Author Archives: Caroline Lupini

About Caroline Lupini

Caroline absolutely loves to travel. She's been to 70 countries so far and is on a quest to visit them all! Frequent flyer miles help her get there. Find her at carolinelupini.com, on Twitter @carolinelupini, and on Instagram @caroline.lupini.

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Hotel Review: Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park

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Sheraton, the SPG-turned-Marriott hospitality brand, definitely isn’t the crown jewel of the Marriott fleet — especially in the U.S. In fact, most travelers would say that it doesn’t even come close to the likes of JW Marriott or even a W or a Westin. That may be the case, but there are a few Sheraton properties that definitely deserve a shoutout and one of them is located right in the heart of Sydney.  While the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park isn’t the world’s most impressive property, it just might be one of the most impressive Sheraton properties out there. Here’s my experience with this property, and why you should probably give it a chance next time you’re in Sydney.

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Earn an Easy $50 with Swell Investing

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I know we all love the chance to make a little bit of easy money, and Swell Investing makes it almost as easy as it gets with their $50 sign-up bonus (my affiliate link, thanks for your support!). In order to qualify for your $50 bonus, you simply have to sign-up and make a $50 investment. New members must remain investors for at least 60 days before the payout will occur, but there are no additional requirements. Once you’re signed up with Swell, you’ll also have the ability to refer friends & family to the program and earn even more. For every three people that sign-up, you’ll earn $100. You can refer a maximum of 18 people, which would mean $600 in referral bonuses! Not bad for getting a few people to sign-up.

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Come Visit Me at FTU Sydney!

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Sorry in advance for the short notice!

I found out just a couple of weeks ago that I was planning to be in Sydney at the same time as the Frequent Traveler University is happening this year. And even better, just last weekend, I agreed to come on as a last minute addition to the already awesome list of speakers!

FTU Sydney is happening this coming weekend – November 17 – 18, 2018, and I would absolutely love to see you there! Now, I know that it’s pretty unlikely that anyone is going to book last minute flights to Sydney to see me speak at the FTU, but it would be so fun to see some friendly faces that already happen to be in Sydney! Continue reading →

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New Tool to Snag Earliest Available Global Entry Appointment

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Global Entry is an incredibly valuable tool for those of us that travel outside of the US relatively frequently. And better yet, many credit cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, American Express Platinum card, and others, offer to reimburse your $100 Global Entry application fee every 4 to 5 years.  The downside has become actually getting a Global Entry interview appointment. With more and more people having access to free Global Entry, sometimes the next available appointment at a given airport is MONTHS away. That’s not very helpful if you have trips coming up in the meantime.

Of course, you can check nearby airports or login a couple of times per day to see if anyone has cancelled an appointment, but there’s a better way. Get Me Global Entry is a new service that will send alerts to your phone, via text, when an appointment opens up so you can login and book it right away. It costs $9.99 for 14 days worth of notifications, which I think is a great value!

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Flights to Cuba & El Salvador: Thinking Outside the Box

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I’m well versed in flight options from the US, but when it comes time to plan trips between different regions, I have to think about my options a little more.  My boyfriend and I decided to plan a trip to El Salvador for the end of May, but I was going to Cuba right before as part of the last class for my MBA.  He was able to snag great flights on Delta for only 14,500 miles roundtrip during one of their sales. Unfortunately, I was locked in to flying to Cuba with my class – which, thankfully was a cheap $90 flight that I wouldn’t have used miles for anyway.  I decided it would make way more sense to fly directly from Cuba to El Salvador than to come back to the US first. As usual, I checked cash prices first. I was looking at around $300 for the one-way flight… ouch.

That’s when I turned to using miles. Flyermiler, one of my favorite tools, showed that I could book with Avianca LifeMiles for only 10,000 miles! It also showed that United would cost only 10,000 miles, but that’s not actually correct. United charges 12,500 or 17,500 miles for an economy class flight, depending on routing.  Luckily for me, I had some LifeMiles, so I was able to get a killer deal on my flight to El Salvador!

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