Tag Archives: Marriott 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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4 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: IHG (100%), Marriott (45%), Hilton (100%) & Air Canada (100%)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 4 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 4 offers that end soon.  Up first, IHG Hotels is offering up to a 100% bonus, depending on the number of IHG One Rewards Points you purchase.  This offer expires today – July 15.

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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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2 Hawaii Timeshare Vacation Package Deals: Hilton Grand Vacations Honolulu (Oahu) or Waikoloa (Big Island) & Westin Vacation Club Kaanapali (Maui)

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Updated at 7:20am PT on 4/27/22: Hawaii is very popular this year, so instead of booking the timeshare vacation package and picking your dates later, I would suggest locking in your dates when you book the package.  Here is a recent horror story of the Sheraton Kauai on FlyerTalk.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, I wrote Stop Ignoring Vacasa Vacation Rentals! Get Awesome Condos for 13,500 Wyndham Rewards Points per Night.  In that post, I shared my recently booked Vacasa Vacation Rentals in Hawaii.  If you prefer hotels over condos, I have 2 great timeshare vacation packages available.  The first is with Hilton Grand Vacations and is available to the public.  The second is with Westin Vacation Club and looks targeted, but you can reach out to Westin Vacation Club to see if you are eligible.  I have experience with timeshare presentations and have stayed at a few of these properties before.  I will go through the booking process of each to show you what it is like, what is included, and how much it costs.

Let’s get started with the Hilton Grand Vacations offer.  Here is the link to the landing page with the various properties.

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My Wild and Crazy 2022 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve Eve (emphasis on the extra Eve).  Yesterday, I wrote about my dismal prediction performance (I didn’t predict I would do so poorly – another wrong prediction of mine) in my post How Right (or Wrong) were my 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?  My new crystal ball just arrived from Amazon, so I am going to put it to the ultimate test and I’ll provide my 2022 airline, hotel, and credit card predictions.  I’m guaranteed to get between 0% and 100% correct, but only time will tell…

My 2022 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner.
  • 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.
  • United Airlines will be a transfer partner with Brex, Citi, or American Express.

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