Tag Archives: Travel

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TSA: Keeping Us Secure, But Not From Germs!

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Perhaps another good title for this post is “You can never carry enough hand sanitizer when you’re in the airport!” But do we really think ANY place in an airport isn’t chock full of germs? I guess, though, it’s always good to know which places at the airport are the most likely ones to be full of germs and viruses. Extra precautions can’t hurt, but does the TSA take them? I was surprised to learn about a TSA protocol that I can now request. Hopefully this will keep me away from “virus central.” Be prepared to up your stash of hand sanitizer after you read this!

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[DEAD] Keep American Airlines Miles from Expiring with Magazine Subscription

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Updated 1:20pm PT on 5/11/20: It looks like American Airlines has removed the ability to redeem American Airlines AAdvantage Miles for magazines.  You can still redeem for digital and print newspaper, but the prices vary.

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I don’t know about you, but I am the designated miles & points expert in the family and part of my job is tracking everyone’s miles & points and keeping their miles & points from expiring.  Last week, I got an email that my brother’s American Airlines miles were going to expire in 30 days.  He only has 2,109 AA miles, so it would not be a huge loss to have them expire, but if there was a simple, easy, and cheap way to keep his AA miles alive, I wanted to do that.  Since these are not my miles, I didn’t really care how I kept the AA miles alive, but I didn’t want to transfer points from Marriott to American Airlines, so instead, I redeemed 300 AA miles for a magazine subscription.

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Reader Question Answered: Best Uses of Alaska Airlines Miles

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Is finding award seat availability a challenge for you? It’s no secret that families find it both challenging and frustrating. The easier part is accruing miles and points, because after all we put our spend on credit cards offering us bonuses, accrue miles from flying, and can even buy miles when we need to. We have big smiles on our faces when we see our airline point balances, but often those smiles turn to frowns when we try to put them to good use booking award flight tickets. Reality is not always an easy cup of espresso to swallow!

Alaska Airlines Award Tickets

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Share Location with US Bank App to “Reduce Card Declines and Prevent Fraud”

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Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, I was checking my US Bank credit cards via the US Bank iPhone app and saw this popup: Share your location to help keep your account secure.  According to the popup, by sharing my location with the US Bank app, this will help reduce credit card declines and prevent fraud.  Theoretically, it makes sense.  If you (and your phone) are in California, but there is an in-store purchase made with your credit card in New York City, US Bank would block the charge.  Likewise, if you are driving through Oregon and decide to visit a Nike store and stock up on tax-free sports gear (fun fact: Oregon is one of four states with no sales tax, the other states are Delaware, Montana, and New Hampshire), US Bank will know that you are in Oregon and allow the purchase.  Makes perfect sense to me.

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Giveaway: 10 Custom Travel with Grant 8GB USB Drives [10 Winners Selected]

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Updated at 8:20am PT on 9/6: Thank you to everyone who left a comment, I wish I could have picked all of you, unfortunately I could only pick 10 comments and these are the winners.  If you are a winner, please respond to the email with your mailing address so I can send you the Travel with Grant USB drive.  Thank you.  If you did not win, I will run another USB drive giveaway in a few weeks, so please try again then.  Good luck everyone!

JRG I’d use it for storing important stuff and then carry with me during travel
marc I would use them to store pictures from past trips and adventures!
Luke US I would use it to store a backup copy of my precious travel pictures, there is no such thing as enough backups! :) Thank you for the giveaway!
Kelly s I could use it for my son for school so I don’t have to go buy him one!
Laura I would use it to download files to print at Staples for my daughter’s elementary school, since I don’t own a printer. I’d also use it to backup up photos while on travel, so I can free up space on my phone.
Judy Jones It would go with me on my upcoming bucket list tour following the Paul McCartney tour in Canada and the UK all on points and miles of course, I plan to take about 10,000 pics just of me smiling!
Art I would use it as a back-up my travel pictures, cause one can never have enough back-up these days.
Nick I would make it bootable, and use it to install LINUX MINT on my next computer rebuild.
Jim F. Back up my travel itineraries (hotel reservations, airline PNRs, activity confirmations, etc.) and emergency contact information for my travels (embassies, local emergency numbers, etc.), natch!
Bruce Travel photo and data back up for new adventures :)

Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, a company called USB Memory Direct reached out to me to see if I would be interested in doing a USB drive giveaway.  I said yes, so now I have a bunch of custom Travel with Grant USB drives to give away.  USB Memory Direct specializes in custom printed USB drives and they recommended the tube style that is water-resistant and super durable.  Each USB drive has 8GB of storage and is perfect for backing up photos, videos, or other files.  Continue reading for instructions on how to enter the giveaway…

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