Tag Archives: Free Stuff

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Grant’s 2019 Eurotrip: Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova & Romania

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Good morning / evening from the SFO Centurion Lounge ORD Polaris Lounge IST Turkish Airlines Lounge!  Sorry I have been very busy the last few weeks and it looks like I will be busy for another week.  But this week, I will be hopping around Eastern Europe… in winter!  I’ll be visiting Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova & Romania over the next few days and I am looking for recommendations.  I will be spending 1-2 days in each country.  I’m not planning on doing a trip report or any hotel reviews (no fancy hotels booked on this trip).  So if you have any recommendations for must-see, must-do, or must-eat items, please share them in the comments below.

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I have a few other posts in the queue, I just need to make time to sit down and write them.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Here are parts of my trip report:

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Are 2 Gogo Accounts Better Than 1? (Spoiler: Yes!)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  According to the news, yesterday and today are 2 of the busiest travel days of the year (roughly 3 million people are projected to travel both days).  If you are traveling this holiday season and especially if you are traveling with friends or family members, I highly recommend creating a second Gogo account.  Let me explain why.  A few days ago, I got the following email from Gogo regarding my 10 free Gogo passes for having an American Express Business Platinum Charge Card (if you have this charge card, I will show you how to get your 10 free Gogo passes below.)

I tend to fly Southwest Airlines often and they do not offer Gogo, so most of my Gogo passes expire at the end of the year.  But of the few times when I am travelling on an airplane that offers Gogo, I am usually travelling with my girlfriend and Gogo only allows you to use 1 Gogo pass per flight.  If you have more than 1 Gogo account, you can use passes from each Gogo account on the same flight.  Pretty novel idea, right?

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Chase Southwest Airlines Plus Credit Card ($69 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.  This post is a little different because this post is about my girlfriend’s Chase Southwest Airlines Plus Credit Card.  She got this credit card last November when Chase & Southwest Airlines were running a promo for California residents: Sign up for the Chase Southwest Airlines Plus Credit Card, make 1 purchase and get a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.  It was a no brainer.  The 50,000 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Points sign up bonus was just gravy.  We got great use out of the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass this year, but sadly, the $69 annual fee just posted and it’s time to decide if she should keep, cancel, or convert this credit card.

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Chase Employees Game The System, Too!

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I had an interesting conversation with a Chase bank employee that threw me for a loop. I have a Chase bank branch that I’ve been using since the old days when it was a Washington Mutual. I know many of the employees there, and from time to time we chat about all things Chase. Last year Southwest Airlines had a special promotion, if you lived in California, giving its companion pass as a bonus when you got the Chase Southwest credit card. Quite a deal!

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Maybe You Can’t Avoid Resort Fees, But You Can Pay Less For Your Hotel Room

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Resort fees, destination fees; call them what you want, they all stink. Hotels have a menu (except we don’t get to pick and choose) of junk fees that are attached to our bills for all kinds of “services and amenities” that used to be complimentary or something we could choose to pay extra for. I don’t think any of us really believe hotel claims about why they’re now adding on these fees. From what I’ve read, it seems like these fees enable hotels to still claim their rates are lower and also pay less to travel agents since commissions are paid based on the base rate, not the total rate.

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