Good morning everyone, I just received an email from Citi regarding my Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card. Effective July 22, 2017, purchases of gift cards, reloading of gift cards, rent payments, and real estate payments will only earn 1x Citi Thank You Point, instead of the standard 3x Citi Thank You Points for the “online purchases” category. This is really bad news for anyone who normally makes those purchases expecting to earn 3x Citi Thank You Points.
Good morning everyone, I just wanted to introduce you to Shane, the Flying Detective, as my newest writer. He has a law enforcement background and he will write about law enforcement, travel hacking, MSing, and trip reports. He has quite a few trip reports ready, so those will be coming out over the next few days. I hope you enjoy reading his posts and please give Shane a warm TWG welcome.
Everyone has seen the news articles about ATM skimmers and how criminals steal your card info from the magnetic stripe and then record your PIN number by a video camera or a fake PIN pad, right?
To help educate readers who are not familiar with the ATM skimmers, check out this ATM skimmer found at an ATM in Vienna, Austria. Watch the video and you can see how the device records your information.
Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday. I am writing this post from the KLM / Air France lounge at SFO (thanks to my Priority Pass card) on my way to Minneapolis for FTU Advanced this weekend. I will be near Sacramento next weekend for a wedding, but I wanted to do a Sacramento Travel Hackers Meetup on Saturday afternoon. If you are in town that day and want to talk about miles, points, travel, and enjoy a delicious double-double, come join me at In-N-Out Burger in Sacramento’s neighboring city, Rancho Cordova.
There is no need to RSVP, just show up with an appetite and an eagerness to talk about travel hacking. I will have a reminder post next Friday afternoon as well. I hope to see some of you there. Have a great weekend everyone!
Good morning everyone, happy Friday! This weekend, I will be at Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Advanced in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will be a fun-filled weekend full of miles, points, travel stories, and hopefully sunshine (bye bye rainy San Francisco). I’ll be flying from SFO to MSP on Sun Country, my first time flying Sun Country. I will be arriving late Friday night, so I will miss the Friday happy hour, but I will be there all day Saturday and Sunday for the sessions. If you are attending the event, please say hi. I always appreciate meeting blog readers and talking face to face.
If this is your first travel conference, do your best to be social. Travel hackers, in general, are pretty quiet and reserved, but when we start talking about miles and points, we get really excited. Ask what city they traveled from, how they got to the conference, where is their next trip to, which blogs they read (if they don’t mention TWG, tell them that TWG is the best travel blog out there!), etc.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
P.S. If you are in San Francisco later this month, I will be at the SF Travel Hackers June Meetup on Tuesday, June 27 from 7-9pm at Hopwater Distribution.
P.P.S. I will be in Orange County for Fourth of July weekend and will do an OC Travel Hackers Meetup on Saturday, July 1 from 12-2pm at In-N-Out.
P.P.P.S. I will also be at the Chicago Seminars travel conference from October 20-22.
On the surface, a discussion about currency exchange rates may sound simple. There are best practices for how to get the best rates and how to access foreign currency when you’re on a trip. Those seem like the nuts and bolts of any discussion. And best practices do change from time to time.
I remember when a really cool thing to do for Euros was to go to your local AAA office where you could buy Euro starter packs at a pretty decent exchange rate. For people who were just beginning to travel abroad, it was a great idea. I used to get them as gifts for couples going to Europe on their honeymoon! I have no idea if AAA still does that, but in the old days, they used to sell out quickly.
Image source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/A-brief-history-of-money-11059182.php