 If you are not tied to loyalty to any of the brand name hotel chains or if you are looking to stay at hotels which are not part of any hotel chain then Expedia might be a place to go to book your next hotel stay. The reason being the Expedia Rewards which have improved over the period of time and can provide good value for rewards on stays which otherwise would not be rewarded. Expedia Rewards has 3 different membership tiers which is Blue Member, Silver Member and Gold Member. All Expedia Rewards members start as Blue member where they save 10% or more on select hotels and enjoy Hotel Price Guarantee till midnight before the stay. The Silver tier of members earn 10% more in points and get extra's such as free WiFi, free Breakfast or Spa credits whereas the Gold tier members earn 30% more in points and have all the other benefits of Silver tier. Expedia has two co-branded credit cards from Citi where currently you can earn 20,000 or 50,000 Expedia Reward points after meeting minimum spend and which would instantly give you Silver or Gold tier status respectively. Earning Expedia Reward Points: As a Blue member you earn 2 points/$ spent on hotels, car, packages, things to do and cruises which is effective earning of 1.41% and 2 points/$10 spent on Flights giving effective earning of only 0.141% on Flights. If you use Expedia App you earn twice those points effectively making the return as 2.85% and 0.285% respectively. Silver member earn 10% bonus on the base points making the earning as ~1.574% while Gold member earn 30% bonus on the base points making the earning as 1.857%. (Except flights which earn's 1/10th of that rate). Redeeming Expedia Reward Points: The good news is that you can start redeeming your points even if you do not have sufficient points for paying the entire cost. The only exception to this is booking flights where you need to have sufficient points to cover the cost of entire flights (including taxes and fees). Alternatively Expedia has what they call VIP Access hotels where you can redeem your points for participating hotels at twice the value. So instead of redeeming 140 points for $1 you would redeem only 70 points for $1 of value. VIP Access hotels: Although classified as VIP Access hotels these can vary in price and does include lot of budget hotels. Expedia uses certain (non-revealed) criteria to classify them as VIP Access, but you will find lot of budget properties which are VIP Access as well. Here is a little trick you can use. When you are searching VIP Access hotels for your destination after your initial search, under the "Property Type" check box for "VIP Access" and sort by price for you selected hotel rating. You will see a list of hotels and a default selection on the top where it applies your available points. Click on "Remove points" option and you will see the list change with now lower priced hotels which have "VIP Access" bookable. You can select the one which fits your stay criteria and eventually apply the points on the payment page after you select "Pay Now". Below are the two snapshots of search with and without "Remove points" options.  Sort Order with apply points enabled by default  Sort Order with apply points disabled after initial search As you can see disabling the apply points after the search shows cheaper hotels by price showing up which did not came up earlier. You can now check out your other criteria for hotel selection and make your reservation of the VIP Access hotel to get best value of your Expedia Rewards points. Hopefully you can take advantage of Expedia Reward points for your next hotel reservation.
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 Flying Blue Miles of Air France / KLM expire after 24 months of no flight or credit card activity on the account. The miles earned through other partner activity can be extended by partner activity but NOT the miles earned through flying. So, if you have Flying Blue Miles expiring and you reside in U.S.A below are your options:
Redeem for Award Flights on Air France / KLM or any of their partners: Although the best use of miles is to redeem for flights this option is only useful if you have enough miles to redeem for Award Flights. The redemption starts at 6,000 miles for Air France / KLM and with Air France promo rewards it might go as low as 3,600 miles. Unfortunately most partner reward redemption starts at ~10,000 miles or more each way. Credit Delta Airlines Flight to Flying Blue program: Delta Airlines Basic Economy (E) class fares does earn 20% of miles flown when credited to Flying Blue program. So, if you have upcoming Delta Airlines flight before the expiration of Flying Blue miles then you may consider changing your Delta frequent flyer number on your reservation to Flying Blue frequent flyer number. Open Bank of America Air France KLM Credit Card: Bank of America has partnered with Air France / KLM to provide credit card in U.S.A which earns Flying Blue miles. As long as you have this credit card your miles do not expire. This might be useful if you do not have any upcoming Delta or Air France flights but have substantial miles which you do not want to get expired. Shop Online for Vouchers or gifts: While not the best value for mileage redemption you could still use your expiring miles to shop online on Flying Blue Shop or on Air France / KLM Shop. On Flying Blue Online Store there might be option to redeem miles for activity which might give at least some value but even the best of case you would rarely get more than ~$3 in value for every 1,000 miles you redeem. So, before you let your miles expire do check out above options and you might get some value out of your expiring Flying Blue miles. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. While we all collect miles/points to travel better or make a great redemption during peak travel times, lot of times we are faced with expiring miles in program which we do not frequent often. While some airlines miles never expire (for e.g. Delta Airlines Skymiles), and some programs miles/points expire only when there is no activity on the account within 12/18/24/36 months, there are quite a few programs where miles expire within certain time frame with no option to extend them free of cost beyond their expiration date The good news is some of those programs which have hard expiration do provide alternative redemption options (although at poor value, but hey they are expiring anyways!!)). Let's look at some of these programs. Turkish Miles & Smiles: Turkish Airlines Miles expire 3 years after they are earned regardless of earning activity. The good news is that you can redeem your miles for Star Alliance Award ticket within a region for just 7500 miles one way. Alternatively if you have no plans on upcoming travel you could use the expiring miles for some shopping at Turkish shopandmiles website. While the value you will get for shopping will be terrible it is still better then expiring miles!! Etihad Guest Miles: Etihad Airways recently announced a change in policy for expiring miles but if you have miles expiring 12/31/2019 you better hurry up and use them as the new policy will not apply to those expiring miles. The good news is Etihad miles can be redeemed for Amazon gift card starting at just 800 miles for $5 USD. Alternatively you can also get a virtual visa reward card loaded with money to use at any of the U.S. online merchants with miles converted at $6.4 USD for every 1,000 miles redeemed. Lufthansa Miles & More: Lufthansa miles expire 36 months after they are earned (unless you are certain elite or have/use their credit card). The good news is they too have option to redeem the miles for gift cards although at a terrible value of ~$3.33 for every 1,000 miles redeemed. Also you need minimum of 3,000 miles in your account for gift card redemption. They do sometimes provide discount of 10% on the mileage cost for gift card redemption (by using promo code on redemption page, but you still need to have full miles available to add the redemption to the cart). Here is the link for gift card redemption. Above are some of the examples where you can get some value of those expiring miles. There are other programs not listed here, but you can look the redemption page for them and hopefully find something to use your expiring miles for.  Miles & More gift card redemption options Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
IHG Rewards Club has current promotion where you earn 100% bonus points when you purchase more than 7,000 points. If you buy 26,000 or more points than the cost comes down to 0.5 cents/point. This promotion is valid till 12/30/2019. Also IHG has increased the purchase limit to 150,000 points for time being. Here is the link to the promo and you will need to be logged in to your rewards account to see the cost of purchase.  IHG 100% Rewards Points Purchase Promo IHG has a popular PointBreaks promo where you can stay at participating hotels for 5k, 10k or 15k points. The current PointBreaks promo expires on 01/31/2020. We have written about that promo here. The points purchased can provide great value if the location your have plans to visit have IHG hotels that participate in this promo. Do note that there are limited rooms available in PointBreaks promo and the list of hotels and availability dwindles towards the end of PointsBreaks promo period.
In general you can always buy IHG points for 0.6 cents/point if you have 5k points already available in your account. So buying at 0.5 cents/point is only useful if you have firm plans on using those points. Below are the terms of the 100% points purchase promo: "Offer available for purchases made between 12:00 AM ET Nov 22, 2019 and 11:59 PM Dec 30, 2019 inclusive. This is an exclusive, non-transferable offer for intended recipient only and may not be forwarded. Bonus points will be awarded upon completion of the transaction. Bonus points will be awarded to the recipient of the points purchase. Offer is subject to change. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Price includes all applicable fees. Purchased Points are not refundable and are applicable toward all IHG® Rewards Club awards. Members may purchase a maximum of 150,000 points per calendar year and receive as a gift a maximum of 150,000 points per calendar year. Please allow 72 hours for points to post and appear in the recipient's account. All other IHG® Rewards Club Terms and Conditions apply." So hopefully you can utilize this promo to get discounted stay rather than paying the full cash rate. Note that IHG points expire after 12 months of inactivity, so again buy them only if you have firm plan to use them. Happy Holidays!! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  TURO is peer-to-peer car rental service platform. We have written about TURO in the past here. Since then TURO has been growing and has few updates which would be useful for renting.
As of now if you are looking for renting during this holiday season you can stack below:
 Amex Offer for $45 credit for $150+ spend with TURO  More December Promo from TURO So, if you are looking to rent a vehicle for this holiday season do keep TURO in your options for car rentals.
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  While the holiday season is upon us we will be looking to use the ride share more often to/from airports. Most U.S. cities have both Uber and Lyft so it would be wise to compare the prices before requesting one of them. Of recent I have seen prices vary by about 15-20% for most of the rides with Lyft being cheaper than Uber for most ride types. Below is an example comparison of ride from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to San Jose International (SJC).  Lyft ride cost from SFO to SJC  Uber ride cost from SFO to SJC As you can see from above all the different ride types is cheaper with Lyft compared to Uber. Since this fare if for one market it could be possible that other markets may sway towards Uber in price.
Also do remember if you have "commuter benefits" card you can use a Lyft "shared" or Uber "pool" ride and make the payment with your commuter benefits card as per IRS allowance. You can also potentially purchase Uber gift cards at discounts from grocery stores etc, or purchase discounted Lyft pass at Costco. So, enjoy your upcoming vacations while avoiding overpaying for your Uber/Lyft rides. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Priority Club (IHG) has released the PointBreaks list for hotel reservations on award night for stay till Jan 31st, 2020. The PointBreaks now provide category of hotels which can be booked for 5k, 10k or 15k IHG Priority club points. Since you can always acquire IHG Priority club points for 0.6 cents/points or even less at times the PointBreaks allow for stays at a discounted price compared to the cash rates. Since the number of rooms available in participating hotels on PointBreaks rate are limited it may be better to book it early and cancel if needed rather than wait for concrete plans. Below are the hotels available currently at just 5k points.  Small list of hotels available for 5k Priority Club points You have longer list of hotels available in PointBreaks list for stay at 10k and 15k points and all the hotels which currently have room available can be found listed here.
So go ahead and book the hotel which is participating in this promo and available in the location where you have plans of visiting in upcoming holidays now!! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. Amazon has tied up with AVIS to provide 10% cashback in Amazon gift card and up to 30% in discount for AVIS rental when you link your Amazon account to your AVIS profile. The way the this works is by populating Amazon specific AWD in the "Enter a Discount Code" field for AWD. But AVIS provides fields for 3 different codes.
 Discount Promotion from AVIS & Amazon  AVIS Discount Code fields As you can see from above by default when your AVIS account is linked with Amazon it populates the "AWD" field with "Amazon Benefits". You can still use a "coupon code" and "rate code" with any available valid codes.
Interestingly most of the Airlines bonus promotion for "frequent flier" miles/points uses the "coupon code" field. For example, Southwest Airlines usually provides up to 2400 points which includes bonus miles and uses coupon code "MUAA042" which can still be added in the "Coupon Code" field and will earn up to 2400 Southwest points based on the length of your rental. Also you can start from a cashback portal meta site and select your often use/highest earning cashback portal for earning cashback on the rental on top of Amazon gift card and Airline frequent flier miles/points. As always before you pin down on AVIS do check for the best rental rates by using a meta search site such as "CAR RENTAL SAVERS" which might give you better rates. So, next time you are narrowing down the car rental choice to AVIS do remember Amazon gift card benefit!! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Traveling with an infant (less than 2 years old) comes with its own planning, excitement and anxiety. Infant ticketing is most inconsistently defined by various carriers and the rules for the award cost for infant vary wildly specially for international travel. The good news is having knowledge of infant ticketing rules on awards can help decide whether its worth the comfort of traveling on award ticket.
There are 3 ways in which carrier want to charge for the infant's on award tickets:
It is important to note that most often it is the ticketing airlines which decides the price of the infant ticket and on an award flight the ticketing carrier might be different than the operating carrier. Also if you have multiple carriers on award ticket than it might complicate ticketing the infant and best advice would be to avoid such award tickets. So, given the above costs and "gotcha's" for premium cabin award it is best to go with the ticketing carrier which either charges in "miles" for infant or has a flat dollar or mileage cost. Given that premise below are the best carriers for award ticket solely based on "Infant" ticket cost (Note: You will still need to weigh if it is best carrier based on award ticket cost for the parent and award availability). Aeroplan (Star alliance): Aeroplan charges flat mileage or dollar amount based on class of service for international travel on any of star alliance partner awards:
British Airways (Oneworld alliance): British Airways charges 10% of mileage cost of Adult award ticket + taxes & fees. Do note that the taxes & fees are typically same as what would be applied to adult ticket, so depending on the operating carrier it may or may not be the best deal but definitely better than paying 10% of revenue fare. Virgin Atlantic (No alliance): Virgin Atlantic charges below amount depending on class of service:
Most other carriers charge 10% of revenue fare which can make it prohibitive for infant tickets if you are looking for Business class or First class awards. You can always book an award ticket for the infant but you will need additional award seat available and have to shell out the same mileage amount as the adult award ticket. So, choose wisely the ticketing carrier for award when travelling with infant otherwise it may well break your budget. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Booking last minute flights can be a challenge in itself, but if you know where to look and the options available it may make it easier or cheaper to book it while you might still be able to maximize the value on the same. Below is what I have learnt in booking last minute flights and it might be useful for you: Start out with Skyscanner: Skyscanner provides a meta-search engine which sources not only from the international airlines but often times from the regional/domestic airlines as well (which may be cheaper to book). It also provides something call as "maps" feature which allows to look for options by selecting your source airport. If the place you are flying in-to is an expensive one sometimes the neighboring airport might be cheaper to fly into. Below is an example view when you select your "flying from" airport.  You can view a map and easily see the "green" cheaper places you can fly to by "Month" As you can see from above, it also provides suggestion as well as an idea on what general prices you are looking at. If you are looking at specific dates then it may be easier to just search from home page, by selecting specific airports. Search Google Flights next: Google Flights has become go-to place to search for flights off late. It has much of its roots from ITA Matrix. You can easily search with multiple airports for both source and destination. This is a useful feature because you might find an alternative flights between different pair of airports which could be much cheaper and thus worth that extra travel trouble. Let's say you are looking to fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) on Oct 15th. Below is an example one way search which shows cheaper one stop options if you are willing to switch airports.  SFO-HKG with search from: SFO, SJC and search to: HKG, SIN. Cheaper to fly SJC-HKG Search for reward flights next: While the above flights example looks pretty cheap it is always prudent to search the "reward flight cost" for the same route/airports. A cheaper last minute ticket might be sometimes the one booked with miles! You can easily search the cost of reward flight by going to "milez.biz" and using their award calculator with just entering source and destination without entering the mileage program. Below is an example search for SFO-HKG which reveals the cheapest round-trip mileage cost of 45,000 miles + taxes/fees with ANA program. Do weight that not all airlines would allow one-way redemption of tickets and the taxes/fees might vary across programs (not to mention the "last minute booking" charge).  Milez.biz shows the cheapest option as ANA for 45,000 miles round trip in low season (subject to award availability) Next search the flexible currency portals:
If you have flexible points currency and the credit card which gives higher redemption value when you book for travel you should search on their booking website as well. If points redemption shows similar price as shown by "Google Flights" or "SkyScanner" then it might be worth to just redeem those points. Few of the flexible currency which give higher airline redemption value are: Citi ThankYou points redeemed for 1.25x value when you have their "premier" or "prestige card. Chase Ultimate Rewards points redeemed for 1.25x value when you have their Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus or redeemed for 1.5x value if you have Sapphire Reserve card. U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve rewards redeemed for 1.5x value either through their travel portal or using their "real time mobile rewards" for flight redemption So, here you go. Hopefully above will make it easy to maximize your cash, miles or points while making that last minute booking. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. |
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