Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate to Make a Free One Night Reservation

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How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate to Make a Free One Night Reservation

If you have a Chase Marriott Rewards Credit Card, you get a free night certificate every year you pay the annual fee.  There are two things I dislike about the free night certificates.  Firstly, the free night certificate is only valid for 6 months (can be extended by calling Chase/Marriott during the last month of validity).  Secondly, you can only use the free night certificate at a category 1-5 hotel (Marriott has 8 hotel categories).  To use your free night certificate, log into your Marriott account (link) and click the link titled “You Have 1 Unused Certificate”.  Clicking that link will take you directly to your activity page (link).

Marriott Account

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How to Cancel or Refund British Airways Avios Award Tickets

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How to Cancel or Refund British Airways Avios Award Tickets

(Previous Post: How to Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets)

In this how-to guide, I will show you how to cancel or refund a British Airways Avios award ticket.  In my demo, I will cancel an American Airlines flight, but the steps below will work with US Airways, British Airways, and most OneWorld Alliance airlines.  Most Avios award tickets should be cancellable online, but there may be times when you will have to call their customer service department and speak with a representative.

Call British Airways at 1-800-452-1201 or 1-800-247-9297 (prepare yourself for long wait times and busy signals, just be patient and persistent).

Let’s say I booked an American Airlines flight, but it turns out that I won’t be able to make the trip.  Not a problem, just go back to the online booking page and scroll to the bottom of the page.

BA Award Flight Details

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I will be in Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah –> Price, Utah –> Moab, Utah) this weekend for Memorial Day weekend, so I probably won’t post anything over the weekend.  Have a great weekend everyone!

How to Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets

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How to Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets

In this how-to guide, I will show you how to book a British Airways Avios award ticket.  In my demo, I will book an American Airlines flight, but the steps below will work with US Airways, British Airways, and most OneWorld Alliance airlines.  If you find a flight on AA.com but cannot find it on BA.com, you will have to call British Airways and have them book the award for you.  It will cost $25 for a phone booking fee.

The first step is to search on American Airlines’ website (AA.com) for award space.  In this example, I found an economy award from SNA to DFW during Memorial Day Weekend.

Find AA Award Space

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Ask an Expert Interview Series: Casey from Points Away

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Ask an Expert Interview Series: Casey from Points Away

I know there are already a million interview series on miles and points bloggers, but my goal is to interview a handful of some of the smaller bloggers you may not be familiar with. My second interviewee is Casey who writes at www.pointsaway.com and has written a cool travel eBook titled The PointsAway – The Deluxe Edition (read review here).  Without further ado, here are Casey’s answers:

1) How did you first begin to discover the power of miles and points programs?

Luck, as much as anything. I was planning about a year in advance for a conference in Portland last Summer and was unhappy with how expensive airfare was for the dates I was looking to travel. Around the same time, I received an offer for a Gold Delta SkyMiles card by American Express with a hefty mileage sign-up bonus. I applied and was quickly approved and earned my sign-up bonus in the first month. Shortly thereafter, my first award trip was booked. Though it was scheduled for many months in advance, I didn’t need to set foot on a plane to be convinced; the itinerary confirmation in my hand reading $10 instead of the $460 or so the cash ticket would’ve cost was all I needed to see!

Casey Points Away Bio Pic

Casey @ the Beach

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How to Activate Staples $200 Visa Gift Cards Without Activation Codes

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This post falls in the “I want to activate my gift cards but I don’t want to wait for the activation code letter to arrive in the mail” category.  Let’s say you ordered 4 $200 Visa Gift Cards from Staples.com and they all show up at the same time.  Great!  But.. what do you do if the activation letter (filled with the activation codes) doesn’t arrive at the same time?  Not to worry, you can activate all the gift cards over the phone without the activation codes.

Since Staples.com gift card orders *supposedly* no longer pay out to online shopping portals, this will probably be my last Staples.com gift card order, until something changes (see Frequent Miler’s post). On the back side of the letter that was attached to your Visa Gift Card is a phone number to call (1-866-357-7391) to activate your gift cards over the phone.

GCM FAQs

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