Tag Archives: Marriott Hotels

San Diego Miles and Points Meet Up on Saturday June 7

San Diego City Logo

San Diego Miles and Points Meet Up on Saturday June 7

One of my close friends lives down in San Diego and she has been telling me to come down and do a miles and points meet up.  After comparing our travel schedules, we finally settled on Saturday June 7.  The location and time has yet to be set.  If no one shows up, I guess it will just be the two of us, sharing millions* of secrets about travel hacking, booking premium class awards, hotel loyalty programs, and sweet cash back deals.

(*slight exaggeration)

I also have a Marriott Category 1-5 Free Night Certificate that expires at the end of July, that I need to use as well.

Unused Marriott Stay Certificate

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What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

What's On My Mind

What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

Good morning everyone!  California has a had a rough couple of days deals with several forest fires.  I hope my friends/family/readers in San Diego County are all doing ok.  Thank you for all the hard work from the fire fighters and other respondents.  I am going down to San Diego on Saturday June 7 (3 weeks from today) to meet a friend of mine.  She is a big miles/points aficionado like myself, so I wanted to know if anyone would like to join us, a very casual miles/points meetup.  The time and place has yet to be decided, but it will probably be in the afternoon on Saturday.

Also, I have been a *really bad* blogger this week.  I haven’t posted anything in the last 3-4 days so I apologize for not keeping you up to date on the latest miles/points news:

  • Southwest Airlines credit card now 50,000 mile sign up bonus
  • Barclays Arrival Plus credit card now with chip and pin and the same sign up bonus
  • Chase Ink Bold/Plus credit card now with 60,000 Chase UR Points
  • American Express Daily Deals, maybe I should say “deals”, not too impressive this year
  • Evolve Pay now you can pay with some credit cards (mostly MasterCard)
  • Charlotte Mile Madness reviews
  • Whatever else I missed

Just because I haven’t been writing the last few days doesn’t mean I haven’t been experimenting with different topics/ideas.  I have some pretty good posts in the pipeline.  One post that’s been 1+ month in the making is my headache of a problem dealing with CVS and my American Express Target card.  Have you ever had a situation where neither company could help, but then you decided to do a 3 way conference call and have them speak directly to each other and solve the problem?  Ya, that’s what happened here.  I’m glad to finally have my $503.95 back.  More info to come shortly (P.S. crazy story).

Chargeback

Umm, what the heck is a reversal of chargeback and why do you do this to me AMEX??

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a woman with blonde hair and a green shirt

Chase Launches Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Signature Business Credit Card

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(Hat Tip to Nigel for the email)

First off, I certainly like the design of the card, looks very regal and fancy.  Here are the main points that most of you probably care about:

  • 50,000 Marriott Rewards points after your spend $1,000 in the first 3 months
  • 1 Free Night Certificate (category 1-4) after account approval
  • 1 Free Night Certificate (category 1-5) every year you pay the annual fee
  • $99 annual fee, waived for the first year
  • 5x on all Marriott purchases
  • 2x on all purchases at office supply stores, restaurants, car rental agencies, airline tickets purchased directly from the airline, cellular phone, landline, Internet, and cable TV services (Chase Ink Bold/Plus categories, hmm…)
  • 1x on all other purchases
  • Cardholders receive 15 Elite credits every year = automatic Marriott Silver Elite Status
  • Earn one additional Elite credit for every $3,000 spent (see elite tiers here)

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Has anyone been to Hamburg or Copenhagen lately?

Commercial Airliner in Flight

Has anyone been to Hamburg or Copenhagen lately?

Happy Friday everyone!  P.S. Don’t forget that today is the first Friday of April = Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card 3x at Restaurants.  But not so fast, if you have your Chase Freedom Credit Card, you will get 5x (5% cash back) on all restaurants this quarter (from now through June 30).

Anyways, tomorrow night I am flying LAX to London (Virgin Atlantic) and from London to Hamburg (Germany Wings) for a travel conference next week.  I will have 3-4 days in Hamburg and wanted to get your opinion on things to do.

Hamburg

So far, my top choices include:   Continue reading →

My 2014 Resolution: Travel Somewhere Every Month!

Happy New Years 2014

My 2014 Resolution: Travel Somewhere Every Month!

Good morning 2014!  I hope you all had a fun and safe New Years Eve, from wherever you are.  It’s January 1st and time to make your New Year’s resolution.  This should be something fun and exciting, not something boring like losing weight or cleaning out the garage.  Which is why (for the second year in a row), I have decided my 2014 New Years Resolution is to travel somewhere every month.  Here is how I did in 2013:

  • January – 2 weeks in Europe (Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Paris, Munich, Cologne, and Brussels).
  • February – Albuquerque, New Mexico for 4 days by myself, such a strange city.
  • March – Honolulu for a week (First Class via IcelandAir/Alaska Airlines deal) for my brother’s Spring Break (you’re welcome Davis!).
  • April – Delaware to visit a friend and drove to FTU DC / Tyson’s Corner.
  • May – nothing :(, well, I started Travel with Grant on May 1.
  • June – nothing :(
  • July – Vancouver and Whistler for 2 weeks with my parents and brother.
  • August – nothing :(
  • September – FTU Tampa for the weekend with my friend Jim.
  • October – Galápagos Islands for a week with Jim (great deal from Miami for $380 round trip).
  • November – Las Vegas Hilton Timeshare for the weekend and Carmel / Monterrey Bay for Thanksgiving week.
  • December – Does driving to Six Flags Magic Mountain count?  I got a season pass!

This  photo should sum up my travel for 2013.  Any questions?

GC Map for 2013

What is your New Years resolution for 2014?