Good evening everyone. A few hours ago, I received an email from Hyatt with the subject line of “A Mystery Offer Awaits When You Purchase 5,000 Points.” I decided to check it out and see what Hyatt mystery offer I was offered. You can check out your own offer here. You will need to enter your full name, Hyatt account number, and email address to see your mystery offer.
Is the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card the fantastic, Hyatt hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark card it’s being touted as? Is it worth the hype? For being able to reach elite status through spend, perhaps. Is it worth both having and using? Well, the signup bonus is indeed generous. As a Hyatt Globalist who has already qualified for Globalist again next year, and as a holder of the Chase Hyatt credit card for many years, I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of the newest version of this card. Yes, there are cons, too. Continue reading
Good evening everyone. I was going through all the Buy Miles & Points links on my page and spotted this offer for United Airlines. You can purchase United Airlines miles for up to a 100% bonus, if you purchase a minimum of 30,000 miles. This offer is only around for a few more days and expires on July 26, so you better act fast if you are interested. Warning: you should only buy miles if you have an immediate use for them, do not buy miles speculatively.
Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great Fourth of July holiday. Lately, there has been a lot of news about new Chase credit cards and upgrade options for 3 Chase hotel credit cards. I have all 3 Chase hotel credit cards (Marriott, Hyatt and IHG) so I had to decide if I wanted to upgrade any, all or none of my credit cards. The old and new credit cards are good for some people, but everyone’s situation is different. I will share my thought process about keeping or upgrading each credit card. Since everyone travels differently, you may agree or disagree with my decisions.
Before I share my decisions, here is where I stand on hotel loyalty programs. I am very loyal to chain hotels and would rather stay at a chain hotel than an independent hotel or Airbnb. But I do not have loyalty to a specific hotel loyalty program. I consider myself a free agent and do not care about hotel elite status unless it is given to me free for having the credit card. Lastly, I spend 1-2 nights a year at Marriott, 4-8 nights a year at Hyatt, and 5-7 nights a year at IHG (I divvy the rest of my hotel stays between Hilton, SPG, and Radisson Rewards). I use points and free night certificates for the stays as much as possible, unless the cash rate is cheap. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. This is my last post from Athens, Greece, before I head to the Radisson Blu Beach Resort in Milatos, Crete. If you missed my post yesterday, be sure to read Heading to Athens, Greece? Book the Small-Group Culinary Walking Tour. In today’s post, I will explain how Uber works in Athens (the only part of Greece that has Uber). If you are not an Uber rider, join for free (thanks for using my referral link).
Technically, Uber doesn’t exist in Greece, but you can request and pay for taxis with the Uber app (the taxi drivers use the Uber app like all other Uber drivers). The only thing that is strange is that you cannot see the total price of your Uber ride until after the ride is over. All the taxis have a set price schedule for rides, so your rides will always be priced right. Unfortunately, I could not use my Uber credits in Athens, so I paid for all my rides with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card (my referral link) since I earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on Uber and it has no foreign transaction fees.
We used the Uber app to request a ride from the Athens International Airport (ATH) to our hotel, the InterContinental Athenaeum Athens. The Uber pickup was a bit tricky, since our ride was in a taxi and there were many taxis waiting at the airport. Our driver told us where to meet him, but it was still very difficult to find him (he ended up finding us). Our ride to the hotel took 45 minutes and cost 40.70 Euros ($47.43). As of June 25, the exchange rate is 1 Euro = 1.16 US Dollars and I will use that exchange rate throughout this post. In comparison, a shuttle van to/from the airport and the hotel would have cost 100 Euros ($116).
