One New Years Resolution You Will Want To Keep

Tonight as you raise that glass to toast the changing of the year, think about what you would like to do more of in 2017 or even into 2018. If travel tops the list, then start planning now. I have several clients right now who are already thinking ahead to summer 2018. And that's the way to do it if you want to travel for almost free.
It takes a while to rack up all those points/miles to take an entire family around the globe. But you can do it, if you put a plan in place early.

Here's the checklist:
1. Where do you want to go?
2. What airlines fly there? And who are their partners?
3. What credit cards offer bonuses for those airlines?
4. You may need to call the airline to confirm how many points you need to fly from A to B
5. Put a plan in place
6. Apply for the first card

For travel in summer 2018, you will want to book your flight by November of 2017. If you wait too much longer, the lowest fare economy award seats will be gone. And when you are traveling with a family of 4 or 5, snagging these low award fares are key.

Good luck and have a safe and happy New Year!

Hilton Sweet Spot

Everyone has their own wants and needs when they travel. But for me and my family, I look for hotels that are discounted, offer free breakfast, are centrally located and I can use points and miles.
Hampton Inns in the Hilton brand are a sweet spot for me. They offer breakfast included and are priced well.
They are considered a budget hotel, but I have always found them to be clean and more than adequate.
Hilton points on the other hand are crazy. They are worth about .4 cents each compared with Starwood points which are valued at 2.2 cents each.
So when you apply for a Hilton credit card, your bonus doesn't usually get you very much. Right now, Hilton has a no annual fee card with a bonus of 40,000 points and a minimum spend of $1,000. However, there is a sweet spot. Next summer, my family and I are heading to Eastern Europe specifically to Poland.
When I checked out hotel accomodations in Krakow and Warsaw, I found Hampton Inns in both cities for less than 10,000 points per night. Yes, 10,000 points per night. The actual price of the room was $54 per night. Pretty cheap.

But I have lots of Hilton points laying around and I need 2 rooms for our family of 5. So now you are talking $150 per night if I book the rooms directly with Hilton.
What is interesting is that a room for 2 people is offered at 5,000-10,000 per night, but a room for 3 with a pull out sofa is offered at 22,000 per night. You could also pay $27 and use only 2,000 points per night for the 2 person room.
Remember this includes breakfast so for a family of 5, it's a no brainer. Using just the minimum of Hilton points, 2 nights in Krakow and 2 nights in Warsaw, we used just 30,000 points for one room for 2 people valued at $300. You could probably add a bit more value since the stay includes breakfast.
So I opted to use points for the 2 person room and buy the 3 person room with my Barclay's card. The Barclay's card offers a 5% points back on travel plus a $500 bonus when you sign up. I'll show you how to redeem points on Barclay's in another post.

Selling Gift Cards For Cash

Now that the holidays are over, what do you do with all the gift cards from well meaning relatives that you don't really want. Here's an idea for you. Sell them online for cash. I recently received an Apple gift card for $300. Very nice gift and I am very appreciative. However, I already have a laptop, ipad mini and iphone. And I don't have a need for anything else. Cash though is always appreciated since we are planning a big trip for next summer.
So I sold the gift card through Cardpool.com online. When you call up the website, you can enter the amount on the gift card and the name of the store. Cardpool will instantly tell you how much they will pay for the card. You can choose to be paid by check or by Amazon gift card which nets you 6% more. I chose a check since I'm not a big Amazon shopper either.
By check, Cardpool said it would pay me $267. By Amazon gift card, Cardpool would have paid me $283.
I entered the gift card number and pin and Cardpool said it was accepted. I received a confirmation email and then a second email a few days later letting me know my check was in the mail. Woohoo!

