Last Chance To Earn A FREE 1,000 Marriott Points

Your chance to get a FREE 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points ends on Thursday, June 18th, so don't forget to take advantage of this offer. 

Since so many of us have been ordering takeout, this one is a no brainer. I joined a few weeks ago and then got take out at a local pizza place. 

Within days, I received an email letting me know I had been awarded 1,000 bonus points. Woohoo! It was that easy. 

Check out my post about how to register for this program. Remember to actually use the credit card for your purchase that you link to the dining program. I linked my Sapphire Reserve credit card so I could double-dip on restaurants. The Reserve earns 3x points at restaurants. 

That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

How To Get 5x Points On Your Amazon Purchases

By the end of 2019, 112 million people shopped at Amazon.com. Wow! That's incredible. I don't know about you, but since the pandemic started, I tend to order from Amazon rather than head to the store. 

One of my favorite go-to credit cards offers rotating bonus categories. For Q3, Chase Freedom is offering you 5x points on your Amazon and Whole Foods purchases. You cannot find Amazon on the regular shopping portals so this is a great benefit. 

Your purchase will still count towards Amazon Smile. 

In past years, Amazon was included in Q4 for holiday shopping, but this year, they offered it a quarter early. 

You must register your Chase FREEDOM here. Registration opens on June 15th. 

Why Chase FREEDOM is one of my favorites

The Chase FREEDOM card is my go-to no annual fee card. You earn 1% cashback in the form of Chase Ultimate Reward Points for every purchase. And every quarter, Chase adds bonus categories that earn 5% cashback. Cashback categories range from gas stations to Amazon to Paypal. You are able to earn $75 cashback on $1,500 in purchases across the three categories. Chase will even keep track on the website. You do need to activate each quarter which you can also do through the website with just one click. Registration opens on June 15th. Then you can redeem your points for cashback. If you have the Chase Ink, Chase Sapphire or Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer the points to airlines, hotels and use the Chase travel portal. Right now, Chase is offering $200 bonus cash back when you open this card and spend $500 in the first 3 months. 

How To Pay Yourself Back With Chase

An exciting new perk offered by Chase Sapphire Reserve and Preferred credit cards is the option to pay yourself back with your points. 

So what does this mean and why is it so exciting? Here is your step to step guide. The Chase Sapphire Reserve, Preferred, Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Ink credit cards all earn Chase Ultimate Reward Points. Personally, these are my favorite points right now just for their flexibility and for the travel portal. They are flexible because you can transfer the points to dozens of airlines, hotels and you can use them to book travel through the Chase travel portal. 

And if you are a Preferred or Reserve credit card holder, you get a bonus. Chase will actually offer you extra value on the points so instead of 1:1, you get 1:25:1 for Preferred credit card holders and 1:50:1 for Reserve credit cardholders. Check out my post about why I'm hanging onto the Reserve card. 

How To Pay Yourself Back With Chase

And now through September 30, 2020, you also get the extra value when you pay yourself back with points and essentially erase any grocery, home improvement, or dining purchase. 

The beauty here is that you still earn the Ultimate Reward points on your grocery, home improvement, or dining purchase and then you erase it with the extra value. When you book travel through the Chase portal, you also get the extra value, but you don't earn Chase points and you don't earn airline miles or hotel points. That's because Chase uses Expedia as its portal so you are making your reservation through a third party. 

You have 90 days after your purchase to essentially erase it with points and you can pick and choose from the list. 

1. Log in to your Chase account
2. Click on redeem points 
3. Click on earn/use points at the top left of the screen 
4. Click on pay yourself back 

You will see the list above of all your activity that you can erase, just check off whichever ones you want to erase and click on continue. Chase will ask you if you want to erase the entire purchase or just partial and tell you the bonus. Hit confirm and submit. Your statement credit will post within 3 business days. This is very similar to the process used by the Capital One credit card. 

As a comparison, you can see on this grocery purchase, I earned 6.68 points because at that point, you just earned 1x points. But when I redeemed points to erase it, it didn't cost me 668 points due to the bonus. 

At this point, since you might not be traveling, it might make more sense to erase grocery, home improvement, and dining purchases and then buy your travel. You get the bonus when you erase those purchases and then you double dip by getting points again when you pay for your travel. If you decide to apply for the Chase Preferred credit card, please consider using my referral link and supporting my blog. Right now, you can get 50,000 points when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. That's about $625 in travel, groceries, home improvement or dining. Awesome! 

IHG 100% promotion - Is it Worth It?

IHG's 100% matching bonus promotion ends June 15th. So you might want to take a look and see if it makes sense for you to buy some points. 
I'm not usually a fan of buying points or miles, but if you need to top off an account, better to do it when there's a promotion going on. 

IHG 100% promotion - Is it Worth It?

IHG includes 14 different brands like Kimpton, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express. Only Staybridge Suites, Avid, and Holiday Inn Express offer FREE breakfast. Reward nights start at just 10,000 points. You can also use the cash + points option to stretch your points even further and if you have an IHG credit card, your 4th night is FREE. Since IHG introduced dynamic pricing, the actual 4th night in your reservation is the FREEbie instead of the system using an average. So if you are flexible on your dates, you can get the most expensive night FREE. 

