Educational Posts on Loyalty Programs

Travel is an expensive yet popular hobby. According to the U.S. Travel Association, direct spending on domestic and international leisure travel by Americans totaled more than $683 billion in 2016. These U.S. residents logged 1.7 billion person-trips for leisure purposes last year—at an average cost of $400 per person-trip. The U.S. Travel Association defines a person-trip as one-person travel away from home overnight in a paid accommodation or on a day or overnight trip to a destination 50 miles or more (one way) from home.

Knowing where and how to search for award space is one of the most important, and most complicated aspects to using your frequent flyer miles effectively.

Unfortunately, the airlines do not make this an easy task. Some airlines only show awards for some partners, other airlines won’t show you all of the valid connections you can make – just to name some of the challenges you are likely going to run into. Oftentimes, you won’t even know that these things are problems.

You may be already involved with incentive travel because it involves the credit card airline miles you gain or the loyalty points you obtain by traveling with a particular airline. Those are just a few examples and there is a not-for-profit who ensures the industry as a whole is always moving forward.

If you’re unfamiliar with SpotHero, you probably drive in areas where parking isn’t an issue. Lucky you! For many living in or visiting high-population, ultra-packed cities, however, the company has come to be a lifesaver.

We spoke to Kristen Cho, Vice President of Marketing at the company, to learn more about SpotHero, its story, and where it’s going.

Competition in the premium travel rewards card segment continues to heat up. Chase and Amex have been going at it lately with Chase introducing the Sapphire Reserve card and Amex making enhancements to both the personal and business versions of the Platinum card. Now we have a new entrant into the fray: the Altitude Reserve card from US Bank.

Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, you don’t want to leave your business behind. That’s where Hightail comes in, allowing colleagues to view complex information and make critical decisions from all parts of the globe. According to Hightail’s Chief Marketing Officer, Deborah Holstein, “Everyone is able to participate regardless of where they are geographically.”

Do you live to travel? If you’ve found your way to RewardExpert, it’s a safe bet that you do. After all, earning enough points and miles to score free airline tickets requires diligence and a well-crafted plan—two things your average sporadic vacationer rarely has. It’s even possible you love traveling so much that you’ve imagined quitting your job and spending the rest of your years journeying around the globe. But while that’s an attractive daydream, it doesn’t leave much room for family, friends, or future retirement savings.

If you’re new to earning points and miles through credit cards, you have many options when it comes to what cards you can get and earn the bonus on.

This changes when someone has been signing up for cards for a while due to some rules that various credit card issues have. Deciding which cards to get first is pretty straightforward if you know what to look for.

The home page at Stride Travel includes a banner that says “Life’s too short for vanilla vacations.” While most of us would agree with that conclusion, planning that perfect combination of travel, accommodations and sightseeing is not an easy task.

What if you didn’t have to search for a good travel agency or company, because the agency or company could find you?

Zicasso connects luxury travelers with pre-qualified travel specialists. You identify the country you plan to visit, along with any special interests you have, and Zicasso matches you with top tour companies or agencies who can plan your ideal trip.

You’re in a new city and have discovered an under-the-radar restaurant but they only accept cash. You’re checking into your hotel and need cash to tip the staff. You’ve found a few treasures at the open-air market but none of the vendors have a credit card reader.

These are only a few of the reasons you might need good, old-fashioned paper money while traveling—and an ATM is likely where you’ll have to go to get it, despite the certainty of paying surcharge and out-of-network fees just to get your hands on your own money. But before you resign yourself to getting nickeled-and-dimed by your bank and the ATM owner, you may have an alternative.

Over the past several years, airlines have taken steps to differentiate their classes of product segment in order to maximize revenue. Cabin configurations traditionally consisted of either two classes (economy and business class) or three classes (economy, business and first class).

Now planes are configured with four or even five cabins, with the more recent additions being premium economy. In many cases, premium economy has become the new “middle class” as airlines have done away with first class, and are flying with planes that have standard economy, premium economy and business class.

The more often you travel by plane, the more likely your chances of having to deal with a delayed, lost, damaged or otherwise mishandled baggage incident. At its best, such an occurrence is inconvenient. At its worst—maybe you packed your all-time favorite outfit or your great grandmother’s prized silver—it’s downright heartbreaking.

Whether you hate the hassle of airline travel or want to see more of the world from the ground, buses and trains offer a cost-effective alternative for reaching almost any destination. Of course, planning a trip that utilizes these public transportation resources has traditionally been challenging, requiring review of multiple carrier websites to find and compare routes and costs. Fortunately, this is no longer the case—thanks to Wanderu.

It’s easy to get Virgin Atlantic miles because the carrier has a long list of transfer partners, but Virgin’s Flying Club program isn’t known for its generous redemptions. However, there are some great deals hidden in the program’s award charts that shouldn’t be overlooked.

If you’re looking for the satisfaction that comes with helping others, you may have found it hard to find an organization that needs someone just like you.

Wouldn’t it be nice to travel the globe like a celebrity, visiting all the best places before the masses are clued into their fabulousness? Or conversely, making places fabulous simply by your presence there?

Well, we can’t offer you a ticket to instant celebrity. But we can provide you with some insight about where movie stars have been spending their time (at least during their work hours.)

When you think about going on a cruise, what images come to mind? If you’re like most, you may envision sun-filled skies, gentle waves, relaxing pools, endless buffets of decadent dishes, plus pants that are too tight and a scale that reads at least 10 pounds heavier by the time you return home. But what if you could enjoy all the best features of a cruise vacation while simultaneously getting a jumpstart on a healthier lifestyle? With Holistic Holiday at Sea, you actually can.

Have you ever longed to meet someone who hates Justin Bieber as much as you do? Well, there’s an app for that. It’s called Hater, and it’s taken the dating world by storm.

Hater creates romance by matching people based on who or what they loathe. Public Relations Director Sam Terris said the app’s mission is to get the dealbreakers on the table, rather than go through five dates only to find out that “Joe is a conspiracy theorist.”

Do you have a passion for food? Whether you’re on the hunt for the next hot dining trend, hanging out with friends at the local brewpub, or planning a dinner party at home, Capital One just released the perfect card for you, the Premier Dining Rewards card.