Welcome back to our Sunday Summary Series where we review the stories that were covered throughout the week.
Sunday Summary
Gear from Holabird
When it comes to running/workout gear, there are a lot of options out there! For some people, the amount of options is far too many, so many that it can confuse new runners looking for what is the best gear. On my part, it took me a couple of months of running (when I started) of trying different gear and shoes before I found what worked best for my body and preferences. No matter what your preferences are, there are many… Read more…
US Airways Still Does Not Like Lufthansa
US Airways has some very nice award sweet spots (like this one), but using them as an award provider sure can be annoying. For one thing, you cannot search for partner award availability on their website. For another, they have award processing fees ($50). And yet another, and the most annoying of them all, is the blocking of Lufthansa award availability. Read more…
The Card To Have and To Hold – But Not To Use
There is a lot of competition by credit card companies to earn a place in our wallets. We all have different cards that we would grant a place to with many of the usual suspects – Barclaycard Arrival, Chase Ink Bold/Plus, American Express SPG, Chase Sapphire Preferred – having a prominent place in the wallet. Then there are the other cards that we carry while we put the minimum spending on them but they really do not rate a permanent place. We hold them for a while and then cancel them or downgrade them when the fee comes due. Read more…
Park Hyatt Dubai Review
The Park Hyatt Dubai is in a wonderful location for travelers who need to be near the Dubai International Airport. It is a little bit away from the downtown portion of the city and even further from the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina areas. If you plan on spending quite a bit of time in the city, this would probably not be your best choice. However, if you want a very relaxing place upon arrival or before departing, then I would choose… Read more…
Barclay Arrival Spending Increasing – Apply or Not?
I wrote a post last week about how I think the Barclay Arrival card is the best credit card for all around travel. The truth is, even with an increase in the required minimum spending (by 300%), it is still the best card for all around travel. Does the increase in the minimum spending make it imperative for you to apply right away? Read more…
Club Carlson Devaluation
I have to say – I am actually tired of writing about devaluations! It is never a nice thing to hear news of a program devaluing after stocking up points for future trips. At least, we are given some warning with some! Club Carlson Devaluation This was one of the most predicted devaluations in award travel – the Club Carlson devaluation. With the way they were minting points through promos and credit card offers, they had to… Read more…
Time Running Out On Tel Aviv
In January, I said that I had put the Tel Aviv Marathon on my race list. I also said that I would love to hook-up with some of you while there! If you have any interest in running around a great city and escaping the cold of the US, you only have a couple of days left to sign-up! Read more…
Help Me Plan A Continental Tour
In my writeup of the ultimate mileage run, I had mentioned at the end about how I may do something on a smaller scale at some point this year or next year. It would be a way to maximize a use of miles as well as hit as many cities as possible within a short timeframe. Of course, I would want to run in cities where I could run with readers – that is a big part of doing something like this. I can run all day in different cities (and have) by myself, but the real fun is doing it with others. Read more…
A US Airways/Southwest Airlines Conundrum
There is a big day coming for both US Airways and Southwest Airlines. That “special” day is March 31st. Big changes are coming on that day for both airlines and they present me with an interesting problem. March 31, 2014 On March 31st, major changes will happen for both US Airways and Southwest Airlines. Here is the breakdown. Southwest Airlines March 31 is the last day to book Southwest award flights at the current value per points. After that, the value of the points will drop from 1.67 cents per point (actually a bit more with the taxes that are covered) to 1.4 cents per point. That takes the value of… Read more…
Manufactured Spending Without Vanilla
One of the easiest ways of manufactured spending us by using vanilla reload cards to load your bluebird account to pay your bills. Another easy is to use amazon payments to send friends/family $1,000 per month fee free (make sure you select Goods/Services instead of Cash Advances). And yet another great way is to purchase Mastercard/Visa gift cards and then use them for every day spending or use some service like Square to get the cash from them.
While those are great methods, they do either cost something or are too low yield. Read more…
Great Limited-Time Offer On Rosetta Stone
This type of deal should be something that any person wishing to visit a particular part of the world for a while should consider. Sure, you can get by with English in most places, but if you really want to immerse yourself into the culture (as much as possible in a few days) and get past the tourist mentality of the place you are visiting, it really helps to have some of the language down. Now, there are some places where having knowledge of the language of the country can actually be a … Read more…
Google Translate for Runners
“So, what pace are you hoping to run?”
Translation: “Are you competition?”
“Oh, you’re from around here? What school did you go to? What year did you graduate?”
Translation: “Are you in my age group?”
“So, what’s your PR?”
Translation: “I’m comparing myself to you, and suddenly my confidence in my own ability is somehow related to your best time.”
Something Interesting About WhatsApp’s Founder
There has been a lot of stories all over the internet this week about the $19 billion deal Facebook made in purchasing the messaging app, WhatsApp. Along with the stories have come quite a bit of information about the man who founded the app, Jan Koum. As of this week, he is now worth $6.8 billion. As incredible as that is, something… Read more…
Miles and Points Sprint
Here is a brief rundown on some of the happenings in the world of miles and points this week.
A Different Outlook On the Club Carlson Devaluation
Greg of Frequent Miler took a look at the recent Club Carlson devaluation and actually had some great points (like he always does) about the new program adjustments. In reality, the situation is not all that bad!
US Bank Visa Olympic Bonus – 27,450 Flexperks
The 2014 Winter Olympics have come to a close and it left the US taking in a total of 28 Olympic medals, which is 9 fewer than the 2010 Olympics. The breakdown was 9 Gold, 7 Silver, and 12 Bronze. Thanks to US Bank running their Olympic promo of adding to the regular sign-up bonus based on medals won by the US, applicants for the US Bank Flexperks Visa will receive a total of … Read more…
