The Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) American Express card is one of my favorite credit cards because of the many great uses for SPG points. For a limited time, American Express has increased the sign up bonus on both the personal and business versions of this card to 35,000 points. The normal sign up bonus is […]

This weekend I wanted to book flights to attend a wedding in San Antonio, TX in the fall. I started my search using Google Flights to get an idea of availability and pricing. I was not sure if I wanted to pay cash or use points–but, in the end, I decided to do a little bit […]

I just returned from a two week vacation in Europe with my family for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. The main event of the trip was a cruise on one of Royal Caribbean’s newest ships, the Ovation of the Seas. But, we spent 3 nights in London prior to the cruise and 3 nights in […]

This is a fantastic deal, and will not last long. Already there are limited flights/dates available. I recommend searching for flights via Google Flights, since you can get a two month calendar view of the days with the cheapest flights. The cheapest fares I saw from PHL to LAX was $150, but other inexpensive fares […]

Earlier this week, I wrote about American Airlines devaluing their AAdvantage miles program, here. This devaluation takes place on May 22, 2016–but you can still book award flights using their old charts until that date. This is good news because it means it is not too late to take “AAdvantage” of some of the best […]

Rumors have been out there for months regarding proposed changes in American Airline AAdvantage program–today, finally the airline announced the official word. Overall, not terrible news for most people–some devaluations in their award chart, but the biggest change is following in the footsteps of Delta and United in going towards a revenue based mileage earning […]

I often get offers from the various airline programs to purchase miles via a “special” sale. Often these sales advertise bonus miles if you purchase a certain amount of regularly priced miles. Buying miles when they are not on sale is almost always a terrible value, unless you need just a handful to increase your […]

    Suffice it to say–I love to travel! And the Great Wall was most definitely on my bucket list. I hiked over 4 miles on the Great Wall, on New Years Day 2015 and got there via a flight to China (with a stop in Europe) for less than $300. How?