Using your Barclays card for free travel

Sometimes it's hard to use points and miles for all the free tickets when you travel as a family. Perhaps you only have enough points or miles for 2 or 3 tickets or perhaps you want to fly on an airline that you don't have any points or miles with.
That happened to me 2 years ago, when my mother in law invited the family to join her on an all expense trip to Costa Rica. The only catch we had to pay to get to Costa Rica and we all had to fly on the same Delta flight.
Argh.
Delta is not an airline I usually fly. Since I can't stomach paying full price for an airline ticket, I had to figure out another way to get my family of 5 to Costa Rica. Airline tickets on this particular Delta flight were selling for about $600 per round trip. But I figured out if I charged the tickets to my Barclays Arrival Plus card I would get 1.5 free.
The 50,000 bonus plus 2,000 for minimum spend and the 10% bonus for redemption on travel was enough to get 1.5 tickets free. My husband did the same thing and got another 1.5 tickets free.
So essentially we paid for 2 tickets and got 3 tickets free. Not bad. Savings $1600.
I told my mother in law about the card and she applied and then used it to pay for the trip and saved thousands of dollars.
And bought me a pina colada on the beach!
This card is pretty easy to churn so we just applied for the card again and charged our property taxes to it to reach the minimum spend. Even though we paid $60 in fees to charge the taxes, it's worth it because we will use the bonus to pay for airline taxes and hotels for our summer vacation.  The redemption is now just 5%, but I think it is still worth it to cover airline taxes, trains, airbnb etc.
A big part of this game is strategy and how to use the tools. If you would like help planning your next big vacation to be almost free, let us know. We love to help!

How To Pay Less Airline Taxes

If you have been following my blog, you know I just booked 4.5 round trip flights with miles from Los Angeles to Europe for next summer. I paid about $30 per flight in taxes. I waited to book my husband's flight over because he wasn't exactly sure when he wanted to join us.
Now this week he decided on his date so I decided to try the same scheme to book his ticket.
I transferred 20,000 Starwood points to Singapore Airlines. SPG usually gives a bonus of 5,000 points for the move.
Then I transferred 3,000 American Express Reward Points to Singapore Airlines to top off the account. This gives me 28,000 Kris Flyer miles with Singapore Airlines. Now Singapore Airlines has the nicest customer service agents ever and they will let you book one way tickets. Here's the best part, they charge just 27,500 for one tickets from Los Angeles to Europe. If you book this same ticket on United, you would pay 30,000 points. Amazing.
So when I called last week, the agent had a flight from Los Angeles to Paris and a flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow, but nothing to Berlin.
So I figured I would just buy a cheap domestic flight from one of those cities to Berlin so my husband could join us.
Well, once the points moved to Kris Flyer which took a few days, the agent told me those flights were gone.
Oh no.
But the agent had seats available on Lufthansa through Frankfurt. That works. But he says the taxes are $363. What? That's not almost free family travel.
I ask him to look again at other airlines that may have lower taxes. He finds another flight that has a layover in London and then onto Berlin for just $150 in taxes. We book that one!
British Airways is traditionally high in taxes and apparently so is Lufthansa. Good to know.

Earn Extra Miles With Shopping Portals

If you still have more holiday shopping to do, you might want to use the portals with United, Alaska Airlines or American Airlines. For the next few days, they are offering bonus miles of up to 1,500 if you use the portal.
Spend $100, earn 500 bonus miles. Spend $200, earn 1,500 bonus miles. And you can double dip by using the right credit card.

Check it out:
1. Alaska Airlines  through Dec. 21st at 11:59pm EST
2. American Airlines through Dec. 20th at 11:59pm EST
3. United Airlines through Dec. 20th at 11:59pm EST

Bottom line, it's money you were going to spend anyway, so make the purchase a bit sweeter!

