Author Archives: Whitney

About Whitney

Whitney is a deal hound who caught the travel bug in 2014, a bit later in life than most so now she's playing catch-up with credit card bonuses and manufactured spending. Find her on Twitter @WhiskiBravo.

a blue text on a white background

Is US Bank Eliminating Credit Card Retention Offers?

Posted on by . 5 Replies

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all are enjoying the new year so far :)  I recently had 2 disappointing attempts at retention offers with US Bank so I wanted to share them with you and see if anyone has had any recent similar (or hopefully better) experiences.

Like most travel hackers, I have something like 30+ credit cards so I have to be very careful about only paying annual fees when I think I’m getting good value from that card beyond the first year.  Why 30+ credit cards?  Well, most of them are cards that I no longer use but I didn’t want to ding my credit score by closing the account so I downgraded to a no annual fee version and it just sits there until a bank tells me that I have too many open accounts and I have to close one in order to open another.  Two of those 30+ cards are US Bank FlexPerks cards (US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature and US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards American Express).  I believe the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards American Express Card was replaced by the the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Card a few months ago.

a screenshot of a credit card

Continue reading →

a colorful mosaic structure in a city

Suggestions for My Upcoming Solo Trip to Spain

Posted on by . 27 Replies

Good morning everyone.  Happy New Year’s Day!  I just got back from 10 glorious days in my south Florida hometown and now I’m having a difficult time re-adjusting to the chilly Charlotte weather.  In a little over 1 week, I’m heading to Barcelona, Spain for a week and I was hoping to get some suggestions from you beautiful people on what I should do while I’m there.  It will be my first visit to Spain and my first solo trip internationally.

Air:  A few months ago, I snagged a roundtrip ticket on TAP Portugal for $300 via Priceline.  Spain has always been high on my wish list and I figured $300 was probably as good as it gets for roundtrip fare.  I’ll be on a redeye from JFK to Lisbon, Portugal and then a 2 hour 45 minute layover around lunchtime before continuing on to Barcelona just in time for dinner.  I’m assuming 2 hours and 45 minutes isn’t enough time to leave the Lisbon airport even if it’s just for lunch…right?  I used Citi Thank You points to get my flight from Charlotte to JFK.

Hotel:  I’m staying at the Alexandra Barcelona by DoubleTree for the first 2 nights and then was thinking I could take a train or get a cheap flight on Vueling to Nice, France for a side trip.  The last 2/3 nights I’m staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona.  I still have Hilton Diamond status so I’m hoping I can get decent room upgrades on my stay. Continue reading →

a woman taking a selfie on a mountain

Iceland & What I Wish I Had Known Before Going – Part 2

Posted on by . 11 Replies

I went to Iceland last month for a long weekend with my friend Stephanie.  We flew WOW Air from Boston and I used Citi Thank You Points to get myself from Charlotte to Boston in order to rack up a few more EQMs.  For each new country that I visit I make sure to pickup a lonely planet book for that country and I do a decent amount of research & planning ahead of time.  Lucky for me I had a friend (shout out to Evan) that had just visited Iceland 1 month before my trip so I was able to pick his brain on a few things during my planning.  Despite that, I’d say that I probably should have done a bit more research because I have a list of Things I Wish I Had Known before going to Iceland.  I’d like to share that list with you in hopes that your trip goes a tad smoother than mine did.

Note: this is a continuation of Part 1.

Continue reading →

a field of grass and a mountain

Iceland & What I Wish I Had Known Before Going – Part 1

Posted on by . 22 Replies

I went to Iceland last month for a long weekend with my friend Stephanie.  We flew WOW air from Boston and I used Citi ThankYou points to get myself from Charlotte to Boston in order to rack up a few more EQMs.  For each new country that I visit I make sure to pickup a lonely planet book for that country and I do a decent amount of research & planning ahead of time.  Lucky for me I had a friend (shout out to Evan) that had just visited Iceland 1 month before my trip so I was able to pick his brain on a few things during my planning.  Despite that, I’d say that I probably should have done a bit more research because I have a list of Things I Wish I Had Known before going to Iceland.  I’d like to share that list with you in hopes that your trip goes a tad smoother than mine did. Continue reading →

a blue rectangle with white text

AMEX Offer: $50 Off $200 at HotelStorm.com – will it stack with cash back?

Posted on by . Leave a reply

Good evening everyone!  Earlier I noticed a new Amex Offer for HotelStorm.com.  For each time you use your enrolled card to make a single purchase of $200 or more online at hotelstorm.com/amex you’ll get a $50 statement credit.  That’s up to 25% off!  This offer expires 3/12/2017.

screen-shot-2016-12-15-at-4-09-36-pm

Continue reading →