Me in front of Buckingham Palace

I checked hotels in London to get an idea of what you could buy with IHG points. Hotels ranged from 25,000-70,000 points per night with lots of options. If you paid cash, the hotels ranged from $75 - $250 per night. National Travel Blogger Gototravelgal.com says she buys the max IHG points on this promotion each year.

With the 100% promotion, you can buy as few as 3,000 points and as many as 250,000 points and get 100% matching bonus. 3,000 points cost $40.50 so each point costs just .007. 250,000 points cost $2,500 making each point cost  just .005.

So is the 100% promotion worth it? As with most buy points options, if you are starting at zero, then it's probably not worth it. But if you have some points and want to top off for a reward then it makes sense. The other way to use the points is to extend the expiration deadline. IHG points expire after 12 months of inactivity.

Another way to use the IHG points is to transfer them to more than two dozen different partner airlines. The points transfer 10,000 IHG points for 2,000 airline miles.
So if you were to purchase 250,000 IHG points for $2,500, you would get 500,000 points that would transfer into 100,000 airline miles. The question is can you squeeze more than $2,500 value out of 100,000 airline miles. The answer is probably yes if you leaned on Turkish Airlines and Avianca. But I would plan this one out very carefully before jumping.
The promotion ends on June 15th, 2020 so you have some time to firm up plans.

Why I'm Hanging Onto My Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card

One of our best family trips ever was almost a month in Thailand. This trip really launched us into the world of points and miles. One of the credit cards that was on my bucket list was the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This card carries a hefty $550 fee, but here's why I thought it was worth it and now why it's an even better deal. 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve falls under the 5/24 rule which means you can only be approved for 5 Chase credit cards in 24 months. It earns Chase Ultimate Reward points which are super flexible since you can use them in the Chase Travel Portal or transfer them to dozens of airlines, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt. 

Why I'm Hanging Onto My Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card 

This card comes with

• a 50,000 point bonus (with a $4,000 min spend in the first three months) which is valued at $750 
• a $300 travel credit 
• Doordash membership with a $120 credit ($60 in 2020 and $60 in 2021)
• 10x points on Lyft rides 
• Priority Pass Lounge membership. 

After all the benefits, the annual fee is really less than a hundred dollars. Pretty sweet. And if you already have the card and it is coming up for renewal between April 1 and July 1, Chase gave you a $100 credit to offset the new increased annual fee. 

Now Chase announced that the $300 travel credit will be a $300 grocery and gas credit. It will automatically post to your account as you make purchases. Chase also announced that through September, if you want to trade in your points for cash, you will recieve 1.5 times just like if you used them in the travel portal instead of 1:1. 

For the Chase Sapphire Preferred, holders can cash in their points at 1.25:1 same as the value in the travel portal. The Preferred has only a $95 annual fee, but way less perks. 

So if you are looking for a long term card with tons of flexibility, don't get scared off by the hefty annual fee. 

Earn A FREE Night Twice As Fast At Hotels.com

Sometimes, your hotel points do not offer the best value when you travel. Either the properties are in the wrong location or don't offer complimentary breakfast or don't have rooms available. When that happens, my next best option is to turn to hotels.com.  This 3rd partner booking site offers a variety of hotels, bed and breakfasts and more at competitive prices. Most of the reservations can be canceled without penalty right up until your arrival too. The only catch is that you will NOT earn hotel points on your reservation. But hotels.com has its own loyalty program. Usually, it's a buy 10 nights, get 1 FREE. The FREE night is a credit for the average price of the 10 paid nights. But right now, in order to stimulate bookings, Hotels.com is running a new deal that will earn you a rewards night twice as fast. All you have to do is make a reservation by May 31st for a stay between June 1, 2020 - Aug. 31, 2021 and you’ll earn two stamps for each night stayed instead of the typical one stamp per night. And you can collect unlimited stamps. So you will earn a FREE night for every 5 stays. Pretty sweet! There are no blackout dates either.

The National Parks Are Slowly Reopening So What Does That Mean

I was reading the latest on the virus this morning and the trend seems to be going towards spending time outdoors. As the stay at home orders are being lifted, the National Parks might be your best bet for travel and staying healthy. 

As if on cue, the National Parks announced this week that they will be reopening on a limited basis. Acting National Park Service Director David Vela says that visitors should anticipate a different normal as many parks will reopen in phases with social distancing guidelines. 

The National Parks Are Slowly Reopening So What Does That Mean

Grand Teton National Park 

You can check the status of individual parks on this website.   Last summer, we visited Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and the Grand Tetons. 

For the most part, restrooms, trails, boardwalks, and gas stations will be open. But the parks will be opening in phases so not to overwhelm neighboring towns. Check with local hotels and home rentals to see if they are taking reservations. 
Camping may be a great alternative. Campgrounds are opening on a limited basis. You can search availability and make a reservation at Reservation.gov
For food and dining, grocery stores should be open and some restaurants will be offering takeout.