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Alila Ventana Big Sur: A Luxury Retreat Worth Every Point
Does the internet need yet another swooning review of Alila Ventana Big Sur from a points and miles enthusiast? Probably not. Is the internet going to get another swooning review of the Alila Ventana Big Sur? You betcha. Tom and I had the opportunity to spend two nights at this resort earlier in November, and…
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October Surprise: Aeorplan Card
Here’s one we didn’t have on our 2024 BINGO card of credit cards to open: the Chase Aeroplan Mastercard. Aeroplan is the rewards program of Air Canada, which we have used from time to time, but we didn’t decide on it because of our hopes to fly to Vancouver more often (though that might be…
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Mistakes Were Made
Updated from 3/3023 Whether you are trying to hack one big trip, or you’ve jumped into points and miles with full abandon, you’ll quickly find that it is a game of rules, details, and a lot of fine print. As Tom and I got more into travel hacking, we found ourselves learning from small mistakes…
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Visiting Yosemite on Points and Miles
Last month we pulled off a really fun five night adventure to Yosemite National Park. Even though Yosemite has been one of the top places we’ve wanted to visit for years, we kept over-analyzing when the best time to go would be. Peak summer: too hot and not enough waterfall flow. Late May: perfect waterfalls…
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A Tale of Two Lounge Access Plans
When we first started using more points and miles, I didn’t want to hear about airport lounges and other perks that certain cards came with. It just sounded like too many details on top of an already heavily-detailed game we were getting used to playing. But then I had my first sip of free champagne,…
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Cinque Terre and French Riviera with Points and Miles
The year was 2021. My sisters and I were hatching fledgling plans about going to France with our mom. As we discussed the scope of the trip, one of my sisters suggested we make it more involved and bring our spouses and kids. I said, and I quote, “We will NOT be bringing our kids…
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Ranking the Lounges in JFK Terminal One
I recently spent a long, long time in JFK airport. I had a flight to Europe booked, and was really nervous about something going wrong with my positioning flight from Pittsburgh, so I gave myself 9 hours between arrival to JFK and departure to Paris. Quel ennui! I actually ended up having a really fun…
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Paris on Points and Miles!
Do you have a “group-text” trip in your family or group of friends? A trip that you talk about taking one day, that maybe has been kicked down the lane towards some “someday” date? In my family we have France, and what I can’t believe is that right now I am sitting in JFK airport…
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Arches and Canyonlands on Points
Picture this: you’re flying home from a spring break trip to a mountain National Park. You knew there’d be snow, but you were not expecting 3 feet! You’re sad about your trip being over, so of course you start yammering to your husband about where to go over spring break next year. He loves that.…
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What is 5/24?
If you start poking around on the internet on blogs and Facebook groups you’ll start to see “what’s your 5/24” come up a lot. This is a rule specific to all Chase cards. Essentially, Chase will not approve you if you have opened five or more personal credit cards in the past 24 months. Most…