Tag Archives: Hyatt Hotels

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ICYMI: Travel News Roundup for Friday, May 26, 2017

Hi everyone! Sorry I missed an update last week – I was in New York City for the weekend and was a little swamped. Here’s all the news that caught my eye over the past two weeks:

Airlines + Miles

Aeromexico is starting new flights from Mexico City to Seattle and Portland, and adding new Mexican destinations from Atlanta and Los Angeles. [Travel Codex]

Alaska Airlines added Helsinki-based Finnair as a Mileage Plan partner. [Alaska Airlines]

I bought one of the first tickets on Alaska Airlines’ new service from San Francisco to Mexico City, scheduled to begin August 8. [Travel with Grant]

American Airlines now offers a full refund within 24 hours of purchase if a flight is booked at least 2 days before departure (previously it was 7 days). [Travel Codex]

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USPS Lost my VirtualPostMail Package Full of Gift Cards & Credit Cards

Buenos dias everyone.  A few months ago, I wrote about VirtualPostMail, the service I use to receive, scan, and forward my physical mail. I typically have them collect items for me over the course of a few weeks, and then I select the items I want to keep and have them shipped to wherever I’m going next. Since I was heading to Washington, DC for work last week, I asked VPM to mail a package to my post office box in Washington, DC a few days before I was going to arrive. This package included several important items:

  • My replacement AT&T Access More Credit Card (since someone tried to hack my account)
  • My new Discover It Credit Card in a different design
  • My Amazon Prime Store Credit Card
  • 1 $50 Hotels.com gift card from Amazon
  • 2 $50 Petco gift cards
  • 6 iTunes gift cards from Staples (3 x $100 and 3 x $50)
  • 2 sets of Cabela’s gift cards I purchased from SVM on eBay
  • My Hyatt Explorist welcome packet
  • My new Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card
A screenshot of 12 envelopes of various sizes from my virtualpostmail dashboard

Will I ever see these envelopes?

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My First Trip to Europe Using Miles & Points (Denver, Houston, Manchester, Dublin, Paris & Frankfurt)

I started this post while I was in Dublin on a ten day trip around Europe, but I never found the time to finish it. Probably due to the fact that I was walking 7-10 miles a day checking out the sites! I primarily used miles/points to book the majority of the travel and lodging, which is detailed below.

My first flight was from DEN (Denver) – HOU (William P. Hobby/Houston) on SW (Southwest) as a positioning flight, which I paid 7.6k miles for, and $5.60. The retail price was $127, so I averaged 1.6 Cents Per Point (CPP), which is pretty average for SW. I Uber’d to IAH (George Bush Intercontinental/Houston) for around $40.

Southwest Plane

Southwest flight from Denver (DEN) to Houston (HOU)

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Targeted Q2 Credit Card Offers: 4,000 Hyatt Points, 3,000 IHG Reward Points & 2,500 Lufthansa Miles

Good morning everyone.  As we wrap up Q1, the targeted credit card offers for Q2 are just now arriving.  Here are 3 offers that I have received in the last 2 days and I will share my logic with you on whether or not they are worth pursuing.  Up first, I have the Chase Hyatt Credit Card with 4,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 between April 1 and June 30.  4,000 Hyatt Points is worth $60-$80 to me, but I am not excited to spend $4,000 to get up to $80 in return (2% bonus).  I could get 4,000 Hyatt Points by generating 4,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points on my Chase Ink Plus.  That would only require $800 of 5x spending and I can do that in 1 day with gift card purchases from PayPal Digital Gifts on eBay.  I am going to pass on this offer.

Targeted Chase Hyatt Credit Card Offer Q2

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How to Redeem your World of Hyatt Free Anniversary Night Certificate

Good morning everyone, I had a great weekend in Portland, full of hikes, Voodoo Donuts, craft brews, and Trail Blazers basketball.  Enough about me, let’s talk about how to redeem your World of Hyatt free anniversary night certificate that comes every year when you pay the Chase Hyatt Credit Card $75 annual fee.  If you have the credit card, you can see the free night award in your World of Hyatt account by clicking the My Awards tab.  This is my dad’s Hyatt account and his award night was expiring in mid June and he didn’t have any Hyatt stays planned before then, so we decided to use it for a night near the Portland Airport (thanks dad!).

World of Hyatt Book Award Night 1

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