Southwest Companion Pass Prep

Now that we are getting close to the new year, you are probably starting to think about how you can earn a Southwest companion pass for the next two years. This is one of the best deals out there. If you can collect 110,000 Southwest miles in a calendar year, you earn a companion pass. That means anytime you fly, you can take a person with you for FREE. And the pass is good for the year you earn it and the next year. So if you earn it in January or February, that's almost 2 years of FREE companion travel.
I had the companion pass for the past 2 years and used it to fly my son to Washington DC to attend a family event with me, used it for my daughter and I to tour East Coast colleges and used it for a one day trip to San Francisco for my son and I. Great trips and saved us almost $1000 in air travel.
The easiest way to earn the companion pass is to apply for 2 Chase Southwest credit cards. They offer a personal and business card. You don't need a bona fide business to get the business card either.
If you are maxed out on Chase cards like me, you can buy a Marriott vacation package good for 110,000 Southwest points and a 7 day stay in a Marriott. It will cost you 270,000 Marriott points. You can earn these by opening a Starwood American Express card with a bonus of 25,000 points which you can transfer to Marriott for 1:3 or 75,000 points. So if you get the personal and business cards and spend the minimum spend for the bonus of $3,000, you will have 168,000 points. And if your spouse does the same thing, you will have enough points to purchase the vacation package.
If this is interesting to you, start now, but remember if the statement closes in 2016, those points post to this year and not 2017.

Jet Blue Holiday Deals

I'm not a big Jet Blue flyer, but they are offering deals for the holidays that I can't pass up. Everyday at 1pm EST, they will release a new deal. Deals like $20 flights! Wow! Here's the link. Be sure to check back daily until December 16th 2016. And let me know what kind of deal you get!

Get 3 FREE Nights At Wyndham Hotels

Barclays is offering the Wyndham credit card right now with a 45,000 bonus. That's good for 3 nights at most Wyndham hotels. Last summer, we used 30,000 Wyndham points for one night at the Wyndham Costa del Sol airport hotel in Lima.  We are a family of 5 and needed 2 rooms. The hotel included breakfast and we were just steps from the airport so it was easy to catch our early morning flight.
Then we used the remaining 15,000 points to stay a night at the Days Inn San Francisco at the beach. I stayed there with 4 kids and it included breakfast so it was a great value!
My husband and I just applied for this card again and if approved, we will have 90,000 points. We plan to use them to stay at the Ramada in Prague next summer. 2 rooms for 3 nights and includes breakfast. It's at least a  $650 value. Great deal!
Here are the details on the card:

• Earn 30,000 bonus points after 
  your first purchase. Plus, earn an 
  additional 15,000 bonus points after 
  you spend $2,000 on purchases within 
  the first 90 days of account opening.3
• Earn 5 points per $1 spent on eligible 
  purchases for every participating hotel 
  stay, Wyndham Vacation Rental North 
  America properties, and on-property 
  spend and maintenance fees at Wyndham 
  timeshare properties4
• Earn 2 points per $1 spent on eligible 
  gas, utility and grocery store purchases 
  (excluding Target® and Walmart®)4
• Earn 1 point per $1 spent on 
  purchases everywhere else (excluding 
  Wyndham timeshare downpayments)4
• Get PLATINUM! Automatically 
  receive a Wyndham Rewards 
  PLATINUM Membership and enjoy 
  these new perks5
• Earn 6,000 bonus points annually 
  after your account anniversary every year3
• No foreign transaction fees1
• $75 annual fee1

Buy $10 Starbucks, Get $10 FREE

Starbucks & Visa Checkout are once again teaming up to offer a very nice discount. I just did it and it worked! 

The Offer

Receive a $10 Starbucks® eGift when you reload $10+ in the Starbucks® app using Visa Checkout.

How It Works

1. Download the Starbucks app and create an account
2. Reload $10 to the Starbucks app with Visa Checkout
3. Receive your $10 eGift within 1 day

Key Terms

• Supplies are limited.
• Starbucks will give away a limited number of Bonus Loads to eligible customers between 11/29/16 and 12/22/16 while supplies last.
• To receive a Bonus Load, you must load your Starbucks® card in the Starbucks® app with $10+ using Visa Checkout as a payment method and meet the other eligibility requirements below.
• This offer is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. who have a valid Visa Checkout account.

