How To Earn The Most Points and Miles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

One of our first FREE trips was to Thailand and Japan. It was an amazing one-month adventure rich with culture and new experiences. It was especially sweet because not only was it FREE, we actually made money on the trip. I vowed never to pay for travel again. 

One of my tricks during the holiday shopping season is to lean heavily on online shopping portals and then use the right credit card to double or even triple dip on points and miles. 

As we head into Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I am going to show you how to do it too. 

Before pressing the place order button, check cashbackmonitor.com to see if the online retailer is listed on any shopping portal. Most major retailers are listed on shopping portals as part of their marketing strategies. All the major airlines and some hotels offer shopping portals plus there are cashback portals and flexible point portals like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Barclays, and Capital One.

Once you see where the retailer is listed, you can compare the points and miles offers. 

For example, I type in Best Buy and bam, it's listed all over the place from cashback to Southwest to Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Depending on your strategy, you may pick one portal over another. 

• if you need to top off an account
• you have points that are expiring and you need some activity
• you are trying to earn enough points for a specific trip 

There are a lot of reasons to pick one portal over another. 

My go-to portal is the Chase Ultimate Rewards since I can transfer those points to dozens of different airlines, hotels, use them in the travel center or pay myself back. Points earned in the Southwest shopping portal count towards the Companion Pass. 

Sometimes the portals will offer bonus points too so if I saw a great bonus offer in another portal, I would head there. 

You can click on the portal out of cashback monitor and log in from there. Some of the portals require a separate login from your regular airline mile account. 

Then make your purchase just like you would normally. The portal will track your purchase and a few days later you will get an email letting you know that your purchase is being tracked. 

Now one more thing before you push the button to make that purchase and after you click through to a shopping portal, be sure you use the right credit card. If you have a Chase FREEDOM or FREEDOM UNLIMITED or FLEX card, then check your bonus categories. If the store you are making a purchase from is listed, then use that credit card to get the bonus on top of the portal bonus. For example, Q4 2021 bonus categories are Walmart and Paypal. Can you use Paypal to pay for this purchase? Many retailers offer the option, then do it and collect 5x bonus points on top of the portal points. 

If not, is the retailer an office supply store? If so, use your Chase Ink credit card to earn 5x points and so on. Amazing!

If you don't have a Chase FREEDOM card or Southwest Credit Card, consider using my referral links so we can continue helping you get the best deals in travel. 

That's how we do it here at almostfreefamilytravel.com. Happy holidays! 

 cashback monitor 

Chase and use the Chase Reserve Credit Card 

San Diego Airport Launches A New FREE Transit Shuttle

Great news for people traveling to San Diego! 

The airport is finally connected to mass transit via the new all-electric Flyer. 

 The San Diego Country Regional Airport Authority is providing FREE shuttle service called the San Diego Flyer from both Terminals 1 and 2 to the Old Town Transit Center. The FREE buses will operate daily every 20-30 minutes. First, pick up at 4:45am and the last drop off at 12:30am. The shuttles are meant to help travelers connect with Amtrak, Coaster, MTS bus, and the trolley. 

This is welcome news and will hopefully relieve some of the congestion at the airport. The MTS Route 992 bus also connects travelers from the airport to the Santa Fe Depot downtown.

And this weekend, San Diego opened the new blue line on its trolley system. It's a well-known fact that Southern California residents like their cars! It's been tough to get riders to take the relatively new LA subway and the San Diego trolley. But the cities keep trying since the traffic is tough. 

The blue line is a welcome addition because now UC San Diego is connected to the trolley system. Now, you can ride the trolley from UCSD all the way to the baseball stadium, Petco Park, downtown. Amazing. 

 The bus and trolley cost $2.50 per ride and there are discounts for children, seniors,. Friends fly FREE on all major holidays and on weekends, children are FREE with a paid adult.  

The trolley is a light rail system covering 53 miles around San Diego County and was created in 1981. 

Unfortunately, the trolley we were on announced that riders would have to change trolleys in Old Town instead of being able to ride all the way downtown, but in theory, you could do it. 

 Besides the blue line, MTS built parking lots at most of the new trolley stops including this one at the Balboa Avenue stop. The stop at Nobel has a five-story parking structure. Parking is FREE at all MTS parking lots, however, you can only park there for 24 hours. For a list of all the parking structures, click here. 

=

MTS has a trip planner on the website to help you plan your route.  You can pay per ride or buy a Pronto pass online that you can swipe. There are day and monthly passes available as well. 

All in all, the blue line is a welcome addition and if you are in San Diego, it's a great outing for kids. Not quite as cool as the cable car in San Francisco and may not replace the need for a rental car, but fun. You can take the trolley up to UCSD, the UTC mall, Fashion Valley mall, Old Town, Little Italy, the Convention Center, and SDSU. Enjoy a nice lunch and ride on back. 

