Author: Kate
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How I’ve Made the Most of Positioning Flights
The term “positioning flight” typically refers to a short domestic flight you take to get “into position” for a big international flight. I live in Raleigh, but if I’m trying to get to Europe, I’m going to have a lot more options out of a major hub like IAD, JFK, or BOS (although I actually…
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San Diego Family Vacation: Spring Break on Points
I grew up in Southern California, and San Diego holds a special place in my heart. It has that amazing Mediterranean climate, without the traffic and density of LA. I take my son back with me to California every year to visit my family, and this year, I decided we’d bring my daughter too, and…
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Yes, You Can Qualify for Business Credit Cards
Pop Quiz Why Should You Care about Business Cards? Business credit cards are key to supercharging your points and miles earning. Some of the most rewarding cards are business cards; sign-up bonuses for some of the most popular business cards have reached 100,000, 200,000, and even 250,000 points in recent months. Additionally, business credit cards…
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How I Booked a $20,000 Luxury Trip to Paris for 93% Off
When I took my children to the post office to apply for their first passports, there was a poster in the window that featured a picture of the Eiffel tower. My son, who was six at the time, ran up to the poster and said, “That’s the Eiffel tower! I want to see the Eiffel…
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Booking First Class through Alaska Airlines
I live on the East Coast, so Alaska Airlines is not an airline that I had given much thought to. When I first got into points and miles, none of the major banks were transfer partners of Alaska. Though I would occasionally see some stellar-looking redemptions for Alaska points come up in search engine results,…
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Lounge Review: RDU United Club
My home airport of Raleigh-Durham International Airport, or RDU, is a mid-tier airport with just a handful of international flights and no Priority Pass or bank lounges. Today, however, thanks to the kindness of a stranger on the internet, I had the opportunity to try out the United Club lounge, one of three airline lounges…
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Family Trip to Boston: A Cash and Points Trip
I just returned from taking my two kids to the Boston area to visit our cousins. I booked this trip right after I started collecting points and miles, so I wasn’t able to do the whole thing on points, but I was able to leverage some of the techniques I’ve learned from award travel to…
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How Points and Miles Got Me to the Floor of the Eras Tour
I’m on my way home from a quick trip to New Orleans, where I had the great fortune to see Taylor Swift perform one of the last shows of the Eras Tour. Although I didn’t redeem points to buy my ticket, points and miles were the reason I was able to get a ticket, and…
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My First Redemption: New York City
My first sign-up bonus was 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points from the Ink Business Preferred. Here’s how I used some of those points (and a few others) to book my very first* award trip. There’s an asterisk* because although this was the first redemption I made, it wasn’t the first points-funded flight I got to…
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How the Heck Did I Get into This Anyway?
Before I had kids, I loved to travel. I studied abroad in college. I traveled for work. My partner and I met in North Carolina, but I am from California and he is from New York, so we traveled to visit our families at least once per year. When our son was born, we tried…
Kate's on a Plane 