Save Big On Your Next Vacation, Here's How

When you are planning your trip, sometimes it's hard to use miles and points. Depending on where you want to go or if there are certain flights you want or very specific days you want to travel, it may be nearly impossible to use your points and miles.
So what do you do?
A great credit card to have in your toolbox is the Barclays Arrival Plus. Right now, you get 50,000 points bonus for signing up and spending $3000 in the first 90 days which is like a $500 travel credit. Then you get 5% back every time you use the card on travel purchases like airbnb, fees and taxes for airlines, hotels, train ticket etc.
So when we traveled to Costa Rica a few years back, we needed to fly on a certain flight on a certain day. Plus we were going with extended family and they wanted to all fly on the same Delta airlines flight. Delta is not my favorite airline and I don't usually collect miles or points for Delta.
But since I won't pay full price for plane ticket, I had to find a go around.
Here's where the Barclays card came in. I could buy 2 plane tickets and essentially get the 3rd ticket FREE with the bonus and 10% back in travel credit.
My mother in law opened a card too and knocked thousands off the cost of the trip since she picked up many of the hotels and meals.
It's been 2 years since I've had the Barclays card so I just signed up again. Plan to put my property taxes on the card to reach the minimum spend. Even though I will be charged 3% in credit card fees, it's worth it to get a $500 travel credit since I think I will have to buy my husband a one way ticket next summer to meet us in Europe.
That's how you do it....almost FREE family travel!

Using the right credit card to maximize earnings

Once you apply for a few credit cards, it's important to use the right credit card to maximize the points earned. For example, the Chase FREEDOM card changes bonus categories every quarter. Right now, if you use the card at wholesale club stores like Costco, you earn 5x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points. Those points can be used for cash back, gift cards or travel. The travel is a little tricky since you need to have the Chase Sapphire Preferred to be eligible to transfer rewards points to airlines.
But earning 5x rewards points is huge!
The Chase Ink card Business Cash offers 5% cash back on office supply store, internet, cable and phone bills. So you should always auto pay those bills to your Chase Ink card to maximize earnings.
Starwood Points are super valuable because you can transfer them to lots of different airlines and get a bonus so I use this card as my default. American Express offers savings on their website so check those out every once in a while and add them to your card.
Especially helps during holiday shopping. Always, always use a portal when you do your online holiday shopping. I check a variety of them i.e. cash back and airline before I purchase.
In January, I may start using my Southwest card again to collect points towards a companion pass.
And for the rest of this year, I'll use my Marriott card since I'm hoping to buy a Marriott Vacation Package in January and gain a Southwest Airlines companion pass. Check my previous blog post to read about how to do this.
There are other cards that have bonus categories and some cards that are co-branded that will give you a bonus if you use that card to stay at the hotel or buy plane tickets on that particular airline.
I actually mark the physical card with the bonus category so I remember which card to use. Good luck!

How to save money on airline taxes and fees

Had dinner with a friend the other night and he was telling me how he scored 4 round trip tickets from the US to Italy in business class with points.  I got really excited because I love when people travel for almost free. But then he said he paid almost $2500 in airline taxes and fees. Bummer! 

Here's the lesson. You don't have to use your miles on the airline that you earned them on. For example, my friend had Avios points. Now he could have used those Avios points on a partner airline and avoided the fees. British Airways has one of the highest fees and taxes in the industry especially if you stop over in London. But British Airways is in the One World Alliance so it partners with American Airlines, Iberia Airlines and dozens of other airlines so he could have used those Avios to book on another airline and saved a ton of money in fees and taxes. 

When I went to Peru this past summer, I used my Avios to book plane tickets on LAN Airlines. This is great use for Avios because most flights in South America are considered short haul. Short haul flights cost just 7,500 Avios. So  for 37,500 Avios my family of 5 was able to fly from Cuzco to Lima. If I had paid for this flight, it would have cost me at least $650. I earned 100,000 Avios by applying for the British Airways credit card when they offered their bonus last year. 

Remember using your points is often like playing a game of detective, but it can pay off huge. 

