Tag Archives: American Express

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Don’t Let your Hilton Free Night Certificate Expire: Call to get a 2 Week Extension

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday! Today I wanted to share a quick tip that might save you from losing a very valuable free night certificate. If you’ve ever earned a Hilton Free Night Certificate from a credit card, you know how valuable they can be toward a hotel stay. Unfortunately, those certificates also come with expiration dates and those dates may not line up with your travel plans.  Recently, I had a Hilton Free Night Certificate that was set to expire on February 10.  Instead of rushing to use it on a nearby hotel, I decided to call Hilton (1-800-446-6677) and see if there was anything they could do.  After explaining the situation, the rep offered to extend my existing certificate by 2 weeks.

To find your certificate and expiration date, log into your Hilton account, click your name in the top right corner, and scroll down to the Rewards section.  You should see when your certificate is set to expire.

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By the Numbers: My 10 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2025 (Plus 10 All-Time Favorites)

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Good afternoon everyone, and I hope your new year is off to a great start! With 2025 officially in the books, it’s time to look back at the blog posts you found most helpful, interesting, and worth clicking on throughout the year. Below you’ll find the 10 most popular posts written in 2025, along with the 10 most popular posts written in previous years that continued to draw strong traffic.  If you’re curious, you can also check out the most popular posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

2025’s Most Popular Blog Posts (Written During 2025)

  • No Upcoming Hilton Stay? Turn Your Credit Into a $50 Snack Shopping Spree (10/8/25) – I explain how to use your Hilton Credit even if I don’t have an upcoming hotel stay planned. Instead of letting the credit go to waste, I show how I used it for a $50 snack and convenience shopping spree.  I did this at the end of Q3, at the end of Q4, and will probably do this again sometime in Q1 2026.
  • Should I Transfer All My Amex Points to Hawaiian Airlines? (5/19/25) – I analyzed whether it made sense to transfer all of my American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines. I weighed the pros, cons, and risks before making what could be a one-way, irreversible decision.  This post is no longer relevant since Hawaiian Airlines is no longer an AMEX transfer partner.

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My Overly Ambitious (and Probably Wrong) 2026 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good afternoon everyone and let me be the first (or maybe the tenth) to wish you a very happy New Year! Fresh off the heels of reviewing my 2025 travel predictions (including 7 wins and plenty of misses), it’s time to look ahead. From airlines and hotels to credit cards and loyalty programs, here are my overly ambitious (and occasionally wishful) predictions for what 2026 has in store for the miles and points community.

Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines will change the Global 25K Companion Award into a Global 25K Award Discount (valid for a single passenger).
  • Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, or Delta Airlines will launch a debit card.
  • Southwest Airlines will not award Rapid Rewards Points on Basic Fares.

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Reviewing My 2025 Travel Predictions: 7 Wins & Plenty of Misses

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your holiday season is going well. As we wrap up the year, it’s time to revisit My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions and see how my crystal ball actually performed.  Correct predictions are in green, incorrect predictions are in red, and half correct predictions are in orange.  Without further ado, here are the results of my 2025 predictions:

Airline Predictions (4/7 correct):

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
    • No, this did not happen in 2025.  I would love to see this feature in 2026.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
    • Yes! You can use your Alaska Airlines Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights, but only on domestic Hawaiian Airlines flights (link).  I would love to see this Companion Fare eligible for all domestic and international Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines flights in 2026.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
    • Yes! You can now transfer Citi ThankYou Points to American Airlines (link)!
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
    • No, the redemption prices have not changed for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
    • No, but the rumored super-duper-ultra-premium AMEX Delta credit card could have this benefit (link).
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
    • Yes! With the United Airlines and JetBlue “Blue Sky” partnership, you can redeem JetBlue points on United Airlines and vice versa (link).
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.
    • Yes! You can pool United Airlines miles, but they can only be used for United and United Express flights, not Star Alliance partners (link).

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No Upcoming Hilton Stay? Turn Your Credit Into a $50 Snack Shopping Spree

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Reposting on 12/10/2025: as we approach the end of the year, you only have 3 weeks left to use your Q4 $50 Hilton Credit from your Hilton Surpass credit card and AMEX Platinum card. Don’t despair if you don’t have any upcoming Hilton stays, just go on a Hilton snack shopping spree! Read the full post for more details.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, I received a reminder email from Hilton about the Q4 $50 Hilton credit on my American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card.  I also receive another Q4 $50 Hilton credit from my American Express Business Platinum Card.  In the past, it was easy to use both credits, I’d simply book a Hilton stay once a quarter.  But things are a little different now with a newborn at home.  So when Q3 was coming to an end, I had to get creative to make sure those Hilton credits didn’t go to waste.

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