It is time for the annual post with all the ways I burned my stash of miles and points: How I Burned 587,026 Miles and Points in 2020. I am including some photos from just two road trips (can’t believe I just typed that!) we did. And some advice and feedback as always of course. Here is to us returning to travel for freeeeeee soon before we all go insane!
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Every year I try to do a post showing you how I spent my miles and points. Before I show you, here are the posts from the previous years:
This Is How I Burned 1,053,524 Miles and Points In 2014
This Is How I Burned 1,266,596 Miles and Points In 2015
This Is How I Burned 800,434 Miles And Points in 2016
This Is How I Burned 909,500 Miles and Points in 2017
This Is How I Burned 735,108 Miles and Points in 2018
This is How I Burned 759,105 Miles and Points in 2019
I ended 2020 with the following in the bank:
4,085,820 miles/points
6 Free hotel night certs expiring in 2021/2022: 1 Hilton, 4 Hyatt, 1 Fairmontt
Airline Gift Cards/Vouchers: AA $350, Southwest $196.94, Delta $148.40, Fairmont $500
2020 was the strangest year by far with the global pandemic starting so early in it. I keep track of these scores as I book the award trips and not when I actually travel. Therefore, I had to cancel several award reservations and I show them on top of the sheet below. In late 2020 I started booking again the same trip to Greece to hopefully take place in November 2021. Balances went up as no travel was possible. It has been more than a year since I last flew which is something I never EVER imagined!
The glory days of this hobby were before I started the blog in 2012! It has been on an unending drip drip devaluation binge for a very long time. Devaluations mostly stopped with the onset of the pandemic as airlines and hotels scrambled to stay afloat. Thanks to government handouts they have managed to do that…and all hoping for a turnaround later this year. I think we will get back on another vicious devaluation binge when we get back to normal. In the meantime, when I look at airlines and hotels the song “Staying Alive” from the Bee Gees comes to mind lol.
Life has changed even more with the pandemic. Hunkered down spending way too much time at home. Wife has been working from home since March and not going back to Ford before July for sure, maybe September. Son did not renew his New York City apartment lease and moved to Oahu island staying in Airbnbs working and surfing. Daughter managed not to get infected with the virus staying in her University of Michigan dorm for her first Fall semester in college and moved back home for the Winter semester. One of these days she will probably infect us…it is a race between that and the vaccines, thank you in advance for your prayers!
We only managed a couple of road trips within Michigan. One was a tour of the whole Upper Peninsula, something in my bucket list for a very long time. The nature up there is so breath taking, loved it! Meanwhile, we can’t even drive to Canada half an hour away with the borders closed for a year and counting!
When the pandemic is over I expect there will be an explosion of travel, I can just feel it. We are all so fed up living like this, reevaluated our lives and missed travel SOOOOO much! I personally intend to make 2022 one of those HUGE travel years. Which will likely impact the blog, sorry about that. I have been blogging more recently mostly to keep myself busy to cope with the Covid dread around me. When we get the green light to travel, expect less posting here.
One note: I spent a lot more Chase Ultimate Rewards points using the Pay Yourself Back feature but just lost track after a while and gave up tracking them.
Just a few pics from the Michigan Upper Peninsula road trip:
And from the road trip to drive through the Tunnel of Trees:
And I leave you with this…
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
I burned 15K miles in 2020 and yeah, I am definitely ready to travel again.
Wow! I accumulated; I don’t think I spent a thing.
Thanks for the trip photos. Ordinary life is to be wished for.
AA stole more than that for some.
GME up another 100% today. 700% this year. Ramsey must have made a few millions….
And here comes AMC……………. hopefully the movie theaters will be mask free at the end of the summer. Bitcoin is so yesterday! YOLO!
I’m just enjoying the show, but there must be hedge funds jumping in and driving up the prices. It can’t just be reddit and twitter memes.
I am staying away from this speculative binge going on right now. And trying to understand it. Best explanation so far:
https://www.etftrends.com/2021/01/semantic-density-algos-gamestop-this-time-its-different/
Meanwhile, blog lost $9.63 yesterday, sad lol.
To DC Flyer: GTFOH calling me same like the other credut card seller pumpers! Obviously I need to change lol.
That’s how you build a $25B company! Apparently user Retard6969 is now a gazillionaire.
I will be eating popcorn at AMC this summer. No facemask and lots of butter.
I expect VFTW to post something with Gamestop in the headline…
click, click, click
I really miss going to the movies
And there it is, VFTW finally wrote about AAL.
It’s never been this easy to create shareholder value.
Deleted it from Feedly, my blood pressure is much better now.
Still see it on a Twitter list from time to time. A few days ago I had a little spat with that Live and Let’s Fly dude who acts like the MyPillowguy acts to Trump.
Not looking at the markets at all today, so much to do…is the insanity still going on?
@Ramsey: Don’t make me delete your shit. Trump lost because, wait for it, he is a LOSER!
Thanks for Janet Yellen pic – gave me the giggles. It sure is nice to see actual expertise being placed back in these roles.
When I saw it, I knew it was TBB worthy!
Yeah, it has been so refreshing indeed.
Also, Hilton Biz referral coming your way.
Thank you!
Amex upping their HH offers, very interesting…must still be hurting
Novavax’s vaccine looks great. Will be extremely helpful especially for poorer countries. Much better than AZ’s. AZ/Oxford’s is a complete mess. Reduced delivery to the EU by 60% AND poor effficacy in the most important population, 65+. Scrap that one. We now have 3 winners! And may have a 4th one next week with J&J. (Sadly Merck pulled out of the race due to poor efficacy).
Was really surprised to see AZ/Oxford go that way, I had really high hopes for it!
At this point, I think it is all about the South African strain and the other in Manaus, Brazil..
Wish when they institute bans…they would stop with the exemptions!
Saw a friend on FB get his vaccine….Thing is, he moved to Israel three weeks ago smh!
The South African strain has me concerned that it will take 2 separate vaccines to completely end the pandemic.
I am going to check on toilet paper tonight…just way too much movement and slow vaccinations while the virus mutates like a firecracker…
I always said we need a good hardcore strict lockdown Chinese style…a year ago…and here we are…
I have a great post coming out tomorrow!
I feel a conversion coming….my own (for daughter) LOL
Quick bit of clarity – there are no cases of anyone going into hospital with Covid after having the Oxford vaccine. You have a slightly higher chance of the vaccine not working but your Covid case will be very mild.
Burned 566k MR & 253k UR via cash out the past 12 months. I guess the Maldives are cool and all but I’ll take the $10+k
muy bueno
cash is king