Points & Miles Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

There Are Times When It Pays To Procrastinate

Sometimes I think that if I had a superpower, it would be procrastination. I was the one pulling an all-nighter to write a term paper I had months to prepare. Even today, I sat in front of the computer for hours before I finally pulled myself together and started to write this post. It drives Sharon crazy (Note from Sharon: Mmmm hmmm…), but I just can’t help it.

Unfortunately, putting things off, even if only for minutes, can cause you to miss out on the travel deal of the year. I’ve learned to deal with the fact I’ll never be able to pull the trigger on the spur of the moment trip to New Zealand, even if the price is one that I’ll never see again.

Some travel deals last for longer amounts of time, like days or weeks and I’ll go back and forth about whether I want to participate.

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Credit Card Review: IHG Rewards Club Premier

The co-brand credit card of the IHG Rewards Club is one of the best cards to hang on to for the long term. At a minimum, if you’re eligible to get one under Chase’s 5/24 rule, I’d think it’s a better choice for those just starting with points and miles than many other cards out there. It offers a solid sign up bonus with a reasonable spending requirement and finding award rooms with your points is generally not too difficult. IHG also has hotels almost anywhere you look around the world.

Sure, the status you’re provided isn’t going to get you a huge suite upgrade in a fancy hotel and the free night you’ll get every year you keep the card excludes all of the really nice properties, unlike when you could use the free night at any IHG hotel. Before I go and destroy my own argument about this being a great card, here are the details about the IHG Rewards Club Premier Mastercard by Chase.

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Easy Way To Get AMEX Annual Fees Waived, Craziest Resort Fee Ever, More Reasons To Avoid Ride Sharing, & More!

Happy Sunday to all of our 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, as well, so we’re passing them along.

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The Airport On WDW Property, Check Your AMEX Acct For Easy Offers, How To Avoid This Foreign Currency Ripoff, An X-Wing Fighter On Flightaware?, & More!

Happy Saturday friends, and hooray, it’s finally the weekend! Here’s a recap of what’s gone on at YMMV this week. From what we’ve written to what others wrote that we really liked and wanted to share, it’s all here, in one convenient place!

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A Risk Of Booking Airline Awards With Partner Airlines

Most of the people who redeem frequent flyer miles for an airline ticket will do so to travel on the airline that sponsors the program. Skymiles members will book a flight on Delta, AAdvantage members will book flights on American, and so on.

Once you start to learn more about using your miles and points, you soon find out that the best redemptions for your miles aren’t with the sponsor airline but with their alliance or non-alliance partners. At first, it’s a difficult concept to understand; I remember the first time I told my father he could use his Skymiles for a flight on Korean Air.

You first need to learn the basics of airline alliances. After that, you’ll need to get an idea of award charts, or at least what awards should cost for the airlines who no longer publish award charts. For those who don’t want to put in the time, there are always award booking services.

While the reward for booking an award with a partner airline can be great by either saving you thousands or ten-thousands of miles, creatively using transferrable credit card points on airlines not available otherwise or flying on an airline with a much better product, the process does involve additional risk.

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