Hotel Value for Frequent Guests
For the budget traveler, the cost for a trip to Europe varies widely depending on where you go. Miles and points can significantly reduce the cost of your travel without needing to fly Norwegian economy class or stay in hostels. Still, there is a wide range in cost for food, drink, transportation, shopping and entertainment…
British Airways celebrates 100 years by awarding double Avios (2x) points for six flights flown by Dec 31, 2019. This offer includes all British Airways flights worldwide and North-America-Europe flights on BA, American, Finnair and Iberia. Registration is required and only flights booked March 21-April 19 are eligible. This is a good offer, but I…
Peak season for airline ticket prices between California airports to Europe is mid-June to early August. If you can travel to Europe starting in the last week of July and first week of August, then you have the dual benefit of cheaper airfare and summer weather. Fare differences between June, July and August are illustrated…
IHG has a Europe Flash Sale with 30% discounts for IHG Rewards Club members at participating hotels with good rate discounts in some places for stays from April 5 to January 31, 2020. These are prepaid and nonrefundable rates, which knocks out booking any room too far in the future for me. I prefer flexibility…
Murphys Irish Day is the 3rd Saturday in March and most recently happened Saturday, March 16, 2019. Murphys Irish Day probably saw more than 20,000 visitors to the small Sierra foothills town of Murphys in Calaveras County. About 600 yards of Main Street, where most of the commercial businesses in town are located, were blocked…
Choice Privileges is the hotel loyalty program I used the most for my European travels in 2018. In January, I posted a chart of my 22 reward nights at Choice Hotels spending 226,000 points for rooms with lowest published room rates of $4,398 for the 22 nights. Choice Privileges currently has the best buy points…
130 Hilton brand hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa have a 25% off Best Flexible Rate sale for advance purchase prepaid and nonrefundable bookings for stays through Sep 8, 2019. The sale is primarily geared for weekends, however, there are hotels when this offer is available on other days of the week. This promotional…
Chania harbor quay on the island of Crete, Greece is a small, mostly commercial place and one of the central spots for activity in the city. There are dozens of restaurants and bars along the waterfront. In the first week of March, only a bit more than half the dining places looked open on the…
In a few months, after my next two trips to Europe on SAS Scandinavian Airlines to Stockholm and return from Oslo, and after ‘Aegean Together’ pooling with my wife’s Aegean Miles+Bonus miles, I will have about 130,000 redeemable miles for Miles+Bonus award travel. I spent a few hours looking at award charts and figuring out…
Airline frequent flyer programs were much simpler for me to understand than hotel loyalty programs when I started collecting miles and points over 20 years ago. The problem with figuring hotel loyalty programs for a leisure traveler is the lack of experience when you have no necessity to spend 50 to 100 nights a year…
