Archive for the ‘Choice Hotels’ Category

I’m not so sure the math works out to actually fly these five round trips for the bonus frequent flier miles. Maybe somebody here can find a cheapie AA flight. (LAX-LAS???) Something that competes with SW? I mean a real cheapie flight that we can do five times between May 15th and November 15th.

$165 Dallas to Orlando, $179 Dallas to MSP, Lax to West Palm Beach $240 racks up some miles at .05 each plus the bonus?

Here is the registration page.

If somebody can find a really cheap fare, let’s all meet and fly it a few times.

Caution: We only have until April 30th to register and buy the tickets. I’m game for some flying fun

50,000 Marriott Points for Card Sign Up

I was just talking to somebody at Chase last week about how uncompetitive their Marriott credit card was. I’m glad to see they bumped up their offer to 50,000 points on sign up

Here is the link. Thanks, Gary!

I received several emails asking where my inquiries were pulled from in my latest 6 card churn I did. Here are the results. But first my comment.

I want everyone to remember that different card issuers use different credit reporting agencies to check their applicants credit, based on the state the applicant is applying from. Just because Barclay’s used  Transunion for my inquiry, doesn’t mean Barclays will use Transunion for yours. I live in South Carolina and they used Transunion for my application. If you live in Texas, they may use another agency.

So here they are:

Barclays used Transunion
Chase, Amex, Bank of America: used Experian
FIA (a division of B of A) used Equifax

And my oops moment of greed and lack of good judgement ( applying for a Citi card three days later) was pulled by Experian as well.

It is interesting that B of A and FIA used two different agencies, one for my Alaska Airlines personal Visa and a different agency for the business Alaska Airlines card.

My scores prior to the churn were 885, 881 and 869 on the Vantagescore scale. I’ll know my new scores on the 13th and will post them then.

THE card for the Nice Amex Transfer Offer, $200 in Incidental Airline Credits, Lounge Access for One Year and More. Read my Feb 6th Blog Post for More Details

It’s like they (UA and CO) were reading my post this morning. You can now move your CO frequent flier miles to United or the other way around AND it appears you can combine your elite qualifying miles into one program.

Here are the links:

Link

Link

HaHa. They both take you to the same page.

Good news if you were short in one program. You do not need to make the transfers now if your travel plans are undecided. They will happen automatically later this year.

LAST CHANCE for TripAlertz.com Referral

I just got an email saying the $5 referral ends on Wednesday. If you would like to help the Frugal Travel Guy blog, click on the link for the referral on the right hand blog column. Thank you!

Twice the Miles from the Continental Shopping Mall when you use your Continental Chase Mastercard for the purchase. Here is an example: Buy magazines from Magazines.com and earn 30 miles per $ plus the mile you earn per dollar using the credit card. How about giftcertificates.com? Buy yourself a gift certificate and earn 4 miles plus the one for the credit card spend, then use that gift certificate through the CO mall again and try for the double dip. You may get the full miles for something you buy with a gift certificate plus your credit card for the balance. No Guarantee there but why not try?

Here is the link to the promo. Look mid page for more info.

Dirtiest Hotel in the USA and the World

Check out the worst ten in the USA and then move on to other parts of the world. The only good thing about this list is, that the reviews are from actual travelers like you and me.

I am very grateful for the Tripadvisor reviews and check them out whenever I’m on the road.

Here is your list of places to stay away from in 2009.

Link

Here is Why You Should Get this Email Subscription .

7 Nights in Barbados and Airfare from $399

Found on the Weekly Top20 List

An Addition to My Wallet

Finally, I have the credit card thing worked out for my maximum benefit. The three cards I’m now carrying are the SPG Preferred card as primary card. Each SPG point is worth about 2.5 cents to me.

When buying bonus category stuff I’m still using a Thank You Points card that gives me 5 points per $. My categories are gas, groceries and drugs. I’ll be using these Thank You points for student loan rebates as 20,000 TYP gets me a $200 rebate or an airline ticket of $200 value. That is achieved at 5 for 1 on $4000 in spend.

And lastly, for the times I’m not earning a category bonus or able to use an Amex card, my Citi AA Mastercard is back in my wallet for 1 AA mile per $. Slowly we’ll get closer to the 2 million mark and lifetime Platinum Elite status.

Through December 31st New York Hilton properties are on sale for as low as $175 per night. Included in the sale are the Waldorf Astoria, the Millennium and Hilton New York.

The promotional rates are fully prepaid and non refundable. The discount code is NYSALE

More information and available dates can be found at www.HiltonFamilyNewYork.com/sale.
Youwill need to copy and paste the link.

An Update on the United/LendingTree Offer
Gary from the freefrequentflyermiles.com website pointed out that there is another offer from LendingTree that has been around a while.
This offer is good until June of this year and offers 1500 miles. Link
Thanks Gary for the additional offer.

Restaurant.com Coupons are Only $2 until the 28th

If you use coupon code DINE at checkout, your $25 off coupons will cost only $2. This represents an 80% discount from the normal price of $10.Take a friend or lover out to dinner, save $23 and help the blog.


Amex Travelers Checks Becoming a Non Earnings Purchase Exclusion on Starwood Cards
Basil found this in his latest changes to the rules:
Eligible Purchase Exclusions

“Effective April 2, 2009, we are amending the agreement regarding the accumulation of reward points or miles appended to your agreeement by adding the following to the end of the sentence defining eligible purchase.”

“or the purchase of American Express Travelers Cheques and American Express Gift Cheques or other cash equivalents”
We find the deals, they close the deals. We find the deals, they close the deals. Congrats to all that benefitted from this loophole.
Time to find the next great deal.

It is hotel bonus time and two of the four biggies are about ready to go. The Hyatt Faster Free Nights promo, which I have never been able to play, starts with stays on September 1st until December 30, 2008. Use those free night stays from September 15th through February 28, 2009. The strategy seems simple: stay 2 nights at low end Hyatt Place and Summerfield Suites and redeem a free night at high end resorts that otherwise would be big bucks. The official terms and conditions are not out, but rumored that you’ll get 2000 extra points for two nights worth of room stays paid with your Mastercard. Wait to be sure.

Marriott Promo is Weak in Comparison

The Marriott Megabonus comes no where close to the Hyatt deal. Marriott offers 5000 bonus points for every third paid stay. Yawn

Hilton ?????

Priority Club and Intercontinental????????

Starwood

Starwood has started off with a nice bonus for us points junkies: 500 points per night in September. You must register first at: spg.com/Flyertalk500 . This is per night, not per stay.
The big Starwood promo is set to be announced September 16th, so check back for their fall offering.
I wonder about these guys somtimes?? Maybe they just don’t consider Hyatt a real competitor because of their limited number of locations. It would be nice for us, if they all stepped up with a strong fall promotion.
Marriott Elite Dining Two fo One Program
Step #1 is to sign in to your account online. In the middle of the page you will see a section called reward offers. #2 Click it then go to Gold Offers (Or Plat if so lucky) and on about the third page is the two for one dining offer at the hotel restuarant or room service. Good until October 31st. #3 Print the cert and eat away.
US Presidential Coins are Back
There are now 5 Presidents available for a maximum or 500 coins per President or 2500 points/miles of your choice. Free Shipping from the mint