Did you Earn the Southwest Mini Companion Pass?

 

When I saw this promotion pop up in September, I jumped on it. Two one-way flights or one round trip and you get a promotional companion pass good for two months, count me in! I told you to jump on it too. For families, the Southwest Companion Pass is the number one secret to FREE travel. It's a buy one, get one FREE ticket on every flight you take during the life of the pass. 

Did you Earn the Southwest Mini Companion Pass? 

The regular companion pass is good for the year you earn it and the following year. In the next few weeks, we will start to talk about how to earn that pass for 2022 and 2023. There are some strategies you need to follow so that you earn the pass in January and max its value. 

I have had the companion pass for the past six years and have written numerous posts about it. The pass has saved me thousands of dollars on many trips cross country. 

When I saw the promotion back in September, I looked at cities with short and cheap flights from my home airport of San Diego. Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Oakland are usually pretty inexpensive. I found flights to Phoenix for just $49 each way so I booked a one-day round trip ticket. 

Yesterday, I took a 10am flight to Phoenix, had a wonderful lunch with a dear friend, and took the 5:30pm flight back in time for dinner at home with the family. 

And this morning, I received an email from Southwest, bam, I earned the mini pass. Woohoo!

The promotional Companion Pass is only good for two months, just January and February 2022. However, for me, it will bridge the gap until I can earn the regular pass. Plus I already have one trip planned to the East Coast, now the big question is where else should I go? and who should I take with me?

Southwest Companion Pass: Best Travel Perk In The Industry

If you don't have a Southwest Credit Card yet, you may want to take advantage of the new bonus offer 50,000 points for just a $2,000 minimum spend and another 50,000 bonus when you spend $12,000 in the first year. This bonus is being offered on all 3 of the Southwest personal cards. To figure out which card is right for you, check out my blog post. If you have a business, there are a few options for you too that come with increased bonuses of 60,000 and 80,000 points with minimum spend of $5,000.  These points also count towards the Southwest Companion Pass. 

Now is the time to apply for this card, but don't charge anything to the card yet. That's the first strategy towards earning the Southwest Companion Pass. 

And when you decide to apply for one of these cards, please consider using my referral link. 

Why I Love The Priority Pass

 

On a recent trip cross country, we had a quick layover in St. Louis. Even though it was only about one hour, we dropped into the Priority Pass lounge, Wingtips, in Terminal 2 across from Gate E29. The Priority Pass lounge network features 1,300 lounges around the world and is a free benefit with the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card 

I always check to see if there are lounges available in the airports when I fly. Besides snacks, drinks, and a quiet place to charge cell phones, the lounges offer a place to sit down. The pass is good for the holder plus one guest. 

Sometimes the lounge may not be a lounge at all, it could be a credit at a restaurant in the airport. If that's the case, the pass is valid for $28 for the pass holder and their guest. Wow! 

A few years back I flew out of JFK to London Gatwick. There is an amazing restaurant in JFK Terminal 8 Bobby Van's Steakhouse that is on the lounge pass. My daughter and I feasted on a full dinner before boarding our red-eye flight across the pond. Our bill came to $5 and that's only because we ordered a dessert. 

On the way back, we stopped at the Grain Store Cafe and Bar in London Gatwick South Terminal. Whew, we had a hard time spending our $28 credit each. We ended up loading up on croissants and desserts to bring home to the family. 

Lounges vary from airport to airport in quality and offerings, but sometimes you luck out. 

The Priority Pass is a FREE perk with the following credit cards:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Citi Prestige Card 
• The Platinum Card from American Express
• The Business Platinum Card From American Express 
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card 
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card 
• US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Card
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card 
• Hilton Honors American Express Business Card 

Note that the American Express cards do not have restaurant benefits. My favorite card which you probably know by now is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Right now, that card is offering 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 in three months. It carries a $550 annual fee but includes a $300 travel credit, $100 global entry credit, %15 off Lyft, and $60 Door Dash credit. If the Reserve is too much, try the Sapphire Preferred card, it does not include Priority Pass membership, but it is a great card. Though the offer has changed, you can read about why I love this card so much. 

Chase Travel Portal Adopts A New Booking Service

 

The Chase Travel Portal is one of my favorite ways to redeem Ultimate Reward Points especially if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve credit card. You can read more about this here. The portal has relied on Expedia for its booking service. There were a couple of hiccups with this service which excluded discount airlines like Frontier and Southwest and the inability to include your loyalty rewards number for hotels. 

Chase Travel Portal Adopts A New Booking Service

But now Chase is dropping Expedia for CX Loyalty, it's the same booking site that Citi uses so you might be familiar with it. By the way, Chase bought the service back at the end of 2020 and actually used the service prior to 2018 when it switched to Expedia. 

