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Emily: We put my mom and Judi in a suite, and Daraius and I stayed in a regular room for 15,000 Hyatt points a night to save cash. The room costs $220 per night, so this wasn’t an exceptional use of our points. But it was free!
Park Hyatt Goa, Park King
The regular room was nice but was much smaller than my mom’s suite. Continue reading
Posted in Hyatt, Trip Reports
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1. $10 or 600 Free Virgin America Points
Million Mile Secrets reader Jordan works for MOGL which offers Virgin America points or 10% cash back for dining at certain restaurants.
He is offering a $10 credit, which you can convert to 600 Virgin America points (up to February 28, 2013) or 300 points after that, if you use “jordanramos” as the referral code when you sign-up for MOGL.
$10 or 600 Virgin America Points
MOGL will also donate a meal to Feeding America, so it doesn’t hurt to sign-up. Continue reading
Posted in British Airways, Hyatt, Uncategorized, VIrgin America
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Emily: We paid $220 per night for a regular room for 3 nights for my mom and Judi, and used 6,000 Hyatt points to upgrade the room to a Park Suite for all 3 nights! It was my mom’s first suite and she was so excited!
Connie & Judi in the Park Suite
Posted in Hyatt, Trip Reports
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Park Hyatt Goa Resort & Spa
Emily: Daraius and I left for Goa at around 9 am for our 11:30 am flight. Note that flights within India leave from the domestic terminal while international flights leave from a separate terminal. They are about a 20 minute drive apart!
Daraius: I bought the tickets on Jet Airways for about $123 for a 1-way ticket since it wasn’t worth using miles for the tickets. However, we could have used Citi Thank You Points or Chase Ultimate Rewards points via their travel portal to save cash, but we’re always short of Ultimate Rewards points, so we paid cash. Continue reading
Posted in Hyatt, Trip Reports
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1. Southwest Fare Sale. Deals We Like reports that Southwest has a fare sale with flights ranging from $49 to $149 for a 1-way flight. And don’t forget to register for double points on Southwest via this link as well!
You have to purchase your ticket by Thursday (today) February 7, 2013, 11:59 pm Pacific Time for travel between April 3 through June 8, 2013.
Southwest Fare Sale
Southwest has a revenue based frequent flyer program, so a fare sale means that both cash AND award bookings using points will cost less!
Posted in American Express, Avianca, Avianca, Hyatt, Southwest, Starwood (SPG)
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Emily’s mom, Connie, wanted to visit India to visit my family, so we used our miles and points to take her with us in December. She has briefly visited Canada and a resort in Mexico before, so India was going to be very different. Emily’s step-dad doesn’t like traveling and didn’t want to come – even in First Class! – so Connie brought along her childhood friend Judi instead. They’ve been friends for almost 55 years!
Connie, Emily, and Judi by the Taj Mahal
Trip Report Index
In this post, I’ll explain how Emily, her mom Connie, and her mom’s friend Judi and I visited India using miles & points. We went to 5 cities in 2 weeks: Bombay, Pune, Goa, Delhi & Agra. Later, I’ll post a more detailed account of the different airline, hotel, food, transport, and activity options so you can plan a trip to India.
Keep in mind that the chart below covers only the cost for hotels and airfare, and not for dining, activities and other travel expenses. And we stayed with family in Bombay and Pune, so we didn’t have to pay for hotels there! Continue reading
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1. American Airlines, US Air & Hyatt Miles/Point Sale. One Mile at a Time writes that you can buy American Airlines miles for ~2 cents up to February 28, 2013. View from the Wing writes that you can buy US Air miles for ~1.9 cents up to February 28, 2013, if you bought US Air miles in 2012. And Loyalty Traveler writes that you can buy Hyatt Points for ~1.8 cents (30% bonus) up to February 6, 2013.
Occasionally it does make sense to stock up on miles and points if you’re very close to an award and if a small purchase will get you the miles and points needed to book your award. Sometimes, it could even make sense to buy the miles or points and redeem them for an award ticket or hotel night.
For example, it costs 100,000 miles for a business class ticket to Europe or South America. It costs $1,800 to buy the miles and, say, ~$200 in taxes and fees, so you’re looking at ~$2,000 for a business class ticket. $2,000 for a business class ticket is a good deal for some, and not a good deal for others. So always do the math for your situation before buying miles and points.
Frequent Flyer University and Mommy Points have good posts on how to evaluate buying miles and points!
2. Office Depot Discontinues $500 Gift Cards. Frequent Miler writes that Office Depot will no longer carry $500 pre-paid gift cards (Visa, AMEX etc.). Continue reading
Posted in American Airlines, Chase, Hyatt, US Air
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I’ve written about how to keep your airline miles from expiring without flying. Here’s how to keep your hotel points from expiring without staying in a hotel! Points expire in most US based airline program after 12 to 24 months of no earning or redemption activity.
Some programs like Choice and Wyndham hotels expire after 2 and 4 years and there is nothing you can do to extend the expiration, so you might as well use them before they expire.
Award Wallet is a good tool to track your miles and points balances and expiration dates.
HotelExpiration Policy
Choice Hotels On December 31st, 2 years after you earned the points.
Club Carlson 24 months of not earning or spending points
Hilton 12 months of not earning or spending points
Hyatt Gold 12 months of not earning or spending points
Marriott 24 months of not earning points
Priority Club Points Never Expire
Starwood Hotels 12 months of not earning or spending points
Wyndham Points expire after 4 years and you can't do anything to extend them beyond 4 years.
However, they will expire sooner (in 18 months)of not earning or spending points
But it is really, really easy to keep your hotel points active WITHOUT staying in the hotel!
Sometimes, all you need to do is to make an award booking and cancel it later, for free! This will generate redemption activity when you make the award and earning activity when you cancel the award and reset the point expiration clock. But be sure to check the cancellation policy when you book!
You can easily extend the expiration by buying something cheap or making a $1 donation from the airline’s online shopping mall, or using a credit card to keep your points active!
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I applied for the Chase Hyatt credit card (see here for how to get a $100 statement credit which is better than my affiliate link) in March 2012 and used the 2 free nights at the Park Hyatt in Paris for our honeymoon. Since those 2 free nights were valid at any Hyatt, I wanted to use them at a Hyatt which I wouldn’t pay cash for and the $800+ a night Park Hyatt fit the bill!
So I was surprised when I received a mailer saying “Happy Anniversary” a few weeks ago.
I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! Find out more.
