Category Archives: Hotels + Points

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Stay at this Cool College-Themed Hilton Hotel in San Luis Obispo

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Easter and Passover.  A few days ago, Laura and I did a roadtrip around California and stayed at The Kinney San Luis Obispo, Tapestry Collection by Hilton.  The Kinney is a few blocks from downtown San Luis Obispo (SLO) and a short drive / bike ride to the campus of Cal Poly SLO.  Since the hotel is close to the university, the hotel has a college theme.  Basic rooms are called Campus Rooms and the suites are called Grad Suite, Dean Suite, and Professor Suite (see all pics and room descriptions here).  I used points to book a Campus Room and was upgraded (thanks to my Hilton Diamond Elite Status) to a Grad Suite.  I enjoyed staying at this hotel and the location was great for exploring downtown SLO and the surrounding area.  I would definitely stay here again the next time I visit SLO.  Here are some pics of my room and of the hotel.

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Image source: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/oakerup-the-kinney-san-luis-obispo/

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The Upside of Free Night Certificates over Hotel Points

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Good evening everyone.  2 years ago, I wrote Track Hotel Free Night Certificates & Credit Card Annual Fees with my Spreadsheet.  In that post, I shared my strategy for keeping track of free night certificates.  If you have several co-branded hotel credit cards (like the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card or Chase IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card), you need to keep track of free night certificate expiration dates so you do not forget to use them before they expire or you run out of time to use them at a good property (the hotel is not going to remind you to use your free night certificate – they want you to pay the annual fee and forget to use your free night certificates).  Here are the unused free night certificates I have, as of March 2021.  I sorted the list by the expiration date of my free night certificates, so I know which free night certificates I need to focus on first.

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The inspiration for this post came from a recent Miles to Memories post called Don’t Fall Into The Free Night Certificate Fuzzy Math Trap!  In that post, Mark shared all the downsides of free night certificates, like short expiration dates, some certificates only work at certain hotel categories or on certain days, etc.  I totally agree with all of those downsides, but I had the pleasure of redeeming 2 free night certificates today and wanted to share an upside I found with free night certificates.

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Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card: Category Bonus Points Now Posting Correctly [Fixed March 2021]

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Updated at 1:50pm PT on 3/15/21: I logged into my Wyndham Rewards accounts and saw that I received 462 points as a “Barclays Adjustments.”  See the screenshot below.

Updated at 12:40pm PT on 3/11/21: I received a letter from Barclays stating that they are aware of the issue and that they are crediting my account for the correct number of points I earner.  See the full letter below.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last month, I wrote Category Bonus Points Not Posting Correctly for Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card.  In that post, I wrote about a few examples where bonus categories were not earning bonus points on the new Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card.  I am happy to report that Barclays has fixed the issue.  Here is the update I received from Brian today:

My most recent Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card statement closed and I received both (a) 5x on new utilities charges for electric and gas charges (each of which received only 1x on the previous statement) and (b) an “adjustment” of points equal to the additional 4x on the electric and gas charges from the last statement about which I inquired via secure message via the card’s website.  So, hopefully, the issue is fixed now!

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Redeem Wyndham Rewards Points Part 2: Transfer Times To/From Caesars Rewards & Extend Expiration Date

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Good morning everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading yesterday’s post: Redeem Wyndham Rewards Points Part 1: Transfer Points to Airline Miles & Timeshare Fees.  For today’s post, I will cover transferring points from Wyndham Rewards to Caesars Rewards (and vice versa), calculate the transfer times for each direction, and share a tip on how to extend your Wyndham Rewards Points expiration date.  To get started, sign into your Wyndham Rewards account and then go to the Caesars Rewards page.

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Redeem Wyndham Rewards Points Part 1: Transfer Points to Airline Miles & Timeshare Fees

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few weeks ago, I noticed that some of my Wyndham Rewards Points were set to expire later this year, so I went down the rabbit hole and looked at various redemption options available for Wyndham Rewards Points.  For part 1, I am going to cover transferring Wyndham Rewards Points to airline miles (which airlines are available, what are the transfer ratios, and what are the transfer times) and cover some of the timeshare fees (brief overview).  Check out part 2 where I cover transferring Wyndham Rewards Points to Caesars Rewards Points (and transfers back) and a way to extend the expiration date of your Wyndham Rewards Points.

To get started, I signed into my Wyndham Rewards account and went to the More Ways to Redeem page.  From there, I clicked on Points Transfer Partners.

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