Southwest Announces Increase In Points Needed For CP

One of the best perks in the points/miles game is the Southwest Companion Pass. It's buy 1, get 1 FREE on any Southwest flight for two years. Wow! 

This morning, Southwest announced that starting Jan. 1, 2020, you will need to earn 125,000 points in a calendar year to earn the pass. That's an increase of 15,000 points from the current offer. 

Yes, that's a bummer, but with the increased offers on credit cards, it's still very doable. Plus there are other lots of other ways to earn Southwest points without flying. 

On the positive side, Southwest also announced that points will never expire starting in 2020. 

Watch for my post coming up about how to time your earning for the companion pass so that you get the pass for two years instead of just one. 

Southwest 80,000 Point Bonus May Be Ending Wednesday

Our partner, gototravelgal.com  is reporting that Southwest 80,000 point bonus on the new Performance business credit card is ending this Wednesday, October 16th. We found other links that do not show an expiration date, but who knows. If this offer ends on Wednesday, we do not know what the new offer will look like, but 80,000 points is a huge bonus. 
And gets you most of the way there to earning the valuable Southwest companion pass. 
Since now is the time you can apply for cards and use the bonus for the companion pass for 2020 and 2021, if you don't have this card, it would be a good time to apply. 
Watch for upcoming post about how to strategically spend so you get the companion pass for two years instead of one. 

*If you apply for this card, please use my referral link and support this blog. 

Last Day To Get Huge IHG Bonus!

Wednesday, October 9th is the last day to apply for the IHG Premier Rewards credit card and get a 125,000 bonus. This is a great deal if you think you might use IHG hotel stays. 

IHG includes the following brands:

• Intercontinental 
• Kimpton
• Hualuxe
• Crowne Plaza
• Voco
• Hotel Indigo
• Even
• Avid 
• Holiday Inn
• Holiday Inn Express
• Holiday Inn Resort 
• Staybridge Suites
• Candlewood Suites 

A quick look at awardmapper.com shows the point values range from 20,000 points per night for a category 3 hotel to 60,000 points per night for a category 11. IHG also offers Point Break four times a year when they drop certain hotels down to just 5,000 points per night. 
If you add in a fourth night FREE on award bookings, the 125,000 point bonus is worth 7 nights at a category 3 hotel or 2 nights at a category 11. 
For families, most Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites include hot breakfast. This can be a huge savings for families. 
Plus a family of 5 or 6 can stay in one room in Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. 

This credit card does fall under the 5/24 rule. Chase limits you to applying to 5 credit cards in 24 months. There are a few that do not count under this rule including some business credit cards, but most of Chase' credit cards are affected. 

Here are the details of the IHG Premier Rewards credit card: 

• $3,000 in 3 months
• 40x points on IHG purchases for the first 12 months
• 4x points on all other purchases
• FREE night on your anniversary 
• $89 annual fee
• Fourth night FREE on award bookings 
• $100 credit for TSA Precheck and Global Entry

This looks like a great deal you may want to jump on. The offer expires tomorrow. That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel. 

5 Secrets In Yellowstone National Park That You Don't Want To Miss

Arch At The Northeast Entrance To Yellowstone National Park 

         Yellowstone National Park includes 2.2 million acres and is the size of two states. There are thousands of hiking trails, hundreds of bison, millions of tourists, dozens of geysers, paint pots and waterfalls.
So where do you start, how do you avoid the crowds and where can you go off the beaten path?
          

Boiling River, Natural Hot Spring

Here are 5 secret spots you won't want to miss:

1. Boiling River - Natural hot springs. Drive through the north entrance and about a mile past Mammoth Hot Springs until you see two parking lots. You can park in either, but you will end up walking to the end of the lot on the north side of the road. Walk past the sign so you are following the path along the river. This is where the Mammoth Hot Springs dumps into the Yellowstone River. 
It's about a 3/4 mile walk, wear your bathing suit, bring a towel and water shoes. There are benches for your clothes. Be super careful getting in and out. The water is a mix of very hot and very cold, the current is swift and the rocks are slippery. 
But this one is pretty awesome. It's open until 8pm. 

View of the prismatic pool from Fairy Falls

2. Fairy Falls - The Morning Prismatic Pool is one of the highlights of the park and not to be missed. But you can't appreciate it's beauty from the boardwalk. So once you do the walk, drive about .5 mile down the road and follow the signs for Fairy Falls. Park and walk to the lookout. Amazing. 

3. Best route - Leave Gardiner by 7am and drive straight to the Midway Basin and the Morning Prismatic Pool. Walk around the pools, hike Fairy Falls, then go back the way you came and stop at the Fountain Paint Pots. Then go back to the main road and drive to Old Faithful in the lower basin. If you follow this route, you will be at least one hour ahead of the crowd. 

Mammoth Hot Springs

4. Mammoth Hot Springs - Another not to be missed stop at Yellowstone. However, don't bother walking from the bottom of the springs up to the top. Instead, look at the springs from the bottom and then get back in your car and follow the road around to the top of the springs. You get a great view and can do this stop in half the time. 

5. Beehive Geyser - Old Faithful is cool, but walk around behind Old Faithful and check out Beehive Geyser. And if you happen to see it erupt, wow! Also check out the anenome pool. 

Beehive Geyser is located behind Old Faithful

Last, but not least and certainly no secret, be sure to buy an ice cream at the Yellowstone Inn located at Old Faithful. My favorite, Huckleberry, of course. 

