Category Archives: Trip Reports

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A Look Back at my 2016 Predictions (Airlines, Hotels, Credit Cards & MS)

Good afternoon everyone, greetings from New York City.  I am writing to you from Times Square my friend’s apartment in the Upper East Side.  I wanted to be the first to wish you all a very happy, safe, and travel-filled New Years and all the best in 2017.  By popular demand (thank you Robert), I am going to recap my 2016 predictions (Part 1 and Part 2).  Long story short, this is a very long post and almost all of my predictions were wrong, but if you want a good laugh, read through the post to see how wrong my 2016 predictions were.  Enjoy!

Key: Miss = red; Score = green; and Miss / Score = black.

Airlines

Southwest – Southwest points used to be worth 1.67 CPP, then they were worth 1.43 CPP, now with route variability, I have no idea how much Southwest points are worth.  I wish Southwest points would be worth a fixed amount, maybe 1.5 CPP for all flights.  I hope Southwest continues to announce new routes, especially a few routes from the West Coast to Hawaii.  Lastly, for the last several year, credit card sign up bonus points have counted toward the Southwest Companion Pass.  I think this might change in 2016.

Miss! Southwest points still do not have a fixed value due to route variability, but Southwest did add a few new routes (just not to Hawaii… yet).  Southwest points earned from the credit card sign up bonus still count toward the 110,000 Southwest points needed for the Southwest Companion Pass.

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Year in Review: My Top Blog Posts of 2016 and Lifetime

Good morning everyone, greetings from NYC.  Instead of staying at a fancy hotel downtown, I am staying with my best friend in the Upper East Side.  I was inspired by Frequent Miler’s post yesterday (The Most Popular Frequent Miler Posts of 2016) so I decided to dust off my Google Analytics and see what my top 10 best blog posts from 2016 and top 10 blog posts of all time.

Best blog posts from 2016 (total page views in 2016 and published date):

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Trip Report: Holiday Inn Gare de l’Est, Paris

Bonjour everyone,

We spent our first three days in Paris at the Holiday Inn Gare de l’Est, an 8-story, 207-room hotel that was renovated in 2015.

Location: The hotel is in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement, directly across the street from the Gare de l’Est SNCF station and right on top of the Metro station of the same name, and a few minutes’ walk from the main Gare du Nord station (offering easy access to intercity and international trains, and Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly (ORY) airports. It’s about a 10-15 minute train ride to the main tourist attractions downtown.

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View of Gare de l’Est from our hotel room. Photo by Yagrel Ruber.

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New Writer Q&A with Will (The Tactical Traveler)

Good morning everyone, here is the third Q&A post from my new writers.  If you missed the first two, I highly recommending reading Tonei’s Q&A and Whitney’s Q&A.  I hope you are all enjoying the extra content this month, I have been very pleased with all the great blog posts and ensuing comments.  Hopefully there will be plenty more to come in the new year as well.  My next Q&A is with my friend Will…

Hello Travel with Grantians…my name is Will and I have agreed to become one of Grant’s new blog contributors! I am going to write under the pen name, The Tactical Traveler.

I met Grant through reading his blog and conversing via email, and eventually met him in person at an FTU (Frequent Traveler University – a travel conference) in Dallas. Grant and I have since become good friends, have traveled together, and met up at multiple travel conferences (Grant even spent the weekend at my house).

Hanging out in Amtrak sleeper car from Denver to San Francisco. Grant (left), Nigel (middle) and Will (right)

Hanging out in Amtrak sleeper car from Denver to San Francisco. Grant (left), Nigel (middle) and Will (right)

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

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.

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