Raise Money For Your Kid's School For FREE

So I love to save money on my family's budget by using cash back portals and cash back rewards credit cards. But did you know that you can use a new app called Benefit to raise money the same way for your child's school or a non profit.
It's so easy and right now for every 10 people who open a new account by November 30, Benefit will send $100 to your designated school.
Here's how it works:
1. Download the app to your phone or tablet
2. Sign up for new account

3. Designate your child's school or a non profit as the beneficiary
4. Then buy any giftcards like you normally would through the vendor's website. There are dozens of vendors including Starbucks, Home Depot etc.
5. The first time you use this app, you will need to register your credit card. The app will charge a small amount to the card and ask you to verify that amount. This could take 24 hours, but it only happens the first time. Once you verify, you can instantly purchase any gift card.
6. You will instantly see a egift card that you can transfer to a current gift card or present at the store for redemption.
7. After you use the gift card, you will see the percentage transferred to your beneficiary.

This app works with Escrip.com 
Easy!

United Changes Its Carry On Rules

Getty Images

People watch as a United Airlines jet passes the air traffic control tower at Los Angles International Airport (LAX) during take-off in Los Angeles, California.

United Continental will become the first major U.S. airline to limit low-fare customers to one carry-on bag that fits under a seat, and it will defer dozens of aircraft deliveries from Boeing in an array of initiatives to boost profit, the company said on Tuesday.

The announcement may frustrate flyers who already feel burdened with travel restrictions and fees from airlines.

United said customers who buy its cheapest fares will not be assigned seats until the day of departure, meaning people on the same ticket may be split apart. United will also prohibit these travelers from carrying on bags that can only fit in overhead bins, and they will not accrue miles toward elite status.

The company expects the new moves will add $4.8 billion to its operating income per year by 2020, though the figure does not include rising wages. Fare initiatives like "Basic Economy" will account for $1 billion of this, as more customers pay to check bags or select higher fares that give them two free carry-ons.

It was unclear if the move by United — No.3 in the United States by passenger traffic — would prompt similar bag limits from rivals. However, airlines have frequently copied each other in the past, like when they added fees for checked luggage.

"Customers have told us that they want more choice and Basic Economy delivers just that," said Julia Haywood, United's chief commercial officer, in a news release.

The boarding process will also be faster because fewer customers will be searching for overhead bin space, United said.

credit Reuters

How to book your European vacation for Almost FREE

Family cooking class in Cuzco, Peru

Travelling does not have to be expensive! With a little advance planning and strategy, your entire family can travel for almost free. You can even travel to Europe, Asia or South America OR anywhere else you want to go.
I just booked my family on flights to Europe for next summer for about $350. We paid just taxes and fees for all of our flights.
So how did I do it? That's what I want to share here because you can do it too.
I picked Europe because my daughter says we have traveled to lots of exotic places and she would really like to see London and Paris. I had enough miles on United for 3 one way tickets to Europe, but we are family of 5. Now my husband will actually join us halfway into the trip so I will book his flight a bit later.
United is part of the Star Alliance so I checked out who else is part of that alliance and would allow me to book one way tickets. Singapore Air seemed like the best fit. I can book one way tickets using miles. Their mileage program is called Krisflyer. So then I looked at the 4 big general mileage clubs - Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Starwood Preferred Guest and American Express Membership Rewards to figure out how I could get 165,000 Krisflyer miles.
Unfortunately due to the 5/24 Chase rule, I am not eligible for the Chase United Explorer card or any other Chase cards. I already have a few Starwood cards so I focused my research on American Express Membership Rewards. 
My husband and I each signed up for the Premier card with a bonus of 40,000 points with a minimum spend of $2,000. Then I could transfer Starwood points to Krisflyer directly to flush out the remaining points. Because Starwood gives you a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 you transfer, I needed just 70,000 Starwood points to reach 165,000 Krisflyer miles.
As soon as the American Express Membership Rewards posted, I started to transfer all the miles/points into my Krisflyer account and book flights.
Yesterday I booked 4.5 round trip flights to Europe for $350. Woohoo!

