While poking around the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal the other day, I noticed a new [to-me] redemption option: Airport Transfers. Direct Link While I’ve noticed some ground transfer options pop up while booking activties through the Chase portal, this option is a specialized subset within their portal. It provides a way to pre-arrange transportation between […]
The Delta/Virgin Atlantic Paradox: Business Class Awards to Europe
The Delta/Virgin Atlantic partnership is one to keep in mind any time you see low-level award availability on either airline. Last April we flew on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class using Delta SkyMiles. Next April we’re planning to fly DeltaOne using Virgin Atlantic miles. Ironically, it’s almost always better to pay with the partner’s miles rather […]
Park Hyatt Kyoto Now Accepting Award Reservations
Park Hyatt Kyoto award bookings are now available for reservations starting December 1, 2019. This is a highly anticipated opening since 5 Star hotels in the area (Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton) tend to be pricey, and the Park Hyatt Kyoto can be booked with points. HT One Mile at a Time The hotel is slotted in […]
Breaking Through Peak Vacation Airfare Pricing with Partner Awards
Booking windows are just opening up for the Massachusetts school break in April 2020. And as usual, the opening salvo from carriers like Delta is a bit of a gut punch. But with a Delta partner award, I was able to find great award pricing on direct flights at perfect times. Let’s work through an […]
Using British Airways Avios for Boston-Chicago Flights on AA
I’m in the market for flights from BOS-ORD around the 4th of July break. The route is served by American, United, JetBlue, and Spirit. Plus you can always fly to Midway instead of O’Hare. So it’s a very competitive route with a lot of options. Let’s see how this one shook out… Economy/First Price Compression […]
My Experience with Tours & Activities Booked through the Chase Expedia Portal
We just got back from a week in Europe where we did tours and activities in London, Venice, and Rome – all booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. I think I’m pretty good at booking flights and hotels, but I’m exceedingly bad at planning things to do once we get to a destination. I […]
How were those non-loyalty European hotels booked through the Chase Expedia portal?
A few months ago I wrote about booking all of the hotels for a week-long trip to London, Venice and Rome through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. It’s powered by Expedia, don’t you know, and it’s been interesting to take stock of how selection and prices have trended since Chase transitioned to Expedia for its […]
Tips and Tricks: Booking JAL Premium Cabin Awards for a Family of Four
Have you ever arrived at an event – say a theme park – right when it opened and felt like other people had been there long before you? Disney does this at their parks. People staying at their hotels get in early. And they sell tickets to events before the park opens/after it closes, effectively […]
PSA: Use Your Citi Preferred Card To Avoid Resetting 24 Month ThankYou Signup Bonus Clock
If you’ve got a Citi Preferred card that you haven’t used in a while, you might want to put some charges on it to avoid account closure. My wife got an email from Citi notifying her they’d already closed her account: Subject: Notice of account closure This is significant because I believe it resets the […]
Denied Google Fi Travel Gift Cards? There’s Hope
Last November, Google ran a crazy promo for their Fi wireless service. If you bought a phone from them and met some other requirements they’d give you travel gift cards worth the price of the hardware. I thought at the time that the deal was prone to malfunction. It seemed thrown together as quickly […]