Category: Redeeming Points
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Award Flight Deal Alert Services: Are They Right for You?
I subscribe to a popular flight deal alert service. Services like Thrifty Traveler Premium and Straight to the Points Award Alert Service send out emails whenever there’s a fare sale, an award space drop, or another opportunity to get travel at a great value, whether it’s with cash or points. One recent email highlighted the…
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Courtyard Carolina Beach: Value and Family-Friendly Amenities
I thought I’d never open a Marriott card…but never say never. When Capital One announced changes to their Venture X lounge access in mid-2025, I knew we had to initiate the year-long process to obtain a Ritz-Carlton card to secure lounge access for our family. My P2 dutifully opened the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card,…
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Maximize Your Points: Booking a Dream Trip to Hawaii
Booking a trip to Hawaii is almost a rite of passage for points and miles people; it’s an aspirational destination that usually comes with a correspondingly high price tag. Unsurprisingly, it’s a popular points and miles destination, because you can get some incredible value for your points! Here’s how we’re doing it. Flights & Hotels…
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Grand Hyatt Barcelona Review: Hidden Gem for Travelers
In June of 2025, I embarked on my most ambitious and complex points-and-miles trip yet: an adults-only European getaway for me and my partner which involved nine flights in a period of just 11 days. You can read about how I booked this trip here, but in this three-part series, I’m reporting out on our…
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How I Booked a Luxury Trip to Spain and Portugal for 94% Off
In my junior year of college, I spent my fall semester studying abroad at the University of Barcelona. I had no intentions to do this. One of my friends was interested in studying abroad, so I accompanied him to the International Programs office on campus one day. He never went. I did. I fell immediately…
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Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile: Value, Convenience, and Comfort
I recently completed a five-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, located in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, and I absolutely love this hotel. I found this to be a convenient and pleasant place to stay with my seven-year-old. This property is ideal for visitors looking to conserve both cash and points, and although not the…
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The Art of the Backup Flight
Have your plans ever been disrupted by a delayed or canceled flight? If you’re traveling for an important event, like a wedding or a cruise embarkation, you really need to get where you’re going, when you’re going. This is also true for positioning flights–when you’re traveling to get to the point of departure for a…
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Why Hyatt is the Only Hotel Chain I’ll Book on Points
I love a bougie flight as much as the next person, but once you get to your destination, you need a place to stay! Beloved in the award travel community, World of Hyatt is the only hotel loyalty program I’ll transfer my points to, and in this post, I’m going to tell you why. Hyatt…
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2024 Year in Review and 2025 Goals
On this, the last day of 2024, it’s time to take stock of my year in award travel. My goal with this post is to be totally transparent about how I, a normal person, went from zero to $60,000 in travel in the space of less than a year. Here are all the cards we…
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Anniversary Getaway: Fort Lauderdale on Points
My partner’s and my anniversary is in December, just a few days before Christmas. This is not an optimal time to celebrate. It’s cold here in North Carolina at that time, and we’re always too busy with holiday events to do much. This year, we decided to take advantage of an existing winter break trip…
Kate's on a Plane 