Audience Rewards - Starwood

You know how much I love shopping, cash back and airline portals. So now if you are a theatre goer, you can rack up the Starwood, United, American and Amtrak miles and points. It's called Audience Rewards.  You can collect Audience Reward points to use on future shows or you can collect Starwood points which I value higher. You can do the same thing to earn American Airlines or United miles or Amtrak guest rewards. Here's how it works:

For example, for Starwood, use the Audience Reward Starwood partner website , click on the city you want and the show you want to see how many Starwood points you will earn if you buy your ticket. Be careful with days and show times because the points vary.
Obviously if you can attend a show mid week or a matinee, you could earn more points.
You can also check featured offers to see if there are any bonus points to be earned.

This can be another way to rack up points on things you are spending money on anyway. Try it and see how it works for you. Here's the link for all the partners. 

Starwood Personal or Business Card?

Starwood increased credit card offer to 35,000 points ends April 5th 2017. The increase is good for both the personal and business card so which one should you apply for? Both cards award you 25,000 points for meeting minimum spend and an additional 10,000 points for meeting the second minimum spend. 

Here are some of the differences:

1. Personal card only has a $3,000 spend compared with the business card which has a $5,000 spend. 

2. Both cards waive the $95 fee for the first year

3. To get the additional spend on the personal card, you need to spend $2,000 and on the business card, you need to spend $3,000.

4. The business card has the added perk of FREE club access at Starwood hotels worldwide. This is huge for me because you get breakfast. And if you follow my blog, you know I love hotels that include breakfast. 

5. The business card has protection for luggage and car rental loss. 

So the bottom line is if you can swing the minimum spend, get both cards. Since Starwood merged with Marriott, we do not know how long Starwood will be offering deals. Plus 70,000 Starwood points can go a long way, but it's a big minimum spend too. 

Great New Travel Planner Site

Great new travel planning site! Rome2Rio is a free tool to add to your travel planning toolbelt. You enter where you would like to travel from and to and it will give you all your options, prices and links. 

Check it out! When I enter Berlin Germany to Prague in the Czech Republic, Rome2Rio returns transportation options by train, bus, rideshare, drive and flights. You can see price options and then if you click on the option, it will show you actual times with a link to the ticket office to book.
No more checking various websites, taking notes and comparing. Now it's all in one place.
They offer an accommodations and rental car search as well.
The accommodations tab took me to Booking.com so not too impressive.
The rental car search returned no results for cars in Chicago, but returned a nice list for car rentals in Krakow Poland.
Add this one to your toolbox and get set for some almostfreefamilytravel!

Starwood Targeted Offer 5,000

If you have a Starwood American Express credit card, you may have been targeted for this great offer! Here's the deal:
1. Enroll your card in the offer. If you didn't get an email, log in to your account and see if the offer is listed.
2. Spend $5,000 on your card by the end date. This offer ends May 31st 2017.
3. Starwood will match your 5000 points with another 5000 points.

That's 10,000 points for a $5,000 spend. Nice. What can you do with 10,000 Starwood points? Well, some hotels cost 10,000 points per night, but other category 1 hotels cost just 3,000 points per night. So you could nab 3 nights in a hotel. OR transfer the 10,000 points to Marriott for 30,000 Marriott points OR transfer it to more than 30 airlines. If you have 10,000 Starwood points in your account, add the new 10,000 Starwood points and transfer both to an airline, Starwood will give you a 5,000 bonus.

Marriott Giving Away 3.75 Million Reward Points

Just announced this morning, Marriott is giving away 3.75 million reward points with its new promotion Free Travel For Life.  Couple of ways to enter:

1. Download and use the app to make a reservation at any Marriott or one of their brand partners. Residents of the US are automatically included in the drawing if you enter your rewards number with the reservation. One entry per reservation regardless of the number of rooms or nights booked. You can use this method up to 20 times. 

