Pittsburgh Travel Hackers

Tag: travel

  • Hooray for Trip Delay: A Chase Sapphire Reimbursement Story

    Tom’s description of using the Chase Sapphire trip delay insurance One of the joys of point and miles travel is the flexibility these bookings can offer. Many airline programs allow you to book flights on points and cancel up until boarding time and essentially get your points and taxes/fees back. Additionally, many premium travel credit…

  • 2024 in Pictures and Point Totals

    We had a great year in points and miles – more adventures than I thought could be possible when we started this crazy hobby. The thing that continues to blow my mind is that there are still more sign-up bonuses to be had and ways to cycle back through earning these points all over again.…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…