Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Have you Read my Most Popular Posts of 2021?

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Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve!  Every year, I like to check out my stats from Google Analytics to see which blog posts were the most popular.  I created 2 lists by looking at all blog posts written in 2021 and then I looked at which posts were read the most in 2021, but written in previous years (#stayingpower).  I will list the blog posts from top to bottom based on pageviews, share the original published date, and provide a short summary of each blog post.  If you are curious, here were the most popular posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

2021’s Most Read Posts (Written in 2021)

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My Wild and Crazy 2022 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve Eve (emphasis on the extra Eve).  Yesterday, I wrote about my dismal prediction performance (I didn’t predict I would do so poorly – another wrong prediction of mine) in my post How Right (or Wrong) were my 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?  My new crystal ball just arrived from Amazon, so I am going to put it to the ultimate test and I’ll provide my 2022 airline, hotel, and credit card predictions.  I’m guaranteed to get between 0% and 100% correct, but only time will tell…

My 2022 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner.
  • Avianca will give Turkish Airlines a run for their money for domestic Star Alliance awards.
  • British Airways will let you use Avios to pay the taxes, fees, and fuel surcharge portion of award tickets.
  • Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, or United Airlines will introduce a “Miles and Cash” payment option for award tickets (pay 10,000 miles or pay 8,000 miles + $40).
  • JetBlue will partner with another US airline for award bookings.
  • United Airlines will be a transfer partner with Brex, Citi, or American Express.

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How Right (or Wrong) were my 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A year ago, I wrote My Rock Solid 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  It is now time to review my 2021 predictions and see how right (or wrong) I was.  My original predictions are in black, I will comment in green if my prediction was right, and comment in red if my prediction was wrong.  Let’s see how I did…

My 2021 Airline Predictions (1 for 3)

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will make their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature a permanent feature on their site.  Wrong – sadly this was a temporary feature that each airline introduced in 2020 but they did not make this a permanent feature in 2021.
  • American Airlines will finally become a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner.  Right – but only for a few months.  I hope American Airlines comes back as a Citi ThankYou Point airline transfer partner in 2022.
  • Delta Airlines or United Airlines will introduce a “Cash and Miles” payment option for award tickets (pay 10,000 miles or pay 8,000 miles + $40).  Wrong – neither Delta nor United introduced a “Cash and Miles” payment option.

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Buy a $69 Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Online Annual Membership & Attend All 2022 Virtual Seminars for Free

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Updated at 3:40pm PT on 12/28/21: Just realized that I forgot to include links to the first 2 Virtual Seminars of 2022 (January 22 and April 9).

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are having a great holiday season and looking forward to 2022.  I have been a long time fan and attendee at Frequent Traveler University (FTU) and got a ton of value this year from my FTU online annual membership.  My 2021 membership just ended, so it is time to buy my 2022 membership.  If you sign up for an FTU online annual membership by December 31, 2021, and use promo code 60_OFF_FTU_ONLINE, you can get your membership for $69 for the whole year (regular price is $129).

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Last Day to Register for FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday, December 4 ($25) or Free with Online Annual Membership

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  If you have no plans tomorrow (Saturday, December 4), I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25) or free if you have the FTU Online Annual Membership.  The seminar starts on Saturday, December 4 at 8am PT / 11am ET.  I have attended all of the FTU Virtual Seminars over the last year and they are always well done, educational, and entertaining – and I am sure this seminar will be no exception!  Here is the schedule and lineup of speakers:

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