Educational Posts on Loyalty Programs

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Chase Ultimate Rewards: Best and Worst United MileagePlus Redemptions

Chase Ultimate Rewards: Best and Worst United MileagePlus Redemptions

United is arguably the most popular Chase airline transfer partner, and transferring Ultimate Rewards points to United often makes sense when the price in points on the Ultimate Rewards website is too high compare to what you could pay for the flight using alternative currencies — frequent flyer miles. Since the United MileagePlus program is region-based and isn’t linked directly to the price of a revenue ticket, you will come ahead if the Ultimate Rewards cost is more than $300 (for a Sapphire Preferred cardholder) or $375 (for a Sapphire Reserve cardholder).  For better understanding of how this valuation works, read the first installment: Best and Worst Examples of Using Chase Ultimate Rewards Points – The Portal.

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Airbnb and United Partner Up, New Award Ticket Options to Europe and 5x on Amex Travel

Airbnb and United Partner Up, New Award Ticket Options to Europe and 5x on Amex Travel

Airlines in the SkyTeam alliance are making it easy to request missing miles from past flights. Frequent flyers should always double-check their accounts to make sure they receive credit for flying. It’s easy to forget to look and sometimes miles are missed. Other news this week include new amenities aboard Hawaiian Airlines, new routes between North America and Europe, 3x on Airbnb through United’s app and a new 5x bonus for Amex premium cardholders.

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Alitalia Aligns MilleMiglia Benefits Across Etihad Partner Airlines

Alitalia Aligns MilleMiglia Benefits Across Etihad Partner Airlines

In the travel enthusiast community, it seems we can barely go a few weeks without an announcement of some sort of award chart devaluation or benefit reduction in one of our favorite programs. So any time we can actually announce an improvement to an award program, it comes as a big relief.

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Maximizing Travel by Getting Friends and Family Involved

Maximizing Travel by Getting Friends and Family Involved

Are you someone who tries to earn enough points and miles to travel with your entire family? Do you have friends constantly picking your brain to figure out how you travel around the world for free? It may be time to stop going it alone and get your friends and family involved in your travel hacking hobby. 

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Our Top Picks for October: Credit Cards With Bigger Than Usual Sign-Up Bonuses

Our Top Picks for October: Credit Cards With Bigger Than Usual Sign-Up Bonuses

Credit card sign up bonuses are the fastest way to accumulate tons of points and miles. With all of the restrictions that the major banks have placed on earning sign up bonuses lately, it is important to be strategic when it comes to signing up for new cards. The best way to do that is to jump on offers when they are elevated above the standard sign up bonus, especially when they are at or near all-time highs like the Delta co-branded airline cards.

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Marriott SPG Merger Opens New Doors for Points and Miles Collectors

spg and marriott merger

New Opportunities from the Marriott/Starwood Merger

Remember when it was first announced that Marriott would be buying Starwood? It struck fear into the hearts of many travel hackers that the industry’s most valuable transferable point program might be ruined or even eliminated by a hotel chain with a low value rewards program. So far, those fears have been unfounded. Marriott and SPG recently announced the first major changes to their awards programs and the news is good!

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Using Chase Ultimate Rewards Points: Best and Worst Uses Through the Booking Portal

Using Chase Ultimate Rewards Points: Best and Worst Uses Through the Booking Portal

Chase Ultimate Rewards is a great program with many fans. Just like the American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou programs, Ultimate Rewards offer multiple ways to redeem points. It is the only program that allows easy cash redemption at 100:1, but it mostly shines on travel redemptions.

If you like to travel, you might want to avoid some common mistakes in order to stretch your dollars. These mistakes are easy to make because the Ultimate Rewards earning structure is a bit complicated.

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Chase Sapphire Reserve Post-Mortem and Ways Around the 5/24 Rule

Chase Sapphire Reserve Post-Mortem and Ways Around the 5/24 Rule

The release of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card set off a whirlwind of excitement, disappointment, questions, and answers around the travel blogosphere. When the card was released, Chase was not particularly clear on the details regarding some of the benefits. Now that people have received their cards and started activating and using the benefits, we have a better understanding of everything this card entails.

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How to Find Millions of Airline Bonus Miles

How to Find Millions of Airline Bonus Miles

Everyone knows that you can earn frequent flyer miles by flying, and if you’re serious about collecting miles you probably also know that using a rewards credit card is a great way to earn while you’re on the ground. What you might not know is that there are a lot of other ways to earn, too.

