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Bali is one of the top honeymoon destinations in the world with literally hundreds of hotels in dozens of regions to choose from–so which one do you choose? I’ve narrowed my choice by *trying* to stay at Starwood or Hyatt properties using points or cash & points. And, if it doesn’t make sense to use points, then I’d still prefer to stay at one of these properties so that I might have a better chance for an upgrade and, at the very least, earn more points while staying. At the end of the day, however, it might be cheaper and a better experience to stay at a local property.
View Starwood in Bali in a larger map
Starwood Bali hotels by category [...]Hyatt Gold Passport has just announced its promo – this competes with the Starwood and Marriott promos:
The Deal:For every 5 nights, a one-time bonus (up to a max of 50,000 points –if you stay all 20 nights). Here’s the earning chart:
How to Get It: Register here: Hyatt Fall 2013 Promo no later than October 31 Book at least 5 nights at Hyatt hotels between September 9 and November 30 An extra 5,000 to 20,000 points will post to your account within 2 – 3 weeks of the 5th nightDon’t forget:
This promo is based on paid nights, so no need to frantically switch hotels everyday like the Marriott promo. Award nights do [...]The Deal
Back in June, Hyatt and MGM announced a partnership that extends reciprocal benefits to the members of each other’s loyalty programs. In practice, this means that Hyatt Gold Passport Members will earn Hyatt points in addition to M life points aka “tier credits” when staying at any of the 12 MGM properties in Las Vegas. Similarly, MGM M life members will be able to earn M “tier credits” when staying at any Hyatt property worldwide.
How to Qualify for M life/Hyatt Gold Passport Status
Hyatt Member <–> M life Sapphire Hyatt Platinum <–> M life Gold Hyatt Diamond <–> M life [...]Delta announced some pretty bad news last week–they’ve upped their Business Elite/First Class awards to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East by as much as 25%. The new prices go into effect June 1, 2014. Here are the changes:
OldNewIncrease% Inc US/Canada45,00045,00000.0% To Hawaii75,00075,00000.0% To Caribbean60,00060,00000.0% To Mexico60,00060,00000.0% To Central America60,00060,00000.0% To Northern South America90,00090,00000.0% To Southern South America100,000125,00025,00025% To Europe100,000125,00025,00025% To Africa¹120,000140,00020,00016.7% To Middle East120,000140,00020,00016.7% To South Asian [...]Don’t miss out on Flying Blue’s Fall promo where Air France/KLM awards are 50% off in September & October 2013:
The DealAward bookings on Air France/KLM routes have been reduced by 25-50% for travel between Sep 1 – Oct 31.
For those of us sitting in ‘Merica, we’ll be most interested in:
REGION USA CITY Chicago CABIN Economy 1-way 12,500 Round-trip 25,000 USA Dallas Economy 12,500 25,000 USA Dallas Business 31,250 62,500 USA Houston Economy 18,750 37,500 USA Washington DC Business 31,250 62,500All destinations below. Note: Everything is to/from Europe.
RegionEurope [...]While planning our recent weekend trip to Boston, I knew from the start we weren’t going to make it very far without a car. I had taken advantage of the most recent IHG PointBreaks list and booked a room for 3 nights at $35/night, which put us in the Crowne Plaza Newton–about 7 miles from the center of Boston. To top it off, we were booked on Spirit Air and scheduled to arrive at 12:30am Saturday and had a flight out at 5:30am on Monday–not the best hours to rely on public transit or cabs. So, a car rental was in our future, like it or not.
A quick check on Kayak.com revealed only very expensive options, close to $200 for my 48-hour rental. Either the Boston [...]
I’ve prepared a handy map to see where in the world “X” number of United MileagePlus Award Miles will take you. This should help a lot in visualizing where in the world you can travel to with those miles you’ve been saving up over the years. You’ll find a few sweet spots that might help you save a few thousand MP Award Mies here or there, too, such as:
North America to Bangladesh is 65k miles, however, to travel to neighboring India or Nepal will cost you 80k — so maybe explore the possibility of booking award travel to Bangladesh and then purchasing a cheap ticket to your final destination North America to Australia/New Zealand will cost you [...]Credit card signup bonuses are a big part of travelling for free using miles and points — probably the biggest part.
So, what do you do when you pull the trigger and register for that awesome signup bonus just to find that next week (or month) an even better bonus is offered? Luckily, you can often get the credit card issuer to match your offer.
Here’s how I got Chase to give me an extra 20k Ultimate Rewards Points.
The signup bonus for Chase’s Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards have been 50k each for the past few months, however, they made an announcement that for this week only the signup bonus would be increased to 60k each. Feeling like I missed [...]
Here’s our second installment in the Ultimate Honeymoon series and another easy pick: French Polynesia.
Way out there in the middle of the Pacific
French Polynesia might be the most desired pick for a honeymoon or romantic getaway:
These names speak for themselves: Bora Bora, Tahiti, Moorea, Papeete. It boasts the world-renown, over-the-water bungalows that more and more resorts are now copying. Gallery of images from the web: #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: [...]Having just earned my Starwood Platinum status for the first time, I was curious to see which (if any) programs would match my status. I learned from this thread on Flyertalk that Hyatt will give you a status “challenge” and match you to Hyatt Diamond status if you can prove that you are:
Marriott Gold/Platinum Starwood Platinum Hilton HHonors Gold/Platinum Priority Club Rewards Platinum EliteUPDATE Oct 3, 2013 Note: As reader PrateekJain2012 points out, you must have at least one stay with your current chain in the past 12 months of be accepted into the challenge. For example, if you earned Hilton Gold status solely from the [...]
