Category: Saturday Round-Up

Saturday Round-Up 12/10

We’re back to our regularly scheduled Saturday Round-Up, so without further ado:

1. Recap:  A Year of AMEX Offers – Let’s look back at my year of savings using American Express Offers. If you’re not sure what these are, here’s a brief description from American Express. Continue reading here.

2. Chase Freedom Q1/Q2 Categories Announced – Yesterday, Chase confirmed their 5% cash back categories for the first two quarters of 2017. Are we in for something new–or a return of the categories we have come to expect? Continue reading here.

3. Why it Pays to Book in Advance – On Monday, I thought about upgrading my Amtrak ticket from Acela Business to Acela First, as I’ve always wanted to try Amtrak’s First Class service. I had originally booked my trip home back in September, a one-way Acela Business class ticket for 4,297 points.Continue reading here.

4. AAA and Amtrak–A Match Made in Heaven? – I am always looking for a way to save money on travel–money I don’t spend on one trip, I can use for another! In today’s post, we’re looking at whether or not it makes sense for someone who rides Amtrak to get an AAA Membership. Continue reading here.

Continue reading “Saturday Round-Up 12/10” →

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Saturday Round-Up 11/12

As a quick aside, it’s easy to say this has been a strange, sad week for many Americans. It was hard to blog about travel, a true luxury, when so many other issues seem infinitely more pressing, but the band plays on. If you were angry about the outcome of the election, use your skills and passions to create change in the world around you. Travel is a great way to educate ourselves about the world around us and to teach us empathy and understanding.

Here’s a recap of this week’s articles:

  1. Flashback:  Shopping Portals:  We all online shop. It’s a fact of living in the 21st century, so you might as well get more than just your purchases! As I’ve said before, shopping portals are a great way to earn extra miles on the things you already buy online. Continue reading.
  2. Which Card for…You!:  In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I expect my posting to slow down a bit, so for this post, I wanted to highlight the posts I’ve already done in the “Which Card…” series and make it clear that I’m always happy to provide a recommendation based on your situations. Continue reading.

From around the web:

  1. jetBlue introduced an AWESOME new paint scheme on one of their Airbus A320s. You’ll definitely want to see this! Read more here.
  2. Per Cranky Flier, Air France-KLM is embarking on another turnaround plan…he’s not so confident. Read more here.
  3. Two European airlines–WOW and Condor–launched flights to Pittsburgh, PA this past week. WOW will fly 4 times a week to Reykjavik and Condor will fly 2 times a week to Frankfurt.

Saturday Round-Up 11/5

It’s here! Harry Potter World Month! Woooo–only 13 days until our trip! Here’s a quick recap of this week’s posts:

  1. Recap-October Travel:  October was a busy month of travel, starting off with an unexpected trip. Here’s a recap of how it all went down. Continue reading.
  2. The Curious Tale of my Starwood Starpoints:  As you may be away, Starwood is a hotel chain. If you weren’t away, now you are! Earlier this year, I signed up for the Starwood SPG credit card by American Express when the sign-up bonus was 35,000 points. This is the tale of how I didn’t use a single point for hotel stays. Continue reading.
  3. A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I’ve Read On Trains This Year:  So here’s the deal, I like writing about travel and I like reading books, so sometimes I’m going to write about books. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I’ve read this year while traveling, maybe it’ll spark your next book. Continue reading.

Other things of note:

  1. There are currently tons of great AMEX Offers out there (more on how great they are next week), but for now, here’s an example from Doctor of Credit–10% off your insurance bill, up to $30. Read more here.
  2. From Consumerist, 8 things that have come to light recently regarding Allegiant’s history or midair mechanical failures. More here.
  3. British Airways is adding more service to the Bay Area, in apparent attempts to thwart Norweigan growth. More details over at the Cranky Flier.

Saturday Round-Up 10/29

Another week in the books, and only 26 days until Thanksgiving! Here’s a recap of what happened on A Point Earned this week:

  1. Two Interesting Hotel-Related E-Mails:  Last week, I got two very interesting e-mails about some offers and changes to some cards I currently have. Continue reading.
  2. Recap-Baltimore:  So, back in August, I surprised Nick with a trip to Baltimore as one of his birthday gifts and we scheduled it for late-October. Continue reading.
  3. Which Card for Meg:  Recently, someone I know from college reached out to me to ask which card might be the best to add to her roster as she’s moving to Seattle! Yay moves! Meg wants to maximize travel expenses, so in my opinion, there are two options for her:  Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Continue reading to see my recommendations.

Other interesting ephemera:

  1. FlyBe (a regional European carrier) just announced the immediate departure of their CEO, Saad Hammad. Never a good sign. Read more here.
  2. If Spirit Airlines is your go-to carrier, you may be interested in their Bank of America credit card. $15,000 miles after the first purchase and a $100 statement credit after you spend $500 in 90 days. Read more over at Doctor of Credit here.
  3. Qantas has updated their branding, only the fifth time in 90 years! Read more at Point Me to the Plane.

