Kids Get In FREE To Legoland

One of my favorite places to take the kids when they were little was Legoland. But it's so expensive! Right now, Travelzoo is offering buy 1 adult ticket, get a child ticket for FREE.  Sale ends Oct. 31

• Grants same-day admission to both attractions
• Show up any time you like before the voucher expires -- no need to commit to a date ahead of time 
• New this year: LEGO NINJAGO The Ride and The LEGO Movie 4D a New Adventure

Tickets are valid Sept. 6 - Dec. 25

What's included

• Buy one adult SEA LIFE Hopper ticket at regular price ($113) and receive one child (ages 3-12) SEA LIFE Hopper ticket for free (a $107 value)
• Tickets are valid for one day of admission to both LEGOLAND California and SEA LIFE Aquarium anytime the park is open Sept. 6 - Dec. 25; sale ends Oct. 31

Big News: Link Your Starwood And Marriott Accounts

Announced today, you can link your Starwood account to your Marriott account or vice versa. This will enable you to exchange points from one account to the other with an instant transfer at a rate of 3 Marriott points per Starwood points. 
If you look at this closer, it means if you are collecting Marriott points in order to buy a Southwest package or any other vacation package, you can top off your account by transferring Starpoints. 
For example, I am saving for the 270,000 package that includes 7 nights in a category 1-5 hotel and 110,000 Southwest miles. The Southwest miles will net me the companion pass. 
If I were short, I could now transfer Starwood points to Marriott at 1:3 to reach my goal. 
However, look at your goals to see if this is the best move for you. For now, Starwood still offers an extra 5,000 miles if you transfer your points to an airline like American. 
And Marriott hotels usually cost about 12,000-15,000 points per night. Starwood hotels cost as little as 3,000 points per night. You could transfer Starwood points to Marriott in order to reserve a Marriott hotel for just 4,000-5,000 Starwood points per night. Not bad! 
Lots of options. 
If you link your account, you will get automatic match in upgrade status. 
The programs will merge in 2018, we don't know yet what that will look like. This first step is promising so hopefully it will go smoothly. 

Marriott Hotels: AC Hotels, Autograph Collection, Bulgari*, Courtyard, Delta Hotels and Resorts, Edition, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Gaylord Hotels, JW Marriott, Marriott Executive Apartments*, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club, MOXY Hotels, Protea Hotels, Renaissance, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Ritz-Carlton, TownePlace Suites

*Bulgari does not participate in Marriott Rewards; members can redeem but not earn points at Executive Apartments.

Starwood Hotels: Aloft, Design Hotels, Element, Four Points, Le Meridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, W Hotels, Westin

Cash Back With Ebates!

Remember anytime you shop online for anything, use a portal. There are portals everywhere, cash back portals, miles, points, charity you name it, there's a portal. Same shopping, but now you get cash back, miles, points or donate a portion to your favorite charity or child's school.
We recently started using the Benefit app at my child's school and it's pretty amazing. You buy a digital gift card for a retailer with your credit card and a percentage of the purchase goes to your child's school. Nice!
I used to reload my Starbucks card through the Starbucks app, now I am using the Benefit app and sending a portion of my purchase to my child's school. One extra step, same reload and my child's school gets some FREE money.
In the photo above, you will see the cash back I'm getting from Ebates.com for booking our hotels in Peru through Travelocity. We booked others through Booking.com and will get cash back for those too. It's not a lot of money, but it could pay for my cup of coffee.
Recently, I needed to reset the expiration date on my United airlines miles so I bought my dog food through the United Airlines shopping portal. My $12 purchase reset the clock and I got 24 miles. Same dog food I would have bought anyway, but my purchase served double duty.
It's not about spending new money, it's about making the money you spend work harder for you!

*If you would like to try Ebates.com and get cash back on your shopping, please use my link so I get credit for the referral.

The Amazon With Kids

Cayman catching in the Amazon! 

The Amazon is made for kids! Full of adventure at every turn. It's a whole new culture and way of life. Our guide told my 14 year old son when he was 14, he had already caught his first 6 foot Cayman. That says it all right there.
There are various ways to tour the Amazon, stay in a lodge, on a small boat, on a tour boat or camp. We chose a lodge almost 2 hours by boat from Nauta, a small town 2 hours by car from Iquitos. It's a haul to get there so I recommend staying for at least 4 nights to make it worth it.
We chose the lodge because we want a more intimate experience than what we thought we could have on a big boat, we wanted nicer accommodations than what we thought we could find on a small boat and camping was out of the question.

Hiking through the jungle

 Each day, the guide would ask us what we would like to do. Choices included Monkey Island, Jungle Hikes, Fishing for piranha, Cayman catching, swimming with pink dolphins, walking in the village, Giant Lilly Pads, holding a sloth, bird watching, medicine walk and more.

Sunset over the Amazon River

 The food is mostly from the jungle and all organic. It's a pretty basic menu, but very good. I asked where all the fish came from and the guide told me his cousin caught it overnight.

Snakes, monkeys, sloths, spiders, oh my!

The beds were comfortable with mosquito netting around them, the room and then again around the lodge. We still got bit though. The Amazon is an adventure at every turn and worth every penny to see and enjoy. 

Though I paid full price in cash for the lodge, we used points for the airfare from Lima to Iquitos and back. Hotels in Iquitos are cheap plus I booked through a site that gave me 10% cash back. 

Earn An Easy 1,000 United Miles

Earn an easy 1,000 United miles 

As you know if you follow my blog, I am saving for a family trip to Europe next summer. We plan to fly United and right now, I have enough miles for 2 round trip tickets. But we are a family of 5. So we recently applied for 2 American Express Premier Gold credit cards with bonuses of 40,000 each plus $2,000 minimum spend. I'll explain in an upcoming post how I will use these miles.
However, I have a United account with 15,000 miles in it so I'm going to jump on this Wall Street Journal deal to build up miles in that account. I may not use those miles for Europe, but I'll use them someday.
If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal through the United Shopping Portal by September 19th, you will earn 1,000 United miles. Easy and way better deal than buying them. So if you have an account you need to top off or you need United miles for an upcoming trip, you will want to jump on it. Just be sure to cancel the subscription after 45 days, but before 60 days or you will be charged $32.99.
To subscribe, go to the United Shopping Portal

Woohoo....IHG Awards A FREE 1000 Points!

Here's an easy way to score an extra 1000 IHG points. When you sign up for their free program and complete your first survey, they will deposit 1000 IHG points into your account. I am not a huge fan of the IHG brand which includes Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites, Intercontinental and Hotel Indigo. But sometimes you can find a gem or take advantage of the point break promotion the brand offers during the year.
I had a few thousand IHG points so this award brings me close to 5000 points which may come in handy one day.

Get a free $10 from VISA checkout

My $10 eGift from Visa Checkout!

Starbucks and Visa Checkout have teamed up for a promotion. 
If you buy a $10 Starbucks gift card you can receive a $10 bonus card. 
Here’s how the promotion works:

1. Download the Starbucks app and create an account
2. Load $10 to the Starbucks app with Visa Checkout 
3. Receive your $10 eGift within 5 days courtesy of Visa Checkout

The promotion is valid through September 30, 2016, or “while supplies last.” Unfortunately since you only get the $10 bonus card after the fact (within five days of your purchase), you won’t know for sure at the time of purchase whether you qualify.

But I did it and my husband did it and sure enough, a few days later we both received emails with an eGift from Starbucks. If it doesn't work, you would probably spend $10 at Starbucks one day anyway.