One of the often overlooked benefits of hotels’ co-branded credit cards are the free night certificates that many come with. In exchange for an often nominal annual fee, you're able to redeem these for a significantly subsidized (read: not truly free!) redemption if you're able strategize these well.

With many hotel programs extending the expiration dates on these free night certificates, many of us find ourselves with a number of certificates and looming expiration dates.

Similar to Disney’s “Big Hero 6” film, Turkish Miles&Smiles is easily one of the most underrated loyalty programs out there.

Citi ThankYou Points are almost an afterthought for many points and miles collectors. However, if you are ignoring ThankYou Points, you are doing yourself a disservice.

As of Aug. 16, 2021, you’re going to see some new benefits added to both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® credit cards. These benefits include increases in earning rates, hotel credits and point bonuses. Here is a breakdown of the changes that are now live.

Oh, and the Sapphire Preferred is also sporting a new look.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Changes

The previous earning rates for the Chase Sapphire Preferred were 2X on dining (including takeout and delivery) and travel and 1X on all other purchases made with the card.

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.