Whenever I’m trying to understand why things are the way they are, I often find it useful to try to follow the money, so to speak. By following where money goes and to whom, it often becomes clear why people/companies act the way they do. A prime example in the points/miles blogosphere is why there…
Ask for it. Novel, I know. But in general, the person who cares most about your happiness is you. And the person who knows best how to make you happy is you. So how do you expect to get what you want if you don’t tell other people what it is that you want? Everyone…
There have been a number of posts recently about MS for hotels (see posts on the Frequent Miler, Saverocity, and Travel is Free (all great blogs btw)). In the past, I haven’t really focused on hotels since I’m a cheapskate and will do things like book overnight trains or sleep in capsule hotels or crash on people’s…
In the US, I love Google Maps; in foreign countries, I hate it. Google Maps has led me astray in pretty much every single foreign country that I’ve visited, so you think I would’ve learned by now not to trust it. The most recent example: Nahm is not in the correct place, which is crazy…
Like any good frequent traveler, I have a lot of credit cards (although I just cancelled 2!) Here’s a list of what I have (and have cancelled) and some preliminary thoughts on what I should get next. Citi Forward (keep) This was my first “points” card that I ever got, and I got it while…
I know that I’m super late to the game with this post, but I’ve been traveling a lot recently and work has been hectic and you clearly shouldn’t be using my blog as your only source of frequent flyer news anyway. Over the past few weeks, multiple programs have announced devaluations: United’s was a bloodbath,…
My first major set of credit card applications was October 2012, where I got a Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa, a Citi American Airlines Visa, a Citi American Airlines Amex, and a Barclays US Airways card. I decided to outright cancel the Bank of America Alaska card in preparation for applying for a new…
As has already been plastered all over the travel blogosphere, US Airways is running their share miles promo, which is effectively one of the best ways to buy airlines miles out there. While US Airways normally runs buy miles promos where you can buy US Airways miles for roughly 1.8 cents per mile, with the…
This is probably less relevant for people who have the pleasure to fly business or first class exclusively, but for the rest of us frequent travelers who are sometimes (or often (or always)) in the back of the plane, I highly recommend reading/watching “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace. Actually, scratch that, this should…
I’ve successfully converted a number of friends to points and miles earning credit cards, but I sometimes worry about what I’ve done. In general, the credit cards I recommend to my friends have minimum spending requirements (like $3,000 in the first three months for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which is the card I normally recommend…
