Author Archives: Shelli

About Shelli

Shelli Stein is a health and fitness entrepreneur who travels the world in search of culture, food, and fun! Besides contributing to Travel with Grant, you can find her at Joy in Movement.

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Have you Ever Gotten Lost in Venice? Bet it Didn’t Cost you a Marathon!

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Have you ever gotten lost while on foot in a city? Sure you have! And some cities are more confusing than others to navigate on foot. New York City… easy. Rome… not so easy. Venice, Italy… whoa, who hasn’t gotten lost there? And not just wandering through the canal streets, but the whole city boggles the mind. Here’s a great story that intersects a few of my passions. As a long-time running coach and long-time lover of Italy, and having recently been to Venice, I can feel for the elite runners who this past weekend got lost during the Venice Marathon. I can also cheer for the Italian fellow who was able to take advantage of the situation and win the marathon. It’s been 22 years since an Italian won the race. See for yourself. It’s a fun story!

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Update: Hyatt’s Try the World Gift Boxes are Alive!

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The Hyatt Try the World gift box saga continues. You might recall the last chapter left me at my wits end! On September 25, Hyatt announced that Mark Vondrasek would be the new executive head of Hyatt Loyalty. His job would be to deepen loyalty engagement. Well, let’s just say my loyalty was surely being tested by the Try the World gift box program.  Here is the email from the Hyatt Hotels Corporate PR team:

Hi Grant,

I hope this email finds you well. I’d like to introduce myself – my name is [NAME] and I am with Hyatt Hotels Corporate PR team, as well as your main point of contact for Hyatt loyalty related items.

Hyatt has some leadership news that we’d like to share with you, in case you are interested. Please see the release below, and let me know should you have any questions.

Very Best,
[NAME]

Grant responded to the above email and responded with the following email:

Good morning [NAME], thank you for the email.

My fellow writer (Shelli) is a big Hyatt fan (and World of Hyatt Diamond Member), but Hyatt recently let her down, big time. Last week, she wrote about her experience with the Try the World boxes from Hyatt, but they left a very bitter taste in her mouth. I would really appreciate your help fixing this matter.

Have a great day.

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Which of these 2 Amazing Cash Back Credit Cards is Right for You? Here’s what I’m Getting!

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What one credit card do you know the LEAST about? If there’s one credit card I don’t know much about, it’s the Discover It Credit Card. And yet, quite often friends and family members ask me about it. Just last week, my cousin received an email with an advertisement encouraging her to apply for a Discover It Credit Card. She’s smart, so she did what smart cousins do… she asked me what I thought :) My cover as a know-it-all regarding credit cards was blown. I told her to stay tuned and I’d check into the Discover It Credit Card and let her know my thoughts.

Then I did what smart bloggers do – and reached out to the source I knew who had written a ton about the Discover It Credit Card. In fact, from way back in 2015, I had it on my to-do list to reach out to him and ask him about the Discover It Credit Card. It was time to bring that to-do item to the top of the list – so I sat down with Harlan at Out and Out and talked all things Discover. And now I can give my cousin, and all of you, the best information and advice possible.

First off, Discover has two cash back credit cards to choose from and most importantly, it’s a lucrative card – especially in the first year.

Discover It Credit Card (Harlan’s referral link)

The Discover It Credit Card gives you 1% cash back, no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fees. It also has quarterly bonus rotating categories where you’ll get 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spend in those categories. And because Discover matches what you’ve spent in the first year, it effectively becomes a 2% and 10% cash back credit card for that first year. Harlan said the bonus categories are great and he never has trouble spending $1,500 in the bonus category every quarter. Here’s one important tip on this card. You MUST register your credit card each quarter before you start shopping to earn the 5% bonus. Activation is easy, so do it BEFORE you start your quarterly shopping.

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American Airlines Business Extra: Don’t Forget to Double Dip on your AA Flights

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Do you know that American Airlines has another mileage earning program besides its Advantage Mileage Program? So, yes, you earn miles in both programs. I joined it years ago, but I’ll admit to not utilizing the program and its bonuses very well or very often. In my effort to not leave miles/points on the table, I’m paying more attention to programs like these, and so should you. The program is called Business Extra. It allows businesses and “businesses” to earn extra miles for their employees and “employees” flights. It’s American Airlines way of rewarding small businesses. These Business Extra miles are earned in a separate mileage program. You earn points based on dollars spent on eligible flights, so your stash won’t grow as fast as your Advantage Program miles will, but it still makes sense to double dip when you can. You can still credit the flights on American Airlines to any partner airline you’d like, but as long as your Business Extra number is on your ticket, you’ll earn Business Extra points too.

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Drink Coffee? Enjoy Traveling? Here’s Good News!

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I don’t know about you, but I want to stay super healthy for as long as I can so I can keep traveling! And it turns out this goal AND one of my favorite passions intersect perfectly. Turns out that coffee drinking could lead to longer life! And studies show the benefits that correlate coffee drinking with longer life increase with each cup.

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