Today is May 24 or 5/24, a nomenclature that many in the award travel community look to with both fear and reverence. It refers to the unpublished policy of JP Morgan Chase to only approve new credit card applications if a consumer has not opened more than 5 personal cards with ANY bank in the … Continue reading What’s Your 5/24?

There was exciting news yesterday in the transferrable points world when Chase announced Air Canada Aeroplan as a new Ultimate Rewards (UR) transfer partner. Email from Chase announcing the news. This is pretty great news for anyone looking to book Star Alliance flights such as United as Aeroplan offers great value with fixed award pricing. … Continue reading New Chase UR Transfer Partner

I stumbled across this boutique hotel when researching lodging options for a friend’s wedding. The Quirk is located near the VCU campus in a very hipster art district. Most importantly, it was located less than a block away from the wedding venue. I was ecstatic to learn that this unique place was a HYATT PROPERTY! … Continue reading Quirk Hotel, Richmond, VA

The Hyatt Regency Maui was booked for 2 nights @ 25k Hyatt points/night. Beautiful property but it was packed with kids and families. My parents honeymooned here 40 years ago and they took me some time ago so it had a bit of nostalgia (seemed to be the case with a lot of people). The … Continue reading Maui Trip Report (Part 5 of 5) – Hyatt Regency and Summary

After our excitement at the Andaz, Haleakala and other activities we embarked on our journey on the Piilani Highway or the "Back Road to Hana." Since the journey to/from Hana is a destination itself we navigated it using the “Shaka” audio guide on our phones. It worked well and we were able to pick up … Continue reading Maui Trip Report (Part 4 of 5) – Hana

Andaz Maui at Wailea To start the trip we stayed at the gorgeous Andaz Maui in Wailea for 3 nights @ 30k Hyatt points/night. It was a beautiful resort with fabulous tiered infinity pools and a fantastic beach. Most of the time we weren't at the pool we enjoyed the great beach directly in front … Continue reading Maui Trip Report (Part 3 of 5) – Andaz Maui

Following the previous report on our Maui Jeep rental and COVID testing, the next important aspect is the flights which I will detail here. Delta First Class PIT-DTW-SLC-OGG Our outbound flight was locked in at the end of last year for 65k SkyMiles each . Originally it was just PIT-SLC-OGG but a schedule change added … Continue reading Maui Trip Report (Part 2 of 5) – Flights

The long awaited anniversary trip to Hawaii for P2 and I finally happened and I wanted to share our experience and advice. All around it was a pretty epic trip and memorable way to mark a decade of P2 putting up with my obsessive trip planning activities. Remarkably we accomplished nearly everything we set out … Continue reading Maui Trip Report (Part 1 of 5) – Jeep Rental and COVID Testing

We often work hard to earn enough points and/or miles to finally redeem for award travel. Sometimes these award trips are ambitious round-the-world adventures and other times they could be short trips to visit family. No matter what the redemption we always ask ourselves the question, "Am I getting enough value out of my points?" … Continue reading Award Valuation

For 2021 the World of Hyatt Program made it even easier to achieve elite status by halving the requirements needed to achieve status. Status levels can be achieved with a significantly fewer number of nights: Discoverist - 5 nights Explorist - 15 nights Globalist -30 nights To make things even easier Hyatt is currently running … Continue reading 2021 World of Hyatt Status Calculator