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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…
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