. It’s the same ole’ earn a free night certificate (valid through categories 1-4) after two paid nights. This time you can earn 3 certificates. Unfortunately it doesn’t start until June and there’s a promotion gap (figures! as I had a few May stays).
  • Priority Club – 1,000 bonus points for each elite qualifying night and a 250 bonus for booking on IHG. Particularly weak but as said before, it stacks with all the other PC promotions.
  • Hilton – Double points or miles. A bit of the same ole’ as well but the good news is that you can double dip with points and miles with Hilton, but the promo only doubles one of them. There is an option for 1,000 miles per stay along with regular point earning and remember, BMI will become British Airways Avios.
  • Hyatt – Hyatt hasn’t been the champ of promotions in a while as this time they bring us 4x miles on stays 2-3 and 5x miles on stays 4-11. First of all, why doesn’t Hyatt run a promo with Hyatt points as that’s what we’re all missing? And second this promotion is no good for someone with one long stay coming up.

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Categories : Hotels, Miles and Points

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