Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Midyear Review: My 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I recently watched a Frequent Miler On The Air Podcast episode on YouTube where Greg and Nick reviewed their 2024 predictions, so I figured it would be fun to review My Overly Ambitious 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  The original predictions are in black, correct predictions are in green, and incorrect predictions are in red.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2024:

My 2024 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will introduce a “family pooling” benefit for miles or travel credit. – Nope, but Southwest Airlines Wanna Get Away Plus fares do offer Transferable Flight Credit that can be used for other Rapid Rewards members.
  • American Airlines will allow Web Special awards to be changed online (currently, they can only be cancelled). – Nope, not yet, but I haven’t booked any AA Web Special awards recently.
  • British Airways will add another airline (besides Finnair) to the Avios family. – Nope, not yet, Qatar and Finnair were the most recent additions.
  • Delta will change their 15% SkyMiles discount for Delta credit cards holders. – Nope, not yet, I haven’t booked many Delta awards this year.
  • United will allow you to combine multiple travel bank funds and future flight credits for the same reservation. – Nope, not yet, I confirmed this a few days ago when I purchased a United Airlines flight.

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Calling All Readers, Help Me Reach 500 Email Newsletter Subscribers!

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I am trying to reach 500 email newsletter subscribers and I need your help.  I am currently at 476 subscriber and have added 10 new subscribers in the last 1.5 months.  My newsletter goes out everyday at 4pm PT, but only on days when I have a new blog post (usually 2-3 times per week).  For comparison, I have 4,790 followers on Twitter, 659 followers on Facebook, and 228 followers on Instagram (and I have never posted anything on Instagram).

I really appreciate my long time newsletter subscribers and I hope that I can add a few more subscribers to the team.

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Discounted Cirque du Soleil Tickets in Las Vegas, InKind & Resy Credits, and Redeeming 60K Caesars Rewards Points Toward Paid Hotel Stay

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Yesterday, I wrote about My Las Vegas Casino Status Matches: Caesars Diamond > Wynn Platinum > Fontainebleau Gold > MGM Gold > Unity by Hard Rock Icon.  In today’s post, I will cover riding the Las Vegas Monorail, getting 20% off Cirque du Soleil tickets, using InKind and Resy credits for the same restaurant, and redeeming 60,000 Caesars Rewards Points toward my paid hotel stay at the Paris Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Monorail (save more with multi trip passes)

After walking from the Paris Las Vegas up to the Fontainebleau, we didn’t want to walk all the way back, so we decided to take the Las Vegas Monorail back to our hotel.  Since we had dinner reservations back at Don’s Prime (inside the Fontainebleau) in a few hours, we decided to get a 1 Day Pass (unlimited rides within 24 hours) for $15 / ticket.  It was about a 13-15 minute walk from the Fontainebleau to the Westgate Monorail Station, then only a 10-12 minute ride back to the Paris Las Vegas.  If you have a prepaid commuter debit card, you can use it on the Las Vegas Monorail.

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My Underwhelming Experience with MaxMyPoint, Awayz & StayWithPoints Hotel Award Alerts

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Good evening everyone, I hope you all had a great Mother’s Day Weekend.  Last week, I wrote about my Summer plans to Europe, including stops in Dublin, Helsinki, and Stockholm.  We are starting in Dublin and wanted to stay 4 nights at the Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin.  The Hyatt Centric is centrally located and costs 18,000 Hyatt Points per night.  Unfortunately, there was a small issue… the 4th night of our stay was completely sold out on points and cash.

We booked the first 3 nights of the stay using a combination of Laura’s Hyatt Free Night Certificate and 36,000 Hyatt Points for the next 2 nights. I then set up hotel alerts for the last night of our stay in the hope that award availability would open up before our trip.  Here is my underwhelming experience with MaxMyPoint, Awayz & StayWithPoints hotel award alerts.

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Image source: https://www.hyatt.com/hyatt-centric/dubct-hyatt-centric-the-liberties-dublin/gallery

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My Scandinavian Summer: Helsinki & Stockholm Recommendations Needed

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I wrote Comparing Alaska Airlines, British Airways & Qatar Airways Award Prices for 2 Finnair Flights (DUB-HEL & HEL-ARN).  At the end of that post, I hinted that I needed some recommendations for things to see and do in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.  That is where this post comes in.  I have never been to either city and wanted to reach out to my readers to see if they had any recommendations.  Here is what I have in mind, but I am open to your suggestions as well.  Thank you!

Helsinki, Finland for 2 Days in the Summer

Laura and I love going on canal tours (we did 4 river / canal tours last summer in Prague, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Giethoorn, which is about an hour outside Amsterdam).  I was excited when I came across the Helsinki Canal Cruise on Viator.  I love booking activities on Viator because you can often get 10-15% cash back by going through an online shopping portal and most activities have the “Reserve Now & Pay Later” feature where you can cancel for free up to 24 hours in advance.  Viator also occasionally has card linked offers like AMEX Offers, Chase Offers, and Citi Merchant Deals, so I am hoping one of those deals pops up before my trip.

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