Credit Cards – Your Mileage May Vary

Credit Card Benefits To The Rescue, WDW Chosen To Host Event, & More!

Happy Sunday, y’all and we hope you’re having a great weekend! Sharon and I have come across a lot of interesting travel-related articles this week – here are some of our favorites.

I know what it feels like to make a mistake with a travel reservation but nothing I’ve ever done is like the story Emily shared on Million Mile Secrets this week. I love reading posts like this, and not because I like the feeling of schadenfreude (It means “Happiness at the misfortune of others.” It’s German.). These stories are cautionary tales, reminding us that even experienced travelers can make simple mistakes if they’re not careful.
Cardholders of the discontinued IHG Rewards Club credit card received a bonus points offer in the mail with an offer if they converted their accounts to the new Chase IHG Premier card. Miles to Memories breaks down the offer and if it’s worth it.
I was happy and proud to read that Walt Disney World and Orlando have won the bid to host the 2022 Special Olympics Summer Games.
Credit cards have many benefits that come with being a cardholder. You might know about a free checked bag or lounge access but some of the other benefits can occasionally come to the rescue. If this situation happened to me, I have another card I would have used in such an emergency so I never even looked into this particular benefit of this card.
We’ve never stayed at a hotel near Heathrow Airport so I had no idea the hotels near it can’t have their own airport shuttle buses (like almost every other airport do). Tiffany from One Mile at a Time shows how you can get to your hotel for free instead of having to pay £5.00 for Hotel Hoppa bus.

What if the chip just stops working in your credit card? If you’re overseas, you need to get it replaced ASAP. Here’s a story from Loyalty Lobby about getting an American Express card replaced while visiting Thailand.
Robert from Theme Park Insider wrote a very interesting post about how changing demographics are changing the theme park business.
Andy’s Travel Blog always features great photography and the images of the Stockholm Metro stations from his recent trip are stunning.
Not travel related – Doctor of Credit details the new deals that Amazon Prime members can get when shopping at Whole Foods Markets.

* Feature photo By Diliff – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2067974

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top (if you’re on your computer) or the bottom (if you’re on your phone/tablet) of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just two or three times a day). Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts 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!

The Hotels Near Walt Disney World (WDW) Where You Can Use Your Hyatt Credit Card Free Night

Several hotel credit cards give you a free night at one of their establishments every year when you pay the annual fee. The cool thing is this free night benefit is often is worth more than the cost of keeping the credit card, doesn’t require you to spend a certain amount of money on the card, and doesn’t require you to have any points in your account. It’s simply a totally a free night, including tax.

It makes sense to try to get the most value out of the free night and I’ve read articles listing the places around the world where you can get the most expensive room. I decided instead of that approach, I’d look at a place many people travel to each year. Walt Disney World (WDW). If you can stretch your vacation one more day by using a free night, that could be very valuable to you and your family.

Continue reading “The Hotels Near Walt Disney World (WDW) Where You Can Use Your Hyatt Credit Card Free Night”

Our Dinner at WDW’s Victoria & Albert’s, Hotel Promotions, Airline Flash Sales & More!

And BOOM, it’s the weekend! Woo hoo and HAPPY SATURDAY! Here’s a recap of what we wrote on YMMV this week. From great travel deals to what we’ve written to what others wrote that we really liked and wanted to share, it’s all here, in one convenient place!

Continue reading “Our Dinner at WDW’s Victoria & Albert’s, Hotel Promotions, Airline Flash Sales & More!”

What Airport Lounges Can You Get Into With The American Express (AMEX) Platinum Card?

The American Express (AMEX) Platinum card is designed for the jet setter crowd. While the personal Platinum card carries a steep $550 annual fee, I consider the benefits the card provides to be worth the cost. If you want to learn more about the benefits of the Platinum card, you can check out our full review HERE. While the card is marketed to those who can afford the luxury items advertised in the Departures magazine that’s included with your card membership, many benefits of the Platinum card can help travelers who aren’t in the top 0.01 percent. One of those benefits is access to several different types of airport club lounges. It can be hard to keep track of which lounges the card will get you into and the requirements for each, thus the need for this post. To clarify, access to lounges is a perk of the Personal Platinum, Business Platinum and variants of these cards.

Heads up that other American Express Cards with platinum in the name, like the Delta Airlines Platinum or Optima Platinum, don’t get the same lounge access.

American Express does have a very handy lounge locator on their website. If you type in the airport, they’ll tell you all the places you can get into and which type of lounge that location is. If you have several lounges at an airport to choose from, here’s a link to our article about a website that provides reviews of over 2,500 lounges in 850+ airports worldwide.

Continue reading “What Airport Lounges Can You Get Into With The American Express (AMEX) Platinum Card?”

How Our Friends Flew From The US To All 3 Disney Parks In Asia Without Winning The Lottery

Going to see the Disney Theme Parks in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo are bucket list trips for many Disney fans. However most people never try to make the trip because it seems out of reach to them. The excuses that people most often give is that the flights are too long or the airfare is too expensive.

When I saw a post on Facebook from one of my friends saying that he and his wife just returned from Japan, I commented that I was so happy for them. I know they’re big Disney fans and I was thrilled they got to see Tokyo Disney. We talked a bit and I discovered that, in fact, they just returned from an epic 10 day trip where they visited all three of the Disney theme parks in Asia. On top of that, all their flights were booked with miles and they flew exclusively in business and first class the whole way. #FTW

It’s with his permission that I’m now going to share how they were able to go on this trip and pay almost nothing out of pocket for airfare. I’m quiet jealous of some of the flights they took, and am remembering that Sharon and I still haven’t been to Hong Kong or Shanghai.

Continue reading “How Our Friends Flew From The US To All 3 Disney Parks In Asia Without Winning The Lottery”

Sorry Starbucks, I Love You But I’m Not Going To Sign Up For Your Credit Card

In February 2018, Starbucks and Chase launched the Starbucks Rewards™ Visa® Card. This credit card links directly to your Starbucks Rewards account and lets your earn stars for your purchases.

Starbucks keeps emailing me offers to get this card. I’m sure if you’re a Starbucks Rewards member, you’ve also received these messages more than a few times. If you are a regular visitor to Starbucks, it may seem to make perfect sense to get this card. You drink their coffee anyway, why not earn free drinks for your everyday spending, right?

I’m a self-admitted Starbucks-a-holic. Every morning shift I work, I’ll stop by for an Iced Coffee with Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup (no classic) and 2% milk. I was quite proud when the baristas at my regular store would make my coffee for me without having to order. They even wished me good bye on my last visit when I was transferred to a new work location and wouldn’t be a regular at their store anymore. It was an appropriate farewell, a note on my coffee and a Starbucks gift card. 🙂

So I’m the target audience for the Starbucks Rewards Visa card then, right? The problem is that before I’m going to apply for any card, I’m going to do the math and see exactly what it offers. Continue reading “Sorry Starbucks, I Love You But I’m Not Going To Sign Up For Your Credit Card”

Priority Pass: Why You Might Want It & How You Can Get A Membership

The Priority Pass program is a network of airport lounges (and, more recently, restaurants, bars and even day suites) that allow access to members of the program. They can be airline lounges or locations with no airline affiliation.

The program has been around for about 25 years. We visited a lounge in Japan with our friend Steve, who had a membership, when we visited there in 2005. At the time, lounges didn’t sell day passes, as access to these rooms were seen as an exclusive perk for frequent flyers. However today the airlines see membership to the lounges and access to them as another way to generate extra revenue.

Here’s a description of Priority Pass from their website:

Continue reading “Priority Pass: Why You Might Want It & How You Can Get A Membership”