In years past, hotel or airline elite status was something unattainable for me. It was also something I didn’t particularly desire. For someone who prefers to stay at a cheap hostel rather than a five-star hotel, it just wasn’t a priority.

However, everything changed in 2020 when the thought of staying in a multi-person dorm while traveling made me want to sanitize every door knob I’d touched that day.

In 2020, I earned Marriott Platinum Elite status without much effort, and in 2021, I became Marriott Titanium Elite (to my own surprise).

Large families looking to vacation together, rejoice. About 60 timeshare and vacation rental resorts that belong to the Hyatt Residence Club Resorts, formerly known as the Hyatt Vacation Club, can now be booked using World of Hyatt points.

Although World of Hyatt elite members don’t receive full benefits and services at these properties, they make up for it by featuring condo-style accommodations with multiple bedrooms, full kitchens and ample living space allowing you feel like home while you’re on vacation with your family.

So far, timeshares of various hotel categories in 12 U.S.

This is part 2 of my travel report. My husband and I recently spent two and a half weeks in Greece so if you’d like to know what it’s been like traveling in Greece when it just reopened, how I booked our tickets and the COVID-19 restrictions, you can read part 1. 

Here I’ll cover the places and islands we’ve visited, where we stayed and some of my finds and must do things on each island, such as tours, activities and restaurants that we loved in each place.

Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of our favorite flexible rewards currencies, and today’s news adds a much needed boost for Ultimate Rewards.

If you’ve been following the news in our hobby, you’ve probably already heard of the “enhancements” recently added to The Platinum Card® from American Express: 

Annual fee is now $695 (Rates & Fees) for new accounts opened on or after July 1, 2021 

For existing cardmembers, the new annual fee will take effect on the annual renewal date on or after Jan.

In a little bit of a shocking move, Citi has announced a new limited time ThankYou Points transfer partner - American AAdvantage.

Starting July 18, 2021 and running through November 13, 2021, if you have either the Citi Premier Card (Note from the editor: Citi Premier® Card is no longer available to new applicants) or the Citi Prestige Card, you can transfer ThankYou Points 1:1 to American AAdvantage miles. If you have the Citi Preferred or the Citi Rewards+ cards, you can transfer the points 2:1.

A trip to Greece has been on my to do list for a long time, but, I must admit, I was a bit put off by pictures of crowded beaches and tourist overrun islands. But when I learned that Greece is one of the first European countries to open to U.S.

It seems like every few days now we're writing about updated product offers. What an exciting time in the world of points and miles.

Citi has updated the Citi Premier Card with a new welcome offer of 80,000 ThankYou Points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first three months. This is the best ever welcome bonus on this product that we’ve seen and a significant bump from the standard 60,000 ThankYou Points offer. 

Citi ThankYou Points are often overlooked in favor of Membership Rewards or Ultimate Rewards, but they shouldn’t be ignored.

Avianca’s frequent flyer program, LifeMiles, is a program many people love to hate. Yes, there is a somewhat quirky web interface, hard to reach customer service and often the program doesn’t show the same award space as other Star Alliance partners.

Editor's Note: Starting on August 21, 2025, United Airlines will no longer be offering the Excursionist Perk on award tickets for new bookings and any changes made to existing bookings.

It isn’t uncommon to book a trip with more than one destination. This is especially popular for travel to Europe. Who doesn’t want to visit Rome and Paris on the same trip? How about Madrid and Santorini? 

In order to do this, your travel plans will be multidimensional and not just round-trip so you’ll need to plan accordingly.