Tag Archives: Travel

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A Tale of Two Citi Strata Elite Credit Card Applications

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. First, a quick nod to the bookworms and literary buffs who caught the reference to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.  Now let’s fast forward to this century.  In mid-December, Laura and I both applied for the Citi Strata Elite Credit Card because we were hoping to triple dip the annual benefits ($300 Hotel Credit and $200 Splurge Credit) in December 2025, January 2026, and again in January 2027 before the $595 annual fee was due. Unfortunately, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” in terms of instant approvals.

The Results

My application: instant denial.  Laura’s application: pending.

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Don’t Let your Hilton Free Night Certificate Expire: Call to get a 2 Week Extension

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday! Today I wanted to share a quick tip that might save you from losing a very valuable free night certificate. If you’ve ever earned a Hilton Free Night Certificate from a credit card, you know how valuable they can be toward a hotel stay. Unfortunately, those certificates also come with expiration dates and those dates may not line up with your travel plans.  Recently, I had a Hilton Free Night Certificate that was set to expire on February 10.  Instead of rushing to use it on a nearby hotel, I decided to call Hilton (1-800-446-6677) and see if there was anything they could do.  After explaining the situation, the rep offered to extend my existing certificate by 2 weeks.

To find your certificate and expiration date, log into your Hilton account, click your name in the top right corner, and scroll down to the Rewards section.  You should see when your certificate is set to expire.

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My Favorite Underrated Wells Fargo Autograph / Journey Credit Card Feature: Transfers Starting at 1 Point

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Good afternoon everyone and happy Friday! A warm welcome to any former Bilt Card 1.0 members who may have found their way here. By now, you’ve likely received your no annual fee Wells Fargo Autograph Credit Card and are wondering: What should I do with this card, should I keep it?

While the Wells Fargo Autograph offers decent bonus categories, my favorite feature is something far less flashy, but far more useful to me: you can earn transferable points and move them to airline and hotel partners without paying an annual fee.  This is a huge deal if you ever need to top off an account with fewer than 1,000 points. There are no minimum transfer amounts, which means no orphaned points stranded after a redemption.  That combination is wonderful, but not very common in the miles / points space.

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By the Numbers: My 10 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2025 (Plus 10 All-Time Favorites)

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Good afternoon everyone, and I hope your new year is off to a great start! With 2025 officially in the books, it’s time to look back at the blog posts you found most helpful, interesting, and worth clicking on throughout the year. Below you’ll find the 10 most popular posts written in 2025, along with the 10 most popular posts written in previous years that continued to draw strong traffic.  If you’re curious, you can also check out the most popular posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

2025’s Most Popular Blog Posts (Written During 2025)

  • No Upcoming Hilton Stay? Turn Your Credit Into a $50 Snack Shopping Spree (10/8/25) – I explain how to use your Hilton Credit even if I don’t have an upcoming hotel stay planned. Instead of letting the credit go to waste, I show how I used it for a $50 snack and convenience shopping spree.  I did this at the end of Q3, at the end of Q4, and will probably do this again sometime in Q1 2026.
  • Should I Transfer All My Amex Points to Hawaiian Airlines? (5/19/25) – I analyzed whether it made sense to transfer all of my American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines. I weighed the pros, cons, and risks before making what could be a one-way, irreversible decision.  This post is no longer relevant since Hawaiian Airlines is no longer an AMEX transfer partner.

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Barclays vs. Bank of America: Which Offers the Best Atmos Rewards Companion Fare or Discount Code?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I just read Frequent Miler’s article Alaska tanks utility of its “Famous Companion Fare” and learned that you can no longer use Alaska Airlines wallet funds to pay for Companion Fare tickets. That’s a major disappointment, since wallet funds and discounted Alaska Airlines gift cards from Costco used to pair beautifully with the Companion Fare.

Naturally, that got me wondering: Does Atmos Rewards also block wallet funds when using Barclays discount codes? (Short answer: yes.) What started as a quick check turned into a full comparison of Barclays vs. Bank of America and how their Discount Codes and Companion Fares stack up.  You can find your discount codes and companion fares in your Atmos Rewards account under the Discounts and Companion Fares section.

Background

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote Maybe the Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card is a Keeper – Here’s Why and wanted to take a closer look at how the Barclays 50% Off Companion Fare and the Barclays $100 Off Companion Fare compare to the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare from the Bank of America Credit Card. Here’s what I found.

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