Explorist

Hyatt Place Is Rolling Out Early Check-In For More Elites And Ending Free Breakfast For Non-Members

June 4, 2018By Edward Pizzarello0 Comments

Hyatt announced some changes to their Hyatt Place brand this morning. We still need clarification on a few key points. We know an early check-in benefit is coming for Explorist members and that free breakfast will now require membership in World of Hyatt (and may require direct booking).

World Of Hyatt Is Offering A Top-Tier Status Fast Track Opportunity To Pretty Much Everyone

August 29, 2017By Edward Pizzarello10 Comments

If you weren’t sure you could achieve elite status with Hyatt this year, your prayers are probably answered. Pretty much everyone will qualify for this fast-track path to elite status.

Hyatt Status Fast Track! Stay 20 Nights To Earn Top-Tier Globalist (Targeted)

August 18, 2017By Edward Pizzarello17 Comments

The roll-out of Hyatt’s new loyalty program earlier this year made top-tier elite status harder to achieve and more rewarding. It appears we’re seeing one of the first opportunities to get there a bit quicker.

Finding “Normal” In Crazy Times

The last eight months or so of the pandemic have moved by at an incredibly rapid pace and glacially slow at the same time. Prior to ye old COVID-19, life had a sort of cadence for me, though there were plenty of imbalances. With all of that upset, we’ve all tried to find ways to achieve normalcy. During the beginning of the pandemic, we escaped to a rural ski area a few hours from our house in western Maryland. A friend had a vacation house there they weren’t using, and […]

WIN: I’m Giving Away Aeroplan Elite Status

Psst, hey! Aeroplan dropped some hints on the podcast today about a potential change to the new program that you might really like. Oh, and I’ve got a pretty awesome prize I’m giving away.

We’re All Hoarding Points & Miles. Does That Mean They’ll Be Worth Less?

American Express points out in a recent article what most of us already know. If you’re earning points and miles via a travel reward credit card right now, you’re earning at a much higher rate than your redeeming them. That’s if you’re redeeming at all. AMEX makes the point that many folks are hoarding their points and miles until they can use them again for travel. Will that be in 2021? 2022? That’s a really good question, and it’s also where the problem comes in. Popular travel reward credit cards […]

Whoa! (Targeted)10 Points Per Dollar On All Spending On Advantage Aviator Silver MasterCard

We all know airlines and hotels are hurting right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has been brutal. In a nod to the reality that 2021 isn’t likely to be a “normal” travel year, some brands are already making big moves. Hilton was the first hotel chain to lower elite status requirements for next year. Airlines are jumping in, with American Airlines going first and United not far behind. But, it’s not just enough to lower status requirements. That only helps generate revenue if people want to travel and your value proposition makes them […]

Finally! United’s Return To JFK Means Cheap Award Seats On Transcons

Throughout the pandemic, one thing that I noticed was a lack of truly affordable awards for domestic flights. Even in the face of an unprecedented drop in demand, cheap award seats were hard to come by. In the beginning of the pandemic, I wasn’t searching often. As COVID-19 has stretched on, I’ve started to search more frequently as friends have asked for help finding flights. Uniformly, I’ve not found nearly as many saver awards as I would have expected. Even on routes that consistently have some saver award availability, such as Washington-Dulles […]

I Flew Frontier, Saved $400 And Didn’t Die. My Frontier Airlines Review

Those low-cost carriers always have very appetizing fare sales. Who wouldn’t want to pay $20 to fly somewhere? But, what does $20 really buy you? I found out exactly what Frontier does (and doesn’t) offer customers on my first flight with them recently.

How To Use New Metro Silver Line To Get Between Dulles and Reagan National Airports

People talk about how bad the traffic is in places like Los Angeles with plenty of adjectives. And, it is quite bad. But, the traffic in DC is what I refer to as “stealthy bad”. It doesn’t get the same press that LA traffic does, but a trip that normally takes an hour can easily turn into a 3-hour ordeal. With visiting dignitaries, protests and construction as variables, weather can also wreak havoc on a system that consistently backs up during rush hour. For those of us that live in […]

A Summary Of United Airlines Global Services Benefits

As travel has gotten more stressful the benefits of elite status are even more valuable. In some cases, what used to be free for everyone is now only free for those customers that fly most frequently. I value my American Airlines Executive Platinum status more highly than any status I’ve earned, including 1K service with United Airlines. However, Global Services is another matter. For those not aware, Global Services is an invitation-only status level that United bestows on their best customers. What defines a best customer? Well, United doesn’t list […]

Update: American Airlines Variable Choice Plus Pricing A Feature, Not A Bug

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with the original announcement that American Airlines was creating bundled pricing that included change fees at a lower apparent cost. Things got a little better when American also announced they were expanding the timeframe you could request a same day change to your flight. And, then things started to get a bit screwy. It started with just one flight I couldn’t get to price right with Choice Plus as an add-on. But, then I did a bit more digging and found out […]

Is Foursquare Dead?

Venture Beat doesn’t think so, and I’m not 100% sure they’re wrong. But, before I discuss the article, a little background on why someone allergic to social media like me became a Foursquare nut. A few years ago, a company called TopGuest came up with this concept where you could earn airline miles and hotel points for checking in at various places on Foursquare. I can’t say I thought it was a terribly good business model, but they convinced a bunch of hotel chains to hand out miles for this. […]