It's the final countdown!

For the past 2 years, I have had a Southwest Companion Pass which is one of the best values out there. It's a buy 1 get 1 free pass on Southwest airlines. You can book a ticket with miles or buy one and your companion flies free anywhere Southwest flies. I went to the east coast to look at colleges, my daughter flew for free. I went to Washington DC for a family event, my son flew for free. I even took a quick trip up north, my son flew for free. I am planning a trip to Cuba in December, my husband will fly for free.
Awesome!
Quick tip about the Southwest companion pass,  you want to earn it as close to the beginning of the year as possible as it is good for the year you earn it and the following year.
You earn the pass when you collect 110,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. 
Easy if you apply for 2 Southwest credit cards with bonuses of 50,000 points each. You can apply for two if you have a small business or spouse or child over 18.
But how do you get a companion pass for another 2 years when you cannot qualify for a Southwest credit card because you already had these cards and can't qualify for them again.
Not so easy.
But here's my plan. Marriott offers vacation packages that include 7 nights in a hotel and enough points for the airline tickets. They work with a variety of airlines so if you are planning a trip somewhere and have or can earn lots of Marriott points, this might work for you. The package I am focusing on costs 270,000 Marriott points. It will give me 7 nights in a category 1-5 Marriott, but more importantly it will give me 110,000 Southwest points. BAM!
So today I got an email update letting me know that I now have 180,177 Marriott points in my account. That is from 2 Marriott cards (one personal, one business), minimum spend on those cards and additional spend. My husband also got a Marriott card with the 80,000 bonus and he added me as an authorized user for another 7,500. He can share his Marriott points with me 50,000 this year and another 50,000 next year.
So before the end of the year, he will share 50,000 points with me bringing my total to 230,177 and then in January he can transfer the rest of bring my total to 270,000. At that point, I can buy the package and BAM, companion pass.
If we find we need more Marriott points to upgrade to a higher category hotel, we can transfer Starwood points now at 1:3. Since Marriott and Starwood merged last week. I did  a quick search and found beach resort hotels in Nevis/St. Kitts and Panama that looked inviting. We would only need 10,000 Starwood points to upgrade to category 6 and another 10,000 to category 7. If we decide to go for it and upgrade all the way to category 9, it would only cost us 40,000 Starwood points. Tempting.
Cross your fingers and I'll keep you posted!

*Remember anytime you get a credit card, immediately sign up for auto payment. You do not want to incur late fees and you want to pay off your credit card each month.

Iquitos, Peru

Riding on a tuk tuk to the bus station in Nauta

Iquitos, Peru is a throwback to another time! There are very few cars in the town even though the town has almost 500,000 people. Instead, they use a vehicle called a tuk tuk. These are similar to the tuk tuks you see in Thailand, but different.
What struck me was how the streets look with no cars and just tuk tuks.

Plaza de Armas in Iquitos

Iquitos is on the Amazon river and the humidity and heat runs high. However, it's a town so no wild animals running around. Though we did hear a nasty cat fight overnight from our hotel.
Be sure to find a hotel with air conditioning. If you can find one with a pool, then you will be super happy.
Hotels are pretty cheap and basic. Most people just stay here overnight while waiting for a flight to/from Lima or shuttle to take them to the jungle.
We found a hotel on Booking.com and got 10% cash back.

Tuk tuks are front riders instead of side riders like in Southeast Asia

View of the Amazon from the main street in Iquitos

 There are some side trips to do while in Iquitos - a butterfly farm and a stingray feeding area. We did not partake in any of these and instead just chose to walk around, eat a meal and visit a local supermarket.
The market had a hot meal area inside where you could have bought a meal for cheap. We opted for some snacks and drinks from the market instead.
Bottom line, Iquitos is not a destination, but if you have a stop over, there are some options.

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