Nick’s latest “free” Carnival cruise: a mixed bag
As this post publishes, I'll be disembarking the Carnival Venezia, which I boarded in New York City 11 nights ago. After cruising once in my life prior to 2022, I have now taken 6...
How to find Qatar QSuites award space
Qatar Airways' QSuites business class is widely considered to be one of the best business class products available worldwide. Seats can be configured to be either very private or with shared space as shown...
Reconsidering Bank of America Platinum Honors vs a large IRA transfer bonus
Over the past week, investing app Robinhood has made a splash over its newly-announced Gold card, which is slated to offer 3% cash back everywhere. I wrote a post where I was lukewarm on...
Qatar Business Class: 5+ levels of award availability
I've been doing background research so that I can update "How to find Qatar QSuites award space" and I fell down a rabbit hole. The aforementioned post is out of date because it is...
The Tools We Use (for playing the points and miles game)
The post "The Games We Play," outlines some of the top techniques for earning more points & miles, for getting more out of our points & miles, for saving money, and getting elite perks...
The end of credit card rewards, robbery at the Rio Las Vegas and currency...
Guests at the Rio Las Vegas robbed while they slept, hotel currency exchange scams go beast mode and is the new Visa/Mastercard settlement the beginning of the end for credit card rewards? All that...
Priority Pass shakeup, how to find regional first & luxury hotels for fewer points,...
We rode a rollercoaster this week, with a huge shakeup on the Priority Pass landscape and a major downward trend for a business credit card that both had us feeling down. But also this...
Best ways to get to cities in the US and Canada using miles (2024)
If you want to travel within the US and Canada using airline miles, your first thought might be to use miles from one of the major North American airlines. In some cases, that will...
(EXPIRED) Earn Hyatt elite night credits & points when buying Mr & Mrs Smith...
Reminder: You can earn Hyatt elite credit for Mr. & Mrs Smith gift card purchases for just a few more days (until 3/31/24). We're republishing this post as a "last call" reminder.
About a month...
[DEVALUED] Regional first class starting at 12,500 points (Sweet Spot Spotlight)
UPDATE: Since this post was published, Qatar has increased award pricing for flights on American and Alaska airlines. See details here.
I wrote the majority of this post aboard an American Airlines flight from Detroit...
A return to Santa Claus Holiday Village
At the end of our 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge, I wound up at Santa Claus Holiday Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, where I crossed the Arctic Circle, met Santa, and saw the Northern Lights....
United miles pooling is now live – important things to know
Last week, news broke that United would be launching a new feature to its MileagePlus loyalty program - the ability to pool miles with friends and family members.
Miles pooling went live on Friday March...
[New Easy Solution] How to find Choice Preferred Hotel award availability
An exciting recent development is that Choice Privileges points can now be used to book participating Preferred Hotels & Resorts online. One little "gotcha" is that you can't easily view whether or not the...
What are the “must have” Chase cards?
If you're new to credit card rewards, Chase can be a great place to start, as it offers a terrific variety of valuable cards, often with excellent initial welcome offers. That said, the main...
