Author Archives: The Tactical Traveler

About The Tactical Traveler

Will has been employed in law enforcement for the last 15 years. He has a unique perspective on travel and the possible safety concerns that come along with traveling. He has a knowledge base about the laws that surround manufactured spending (MS). Find him on Twitter @WDeWitt.

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Denver / Front Range Travel Hackers March Madness Mania Meetup on Thursday, March 15

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If you happen to be in the Denver/Front Range area of Colorado this week, please join us for an informal Meetup at The Village Tavern in Broomfield, Colorado, where you can share a brew, some food, and talk miles and points with like-minded people. People will be on hand that you can discuss points and miles topics from airline/hotel elite status strategies, credit card bonuses, airline award strategies, MS, etc.

  • Where: Village Tavern, 1 W Flatiron Crossing Dr, Broomfield, CO 80021 (Google Maps)
  • When: Thursday, March 15th from 6:30pm-9pm

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You can RSVP on our Meetup page, Facebook page, or just feel free to show up. Hope to see you there!

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Free Apple 4K TV 32GB with 3 Months of DIRECTV Now Purchase (Possibly $48 by Stacking Deals!)

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Okay… pretty cool deal to get an Apple TV 4K 32GB for a grand total of $83 (possibly even $48 and get DIRECTV Now free for 3 months!)  You can order a maximum of 2 per household, just use a different email address.  DIRECTV Now is running a promo where if you pay for 3 months of service, they will give you a free Apple TV 4K 32GB (MSRP $179). If you choose the lowest DIRECTV Now package of $35 a month, you will pay $105.

If you shop through BeFrugal, you can get $22 back for signing up for DIRECTV Now. If you don’t have a BeFrugal account, I would sign up for one first, close the window, then click the link below. If you don’t already have a BeFrugal account, I would appreciate it if you signed up with my referral link.

Start here at BeFrugal and click the Get Coupon button next to this offer: Get a 4K Apple TV (32GB) for $0. The DIRECTV Now promo is for 3 months now, not 4 months.

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How I Got “Dropped” by Drop… and then Reinstated

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After many of us saw our Drop accounts go into the “technical error abyss” for a week (I mean…forever…), I sent drop a Support Ticket inquiring as to what was going on with my account, and why I couldn’t redeem for awards. I also wanted to know what happened to my reward redemptions that never arrived (awards had previously been coming in within a few minutes on all my redemptions).

I received multiple replies ranging from their Reward Processor was having technical difficulties in the US, to they were having issues on their end and they were working on it. I tried reaching out on Twitter and Facebook Messenger as well, and both told me to email their support.

After reading various other responses on various blogs that Drop had changed their Terms and Conditions (T&C) to disallow people from earning points on repeated purchases, I decided to send them an email demanding my points be reinstated. After all, I had done all my purchasing before they had changed their T&C. Continue reading →

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USPS Informed Delivery – A Step By Step Guide

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I recently logged into the United Stated Postal Service (USPS) to check some shipping rates, and there was an ad on the USPS Homepage for a product called Informed Delivery notifications. Informed Delivery is a really cool service that sends you an email with the pictures of the mail you are going to receive that day in your mailbox!

I really love this product, because when I work late I can see in advance if there is anything in my mailbox worth stopping for on my way home. If there’s not, I just head home and pick up the mail on another day. Another benefit is you can see if the Postal Carrier didn’t deliver all your mail. There is an option to notify the Post Office if you didn’t receive a piece of mail. Here is an example of what the email header looks like and a example of the image you’ll receive of your mail:

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My First Trip to Europe Using Miles & Points (Denver, Houston, Manchester, Dublin, Paris & Frankfurt)

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I started this post while I was in Dublin on a ten day trip around Europe, but I never found the time to finish it. Probably due to the fact that I was walking 7-10 miles a day checking out the sites! I primarily used miles/points to book the majority of the travel and lodging, which is detailed below.

My first flight was from DEN (Denver) – HOU (William P. Hobby/Houston) on SW (Southwest) as a positioning flight, which I paid 7.6k miles for, and $5.60. The retail price was $127, so I averaged 1.6 Cents Per Point (CPP), which is pretty average for SW. I Uber’d to IAH (George Bush Intercontinental/Houston) for around $40.

Southwest Plane

Southwest flight from Denver (DEN) to Houston (HOU)

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