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Just bought EQP to requalify for IHG Diamond through end of 2025! Since I usually buy miles for 0.5 cents, the $768 to buy 110,000 EQP was only a $218 premium, and I get Diamond again https://buff.ly/3VNGVUu
Ran into the Mexican car insurance scam with Budget in Merida, Mexico 🇲🇽
Base rate was $18 USD a day, but if you didn't get the CDW costing minimum $85 USD a day, I had to put down a deposit of 330,000 MXN / $16,000 USD which obviously got rejected by all my credit cards.
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For those who prefer signature-based transactions for their debit cards, Amazon has a setting to have them run your debit card as credit.
You can do so here.
I’d imagine it’s useful for those who don’t have an alternative to using a PPDMC, etc., or for those who have some checking account bonus tied to having a certain number of signature-based transactions. For me, it’s useful for Provident CU ’round-up’ matching (Doctor of Credit has a particularly good resource).
Update (9/19): Reddit is reporting three versions of the offer (targeted) depending on your Marriott status.
I was poking around last night at some Marriott hotels for a January trip to New Orleans (specifically, for a hotel I could BRG), and I stumbled upon the following Marriott Premier credit card offer during the booking flow:
Reward yourself with a $150 statement credit
- $150 statement credit after your first purchase,* including a Marriott®reservation or anything else. It will appear on your statement within 6-8 weeks. Price for stay and statement credit may post on separate statements.
- Plus 40,000 bonus points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in your first 3 months.*
Although you could go through the flow and collect the link yourself, it doesn’t seem to be unique so you can access the offer directly here.
Update (9/14 11:30AM EST): Wow, that was fast. Marriott pulled Fandango from its portal. This is still worth a read though, in case you ever see 100x in the future.
Via Frequent Miler, the Marriott shopping portal appears to be offering 100 points/dollar spent at Fandango. Frequent Miler outlines the general value of such a deal (75% ‘off’ your movie tickets), but as the title of this post suggests, I’d like to take a different bent.
Every now and again while traveling you are struck by an experience that reminds you of the incredible and beautiful diversity that we have in the world and how languages and cultures can bridge that diversity in unexpected ways. My first of these such experiences occurred on one of my very first travel adventures, a week-long trip to Brussels, Brugges, and Paris.
On the last night of the final stop in my adventure, at the Notre Dame in Paris, I sat down to eat a picnic dinner that I had bought myself when I serendipitously stumbled upon a Boulangerie (bakery), Charcuterie (meat shop), and Fromagerie (cheese shop) all adjacent to each other. As I was eating, a man sat down a few feet to my right and proceeded to do the same.
Just to get it out of the way: I promise that I’m not in any way compensated by Orbitz. I just think their program offers huge value and is a fairly easy entry into travel hacking. In about 10 months, I’ve managed to rack up about $1,000 in Orbucks (their rewards currency) as well as their Platinum status, which actually provides tangible benefits in two checked bag reimbursements (well, back in Orbucks) as well as a TSA Precheck voucher code. It only requires 12 nights (not stays!), and Orbucks-paid stays count towards that requirement, so it’s fairly easy to reach.
Via US Credit Card Guide, increased signup bonuses are available for the following American Express cards through incognito windows/private browsing:
Amex Everyday, with 25,000 MR signup bonus:
Normally, the 25K signup bonus is only available through targeted offers. Now it’s available publicly for everyone! The required spend is increased to $2000 in the first 3 months.
The Everyday card has no annual fee, and allows full participation in the Membership Rewards program, making it a great place to park your Membership Rewards points if you need to cancel a Membership Rewards card with an annual fee.
Via One Mile at a Time, Priority Pass has added 3 new Air France lounges in the US. The lounges are:
Air France Lounge New York JFK
In case you guys didn’t know, I’m a huge fan of Orbitz and their rewards program. However, I’ve been a bit bummed of late because I have a few trips lined up for next year but am unable to book hotels (i.e. use my supply of Orbucks) because Orbitz hadn’t released any promotional codes valid for 2016 stays.
Thankfully, that changed last weekend with the release of code:
PACKYOURBAGS
Last week, SPG announced their ‘Open the World’ promotion, which offers a grand prize of a week-long vacation at one of their exclusive resorts, as well as free night certificates, Amazon and Amex gift cards, and SPG points. You can play twice a day by entering your SPG number and email address here.
Like all of my friends, I’ve been dutifully playing twice a day, although my efforts thus far have been to no avail. Which begs the question, is this really worth my time?
I recently had 3 very favorable experiences with hotel chain best rate guarantees, 2 with Marriott as well as 1 with Starwood Hotels. I managed to save over 30% compared to the rate offered by the hotel this way while still earning hotel points and being able to use elite status benefits.
I wanted to share my experiences so people can take advantage themselves. The process is not always simple, but with perseverance and attention to detail, you should be successful. Some 3rd party hotel booking websites also have best rate guarantee programs, such as Orbitz, but that will be a topic of a different post.
