Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

a blue and red airplane with black text

Southwest Airlines Schedule Extended & Flights Now Bookable Through Sunday, January 7, 2018

Posted on by . 2 Replies

(Hat tip to my friend Panu for the heads up)

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are having a great day so far.  If you are a Southwest Airlines traveler, today is your lucky day.  Southwest Airlines just released their flight schedule and you can now book flights through Sunday, January 7, 2018.  Previously, their flight schedule was only bookable through early November.  Book your Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and all other flights now.  As a reminder, always check your existing Southwest Airlines flights to see if the prices go down, then rebook the exact same flights and get the difference back in Southwest Airlines travel credit or Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward Points deposited back into your account (read PSA: Check Existing Southwest Airlines Flights for Price Drops, then Rebook).

a screenshot of a calendar

Continue reading →

a close-up of a logo

Booking a Last Minute Award Trip to Tokyo with American Airlines & United Airlines Miles

Posted on by . 5 Replies

Buenos dias everyone! For a few months now, we’ve been talking about going to Tokyo in May, but we weren’t sure exactly when or for how long. When we were in Barcelona earlier this year, we picked up tickets to the Ghibli Museum for May 13 at the local JTB office, but that was all the planning we had done. This was largely because my partner just enrolled at Universidad Autonóma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City, and classes started this week – but he didn’t get his class schedule until last Thursday! And it turned out he has an early morning lecture five days a week.

We knew that this Wednesday and next Monday were school holidays, so we had a general sense of how it could work, but we weren’t 100% certain how much class he would be comfortable missing until he actually went to class. Ultimately, we decided we could leave Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning and return on Monday, which would mean he’d miss two days of school for a five day trip.

It’s not a very long time to go all the way to Tokyo, but we really wanted to visit the museum and catch the end of wisteria season, so we decided to make it happen. As a result, I ended up booking some of the shortest-notice award tickets of my life – I made reservations on Monday afternoon for a flight on Tuesday evening.

Continue reading →

a river with a bridge and a city in the background

My First Trip to Europe Using Miles & Points (Denver, Houston, Manchester, Dublin, Paris & Frankfurt)

Posted on by . 7 Replies

I started this post while I was in Dublin on a ten day trip around Europe, but I never found the time to finish it. Probably due to the fact that I was walking 7-10 miles a day checking out the sites! I primarily used miles/points to book the majority of the travel and lodging, which is detailed below.

My first flight was from DEN (Denver) – HOU (William P. Hobby/Houston) on SW (Southwest) as a positioning flight, which I paid 7.6k miles for, and $5.60. The retail price was $127, so I averaged 1.6 Cents Per Point (CPP), which is pretty average for SW. I Uber’d to IAH (George Bush Intercontinental/Houston) for around $40.

Southwest Plane

Southwest flight from Denver (DEN) to Houston (HOU)

Continue reading →

a blue and red airplane with black text

PSA: Southwest Airlines will Cancel Reservations if Multiple Flights Booked on Same Day to Different Airports

Posted on by . 7 Replies

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. A few days ago, I received an email from Southwest Airlines that my San Francisco to Orange County (SFO-SNA) reservation on Friday, June 30 (Fourth of July vacation) was canceled. What happened to my Southwest Airlines reservation? I definitely did not cancel that flight.

SFO-SNA Cancelled Southwest Airlines Reservation Email

Continue reading →

a silver credit card with a picture of a man

Booking my First 5x Membership Reward Points Flight on AMEXTravel.com Using American Express Business Platinum Charge Card

Posted on by . 19 Replies

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I spent the weekend up in Rohnert Park (in Sonoma Wine Country) with my girlfriend. I started this post a few weeks ago after I booked my first flight using my American Express Business Platinum Charge Card on amextravel.com to earn 5x Membership Reward Points on paid flights.  I was waiting for my credit card statement to close and for the bonus points to post to my Membership Rewards account, but I forgot that there is a 1 month delay between when points are earned and when points post to my Membership Rewards account. Instead of waiting another month for the bonus points to post, I decided to publish this post now.

If you are not working on the $300 travel credit from the Chase Sapphire Reserve or $250 travel credit from the Citi Prestige, earning 5x Membership Reward Points on paid flights beats earning 3x Ultimate Reward Points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, 3x Citi Thank You Points with a Citi Prestige / Premier, and 2x Arrival Points with the Barclays Arrival+.

Anyway, I received a Google Flights alert for a flight I was tracking from New York to Iceland.  The price had fallen and I wanted to book the flight before the prices rebounded.

Google Flights JFK-KEF Icelandair

Continue reading →