Southwest Sale Flights Under $100

Another week, another Southwest sale. This one, Southwest is promising flights for just $49 each way between November 13th, 2019 and February 12th, 2020 between select cities. Travel to/from Puerto Rico for November 13 through December 5, 2019 and dates into 2020. International travel November 13 through December 11, 2019 and into 2020. 

A quick search showed $49 from San Diego to:

• San Jose, CA
• El Paso, TX 
• Salt Lake City, UT

And from Charleston, SC to:

• Baltimore, MD for $89
• Chicago, IL for $79

It's always hit or miss with these sales, but it's worth checking cause you may get lucky. And if you have the companion pass, wow!

The fine print of this sale says 

Book by 10/3 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Nonrefundable. Seats, travel days, and markets limited. Blackout dates apply. Fares valid on nonstop service where indicated; if not indicated, fares are valid on single connecting service. Continental U.S. travel valid November 13, 2019, through February 12, 2020. Interisland Hawaii travel valid December 4 through December 18, 2019, and January 2 through February 12, 2020. Travel to/from San Juan, Puerto Rico valid November 13 through December 5, 2019, and January 13 through March 5, 2020. International travel valid November 13 through December 11, 2019, and January 7 through March 5, 2020. Points bookings do not include government fees from $5.60 per one-way flight.

Remember to book by 10/3 and if you have already bought your ticket, use the flight adjuster that I talked about in my previous post to see if you can get some points or money back. 

Flying On LATAM? Here's What You Need To Know

LATAM announced this week that it is pulling out of the OneWorld and partnership with American Airlines and joining Sky Alliance with Delta Airlines effective October 27, 2019. 

One World includes airlines like 

• Iberia
• British Airways 
• Finnair 

Sky Alliance includes airlines like

• Korean Air 
• KLM
• Air France 
• Aeromexico

            This is huge news for anyone planning trips to South America. 

American Airlines is one of the main carriers to South America and its partnership with LATAM (formerly LAN) meant you could use American miles to fly just about anywhere. 

When we went to Peru, we used American miles to fly LATAM from the US to Cusco, Lima and to Iquitos. All on points and all FREE. 

            If you have flights currently booked on LATAM, American Airlines says through its website that the ticket will be honored and no passengers should be disrupted. 

However, if you check the American website, you can no longer book codeshare flights JJ on LATAM. Too bad since flying on LATAM was like a breath of fresh air. They serve free drinks, food and the flight attendants were attentive and courteous. 

            If you were saving points now to use on American to South America, you may need to double-check your plan since some flights will be unavailable. 

If you were planning to use Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express points, Marriott Bonvoy points, you can transfer all of these to Delta 1:1. Marriott Bonvoy will even give you the 15,000 point bonus for every 60,000 points you transfer. Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card is offering a 100,000 point bonus right now if you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months OR if you use my referral link, you will earn 3 FREE nights with a $3,000 spend in the first 3 months. 

Good luck! 

Why I Love Glacier National Park

Grinnel Lake at Many Glacier inside Glacier National Park

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect when I included Glacier National Park on our trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. But wow, it is amazing and probably out of the three parks, Glacier was my favorite.

In the last post, I did an overview of our itinerary and what I would do differently. In this post, I am going to focus just on Glacier National Park. 

We got to Glacier by flying into Spokane, Washington, driving to Kalispell, Montana, spending the night, getting up early and driving the highway just outside the southern perimeter of the park to Many Glacier. We did not drive along the Going To The Sun road. 

Before you leave, you want to buy the National Park pass for $80. You can buy it at any national park on the spot or online at least two weeks before you need it. 

Considering entrance for each park is about $35, this pass will pay for itself very quickly. 

I chose Many Glacier due to the many glaciers in the area. There is a hike up to one of the glaciers, but it is a difficult long hike. 

We opted to take the boat across the Swiftcurrent and Josephine lakes from the Many Glacier hotel. You actually board the first boat, get off and hike about .2 mile, and then board a second boat to reach the destination. From there, you can hike about one mile to Grinnel Lake or take the strenuous hike to the glacier. You could see the glaciers above the waterfall for a brief moment when the clouds cleared. The lake was a beautiful blue color from the glacier rock flour. 

The Glacier Park Boat Company operates in three locations across the park. You do need advance reservations and some of the reservations include a guide for the hike. You do not need the guide so don't worry about that. The boat is key for families because it cuts the actual hike in half and so it's totally doable for kids. I saw kids as young as four years old. 

You need bear spray, insect repellant, food and water because there are no facilities. The boats go back and forth across the lake every 30 minutes or so, but if they fill up, you have to wait for the next one. Bring a jacket also because the weather changes constantly. 

You can stay at The Many Glacier hotel (you need to make a reservation one year in advance and it's only open June - September) or just check it out. It was built by the Great Northern Railway back in 1914. 

Or you can head out of the park and stay in East Glacier about 20 minutes away. This adorable town has a hostel called Brownies that features an amazing huckleberry pie and the East Glacier Trading Company which opened in 1910 that features Two Medicine Grill. Both winners! Look for my upcoming post about why I think hostels are amazing for families! 

In this part of the country, you can buy everything Huckleberry like coffee, jam, chocolate, lotion, and candy. The other thing that is a must-have is bear spray. You can buy it for $49 or rent it for $30. You CANNOT take it on the plane home with you and you cannot check it in your luggage. It is also illegal in California. There are bears. We saw grizzly bear and black bears in all three parks. So buy the spray, sing, shake bells and stay in groups of four. 

Look for my next post about Yellowstone National Park.