Tag Archives: Hotels

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How to Top Off Marriott Free Night Certificate with up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points

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Good afternoon everyone.  A few months ago, Marriott introduced an improvement to their Free Night Certificates where you could combine a Free Night Certificate with up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points to book a hotel room that cost more points that your Free Night Certificate is worth.  To learn more about the process, read Marriott’s Free Night Award Top Off page.  I finally had a chance to use this feature yesterday for an upcoming stay in Seattle.  In this post, I will show you the booking process.

Sign into your Marriott Bonvoy account and go to the Activity tab to see your Free Night Certificates listed under the Earned Awards section.  I had a 35K Free Night Certificate available from my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card that expires later this year.  I clicked on the How To Use Your Certificate link to get started.

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3 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: Avianca (145%), United (85%) & Hyatt (30%)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 3 offers that end in the next week.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 3 offers that end soon.  Up first, Avianca Airlines is offering up to a 145% bonus, depending on the number of Avianca Airlines LifeMiles you purchase.  This offer expires tomorrow – July 26.

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Unboxing Chase IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card: Card Art, Welcome Letter, Brochure & Online Activation Process

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Good morning everyone.  A few weeks ago, I did a mini app-o-rama and applied for 3 credit cards: Capital One Venture X Credit Card (read post), Chase IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card, and Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card (read post).

In this post, I will show you the Chase IHG Rewards Premier Business card art, welcome letter, brochure, and the online activation process.  First things first, here is the front and back of the card.  It is clean and nicely designed.  It has a very similar style as the Chase IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card.

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Unboxing Capital One Venture X Credit Card: Card Art, Welcome Letter, Brochure & Online Activation Process

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Good afternoon everyone. A few weeks ago, I did a mini app-o-rama and applied for 3 credit cards: Capital One Venture X Credit Card, Chase IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card (read post), and Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card (read post).

In this post, I will show you the Venture X card art, welcome letter, brochure, and the online activation process.  First things first, here is the front and back of the Venture X.  It is not very flashy and looks very simple.  On the back, there is a key icon.  I figured out that you can hold the card up to the screen when you sign into the Capital One app to complete the Two Factor Authentication.

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My 2022 Midyear Review of Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. Much like the corporate world with midyear reviews, I thought it would be fun / embarrassing to do a midyear review of My Wild and Crazy 2022 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  I copied the list from the previous post and will see how many predictions I got correct and how many were dead wrong.  But remember, there is still 6 months left in the year for the remaining predictions to come true…

My 2022 Airline Predictions (1 / 7)

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature. – I still cannot believe this feature exists but Alaska and Southwest are not using it.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner. – I still cannot believe that Citi can’t get American Airlines to come back to the ThankYou Points portal.
  • Avianca will give Turkish Airlines a run for their money for domestic Star Alliance awards.
  • British Airways will let you use Avios to pay the taxes, fees, and fuel surcharge portion of award tickets.
  • Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, or United Airlines will introduce a “Miles and Cash” payment option for award tickets (pay 10,000 miles or pay 8,000 miles + $40).
  • JetBlue will partner with another US airline for award bookings. – Yes, you can book JetBlue flights using American Airlines miles.
  • United Airlines will be a transfer partner with Brex, Citi, or American Express.

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