Saturday Round-Up 10/22

Hey y’all! We’re in Baltimore this weekend for Nick’s birthday trip, so this post is happening remotely–the magic of WordPress. Here are this week’s stories:

  1. Delta Schedule Switcharoo:  Recently, I booked my tickets to go home for Christmas to visit my family. I was SO proud of myself–I found a Delta flight nonstop from Manchester, NH to LaGuardia that got me back to NYC before dinner for only $120. Score, especially during the holiday season! Alas, my great find wasn’t meant to be. Continue reading.
  2. Earn Double Points When You Shop Small with AMEX:  Last weekend, American Express announced their “Shop Small” promotion, and it’s pretty great, and applies to almost all cards in the American Express portfolio. Continue reading.
  3. Flashback – Recurring Payments:  This past February, I wrote a post on the “life-changing magic of recurring payments” as a way to inform readers that mindless purchases we all have to make are a great way to boost miles and points. Today, I wanted to take some time to recap that.  Lazy blogger, I know, but I think it’s an interesting point to highlight, especially since a lot of things we buy are set to recur and auto-pay. Continue reading.
  4. Five Books for Traveling:  I’ve noticed that people fall into two camps of packing books for travel:  it’s either one thin paperback or so many books you’re in danger of going over your bag weight limit. There is no in between. I fall in the latter category–when traveling, you generally have AGES of downtime, so you might as well bring a few good books. Continue reading.

Other things happening around the world:

  1. Earn a quick and easy 1,000 Air Canada Aeroplan Miles–great if you need a quick top up on your points or want to prevent them from expiring. Click here for quiz.
  2. A long but interesting article about the disappearance of Eastern Airlines Flight 980 from Outside Magazine. Click here to read.
  3. British Airways is set to connect London and New Orleans in the spring of 2017, the first connection of these two cities in over 25 years! Click over to OMAAT to read more about it.
  4. Not an article, per se, but I thought these photos from the Boston Globe of the Ashmont-Mattapan Trolley were pretty cool. Click here to view.

Saturday Round-Up 10/15

We’re in between travels this weekend:  last weekend was Hamilton College Fallcoming, next week is Nick’s birthday trip to Baltimore. We’re taking it easy this weekend, to say the least! Here a recap on what’s going on are here:

  1. The Big Easy by Train:  I think it’s safe to say I’m enamored with the idea of long-distance train travel. There is something so…fascinating about the idea of it. Nick thinks I’m crazy, but you know what they say about opposites and attraction. Continue reading.
  2. The Big Easy by Train – Making it Happen:  So, you want to take a quick trip to the Big Easy–how do you make that happen? Continue reading.
  3. Hamilton College Fallcoming:  Here’s a photo recap of our trip to Hamilton for Fallcoming–Central New York in the fall might be one of my favorite things! Continue reading.

Other things happening around the world:

  1. Apparently, Bank of America now requires 90 days between credit card applications for the same product. Read more over at Million Mile Secrets.
  2. Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik is on pace to break their previous passenger record, growing by almost 2 million passengers in one year. Read more are Anna.Aero.
  3. Get 500 Virgin America points when you sign-up for their Virgin Produced newsletter. Take advantage of this offer before 10/28. By estimation, these points are worth ~2.2 cents each, making this offer worth $11 in points. Not bad for 5 seconds of work!
  4. Citi Prestige offering 50,000 TYP Again, per Doctor of Credit.

Saturday Round-Up 10/8

Welcome back, Saturday Round-Up! I haven’t done one of these since we left for Hawai’i, but I figured it would be better to do these going forward, rather than fill up your Facebook feeds every time I post. Going forward, I’ll post on Facebook 2-3 times a week:  1-2 stories and then a post on Saturday to catch up on everything else. You’ll find all the stories below. Good? Good.

  1. Third Quarter 2016 – Earn, Baby, Earn:  Just like the two preceding posts in this series (here and here), let’s look at the points Nick and I earned and burned this quarter! While we traveled a bit this summer, we put away more miles and points than we spent. Here’s how it went. Continue reading.
  2. Hilton HHonors (AMEX) – Increased Bonuses:  Generally, the base card offers  50,000 points for spending $1,000 in 90 days and the Surpass cards offers 75,000 points after spending $3,000 in 90 days. Let’s take a look at the current offers below the jump, available until November 30th. Continue reading.
  3. Recap:  September Travel:  September was a relatively low-key travel month:  Nick and I went to visit my parents in New Hampshire, and I needed to make a last minute trip home at the end of the month. Nothing fancy or exotic (or cheap!). Continue reading.
  4. Ready, Set, Shop – It’s the Fourth Quarter:  Just a quick PSA that we’re in the fourth quarter, and this is what your bonus categories are for the Chase Freedom and Discover it cards. Continue reading.