Yesterday I received an email from Marriott about buying gift cards at a fairly attractive discounted rate. It seems for about the next week, Marriott is offering a 20% discount on all e-gift card purchases. This gift card discount seems to be yet another attempt from a travel brand to raise cash. See, even though…
I haven’t written about this yet, but a few months ago I decided to buy a new car. When moving to New York from Chicago the last thing I ever expected to do was to buy a car. After all, I didn’t have a car in Chicago so why would I need one in New…
Every year hotel chains offer some pretty fantastic promotions to earn points more quickly. Obviously I’m never going to turn down free points, but I often find hotels points become much less valuable over time. Because of this, the only way to get truly great hotel redemptions is to take advantage of promotions and earn…
During my recent Mileage Run to Hong Kong I ended up with a full day and night in the city. When I left for my trip I actually didn’t have a hotel booked. As I left San Francisco I still wasn’t sure where I wanted to stay. Instead, I decided that I wanted to wait…
Well, it’s been a few weeks since the SPG Marriott systems merger and in my eyes things went great. Sure I’ve read about various glitches and issues that have come up, but from my point of view it’s been fine. However, there is one tiny thing that keeps bugging me and I wish I had…
As you may have noticed in recent months I’ve taken a step back from writing about credit cards and focused more on the travel aspect of this travel blog. The reason for the shift is two-fold. First, I have been traveling internationally a lot more and therefore have more of that content available. Second, I…
While most people run out to department stores during black Friday, I spend the day looking for flight deals. I’m always surprised by how many people don’t realize that some international airlines offer fantastic sales on either black Friday or cyber Monday. This year I found a flight that I just couldn’t pass up. I…
There are currently two different promotions to transfer hotel points to AAdvantage miles. One is to transfer 140,000 Marriott Rewards points to AAdvantage for a 30% bonus. The second is to transfer 80,000 SPG Starpoints to AAdvantage for a 30% bonus. Both seem enticing at face value, but when you dig into the value of…
The other day I received a very curious email from American Airlines. The subject of the email introduced an “exclusive offer” to convert Marriott Rewards points to AAdvantage miles. Even better, you’d earn a 30% bonus for doing so. Upon receiving the email I instantly became excited about the opportunity. I’ve had a large stash…
I have a rather embarrassing confession to make. Until today, I’ve never used the Marriott free night certificate offered by the Marriott Rewards Premier credit card! I supposed I never used the them because until recently I didn’t exactly know how to Use Marriott free night certificates. While I realize this is a huge mistake,…