Here are the simple steps I follow:

1. Where do you want to go?
2. Which airlines and partners fly there?
3. What mileage programs do they use and who do they partner with?
4. How many miles do you need?
5. How can you get those miles?

Then put your plan in action and cross your fingers.

Get A FREE $10 Towards Holiday Shopping!

One of the easiest ways to save money on your holiday shopping is to use the cash back portal Ebates.com. And if you join for FREE by 12/31/2016, you will get $10 cash back just for joining. And if you use the portal when you do your online shopping, you will get a big fat check. 

I got a check last month for $41.57. 

Now that's not going to buy me a round trip flight anywhere, but it paid for my dinner out last night. A friend of mine says she has received $16,000 cash back so far this year! Wow. she is a big online shopper. And the more you shop, the more you earn. Better yet, this is money you would have left on the table. So make your money work harder for you! You can use any discount codes, coupons or promo codes too!

The only time I don't use the cash back portal is when I need to reset or accumulate airline miles and then I'll use that airlines portal. 

To get the $10 bonus, you need to use my link to Ebates.com. 

Happy Shopping! 

How To Get FREE Airline Gift Cards

One of the benefits is a $100 airline credit each calendar year! 

Okay, here's one to put on your to do list before the end of the year. If you have the American Express Premier Rewards Credit Card, you can get FREE gift cards on the airline of your choice. One of the benefits of the Premier Rewards card is $100 airline fee credit each calendar year.
This fee can be used for incidentals like baggage and other fees. However, you may be able to get credit for buying gift cards online.
So it may be worth a try.
Here's how you do it. Before you buy anything, you need to log into your American Express account, click on benefits and link the card to the airline of your choice.
I picked Southwest Airlines, but there are dozens of airlines to choose from.
Then wait a few days for the link to go through.
This is important. The first gift card I bought did not credit. The second one though posted a credit within a few days.
Then log into your chosen airline account and buy the gift card using your Premier Rewards Credit Card. I recommend buying the gift cards in small amounts i.e. $25, $40. Then within a few days, you should see a credit posted to your account.
Nice!

Book A European Vacation For Almost FREE!

Here's the dilemma: You want to take a European vacation next summer with your family of 5. BUT you have maxed out your 5/24 rule on Chase, you have enough miles for 3 one way tickets on United, and lots of Starwood points, but those have a terrible transfer ratio to United.
So what do you do?

Here's my plan:

1. My husband and I each applied for the American Express Premier Gold card for a bonus of 40,000 miles for a $2000 spend. He added me as an authorized user.
2. Transfer those American Express membership rewards to Krisflyer (The frequent flier club for Singapore Airlines). I chose Krisflyer because they will let you book one way tickets on Star Alliance partner airlines including United. Since I'm an authorized user on my husband's Amex, he can transfer his rewards to my Krisflyer account.
3. Top off my KrisFlyer account with Starwood points which transfer 1:1 with a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 Starwood points, Spouses can share Starwood points so to maximize the bonus, my husband transferred 35,000 Starwood points to my account. Then I transferred those to my Krisflyer account.

And fingers crossed, if all works out and the transfers go through, we will have 9 one way tickets on Star Alliance partner airlines booked with points.

So did it work? YES! BAM! 4.5 round trip flights from LAX to Europe for almost FREE! We paid taxes and fees plus a $25 booking fee from United because I booked 2 tickets by phone to make sure we were all on the same flights. Did it take a little bit of work, yes. Was it worth it? Of course, we are headed to Europe for almost FREE. If we had paid for these flights, they would have cost us at least $5000 probably more. Woohoo!

Point Break IHG Hotels List Is Out!

Every quarter IHG releases a list of hotels you can book for just 5,000 points. It's called the point break list. The new list was just released today and you can start booking these hotels on Monday.
Sometimes you can get a great deal, but other times the list is just plain strange in my opinion.
But here's the link  so you can check out the whole list. If there is something that interests you, book it fast because they do sell out quickly.

