Tag Archives: Hotel Loyalty Points

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Last Call for Discounted FTU Online Membership & Reminder to Register for FTU Virtual Seminar (December 12)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  If you do not have any plans this weekend, I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar this Saturday, December 12 from 11am to 3pm ET (8am to 12pm PT for those on the West Coast).  Here is the full schedule of speakers and presentations.  You can either watch the FTU Virtual Seminars live on Saturday or watch the recording later, but you need to register before the event begins.  Tickets to the FTU Virtual Seminar are free if you have a FTU Online Annual Membership or $25 for non-members.  I highly recommend signing up for the FTU Online Annual Membership (read Buy a $49 Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Online Annual Membership & Attend First Virtual Seminar December 12).  The FTU Online Annual Membership is currently $49 but will go up to $129 on December 12.

Assuming I persuaded you to attend the FTU Virtual Seminar or better yet, purchase a FTU Online Annual Membership, the next thing you need to do is register for the FTU Virtual Seminar before December 12.  I assumed (incorrectly) that I was automatically registered for the FTU Virtual Seminar when I purchased my FTU Online Annual Membership, but that is not true.  You still need to register for the FTU Virtual Seminar if you want to live stream or watch the recording.  In this post, I will walk you through the steps to register for the FTU Virtual Seminar.

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My December Credit Card Retention Calls: 2 out of 4 Successes ($300 Statement Credits Total)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I called about retention offers on a few different credit cards today and wanted to share my results.  Please make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post and read my tips on making retention calls.  I took a page out of Frequent Miler’s playbook (My $575 phone call (complete in 20 minutes)) and called about these 4 credit cards:

  • Chase Hyatt Credit Card ($75 annual fee posted December 1)
  • JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card ($450 annual fee posted July 1)
  • Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee posted May 1)
  • American Express Business Platinum Charge Card ($595 annual fee posted December 2)

Since the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card is product changing to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card on January 11, 2021, I decided to call Chase and ask about a retention offer.  This is a huge ask that I knew was never going to fly, but I tried anyways.  I told the Chase rep that I was planning on closing my old Hyatt credit card and was going to apply for the new World of Hyatt credit card in a few weeks since I could earn up to 50,000 World of Hyatt Points with the new sign up bonus.  Instead of going through the process of closing one card and applying for the other card, I asked if Chase could provide some bonus World of Hyatt Points to forgo the sign up bonus.  Nope, that was not possible.  At that point, I asked the rep to close that credit card and transfer the credit limit over to another Chase personal call.  I am 0 for 1 at this point, onto the next call.

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How to Redeem Marriott Bonvoy 50K Point Free Night Certificates (Some Issues, Then Success)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  At the end of October, my wife applied for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.  At the time, the sign up bonus was for 5 Free Night Certificates good for up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  Many bloggers (including my friends Nick and Greg at Frequent Miler) said that this sign up bonus was a great deal, but only for those who knew how to get great value out of the certificates and could use them all within 12 months.  Since Laura has never had any Marriott (or SPG) credit cards, she decided to apply for the credit card.  She was not instantly approved, but after calling the Chase reconsideration department, she was approved for the credit card.  In this post, I will show you how to redeem the Marriott 50K Free Night Certificates and show you some of the trouble Laura experienced in the booking process.

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Buy a $49 Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Online Annual Membership & Attend First Virtual Seminar December 12

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I just received an email from Frequent Traveler University (FTU) about their new online annual membership.  I have attended many FTU events in previous years and “attended” the virtual Chicago Seminars organized by Stefan at Rapid Travel Chai a few weeks ago and had a great time.  The cost for the FTU online annual membership is only $49 and comes with a variety of benefits and a private Facebook community.  Read on to see everything that is included in the membership.

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Great Wyndham Timeshare Vacation Package Deal: 3 Days / 2 Nights for Only 7,500 Points (Book by Dec 26, Stay by Jan 2)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I’ve written about this Wyndham timeshare vacation package deal a few times (September 8 and October 7), but they keep getting better and better each time.  With today’s update, there are 3 new properties participating in San Francisco, Poconos, and Atlantic City.  The details have remained the same.  You have to book by December 26 and complete your stay by January 2, 2021.  As a reminder, you can get a 3 day / 2 night vacation package for only 7,500 Wyndham Rewards Points.  That’s 7,500 points total, not per night.  You must book through this special link and attend a 2 hour timeshare presentation.  Keep reading to see the 9 cities / resorts participating in this timeshare vacation package deal.

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