Up to 7 posts of 2013 you shouldn’t miss

I’ll be on vacation until January 6th.  Until then, I’ll publish a series of “mini posts” with an occasional regular post if something interesting comes up.  I may or may not answer blog comments or emails during this time.  Thanks for understanding! 

Drew Macomber, from the blog TravelIsFree, recently published “7 posts of 2013 You Shouldn’t Miss!” where he listed 7 of his best 2013 posts.  I thought it was a great idea and I probably should have done something like that too.  But, I didn’t.  Instead, since I’m still on vacation, I thought I’d share TravelIsFree’s top 7 (since I thought they were pretty good), with a quick comment or thought about each one:

1. Save Avios with Stopovers: This is a neat trick.  Drew points out that there are some situations where using Avios to book a flight with a stopover is cheaper than booking a non-stop flight.

2) The Greatest List of Best Rate Guarantees: This is a list of almost every hotel chain you can imagine, along with their best rate guarantee policy.  Best Rate Guarantees can be an incredible way to save money on hotels if you know how to work them.

3) Completeish List of Airline Stopover Rules: One of the best ways to make your miles go further is to book awards that include stopovers and/or open-jaws in order to include multiple destinations for the same number of miles.  This list won’t help you figure out how to do this, but it could be a great resource for those more advanced.

4) How to Book Club Carlson’s Free Bonus Award Nights Back to Back!: (Note: The Bonus Award Night feature was discontinued as of June 1, 2015.) Nothing really new here, but this is worth a look if you don’t already know how to maximize the use of the free award nights granted by the Club Carlson credit card.

5) Hidden Gem Airline Redemptions: This is a list of lesser-known transfer partners from the Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs, along with information about their award charts, fuel surcharges, etc.  This could be a very useful resource for experienced award bookers.

6) Secrets of Overwater Bungalows: If your hoping to use points to stay in an overwater bungalow, this is worth a read.

7) The Master Guide to Airline Alliances, Fuel Surcharges and Frequent Flyer Miles: This one is sort of a beginner’s guide to using miles.  Worth a read if you’re new to booking award flights.

In case you’re wondering, I have no financial relationship with TravelIsFree.  I simply thought he had put together a pretty good collection of posts that were worth sharing with my readers.  Further, my posts usually are about earning points & miles, so I thought it would be nice to share a collection of posts about using points and miles.

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