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…
Late last year I decided to surprise my girlfriend with a trip to Cape Town. Well, when I say it that way it sounds incredibly nice of me. In actuality, for Black Friday 2019, Cathay Pacific offered Premium Economy from New York to Cape Town for just $1,600. That was a fantastic deal as it…
As it turns out, January was my month of new credit cards. I’m not talking about new credit cards that I applied to (although I did apply for the Citi Prestige card), but rather new physical cards for existing accounts. Typically I don’t request new cards unless the account becomes compromised. However, Chase recently rolled…
For those who don’t live in the New York City area, you might not be too familiar with Blade. Essentially, Blade is like Uber, but instead of requesting a cloth lined Toyota Camry with “Black Ice,” you request a helicopter. Blade offers helicopters from New York City to the various airports, the Hamptons, or other…
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…
I hate to admit it, but over the past year I’ve only spend a few nights in hotels. In fact, I bet all together, I can count one hand how many of those nights were with Marriott hotels. See, the issue is that my travel habits have changes substantially since I first started blogging. Back…
It’s been an interesting past few years for Marriott hotels. See, back in 2015 Marriott and Starwood formally announced plans to merge. That announcement set in motion a chain of events which eventually led to the formal announcement of the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program earlier this year. However, a lot happened in between then and…
It seems with each month or year credit card bonuses get larger and larger. A few years ago a 60,000 point signup bonus seemed incredible, but now people really only get excited for 100,000+ bonuses! This is especially true for credit cards that earn redeemable points. Likewise, hotel credit cards, such as the Marriott Bonvoy…
Well, it’s officially a few days past February 13, 2019 which means Marriott Bonvoy is upon us. It also means that Starwood Preferred Guest (a favorite among frequent travelers) is dead. Likewise, Marriott Rewards is also dead. What’s left is a single combined loyalty program called Marriott Bonvoy. While I’ll admit I’m not a fan…
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…