2. If you already have a reservation at a Marriott or brand partner anywhere in the world except Japan or Venezuela, use the mobile check in on the app and you will be entered in the drawing. One entry per check in. You can use this method up to 20 times. 

3. Use the mobile request feature on the app and earn another entry. You can use this method up to 20 times. 

4. For US residents, hand print your name, address, day and evening phone number, email address, birth day and rewards number on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope with sufficient postage. Mail it to Marriott Mobile App Travel For Life c/o Hello World, Inc. PO Box 5029 Department 829846 Kalamazoo, MI 49003-5029. Entries must be postmarked by May 31st and recieved by June 7th. One mail in entry per envelope. Each mail in entry counts for 3 entries.

Promotion ends on May 31st 2017. You can enter as many as 60 times by any combination.

By the way, Marriott defines "free travel for life" as 5 nights each year for 30 years at Hotel Category 5. Check out the rules for terms and conditions. 

Winner will be announced June 30th and Marriott will award the winner with a check for $10,000 to cover tax liability.

Tips From The San Diego Travel And Adventure Show

Day in Paris? I wish. No, it's the San Diego Travel and Adventure Show. I learned some great travel tips and advice from CBS Travel Reporter Peter Greenberg  plus rode a camel. Check out the photo below!

So much fun to dream about different places to go and ways to get there. Cruises, hotels, resorts, volunteer opportunities, the list goes on and on.
Do you know only 37% of Americans have a passport? And scary fact, only 42% of our elected officials in the Senate and Congress have passports. Can you imagine setting foreign policy without ever having traveled outside the US?
And with about 193 countries in the world to check out though a couple are not safe to travel to right now, you just have to decide where, when and how to get there for almost free.
This week, I'll post several blog posts with tips and tricks that I learned from the show so look for those coming soon.

Thailand with kids

During our flight to Thailand, a man came up to me on the plane and asked me why I would take my children there. I was puzzled, why wouldn't I take my children there.
Thailand is so culturally different that it is exhilirating. My children learned the history of Buddhism, they were blessed by monks, they visited a dozen temples, they learned some basic Thai, they learned to cook traditional Thai dishes, they learned how to train and care for an elephant, they cuddled tiger cubs, they drove Tuk Tuks, they had back massages, foot massages and fish massages, they explored an entire floating town, they spent the night on a train and a bus, and so much more.
Besides the cultural, once you get to Thailand, it is so inexpensive to live, eat and do that you can just enjoy.
We spent 3.5 weeks in Thailand. Of course, we used American Airlines miles on partner airlines Japan Airlines to fly round trip to Tokyo and then one way through to Bangkok. On the return, we had to buy 5 one way tickets with points from Bangkok to Tokyo on United Airlines due to availability. Each tickets cost 15,000 United Airlines miles.
We stayed at the Sheraton Royal Orchid with 7,000 Starwood points per night. While in Bangkok, we took a daytrip to visit a train market and the floating market, pet the tiger cubs and see the Bridge Over The River Quai.
We decided to take the overnight train to Chiang Mai. The other option is to fly, domestic flights are super cheap.
Chiang Mai is one of the most spirtual and beautiful places I have ever visited. We chose to pay for a homestay which was outside of town. For kids, you can train elephants, zipline and take a cooking class. The temple in Chiang Mai is amazing and highly worth the cab ride up the hill.
I would recommend flying from Chiang Mai to one of the town's in the south. We went to Phuket where we took a daytrip out to the islands. The islands are amazing! The kids got a chance to play soccer on field that floats in the middle of the ocean. They canoed through caves and jumped off the boat.
Phuket is a bit more Americanized so hamburgers are available everywhere, but I was super pleased that my kids chose to eat more Thai food.
Though we paid for hotels in Chiang Mai and Phuket, we rented out our house while we were away and broke even on the entire trip. Now that's almost FREE family travel.

*If you would like a copy of our itinerary plus contact information for all of the tours and guides we used, check out the itinerary page on the website. They are available for purchase for just $5.