My near-disaster switching my Marriott award from points to certs
The Inn at Bay Harbor is an excellent Marriott Autograph Collection resort in northern Michigan. Even during normal times (i.e. before the current domestic travel boom) it was nearly impossible to book summertime award...
A beginner’s guide to searching for partner award flights
Often the best way to get optimal value from airline miles both in terms of maximum luxury and absolute value against the cost of cash tickets is using them to book partner award flights....
Avoiding phantom award space basics
On a recent episode of Frequent Miler on the Air, we featured a question of the week about phantom award space. The short version of the story is that the reader had found award...
(EXPIRED) Qatar Business wide-open from from US – Maldives next Spring (70,000 AAdvantage Miles)
Qatar Airways has quite a bit of open Business Class availability to the Maldives from airports throughout the US between February-April 2023, including a bunch of availabilty at the end of March in prime...
The Virgin Atlantic monthly award calendar still exists. Here’s how to find it.
Virgin Atlantic has long had a very useful tool for searching awards, both when looking for flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, as well as those operated by their partners. Using Virgin's flexible dates option,...
New Hilton Maldives property opening 7/1, awards wide open
Thrifty Traveler flags the fact that there is a brand new Hilton property opening in the Maldives on July 1st, 2022 and awards are wide open, with nearly every day on the calendar available for an award stay...
Gambling on a speculative point transfer bonus
Whenever there is a juicy point transfer bonus, some readers inevitably ask if it's a good idea to transfer their points "now" because of the good bonus. Our answer is always a firm "no",...
Great ways to save money or miles on flights
With airfare prices going sky high these days, it was high time for me to update this post. This post is intended to be a quick lookup guide. Before you book a flight, skim...
Unsung sweet spot: Flying Blue for Air Europa flights
With the current point transfer bonuses to Air France KLM Flying Blue, we recently republished a post about Flying Blue sweet spots. I've got a couple of trips to Europe tentatively on the books...
A work-around for Virgin Atlantic’s grayed out “Points” search
Here's a solution to a problem that I expect relatively few readers will encounter or care about. But those who have run into it have no doubt been extremely frustrated. When using Virgin Atlantic's...
Sweet spot awards that I actually use [On Greg’s Mind]
We frequently post about great deals using points & miles, and we refer to these as "sweet spot awards." Some of these are almost unbelievably great. For example, the ability to book ANA First...
(EXPIRED) 15% transfer bonus Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 15% bonus on miles transferred from American Express Membership Rewards.
The Deal
Get 15% bonus miles when transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles.
Valid May 1 to May...
Choice’s Cambria Hotel Gems (Great value with Citi points!)
Ever since Citi added the ability to double your points when transferring to Choice Privileges (details here), I've been on the hunt for great uses of Choice points. Towards that end, I've looked at...
El Capitan Hotel Merced California: Bottom Line Review
Last week, I tagged along with my wife to Merced where she had been invited to deliver a talk at the University of California Merced. We spent three nights at Hyatt's El Capitan Hotel...