The new portal is slowly being rolled out to Chase customers in the next few days. Here's a sneak peek, we will do a deep dive in the next few weeks. 

The first thing you will notice is that more airlines are listed including Spirit and Frontier. You will still need to call to book on Southwest and Allegiant. 

The other difference is when booking a hotel, the service asks for your hotel loyalty number which gives us hope that we may get credit when using a third-party site. We will have to wait and see on that one. 

More details as the service rolls out and we can do a deep dive. 

If you don't have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve credit card yet, please consider using my referral link to apply. Right now, you can get a 60,000 point bonus which is valued at $750 FREE travel through the portal plus a $50 hotel credit. Pretty sweet! 

How To Do A Weekend Trip To Catalina Island

Catalina Island, the most Southern Channel Island, is located just 26 miles off the coast of Orange County in Southern California, but once on the island, you could be anywhere in the world. The island has the feel of the Caribbean or the Greek Islands. Picture lots of palm trees, beautiful ocean, houses hanging from the hillside, and drinks with little umbrellas in them. 

We went for an overnight kayak camping trip, but lots of people on the ferry were just hopping over to the island for the day. 

The island is easy to get to by the Catalina Express and the Catalina Flyer ,both carry passengers from the mainland to the island. The Catalina Express travels from San Pedro, Long Beach, and Dana Point to Avalon and Two Harbors. The Catalina Flyer travels from Newport Beach to Avalon. 

We opted for the Flyer and it could not have been easier. We found a coupon online so a roundtrip ticket cost $49.50 per person. The first ferry of the day left at 9am, the company asked us to arrive at 8am and the line was already long. There is long-term parking available two blocks away from the dock. Easy. The last ferry of the day left Avalon at 4:30pm and the company asked that we get in line at 4pm. 

The ferry ride was about one hour long and pretty calm. On the way back, the captain spotted two humpback whales and hundreds of dolphins so he stopped the ferry so we could get a better look. Pretty sweet! 

The town of Avalon has plenty of hotels, restaurants, shops, and rental companies. Activities on the island include kayaks, paddleboards, scuba, hiking, jet ski, zip line, casinos, golf, and a glass-bottom boat. You can also go on a bison tour. Catalina is home to about 150 bison or buffalo that were left behind after a movie shoot in the 1920's. 

Our group was going on a kayaking adventure so we brought everything along with us on the ferry in backpacks. Once we landed in Avalon, we walked about 15 minutes to the Descanso Beach Club to pick up kayaks with storage holds. Descanso Beach Club offers rentals and tours. Each storage kayak costs approximately $80 for a two-day/one-night rental. 

All the campsites on Catalina are private so you have to make a reservation through www.visitcatalinaisland.com. Five of the campsites are accessible by land and 11 are boat-in only. Keep in mind, the boat-in campgrounds do not have any services so you have to bring in everything even water. 

This was our first try at kayak camping so we opted for the closest boat-in campground called Willow Cove. After about a one-hour kayak, we arrived at the beautiful beach. This was our view! We landed our kayaks and set up camp. Because it's so dry, campfires are not allowed. But we brought along a jet boil so we had plenty of hot water. 

The snorkeling was pretty good, with lots of seagrasses, garibaldis, opaleye, and small silverfish. Overnight, we could hear the water lapping up on the shore from our tents. So relaxing, we slept in. 

I highly recommend an overnight trip to Catalina. Remember that many recreation activities will post as travel on your credit card so use the right card to maximize points. 

Last Chance For The Marriott Bonvoy Big Bonus

 

Marriott Bonvoy Bonus Offers end November 3rd. So if you don't have any of these co-branded cards yet, you may want to take a look. Marriott Bonvoy points are in my top three because you can transfer them to dozen of airlines at 3:1 with a 5,000-mile bonus so 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points equal 25,000 airline miles. 

 Of course, you can use the points at thousands of hotels worldwide. 

Chase and American Express Bonus Offers

The bonus is on Chase and American Express co-branded cards and a mix of business and personal cards. The Chase cards are:

Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless - 125,000 bonus points when you spend $5,000 minimum plus one FREE hotel night for 50,000 points. This card comes with a FREE 35,000 hotel night on your anniversary and only carries a $95 annual fee. 

Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold - 60,000 bonus points when you spend $2,000 minimum. This is a no annual fee card. 

The American Express cards are: 

American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business - This offer is currently 125,000 bonus points plus two FREE hotel nights valued at 50,000 points each. There is a $125 annual fee. If you decide to apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express, please use my referral link 

American Express Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant - The bonus right now is 150,000 points and a FREE night valued at 85,000 points with a minimum spend of $5,000. This premium card carries a $450 annual fee, but it also comes with a $300 Marriott credit and one FREE hotel night valued at 50,000 points. 

All of these offers end November 3rd.