Tag Archives: Mexico City

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Lesson Learned: International Uber Rides Do Not Earn 2x Membership Reward Points

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Buenos dias everyone. I was looking at my Membership Rewards account recently and noticed that although I have used Uber many times in Mexico City over the past couple of months, I only had a couple of credits for bonus Membership rewards points. After some further digging, I realized that I was actually missing a lot of the Membership Rewards points I expected: over the past year or so, I’ve put $869 in Uber charges on my Membership Rewards-earning cards (American Express Business Platinum and my American Express Everyday), but only received 346 bonus points over that time period.

Screenshot of an American Express Membership Rewards summary showing two line entries for "Uber Earn 2x MR Points"

I was hoping to see a lot more of these on my Membership Rewards activity history…

I had an idea of why these were missing, but I reached out to American Express via web chat anyway. The agent said they would file a ticket for me and someone from the Membership Rewards department would call me in a few days. In the meantime, I decided to do some research. Continue reading →

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Alaska Airlines Announces New Routes from California (SAN, LAX & SFO) to Mexico City (MEX)

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Buenas dias everyone,

It looks like Santa has been talking to the folks at Alaska Airlines, because the first wish on my travel hacker wish list was granted today: Alaska Awhirlines announced that the US Department of Transportation has granted them tentative approval to operate four flights a day to Mexico City starting this summer!

New Alaska Airlines routes to Mexico City

New Alaska Airlines routes to Mexico City! Image from gcmap.com

Continue reading →

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My 2017 Elite Status Strategy: Should I Move from Alaska AIrlines to American Airlines?

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Buenas dias everyone,

Since my travel has started ramping up in 2017, I decided it was time to sit down and look at my strategy for earning airline elite status in the coming year. Which means…spreadsheet time!

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A portion of my elite status planning spreadsheet

Where I am Today

I currently have Alaska Airlines MVP Gold, United Airlines Gold, and Virgin America Silver elite statuses. I’ve already credited a couple of trips to my Alaska Airlines account (two on American Airlines and one on Delta). Most of my confirmed flights later this year are on American Airlines or other OneWorld carriers.  Continue reading →

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Around the World in 14 Days (Business Class Mistake Fares, Airbnbs & a Cooking Class)

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Buenas dias everyone!

I’m a bit late on this, but I wanted to let you know that we started a round-the-world trip earlier this week and will be sharing some updates along the way.

After spending the weekend with some friends in Austin, we took off for Madrid in business class on an American 787-9 – booked with Citi Thank You Points and upgraded with AA System Wide Upgrades. (Four other friends were on our same flight, but we left them behind in Premium Economy…and then they left us behind at the Madrid airport!)

AA business class on the 787 Dreamliner. Photo from aa.com

AA business class on the 787 Dreamliner. Image from aa.com

We immediately hopped on a train to Valencia to visit a friend of my partner’s, crashing at an Airbnb for two nights, and are now on our way to spend two nights at the Holiday Inn Express Barcelona City 22@. Two other members of the group got to Barcelona yesterday, so tomorrow we’re doing the same EatWith cooking class that Whitney wrote about last week. On Friday, we’ll be taking a short flight to Algeria on Air Algerie, then hopping on a Qatar business class mistake fare to Hong Kong via Doha. (Two other friends will be on the ALG-DOH flight, and we’ll meet up with the other four in Doha and fly the rest of the way together). Continue reading →