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TSA: Keeping Us Secure, But Not From Germs!

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Perhaps another good title for this post is “You can never carry enough hand sanitizer when you’re in the airport!” But do we really think ANY place in an airport isn’t chock full of germs? I guess, though, it’s always good to know which places at the airport are the most likely ones to be full of germs and viruses. Extra precautions can’t hurt, but does the TSA take them? I was surprised to learn about a TSA protocol that I can now request. Hopefully this will keep me away from “virus central.” Be prepared to up your stash of hand sanitizer after you read this!

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Cannot Redeem Barclays Arrival Miles for Eligible Travel Purchase? Call Barclays for Help

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last week, I helped my brother keep his American Airlines miles from expiring.  In today’s episode of managing my family’s miles & points, my dad told me he had 11,026 Barclays Arrival Miles in his account and wanted to close his Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I told him that he should redeem his Barclays Arrival Miles before he closes his credit card.  I told him to buy an airline eGC and then redeem Barclays Arrival Miles for that travel purchase.

He didn’t have any upcoming travel plans, so I told him I would help him out.  I would make a purchase on his Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card, redeem the Barclays Arrival Miles for the purchase, and then pay him back for the purchase.  Since I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, I use my Clipper Card to take public transportation (BART, SMART, Ferry, CalTrain, etc.) around the Bay and to SFO and OAK.  I go through $200-$300 a month in Clipper Card charges, so I knew I could use up $110.26 pretty quickly, so I loaded $110.26 to my Clipper Card with my dad’s Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I normally use my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card for the 3x travel rewards for Clipper Card charges, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over the missing points.

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How Organic is Organic Coffee?

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As you enjoy your weekend morning coffee, or depending on your time zone maybe that’s your afternoon espresso, or even your post dinner digestive beverage also known as espresso, here’s an interesting story. When I travel I seek out one-off locally owned coffee houses. When I talk with the owners I’m often told that their coffee beans are indeed organic, and the conditions on the coffee farms are indeed “sustainable” but that they as shop owners, as well as the coffee farmers, don’t have the funds to get all the necessary certificates to say so. This article delves into whether it’s really possible to even monitor conditions for all these certifications. See what you think. Are you buying only sustainable-certified coffee?

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[DEAD] Keep American Airlines Miles from Expiring with Magazine Subscription

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Updated 1:20pm PT on 5/11/20: It looks like American Airlines has removed the ability to redeem American Airlines AAdvantage Miles for magazines.  You can still redeem for digital and print newspaper, but the prices vary.

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I don’t know about you, but I am the designated miles & points expert in the family and part of my job is tracking everyone’s miles & points and keeping their miles & points from expiring.  Last week, I got an email that my brother’s American Airlines miles were going to expire in 30 days.  He only has 2,109 AA miles, so it would not be a huge loss to have them expire, but if there was a simple, easy, and cheap way to keep his AA miles alive, I wanted to do that.  Since these are not my miles, I didn’t really care how I kept the AA miles alive, but I didn’t want to transfer points from Marriott to American Airlines, so instead, I redeemed 300 AA miles for a magazine subscription.

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Reader Question Answered: Best Uses of Alaska Airlines Miles

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Is finding award seat availability a challenge for you? It’s no secret that families find it both challenging and frustrating. The easier part is accruing miles and points, because after all we put our spend on credit cards offering us bonuses, accrue miles from flying, and can even buy miles when we need to. We have big smiles on our faces when we see our airline point balances, but often those smiles turn to frowns when we try to put them to good use booking award flight tickets. Reality is not always an easy cup of espresso to swallow!

Alaska Airlines Award Tickets

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