Hawaii hotel for Cat 1-5 Travel Package, hacking Hotwire, new Iberia business class and more

Marriott Travel Package popularity is at an all-time high, and in this Frequent Miler Week in Review Around the Web, check out a property scheduled to drop into the realm of a current Cat 1-5 certificate. If you’d rather pay cash and save, you’ll want to see the latest from Travel is Free to know which Hotwire hotel you’re booking. All that plus Iberia’s new business class and a Global Entry scare — read about it in this week’s recap.

8 Great Reasons to Stay at Kona Beach Hotel

With the new Marriott award chart out and many people looking to redeem Travel Packages while the value is at a high, I found the timing perfect on this post from McCool Travel about a Courtyard property on The Big Island in Hawaii that is dropping in price to 25K per night in August. That means it should be bookable with a current Cat 1-5 certificate even if those certificates get converted to an “up to 25K per night” value. There have recently been some terrific airfare sales to Kona (like $330 round trip from New York City). The truth is that most reviews of Hawaii hotels are of the top-of-the-charts properties, so I thought this review of a perfectly normal (and pretty nice-looking!) Courtyard might be worth a look for someone to get pretty good value out of a travel package without burning a snow-capped mountain of points. I especially love that you can be inspired to push through the pain of stuffing yourself at breakfast by watching the Ironman triatheletes training in the ocean. Fun stuff!

News & offers: Iberia’s A350 business class first look+ how to use the promo Avios & BA route/lounge news

If you recently picked up 90,000 Iberia Avios for next-to-nothing, you might be interested in checking out the business class cabin on Iberia’s new A350’s. Turning Left for Less has pictures of the seats and information about which routes will get them first. Award space may be challenging to come by for a while, but keep your eye out as the schedule opens later.

How to EASILY Know Your Hotwire Hotel

I’ve long had reasonable success in figuring out which hotel I’m booking through opaque services like Priceline Express Deals or Hotwire. However, in the latest post from Drew at Travel is Free, you’ll find out the easy Hotwire Hack to know which hotel you’re looking at in just a couple of clicks. This takes some of the time investment out of using hotwire — which might widen the gap when the price is right. If your favorite status is “more money in my pocket” status, you might want to check this one out.

How to convert Marriott or SPG points into Hilton or IHG points, via Virgin

This is an oddball conversion that doesn’t make much sense from a value perspective, but I find the exercise of thinking outside the box a bit on point transfers fun. See this post from Head for Points about how you could transfer from Marriott to Hilton or IHG by using a middle man.

That Story About The Experienced Traveler Who Scared The Crap Out Of His Wife And Almost Got Her Global Entry Revoked

As a married man, this post from Pizza in Motion made me chuckle. As a man married to someone who loves to travel but does not enjoy the anxiety produced by airports and airplanes, I spent the second half of the post feeling thankful that I’ve learned something from his slip-up. It’s a good reminder to stay organized….and to explain the process to our significant others lest we turn a small mistake into small heart attack.

That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.

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