Is Travel Hacking Basically Prepaid Discount Travel?
Earlier this year, I had a dream about being in an apocalypse world. Above the heavily torn urban landscape, flying demons lurked about in the sky and occasionally dived down…
Tips and Tricks
Frustrations When Traveling with Young Children
While many in the travel industry go out of their way to accommodate families with young children, others can be quite family-unfriendly.
Alaska Airlines Fall Sale: Last Day to Check Bookings for Lower Prices
Just a friendly reminder that today’s the final day of the Alaska Airlines Annual Fall Sale, which features flights starting at $64 across their entire route network. Each city has their own set of deals, but at least from rhe San Francisco Bay Area, there doesn’t appear to be any amazing deals to traditional vacation destinations like Mexico and Hawaii. However, there are pretty good deals to various West Coast cities, including Salt Lake City, Portland, and a couple southern CA cities.
Weekly Recap: First Class Reviews, $2 Chipotle Burritos, Korean Air Award Update
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the top posts from the past couple weeks, and Happy Mother’s Day!
Do Your Taxes Now
Consider paying your taxes with a points-earning credit card, and don’t wait till the last minute! With one month to go, this is a great time to start thinking about how to maximize your benefits in the process, and hopefully lessen the pain of paying taxes a little.
How Did You Get Started With This Hobby?
I’m constantly talking to friends, family, and even strangers about the points and miles hobby. I do understand that it can be a bit intimidating to get started, so I’ve even tried to boil it down into a “how to get started” presentation that I’ve given a few times. But even after spelling things out for people, I’ve noticed that the uptake rate has still been pretty low in terms of those that dive head first into it like I had.
Traveling with Young Children
2015 was full of adventures for my family: we brought home a newborn from the hospital, and then we traveled the world. As we made a name for ourselves as brave traveling parents, I figured it’d bring the year to a proper closure by sharing our experiences.
Thirsty for Points – Maximizing Starbucks
I love Starbucks. More precisely, I love the Starbucks Rewards program. To quote my friend Dr. J, “I go there just to watch those stars fall on my phone.” It’s designed well to entice brand loyalty. More importantly, the program works quite similarly to frequent traveler programs – you earn stars, achieve elite statuses, and get free drinks. As a newly minted points enthusiast, I became excited about playing with a new rewards program and figuring out how to get the most out of it. I started drinking coffee and, a year later, now have two Gold cards.
Should I Credit My Upcoming British Airways Business Class Flight To Alaska Or American Airlines?
A few months ago I was able to jump on a great deal for Business Class tickets aboard British Airways from San Francisco to Europe for just $1,700. Although it’s a little bit less of a great deal when you factor in the $250 that British Airways is asking for in order to select seats in advance. At the time, it was a no-brainer for me to credit this flight to Alaska Airlines, since I’d need the elite qualifying miles to re-qualify for status, and as an existing elite I’d receive a 100% bonus. But now things are a bit more complicated …
Introducing A New Blog Series: “What’s The Big Deal?”
Like many of you, I spend a ton of time on Flyertalk and these forums contain a wealth of information about everything you could ever want to possibly know about anything travel-related. But with user-generated content comes a fair amount of complaining. It simply comes with the territory. I generally group the complaints and rants that I come across into 3 buckets: