Weekend Blitz

Hey travel-savvy friends, My fiance and I are planning a trip to Paris and Rome in September. We are working with a travel agent and she has us at a pretty nice hotel in Paris but the hotels she suggests are always so expensive. I’m all for staying in a nice place but it’s basically a place to sleep, right? For our hotel in Rome I’ve been looking into deals on hotwire and they have, what seems like, really reasonable prices for 4-5 star (much cheaper than anything our agent has offered.) Would y’all recommend going this route or is this risky for travel abroad? And how would you go about scheduling touristy things to do while there? Our agent says it’s [...]

Note: These are bookable now.. Don’t miss out on Flying Blue’s summer promo which allows you to book Air France/KLM awards for 25-50% less that normal in July & August 2014:

Award bookings on Air France/KLM routes have been reduced by 25-50% for travel between July 1 – August 31.

For those of us sitting in ‘Merica, we’ll be most interested in:

For those of you saying, “Enough already! How do you get started?” here’s a quick crash course on racking up the points required for a free trip. This is written from the perspective of someone with no frequent traveler points that is starting from scratch.

This is imperative to getting in on the free miles game. Start by reading our Credit Score Crash Course post here. This will give you an idea of what is behind your credit score.

Before going any further, figure out what you’re working with. Please don’t go to just any website for a credit report– there’s a reason [...]

W Hoboken Hotel – Starwood Category 5 225 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 Award Redemption: 12,000 pts or 6,000 pts +$110 (very limited Cash & Points availability) Normal rate: Around $269-350 avg, ranging from $224 – $414 Starpoints return: 1.88 – 3.45 cents/point – Average to REALLY GOOD

I had a last minute-ish stay required in New York and it happened to be on opening day of the United Nation General Assembly in Manhattan. As a result, all hotels were fully booked in New York, so the best I could do was Hoboken, New Jersey. I booked a “Cozy Room: King Bed,” and, despite the busy week, I was able to get a pretty good rate. On my [...]

As I wrote about here (How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios), US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance about a month ago. Joining the ranks of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN etc…, US Airways is now eligible for bookings with Avios. This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of US Airways’ hub cities: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Phoenix-PHX and Washington-Reagan-DCA.

First in this series is Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT. From my research, appx 30 million people live within a 5-hour drive of the city, making it relatively easy for them to drive and take take [...]

Don’t miss out on Hilton’s Summer 2014 promo “Earn Twice the Rewards“:

The Deal

Hilton is offering a choice of either double points or double miles on all (eligible) nights at (participating) properties from May 1 through July 31, 2014.

The normal base rate for Hilton HHonors points is 10x points/$ spent (Home2 Suites by Hilton is only 5x), so, with this promo, you’ll be getting 20x points/$ spent.

The normal rate for airline miles varies from airline to airline; check the normal list here: Hilton HHonors Airline and Rail. Common examples: Aeroplan, Alaska Airlines, American, Amtrak, Delta, Frontier, jetBlue, Hawaiian, [...]

Starwood’s Summer 2014 promo, “Earn Away, Get Away” was just announced:

The Deal

From May 1 – July 31, 2014 you’ll earn:

How to Get It

Here’s what you stand to gain on a typical $250 stay:

The value of the promotion really [...]

On a recent visit to Paris, we wanted to splurge for a night and found some pretty superb value in using Hyatt points. Because I had no hotel points, I knew I wanted to transfer points from either Chase or AMEX– check this guide on the best value hotel in Paris using points in either of those programs: Paris, France: Best Hotels for Free Using Points. This was my first time transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to a hotel partner and, in fact, my first ever stay at a Hyatt.

Booking/Check-in

We booked about 2 months out for 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points transferred from Chase at a 1:1 ratio. Since then, however, this property has gone up [...]

Starwood has just announced a new “Hear the Music” promo, very similar to the one it ran last year (Free $50 in Ticketmaster/Live Nation Cash with Starwood stays).

To encourage use of its mobile apps for booking, Starwood is offering a $50 gift certificate to Ticketmaster for every 2 nights you stay at a Starwood property that is booked on either the iPhone, iPad, or Android app.