The Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card with a 100,000 point signup bonus is now available for referrals. The $450 annual fee is not waived the first year, but the card comes with a $300 per cardmember year statement credit for Marriott hotels. Eligibility The list of disqualifying dispositions is a long and painful read. But […]
This Week in Bank Points: Amtrak First Class Upgrade Coupons
I recently wrote about transferring bank points to Amtrak for 1.5 cents per point+ of value. See: Redeem Bank Points For Amtrak [Up To 1.64 Cents Per Point] In that post I mentioned the option of buying Amtrak upgrade coupons. I went through the process recently, upgrading Acela Business Class to First Class. In short: It […]
Dog Catches Car: The AA Etihad Apartment Trick Worked But I Let It Go
I was saying a couple of weeks ago how I did some research on booking Etihad Apartments with AA miles and found that I was unable to do so. See: What I Learned: Booking An Award For Travel On Etihad But after some more exploring, along with guidance from experts, I found that I was able […]
Getting a US Bank Altitude Card May Be Easier Than You Think
We were debating recently on the podcast what the best all-around travel rewards credit card is these days. The one card to get if you’re going to get just one. The City National Bank Crystal Visa Infinite was our favorite and the Amex Hilton Aspire a close second (referral link, read this before applying). But […]
PSA: Avoid the Extrabux Shopping Portal
You may have noticed the Extrabux shopping portal come up in Cashback Monitor listings. In this Extrabux portal review I’m going to describe my experience using the service and tell you why I’m going to avoid them going forward. Because when they say you’ll earn “Up to” a certain amount you really have no idea […]
Bank Points Just Got a Little Harder to Redeem
Connexions Loyalty is a company that banks partner with to operate travel rewards redemptions. Programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and City National Bank Rewards rely on them for some portion of their bookings. In August of 2018 Chase announced they’d be switching to Expedia for their online booking portal. Bank point enthusiasts […]
This Week in Bank Points: Booking El Al Business Class Flights
I recently spent some time learning about El Al’s award scheme while helping a family member book roundtrip flights in Business Class. I thought I’d summarize my findings here in case you find yourself interested in visiting Israel and booking El Al Business Class with points. Want: Boston to Tel Aviv round-trip in Business Class […]
What I Learned: Booking an award for travel on Etihad
I ended up going down quite a rabbit hole recently while trying to figure out the best way of booking an award for travel on Etihad – using their miles or that of a partner airline like AA. I was exploring options from Boston -or- New York to Southeast Asia and ultimately decided on Phuket, Thailand […]
Redeem Bank Points for Amtrak [Up to 1.64 Cents Per Point]
I was poking around reddit the other day and came across this post about transferring Membership Rewards to Amtrak Guest Rewards through a two-step process to achieve ~1.5 cents per point (cpp) of uplift. I thought this was an interesting tip, for those who want to travel on Amtrak, because no bank point programs (that I’m […]
Ten 2019 Points & Miles Predictions
Let’s get right to it… 1. Disney will once again be bookable through with Chase Ultimate Rewards Let’s start off with an optimistic prediction. It’s bizarre how Disney is selectively blocked for Ultimate Rewards redemptions. I think they’ll be able to patch up whatever caused the rift and we’ll once again see all things Disney […]