Here are the North American hotels:

ARIZONA CANDLEWOOD SUITES SIERRA VISTA ARKANSAS HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES MAGNOLIA-LAKE COLUMBIA CALIFORNIA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS CALEXICO COLORADO CANDLEWOOD SUITES CRAIG-NORTHWEST MISSOURI HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS KIRKSVILLE

NEBRASKA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES NORFOLK NEW JERSEY HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS HASKELL-WAYNE AREA SOUTH CAROLINA CANDLEWOOD SUITES SUMTER SOUTH DAKOTA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES ABERDEEN TEXAS CANDLEWOOD SUITES MOUNT PLEASANT WEST VIRGINIA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES LOGAN

The Secret To Taking An Almost FREE Family Summer Vacation

Washing elephants in Thailand. Once in a lifetime experience! 

So you want to take a big family vacation next summer? And of course, you want to take that trip for almost FREE, right? Well, the secret is planning early.

Here are the things you need to figure out now.

1. Where do you want to go? Europe, South America, Hawaii, Asia?
2. Which airlines fly there? Who are their partner airlines? And what points can you use to get miles on those airlines?
3. How many miles do you need for free tickets? And how can you gather the rest of the miles quickly?
4. Put the plan in action

The plan takes a bit of research. For example, we would like to go to Europe next summer. We are a family of 5. Currently, I have 3 one way tickets on United. So the question is how can we get the rest of the tickets we need to get all of us to Europe for FREE.
Since we want to fly together, I am targeting United Airlines which is part of the Star Alliance. Starwood Points can be transferred to United, but the ratio is 2:1 so it's not a good option. BUT Starwood Points can be transferred to Singapore Airlines at a 1:1 ratio with a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer. You can also book one way tickets and use less points than United charges for the same flights. Hmmm, now we are getting somewhere.
If you want to go to South America, American Airlines will probably be your best bet. Starwood points transfer at a ratio of 1:1 with the 5,000 point bonus. Plus British Airways is a partner with LAN Airlines and offers ridiculously cheap flights for Avios points within South America.
If you want to go to Asia, you may need to look at United or American who partners with Japan Airlines.
Sometimes you have to act like a detective to try and figure out the best scenario and then just go for it. Be flexible, reach your minimum spend quickly and transfer the points and book your flights.

Maui With Kids For Almost FREE!

Road To Hana - Amazing!

Think you can't travel to Maui on the cheap with kids? Think again. We spent more than a week in Maui for almost FREE. That's right. Here's how we did it and what we did while we were there. We are a family of 5, but for this trip we just took our 8 year old.

The other two kids went on separate trips, one went to Sweden with her cousin and one went on a baseball trip with his grandpa. 

So when we asked our 8 year old where do you want to go? She said Maui. We booked 3 round trip tickets on American Airlines with miles. 25,000 points each. Easy. 

Then we booked an airbnb.com for 3 nights in Kihei. There are tons of available rentals and since there were only 3 of us, we booked a one bedroom, one bathroom with full kitchen across from the beach. The unit had a pool too. Very convenient. Safeway was down the street so we ate most of our meals at home. We did dine at Coconut's Fish Cafe in Kihei and had probably the best fish tacos ever. And we are from San Diego so that says a lot.

Coconut's in Kihei, Maui - Yummy fish tacos

We took a full day and drove the Road To Hana. This is something we would never do with all 3 kids, but with just 1 it was totally doable. My advice start early like 6am. It is a long drive and day. Think like 12 hours long kind of a day. Bring changes of clothes, towels, snacks, couple pairs of shoes and check out the app tours on itunes or android. They will talk you through the drive and tell you exactly where to stop and where to skip. Be sure to pick up some banana bread along the way.

While in Kihei, we took a one day snorkeling trip to Molokini. We like to spend money on experiences and then use miles/points for travel and hotels. Snorkeling was a bit cloudy as it was very windy that day, but enjoyable. 

