We learn of a new tool titled Award Calculator, the new Alaska & Icelandair Partnership, how to transfer Hotel points between accounts, Timeshares, register for the new SPG Stay More promo, laugh at awesome nightmare bus rides, visit rural Vietnam, and marvel at an awesome Credit Card spend chart and more!
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Yet another award calculator tool by Eric who writes at Travel Codex. This one brings in the perspective of Manufactures Spenders. Not free but sure looks very interesting as well. Not sure what’s going on lately but I see a lot of action in this tech tool area. I was supposed to review this at some point but, you know, keep running out of time #storyofmylife Here is a tip: Give it a snazzy name, Award Calculator is too…normal 🙂
Alaska and Icelandair are getting back into partnership. Welcome but not a huge deal. There is nothing definite as far as redemptions go so until then let me #yawn. Speaking of Alaska, good to see them fighting and holding their own. Totally wild guess ( I am NOT an expert and definitely NOT a thought leader in anything lol): Either Alaska or Jet Blue (or both) get acquired by the end of 2016. The perpertrators? Delta and/or Southwest. And hell no I would not bet on it! Actually, I am against gambling…I only bet when I am assured I will win 100% hehe.
Running With Miles wrote a good reference post on transferring hotel points between accounts. It may come in handy to you. You may want to do this when allowed before the particular programs gets “enhanced”.
The Free-quent Flyer has some thoughts on Timeshares. I am sure this works for a few people but with all the hotel points in the bank and kids are half out of the household is not my cup of tea. I definitely agree with the “never buy from a developer” advice and the best site to use is TUG.
Registration for the 4th Quarter Starwood promotion “Stay More” is now live, register HERE Watch out for the non participating hotels, all 131 of them, WTF!!!
Miles to Memories wrote his take on the best credit card from each bank. I agree with almost everything.
Chris Elliott keeps resource pages with contacts in Airlines and Hotels. Very handy if you are looking to track them down, complain or praise.
13 nightmarish bus stories to keep you riding trains and planes. Hilarious post at Matador Network. My favorites are: The masturbator, the crazy lady and the stoned driver. PSA: Watch them Chinese buses in NYC!
Mountain Biker Rides Down the Side of a Reservoir. Crazy video, what an angle!
22 Harsh Truths That Will Jolt You Away. By Marc and Angel Hack Life. There is a lot of phony and lame feel good stuff on the internet. This one is worth it though.
The Craigslist ‘Missed Connections’ for Burning Man are just as absurd as you thought they’d be. No, you are not done laughing yet! I could be doing posts with “Last Chance”, “CSP is the best card ever”, “This is why you need the BA Visa” blah blah blah. But I don’t. Instead, I focus on entertainment. This made me laugh so much and I think you will too. Here is a sample!
Here’s how much the average Amex, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover owners spend per month
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Thanks for the mention, George! I am also waiting to see what the deal with Icelandair and Alaska looks like. I have been avoiding flying Iceland again because I don’t like their program so at least being able to credit to Alaska will make it more compelling again.
Since Charlie didn’t claim it… FIRST!
First.
Renting timeshare can be a steal.
Never mind. Bronze FTW.
Aw, I thought just being first was enough – I didn’t know I had to claim it! In that case, I claim 1st by virtue of number of comments on this post so far. 🙂
The TBB Comments Committee just had an emergency session and decided to award Charlie: First!
Sorry projectx
Nice try Dia
If only each comment was translated to a TBB credit card app lol
Regarding timeshares: No doubt, if time was devoted to it, there can be some deals. But you can only devote time to so much hacking stuff out there…before it becomes way too time consuming. So sticking with hotel deals works for me. Maybe some Priceline hits or Airbnb stuff. I need to get on your other “rent places” deals I have seen you mention several times. But there is only 24 hours in the day.
More tech tools coming at us, warning. Another one tomorrow. Wow.
Dang… I guess I’ll settle for the York Peppermint Patty.
Great post today Buzz, lucky you aren’t here in person or I’d be pestering you with questions.
Some really interesting stuff in the links. I had to do a little reading up on my own to learn what the different points/awards are all about, the ones you get from the different credit cards. One comment I came across concerned Flyertalk and the thought that some FTers post misinformation to scare away noobs, as they understandably don’t want their hobby ruined by the masses. Interesting exchange over there mentioning the million dollar bloggers. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals/1710811-ua-yvr-ctu-2020-rt-p-fare.html
Here’s a question on yesterday’s post: How does Travel Is Free buy all those Club Carlson points ? Their spread sheet shows a lot of them, Every so often it is allowed to buy up to 200% of the maximum normally allowed, right ? Quite impressive.
I would spend the $10 for the tool but probably wouldn’t use it, unfortunately. Buzz, would you use something like that ? If so I’ll get you a copy but don’t know if you need it.
Charlie was that your post on time shares ? Thanks for that or whatever post it was that was mentioned.
Doesn’t Alaska Airlines have better sign up bonuses than that ? And I saw someone rated them as the best for redemption; we all need redemption after all.
Iceland Air, I’m trying to remember if that’s the one making a splash with those super cheap flights from Eastern US to Europe via Iceland, hmmm . . . super cheap.
Yeah, the FT misinformation posters are out there, comes with the territory I guess when it gets so large! Kind of sad but it is what it is.
I don’t know what TIF does about Club Carlson points. Remember, they live full time in hotels so what they do does not really apply to most of us. The only time I bought miles/points was when I forgot about some Hilton points that were expiring the very next day. I bought 1,000. Hate when that happens lol.
I can get that tool for free to review it. Thanks for the offer. Running out of time, tough to balance two brands haha.
The timeshare post was from The Free-quent Flyer. I don’t do timeshares and reselling.
Alaska Airlines cards always had low signing bonuses. Comes with Bank of America territory. But you can do more than one and/or have more than one at at time usually. Redemption could be good ONLY in specific scenarios. You are better off on FOCUSING what you can do with the main programs instead of adding yet another layer of complexity.
I think you are thinking of WOW Air at $149 to Iceland. Which is the starting price…you are starting to add stuff (you know, suitcases, seats, breathing room, oxygen, etc.) and it ONLY goes up from there.
Lol, yes that was probably it.
WOW is a scam. Cheap on the outbound, twice or more as much on the inbound. I tried to work with different dates, and it will always get to at least $500, because, yes, you need to bring more than 5 kilos with you. You don’t want to have to buy more stuff than have to because Iceland is expensive. We simply do not have true ULCCs in this country.