Author Archives: Grant

About Grant

Grant is an expert in frequent flyer miles, hotel loyalty points, credit card rewards, and cash back deals. He also has a pretty cool travel blog. Find him on Twitter @travelwithgrant.

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FTU Advanced Orange County (October 28-30) and Seattle (February 24-26)

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  We are only 1 week away from FTU Advanced in Orange County (October 28-30).  FTU stands for Frequent Traveler University and is a travel conference with your favorite travel bloggers from Boarding Area and beyond.  I will be attending the conference, but I am not presenting.  I am flying down from SFO on Friday night after work, so I won’t be able to attend the Friday night happy hour (someone, please drink for me).  I am staying at home, not at the host hotel (The Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa), but I will be at the conference all day Saturday and Sunday.  I will be wearing my classic Travel with Grant shirt (much to the chagrin of Devil’s Advocate).  If you see me, don’t be afraid to say hello :)

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Targeted US Bank FlexPerks Offer: Spend $500, Earn 2,000 Bonus FlexPoints

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I was boring last night and did a mini American Horror Story TV marathon (don’t watch that show if you get scared easily!).  This morning, I was checking my credit card accounts and stumbled onto this promotion for my US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card.  This offer might be targeted, but to see if are eligible for the promotion, click here (you will need to sign in or join the FlexPerks Promo page).  Once you register for the promotion, you will earn 2,000 bonus FlexPoints (worth up to $40 in travel) when you spend $500 or more between November 1 and December 31.  This is a pretty good and simple offer, so I will definitely participate.  Only purchases made between November 1 and December 31 will count toward this promotion, so you will need to wait a few days.

If you have a different US Bank FlexPerks credit card, I do not believe you are eligible for this promotion, but there might be a similar promotion available to you.  If you see a different promotion, please let me know in the comments section.  Thank you.

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How to Profit from 2 Timeshare Presentations in Hawaii

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Full disclosure: I have only been to 3 timeshare presentations in my life (Hilton Elara in Las Vegas, Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui, and Hilton Waikoloa Village in Kona), so I am no timeshare expert.  I am not married, so I go to the presentations by myself.  I have never gone to a presentation outside the US, but I have heard nightmare stories about timeshare presentations in Mexico lasting hours.  Proceed at your own risk!

Good morning everyone, greetings from my local Peet’s Coffee at the SF Ferry Building.  Between the pushy salespeople (usually a small sales team), lengthy presentations, and overpriced fees, timeshares get a bad rap in the travel community.  But, if you can sit through the presentation and leave without buying a timeshare, the sales presentation can be worth your time.  To illustrate this point, I want to tell you about my 2 timeshare presentations in Hawaii last week.

The first presentation was at the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui, Hawaii, where I was staying thanks to the targeted vacation package offer I received a few months back.  I wrote about the offer details here, but to recap, I received 6 days / 5 nights in a villa studio, 5,000 SPG points, and a 6 day Avis car rental for $798.  I value 5,000 SPG points at $100, the Avis car rental at $150, so that means the stay in the studio villa cost about ~$550 for 5 nights in Maui.  That’s a great deal if you ask me.  The property is very nice, I loved the $5 Mai Tais during happy hour (4-6pm and 8:30-10pm) and the pools were great.  Valet parking is only $12/day or $10/day for self parking.

5000-spg-points-westin-vacation-package Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas

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Alaska Airlines 20 Minute Baggage Guarantee = 2,500 Miles for Slight Delay

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Good morning everyone, sorry my posting frequency has gone way down lately.  I am back from my trip to Maui and Kona, so I will get back to posting more frequently soon.  This is just a quick post this morning about the Alaska Airlines 20 minute baggage guarantee.  If your checked bag is not available on the baggage claim carousel within 20 minutes of landing, you can get a $25 Alaska Airlines discount code or 2,500 Alaska Airlines miles.  My flight from Kona (KOA) to Oakland (OAK) on Alaska Airlines landed at 12:07am PT (according to the Alaska Airlines app).  We went down to the baggage claim carousel and waited for our bag.  As soon as I saw our checked bag, I took a screenshot of the time on my iPhone, showing that the bag came 25 minutes after landing.  I then tweeted the screenshot to Alaska Airlines letting them know that the bag took longer than expected to show up on the baggage claim carousel.

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US Bank Cash Plus: Determine Cash Back at Restaurants (2%) & Fast Food (5%)

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Good morning everyone, greetings from Maui.  I just wanted to share a little trick I learned recently regarding my US Bank Cash Plus (Cash+) Credit Card.  On my recent credit card statement, I saw 3 different line items for “Rewards Dollars Earned” (aka cash back), but I wanted to get a little more information regarding which transactions qualified for bonus cash back.

As a reminder, US Bank allows you to select two 5% cash back categories and one 2% cash back category every quarter.  For Q3 (July, August, & September), I selected Fast Food and Movie Theaters for my 5% categories and Restaurants for my 2% category.  For Q4 (October, November, & December), I selected Fast Food and Electronics Stores for my 5% categories and Restaurants for my 2% category.  I wanted to see which purchases counted as restaurants (2% cash back) vs. fast food (5% cash back).  If you selected different categories, you can follow the same steps below to identify qualifying purchases for your bonus categories.

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