Snorkeling in Molokini

After a few nights in Kihei, we moved to Kanapali. Both my husband and I opened Chase Hyatt credit cards so we each had 2 FREE nights at any Hyatt. We cashed them in for 4 nights at the Hyatt Kanapali. Usually you have to pay for parking, but the machine was broken so Hyatt comped our parking for all 4 nights too. Nice. 

Hotels at Kanapali

While staying at the Hyatt, we drove to Lahaina for breakfast, a bit farther north is a nice hike to the geyser and of course, Ululani's for shaved ice. 

Great breakfast place in Lahaina

Nice walk in northern Maui to see the geyser

Otherwise, we just hung at the Hyatt, enjoyed the activities and the beach. The problem with the big hotels is that you are captive to the high prices in the restaurants. We utilized the happy hour at the Hyatt for dinner one night and stocked the in room fridge with sandwich makings and breakfast items. We also attended the luau one night which included dinner. Expensive, but our daughter had never attended a luau so it was totally worth it.

Hyatt Kanapali offers bird visits, daily crafts, penguin and koi feeding

Our favorite, shaved ice at Ulelanis

So total cost of the trip:
Flights 75,000 miles on American for 3 round trip flights LAX-Maui
Hotel   3 nights in airbnb for $100 each night, 4 nights at the Hyatt FREE
Car - rented from Budget for $350 for the week
Food/Activities $1000

We rent out our home while we are on vacation so we probably made money on this trip. Not too bad. 

Southwest drops fares to Havana!

If you are thinking about heading to Havana on Southwest Airlines, book now! The airline just dropped the price of flights to $54 one way or 1,872 points. The return cost $86, but the same 1,872 points. The website says taxes are just $5.60, but when you total the cost of the flight, it calculates taxes and fees at $47.
Southwest is starting flights to Varadero on November 12th and flights to Havana on December 12th.
Exciting!

Woohoo! Southwest opens flights to Cuba

Southwest Airlines announced today that flights will begin Dec. 12th to Havana, Cuba. And right now, you can reserve a one way flight for just 2,232 points + $41.46 in fees. If you choose to pay for the flight, it's just $91 each way. Wow!
Add in your companion pass and BAM!
I booked a round trip flight on Southwest from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale anticipating flights opening to Havana. I booked my Florida flight for just 8,800 points round trip and I can add my husband on the companion pass.
So for 11,000 points, my husband and I can fly from SD to Havana round trip. Awesome!
However, I booked our Florida trip for Dec 1-9. Oops, I am a week early.
But I'm finding flights from Fort Lauderdale to Havana on Spirit Airlines for $150 round trip. Jet Blue anticipates flights to Havana this fall, but they are not open yet. 
I'll keep you posted on how we solve this!

Answer To Reader's Question Re: Southwest

A friend told me the other day that she is 35,000 points short of earning a companion pass this year. She earned the first 50,000 points by opening a Southwest credit card and then the rest she earned through spend.
So she asked me what she should do.
Even though the end of the year is not the best time to earn a companion pass, she is so close that I thought she might want to go for it.
But she has to act quickly so the points post before the end of the year or she will be starting over in Jan.
When you earn the companion pass in January, it is good for the entire year you earn it and the following year. So you are essentially getting 2 years to use the pass.
If you earn it in December, you get it for the remaining time in the year you earn and the following year. So you are essentially getting it for 1 year and a few weeks.
But the flip side is that it is better to earn it for 1 year than no years.
So I advised her to open the second personal Southwest card (Southwest offers a premier and plus card). The cards have a 40,000 bonus with $1,000 spend.
OR she could open a small business Southwest card. The current offer is 50,000 points with $2,000 minimum spend.  Any small business qualifies you for the business card. So if you sell something on Etsy or Ebay or rent your house, you can qualify by using your social security number.
It's a good idea to separate business and personal expenses anyways.