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What’s Next on Marriott/SPG: Linking Accounts, Maximizing Benefits and Other Miles/Points News

What's Next on Marriott/SPG: Linking Accounts, Maximizing Benefits and Other Miles/Points News

The biggest news in travel at the moment is the merger between Marriott and Starwood. Travelers are asking what it means to them. Here’s how to take advantage of the best benefits with the two programs plus the latest in other travel news for the week.

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Complaining for Miles: What to Do and What Not to Do

Complaining for Miles: What to Do and What Not to Do

Travel can be grueling, and when things go wrong, a domino effect can lead to missed connections or even forced overnights in some places. Add to that surly airport employees or crew members and lost luggage, and you can have quite the unique experience. If you save your complaints for cocktail parties or the hotel bar, you might be missing out on much-deserved compensation.

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How to Upgrade Your Flight with Delta SkyMiles

How to Upgrade Your Flight with Delta SkyMiles

Many travelers who earn frequent flyer miles aren’t always interested in booking an award ticket. Instead, they want to use their miles to upgrade a ticket they’ve already bought with cash. Upgrades and award travel have a lot in common, but the rules are unique for every loyalty program. This post discusses how to upgrade a ticket purchased with Delta Air Lines.

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How to Navigate Award Routes

How to Navigate Award Routes

It can be frustrating to redeem award miles for an overseas trip. But, keep in mind that not all hope is lost since many airline websites fail to show award space from all of their partners. This means that there are many routes with open seats available for award tickets going empty, but you may have to call the airline mileage program to find them.

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How to Meet the Minimum Spend on Your Travel Rewards Credit Card

How to Meet the Minimum Spend on Your Travel Rewards Credit Card

Every travel hacker knows that the quickest way to a free flight is having the right credit card. Whether it’s a co-branded airline card or a card with transferable points, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, getting a sign-up bonus will boost your points balance faster than any other strategy. These tips will help you get that big bonus.

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Best Credit Card Combo: Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve

Best Credit Card Combo: Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve

Are you someone who frequently flies on Delta airlines and is looking for the best credit cards to maximize your travel rewards? This analysis will tell you the best cards to get and explain some tricks for squeezing all the benefits out of them.

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Marriott and SPG Deal Closes, Hilton Stays Earn Delta Elite Status and BA Rolls Out Red Carpet

Marriott and SPG Deal Closes, Hilton Stays Earn Delta Elite Status and BA Rolls Out Red Carpet

Bet you didn’t know that you could boost your Medallion Qualification Miles with Delta by staying at a Hilton? Well, you can through a limited time promotion. We have that and lots of other good news in this week’s roundup.

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Best Amex Credit Card Combo: Amex Everyday Preferred and Amex Platinum

Best Amex Credit Card Combo: Amex Everyday Preferred and Amex Platinum

The Everyday Preferred card and the Platinum card is the best two-card combination in the Amex cards lineup. The combined benefits of these cards provide just about everything a travel hacker could want in their credit card portfolio—high points earning rates on everyday spend, a valuable transferable points currency and a wide variety of luxury travel benefits and purchase protections.

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Are Fixed Value Points Programs Worth It?

fixed value programs

Have your hopes for a dream vacation ever been ruined by a lack of airline award availability? Do you have miles in a bunch of different programs but not enough in any particular one to book an award? Do you find yourself confused by complicated airline award charts and routing rules? There is a great way to add simplicity and flexibility to your travel rewards portfolio: fixed value points.

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Which Amex Membership Rewards Earning Cards Are Worth Holding Long-Term?

Which Amex Membership Rewards Earning Cards Are Worth Holding Long-Term?

Amex Membership Rewards is unique among transferable points programs in that it is the only program that has a card with no annual fee which still allows transfers to partners. That card is the Amex Everyday card (not to be confused with the Everyday Preferred card, which we take a closer look at below). So if you ever find yourself going through a period in which paying the annual fee on any other Amex cards is not worth it to you, but still want to retain your stash of MRs and ability to transfer them, a product change to the Everyday card may be the best option.

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Buying, Sharing and Getting Bonus Miles is Trending

Buying, Sharing and Getting Bonus Miles is Trending

There’s a lot going on in the travel world this week. Delta nixes Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse access for some, but rewards sports fans in Washington. JetBlue puts up boxing mitts with Delta in Atlanta, again. And lots more.

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