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Hello and happy Sunday, travel friends, both near and far. Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, so we’re passing them along.
- Most of us spent the past 18+ months figuring out where we could and couldn’t travel. Of course, that’s if you were lucky enough not to be affected physically or economically where travel wasn’t possible. My overall outlook during the start of the pandemic was evaluating risk and what level we were willing to accept. While we were trying to be careful, our travels consisted of road trips, eating outside and staying at Airbnb’s. Others were more willing to fly to wherever they could, while many people decided it was best to stay home. We’ve reached a different place and I’m looking at travel differently. Here’s an interesting take on why it’s so tricky to plan international travel right now. While I don’t agree with some of the points, other parts of the post are 100% accurate.
- The advantage of holding transferrable rewards points is flexibility. That’s why it hurts when a credit card loses a transfer partner. With less than a month’s notice, Capital One cardholders will no longer be able to transfer points to Jetblue (along with the new Brex card as well.) Fortunately, there are still other programs that let you top off your TrueBlue account for a reward ticket.
- Speaking of transferrable points currencies, Chase Ultimate Rewards took a sizeable hit this week when it devalued the “Pay Yourself Back” feature. During the pandemic, this was an option for people who usually used points for travel to redeem Ultimate Rewards for everyday expenses like groceries and dining. Now that most cards can only redeem points to pay back charges to buy overpriced luggage or donations to select charities, I’m glad I told my dad to cash out his points earlier this year.
- I was quite surprised when I saw that Hyatt was the first top-tier loyalty program to say that accounts with no activity during the pandemic would lose all their points starting at the end of the year. What made this even more shocking was that Hilton extended all accounts and free nights until the end of 2022. With all of the love that Hyatt gets from the fanboys, I was expecting Marriott or Hilton to be the first to draw a line in the sand.
- So what’s happening with Marriott. It turns out that they just announced that several of its brands would be bringing back hot breakfast buffets. In the words of LL Cool J, several of its hotels are saying, “Don’t call it a comeback!” As we’ve found over the past year, many Marriott hotels have been serving hot breakfast, including these Fairfield Inn, Springhill Suites and Residence Inn properties located throughout the Southeastern US.
- One undeniable thing travelers have noticed is that rental car prices are through the roof. While there are many reasons, there’s hardly a deal to be had. The one way to get a reasonable price is if you’re booking with a corporate discount code. That’s how I saved over $100 on our rental in Texas. It looks like this car rental company is cracking down on people using these codes and saying you’ll need to show proof of employment at the rental desk. Good thing this wasn’t the case when I accidentally used one of these codes during our last trip to Hawaii.
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Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
If everyone loves Hyatt so much, then staying one simple time this year shouldn’t be an issue. Even some semblance of normalcy would include one Hyatt stay.