Tag Archives: Award Travel

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The 7 Miles & Points Tools / Services that I Pay For

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I love free stuff as much as the next person, but there are a few miles and points tools and services that are so incredibly useful, they’re definitely worth paying for. Keep in mind, this isn’t a complete list, so there may be other fantastic tools out there that I haven’t discovered or used yet.

AwardWallet Plus – $49.99 / year

I can’t imagine a world without AwardWallet.  They track all my credit card programs, airline programs, hotel programs, shopping portal balances, dining rewards, and much more.  I love that they constantly check my accounts, display the current balances, and display expiration dates for all my rewards.  The flight schedule change notifications (which sometimes come days / weeks / months before official airline notifications) and upcoming expiration alerts are well worth the cost to me.  If you are interested in trying it out, here is my AwardWallet referral link.

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8 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: Avianca (160%), JetBlue (130%), Hilton (100%), Southwest (50%), Wyndham (45%), United (30%), Air Canada (30%), & Hyatt (25%)

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 8 offers that end in the next week.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 8 offers that end soon.

Up first, Avianca Airlines is offering up to a 160% bonus, depending on the number of Avianca Airlines LifeMiles you purchase. This offer expires on December 31.

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My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good morning everyone, happy Sunday!  Not to be deterred by my abysmal 2024 results (How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?), 2025 is a fresh year and the year all most some a few of my predictions will come true.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2025:

My 2025 Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
  • Southwest Airlines will do a status match once they start selling seat assignments.
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.

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8 Miles & Points Predictions from the Past that Came True Too Late

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Good evening everyone, happy Wednesday Thursday Friday (or whatever day it is).  I hope you enjoyed reading How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?  Admittedly, my track record on making accurate predictions is pretty bad, but I decided to play Monday Morning Quarterback and take a loooooong look back at travel predictions I made over the last 7 years.  I dusted off my prediction archives and found 8 predictions that came true, but just a couple years too late.  Here they are:

2017 predictions that came true too late:

  • Alaska Airlines will introduce a new level of elite status (maybe MVP Gold 100K?) – Alaska Airlines added MVP Gold 100K elite status in January 2022 (link).
  • Citi will stop issuing the Citi Prestige and focus more on improving the Citi Premier. – Citi stopped accepting applications for the Citi Prestige in July 2021 (link) and rebranded the Citi Strata Premier in May 2024 (link).

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How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I know it is a few days before the end of the year, so technically, all of these predictions could come true, but I am going to call it now.  At the beginning of the year, I wrote 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 the results of my predictions for 2024:

My 2024 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will introduce a “family pooling” benefit for miles or travel credit. – Technically, Alaska Airlines doesn’t allow “family pooling”, but it is possible (right now) to move miles into a single account.  If someone in your family has a Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card, you can transfer Hawaiian Airlines Miles between accounts for free and move those miles to and from your Alaska Airlines account for free.  Read this post for step by step instructions.
  • American Airlines will allow Web Special awards to be changed online (currently, they can only be cancelled). – Nope, you cannot make changes to American Airlines Web Special awards.
  • British Airways will add another airline (besides Finnair) to the Avios family. – Nope, Qatar and Finnair were the most recent additions to the Avios family.
  • Delta will change their 15% SkyMiles discount for Delta credit cards holders. – Nope, the 15% discount for credit card holders hasn’t changed.
  • United will allow you to combine multiple travel bank funds and future flight credits for the same reservation. – Nope, it is not possible to combine travel bank funds and future flight credits for a single United Airlines reservation.

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