Saving on upgrades, Delta flights, dinner in Vegas, and more

In this weekend’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web, we’ve got some good info for those playing the status matching game for a free meal in Vegas, a time-saving method to save miles on Delta flights, whether those min bids on upgrades work, and more. Read on for the weekly recap.

An Update on My Caesars Rewards Fiasco

Right now, there’s a pretty cool status matching opportunity that can get you from credit-card-hotel-status to Wyndham status to Caesars Rewards status. That’s pretty awesome because, if you do it right, you’ll end up with a $100 “celebration dinner” (essentially a $100 dining credit) at many Caesars restaurants and 2 free show tickets each month. I recently ran this match for myself and helped a couple of family members get it set up in the hopes of enjoying a free meal on an upcoming stay in Vegas. Thus, I read this post from Jeffsetter with great interest — now I’ll know to check and make sure a restaurant can see the celebration offer on my card before I dine.

Fabulous Fridays: Lufthansa Premium Economy Upgrades Via Plusgrade Bidding – Minimum Bid Successful

One topic that people frequently ask about is upgrades. It is rarely worthwhile to upgrade an economy class fare using miles (and many of the cheapest fares may not be eligible). However, many airlines now offer a bidding process for upgrades whereby you can make an offer and then see what happens. I’ve often wondered whether it is possible to score an upgrade using a minimum bid, and Loyalty Lobby shows that it certainly is possible (though perhaps not likely?) to get a really good deal on an upgrade with a min bid.

Does Reading Reviews Diminish Your Travel Experiences?

When I saw the headline, I immediately thought, “Yes!”. I’m guilty of the same problem explored here at Your Mileage May Vary: I sometimes read too many reviews about a hotel / airline / experience and then it is difficult for reality to match my expectations. I try to keep this phenomenon in mind when I’m reviewing hotels and flights as well — I don’t want to build a place up to unreasonable expectations and have someone disappointed on vacation. On the other hand, when you get that surprise stay you didn’t expect, it’s hard not to share the enthusiasm with others. At any rate, my key takeaway here is that I should probably only seek out a review or two about a place I’m considering, lest my expectations become unreasonable.

A Trick To Save On Delta Miles Flights

Travel is Free has been back with tons of great posts lately and this latest post on saving Delta miles could prove to be really useful for those who don’t mind skiplagging / hidden city ticketing / whatever you want to call it when you book a longer itinerary and don’t plan to take the last segment. I actually need a flight to a Delta hub next month and so I checked this method out. While I didn’t ultimately find an option that was pricing at the cheapest levels, I did see huge variance in the price to get from A to B if I added on one of many different C destinations. The big hassle on hidden city ticketing has been not knowing where to start in terms of finding those opportunities for award tickets. Thanks to Travel is Free, there’s now a way to do it.

How to book Vueling flights using Avios

Let’s get this straight: using Avios for Vueling flights appears to be a really poor value for Avios. On the other hand, if you’ve been sitting on Avios without a good use and you happen to need a flight on an expensive date, I always think that having more tools in your belt beats less tools. So while this post from Tricks of the Trade won’t be something you’ll plan to use, it’s a good one to check out to remember the options you might otherwise forget.

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

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