Tag Archives: Award Travel

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Unsolicited Advice: How I Would Price Vacasa Vacation Rental Point Redemptions If I Ran Wyndham Rewards

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I’ve been a huge fan of Vacasa Vacation Rentals using Wyndham Rewards Points and have booked 6 Vacasa properties in California and Hawaii over the last few years.  Back in October, Frequent Miler discovered that Vacasa now has a lower cap on reservations booked with WR Points.  You can now only redeem WR Points if the price per bedroom per night is $350 or less, down from the previous $500 per bedroom per night.  That is a major blow to the value you could get booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals.

Here is the current chart that shows the price in dollars and WR Points needed, based on the number of bedrooms and the average nightly price (including taxes and fees).  If you have a Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus or Earner Business credit card, you get a 10% discount on the number of WR Points needed.  Based on those numbers, the maximum cents per point (CPP) is 2.33 CPP for all members and 2.59 CPP for Earner Plus and Earner Business CC members.

# Bedrooms
Avg Nightly Price Cap
# WR Points
10% Discount
CPP Standard
CPP Earner CC
1 $350 15,000 13,500 2.33 2.59
2 $700 30,000 27,000 2.33 2.59
3 $1,050 45,000 40,500 2.33 2.59
4 $1,400 60,000 54,000 2.33 2.59

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Friday Funny: ChatGPT Brainstorms New Top Tier Elite Status Name Above Hyatt Globalist

Good afternoon everyone.  As I was going on my daily walk listing to my favorite miles and points podcast, I thought of a crazy idea.  With the recently announced changes to the World of Hyatt Milestone Rewards Chart, and the addition of the Ultimate Free Night Award at 150 elite nights, I thought about Hyatt Globalist elite status.  Since Hyatt Globalist elite status is achieved once you hit 60 elite nights, but the new Milestone Rewards chart goes up to 150 elite nights, it seems like there is a big hole for Hyatt to come up with a new top tier status that supersedes Globalist.  As a reminder, the current elite status tiers are called:

  • Discoverist (achieved with 10 elite nights)
  • Explorist (achieved with 30 elite nights)
  • Globalist (achieved with 60 elite nights)

With elite status tiers that start with the letters D, E, and G (I guess Hyatt decided to skip F words), maybe the new top tier would start with the letter H.  I decided to ask my AI friend ChatGPT for help.  Here is our conversation:

Grant: Hyatt elite status tiers are Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist. What is the next status tier that starts with the letter H?

ChatGPT: Actually, the Hyatt elite status tiers don’t currently include a tier that starts with the letter H after Globalist. As of my last update, Globalist is the highest tier within the World of Hyatt program. There might be future changes or additions to their tier system, so it’s worth checking directly with Hyatt for any updates or new tiers that might have been introduced since then.

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December Credit Card Dilemma: AMEX Platinum or AMEX Gold?

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  My wife and I have a $6,000 bill that is coming up in the next few weeks, so we (mostly me) are trying to figure out which new credit card to get to pay the bill (and earn a new sign up bonus along the way).  Traditionally in December, this is the time of the year that most travel hackers focus on spending the holidays with their friends and family setting themselves up for a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass in early January or getting a new American Express Platinum Card for the opportunity to go for the “Triple Dip” – where you can use the new card benefits at the end of 2023, again in 2024, and one more time in early 2025 before the annual fee is due.

My wife currently has a Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card and I am over Chase 5/24, so the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is off the table for us.  My wife has never had *any* American Express cards as the primary account holder, but she is an authorized user on a few of my AMEX cards.  The “Triple Dip” on the AMEX Platinum seems like a no brainer, but AMEX has messed up our plans by adding a “Family Rule” on the American Express Gold Card that says:

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Premier Rewards Gold Card, The Platinum Card® from American Express, American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab, The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards.

Basically, if she gets the AMEX Platinum, she will not be eligible for the AMEX Gold sign up bonus in the future.  So this is where the dilemma comes in.  Should she go for the “Triple Dip” on the AMEX Platinum and forgo ever getting a sign up bonus on the AMEX Gold?  Or should she get the AMEX Gold now and then apply for the AMEX Platinum in the future (maybe in December 2024)?

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4 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: United (100%), Hilton (100%), Air Canada (100%) & JetBlue (70%)

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 4 offers that end this month.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 4 offers that end soon.

Up first, United Airlines is offering up to a 100% bonus, depending on the number of United Airlines MileagePlus Miles you purchase.  This offer expires on November 20.

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How Fast do the $50 Hilton Credits Post on the American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card?

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about My 6 Credit Card App-O-Rama: Results & Reconsideration Calls.  In that post, I shared that I was approved for the American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card (referral link) that currently offers a 170,000 Hilton Honors Points sign up bonus after spending $3,000 in 6 months and a $200 Hilton Credit ($50 credit per quarter).  If you have had the Surpass card before, here is the No Lifetime Language offer for the Hilton Surpass (this is the link I used since I had the Surpass a few years ago).  In this post, I wanted to discuss the $200 Hilton Credit and share my experience with the credit.

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