Tag Archives: Free Stuff

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee)

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Good morning everyone.  As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or at least my credit card drawer).  A few weeks ago, the $99 annual fee posted to my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card.  I don’t fly JetBlue very often, but I do enjoy getting a 10% rebate on my redeemed miles and getting 5,000 bonus anniversary points every year.  Those 2 benefits alone are probably worth close to $99, depending on how much you value JetBlue points and how many JetBlue points you redeem.  So the question is, is this card a keeper?  I was leaning toward keeping the credit card, but I decided to call Barclays and ask if there were any retention offers available anyway.  Good thing I called…

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Stacking American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card $250 Resort Credit & DoubleTree AMEX Offer ($45 Off $225)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I love my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card and have gotten great value from this credit card.  I have written extensively about this credit card in these posts:

In today’s post, I will show you how I stacked a DoubleTree AMEX Offer (spend at least $225 and get a $45 statement credit) with the $250 Resort Credit offered on the American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card.  I am a big fan of AMEX Offers and occasionally you will see Hilton related AMEX Offers on your American Express Hilton credit cards.  As luck would have it, there was this nice DoubleTree AMEX Offer available on my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card.  This offer is still available for the next 3 days, if you are interested.

 

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Reality Check: Traveling with Non-TSA PreCheck Travelers Sucks

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. This past weekend, I was reminded how great TSA PreCheck is and how terribly regular airport security is. You are only as fast as your slowest non-TSA PreCheck traveler. For example, I sped through TSA PreCheck (barely slowing down to put my iPhone in my backpack, putting my backpack on the conveyor belt, putting my carry on bag on the conveyor belt, walking through the metal detector, and picking up my bags) then I waited 15-20 minutes on the other side of security for the non-TSA PreCheck travelers to go through security.  In that 15-20 minute window of time, I realized how much I take for granted having TSA PreCheck.  It is a total game changer for me, especially at SFO when I go through security twice, first to visit the SFO Centurion Lounge, and then again to get to my departure terminal.

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Image source: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/tsa-airport-long-lines-223666

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Trip Report: 6 Hour Layover in Bucharest, Romania? Visit Palace of the Parliament (Second Largest Building in the World)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you enjoyed my post from yesterday: Trip Report: Visit Chisinau, Moldova & Transnistria (Breakaway State / Frozen Conflict Zone).  In today’s post, I am going to tell you what I did on my 6 hour layover in Bucharest, Romania.  My friend and I were flying from Chisinau, Moldova (KIV) to Sofia, Bulgaria (SOF) with a connection in Bucharest, Romania (OTP).  Since there were no nonstop flights between KIV and SOF, we intentionally built in a 6 hour layover in OTP so we could explore Bucharest.  We boarded our Tarom Airlines flight in the morning and I was excited since I never flew Tarom Airlines before (I like flying new airlines).  I’m not sure what type of aircraft it was, but the checked bags went right behind the cockpit and passengers boarded from the back of the plane.  The seats were pretty tight and I have never been on a plane that had economy seats facing backwards.  That must be a pretty interesting takeoff and landing experience.

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Trip Report: Visit Chisinau, Moldova & Transnistria (Breakaway State / Frozen Conflict Zone)

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Good morning everyone, what a busy January.  I was hopping around Eastern Europe for a week, then I was working on wedding planning, and then I was entertaining family for MLK Jr. Weekend.  This is the first of 3 blog posts about my Eastern European vacation.  The other 2 posts should come out in the next few days.  I am not a huge fan of writing (or reading) trip reports, nor am I an expert on geography, history, or politics, but I did link to Google Maps and Wikipedia to help provide you with more information.  With that said, let’s get started.  After flying Turkish Airlines business class from Chicago (ORD) to Istanbul (IST) to Chisinau, Moldova (KIV), I walk out of customs/immigration into a beautifully decorated airport.  It felt more like a shopping mall in mid December than an airport in January.  My friend flew in a few hours earlier and got us a rental car.  We then drove 20 minutes to our hotel.

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