Tag Archives: Hilton Hotels

Planning your Cabo San Lucas Trip (from Orange County)

Southwest Share The Spirit Logo

Planning your Cabo San Lucas Trip (from Orange County)

If you haven’t already, please read New Southwest Airlines Routes (Orange County to Cabo).

Anyways, since flights are relatively cheap from Orange County (SNA), I convinced my brother to go with me for a short weekend getaway.  Since Southwest points will be devalued started April 1, I strongly recommend burning your stockpile before then.  Southwest has free change and cancellation fees, so there is no excusing to hold onto your Southwest points now.  With that said, flights from SNA to Cabo San Lucas (SJD) are only 11,400 points round trip plus $85 in taxes/fees starting August 10.

SWA Cabo

For those without massive stockpiles of Southwest points, round trip flights can be had for $315.  Much cheaper than $400+ flights on US Airways connecting in Phoenix.  Continue reading →

Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard, 2 New AMEX Offers, Bluebird Reloads at Walmart, and More

UPDATE 3/27/2014 at 10PM PST: Chase has started converting IHG Visa Credit Cards into IHG MasterCard Credit Cards (see pics below).

Lounge Club Logo

Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard, 2 New AMEX Offers, Bluebird Reloads at Walmart, and More

TGI Friday!  Here are some random travel-related news from today…

I just created a tutorial about how to sign up for a free Lounge Club membership if you have a Chase Ink Bold/Plus Credit Card.  You can read it here.

Lounge Club Card

I got this letter from Chase alerting me that my Chase IHG Rewards Club Visa will soon be replaced by a Chase IHG Rewards Club World MasterCard.  Technically, if you cancel the Visa card, you can sign up and receive the sign up bonus on the MasterCard.  It appears that you have to close your Visa before April 1, otherwise you will automatically be issued the MasterCard and miss out on getting another sign up bonus.

Here is the corresponding FlyerTalk thread (link).

New IHG Card Letter Front

Continue reading →

a logo of a hotel

How to Redeem your Hilton Grand Vacations $200 “Spend A Night On Us” Rebate

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Back In November, I participated in a Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare presentation in Las Vegas at The Hilton Elara (Part 1 and Part 2).  As part of my “reward” for going to the timeshare presentation, I was awarded a $200 “Spend A Night On Us” gift certificate for any US-based Hilton Hotel.  Here is how the rebate process works…

The certificate is only valid for 6 months from the date of your timeshare presentation, so you gotta act fast.  Instead of bringing the certificate to a Hilton Hotel and presenting it to the front desk, they make you pay for the entire stay and submit a rebate form (see below) and wait 6-8 weeks for the rebate check to arrive.

$200 Hilton Credit

Fast forward to mid January, I spent one night at the lovely Hilton SFO Bayfront Hotel (hotel and lounge review here). Continue reading →

New American Express Offers and Citi Thank You Point Redemptions

AMEX Offers

New American Express Offers and Citi Thank You Point Redemptions

Good evening everyone!  I am still alive after my 16 mile hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back on Sunday.  My feet and legs are still killing me, but my hands and fingers are doing good enough to type this blog post.  I promise I will get a trip report up soon with several pics of my time at Flagstaff Extreme Obstacle Course, Bedrock City, Bearizona Wildlife Park, and the Grand Canyon.

Anyways, here are some of the new (and exciting) American Express Offers For You.  As always, check all of your American Express cards, even the one’s you hardly use (I’m looking at you Delta Gold card).

5 AMEX Cards

Here are the offers that interest me (your offers might differ):

Bloomingdales on AMEX

Continue reading →

(Massive Trip Report) Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, and Rome in 2 Weeks

passport-coins-currency

(Massive Trip Report) Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, and Rome in 2 Weeks

Good morning everyone!  Thanks to jet lag and time zones, I’m bringing you this massive trip report at 5AM PST.  Are you ready?  Let’s go!

  • US Airways: SFO-PHL-AMS-PHL-LAX (30,000 US Airways miles + taxes)
  • KLM: AMS-TXL, FCO-AMS (paid around $220 for both flights)
  • Air Berlin and Niki: TXL-VIE, VIE-FCO (4,500 Avios + taxes for each flight)

GC Map Euro Trip 2014

Read the entire trip report here.