Free Stars

Starbucks Is Giving Away Gold Status Again!

December 5, 2017By Edward Pizzarello0 Comments

For caffeine junkies, Starbucks Gold status is probably a way of life. For the occasional Starbuckian, free Gold status can definitely come in handy.

Free Starbucks! Easy Way To Score 300 Stars For A Few Free Drinks

November 15, 2017By Edward Pizzarello3 Comments

Free Starbucks! You’ve got a few days to take advantage of this easy way to score a few free drinks by loading money onto your Starbucks account.

Win Free Coffee And Stars In The Starbucks Summer Game

August 11, 2017By Edward Pizzarello26 Comments

Starbucks has rolled out a summer game again this year to win free prizes. I’ve only been playing for a couple of days, but it seems worthwhile.

Hyatt Offering Up To A 25% Discount On Award Stays And Free Parking Until October

This may be the turning point where we start to see really meaningful offers from travel companies looking to motivate us to start traveling. Early on in the COVID-19 crisis the scramble was to confirm to customers that their elite status would be extended. Brands like Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, American, Delta and United made announcements to put customers at ease. There were also some early offers of shortcuts to higher status levels to try to spur customers to travel more. Marriott even introduced a pretty lucrative discount on gift cards […]

From Our Daughter: Hersheypark During a Pandemic With Anxiety

Earlier this week our family took a socially distanced visit to Hersheypark. There was general nervousness as parents. The risk was really low that someone in our family would contract COVID-19. But, we didn’t have to go to a theme park. We took lots of precautions and came up with strategies to help manage our daughter’s anxiety. The more we talk to folks about her anxiety, the more we hear from other families who deal with something similar. To that end, a friend asked if our daughter would share what she […]

Is It Safe To Visit Hersheypark? Here’s What To Expect When Hersheypark Opens This Week

For those of you that follow our families travels on a regular basis, you can usually find pictures of us in a theme park somewhere. We’re equal opportunity people, hitting up popular parks like Disney World and Universal Studios, while also visiting Legoland and Hersheypark multiple times a year. My friend Richard Kerr asked this week, “Does the Pizza family have season passes to every theme park in the country?” The answer is no, but we do have season passes to more than one. After a one-year hiatus, we decided […]

Europe Is Closed To Americans, Canada Too. What’s The Human Side?

Aside from all of the fear over the past 90 days (wow, has it really only been a few months?) while the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up in the US, there have been so many interesting things to watch in the world of travel. How does an airline go from full planes to virtually empty, with hundreds of planes grounded? If you’re a government agency, how do you effectively enforce a quarantine? These are very, very different issues than what we normally deal with. And, now that people are starting to […]

Marriott Rolls Out A Summer Promo. Is It Worth It For You?

As things start to thaw slowly from the absolute freeze on travel during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, travel brands are trying to figure out what it will take to motivate us to spend our money on travel again. Hyatt was the first into the market with a triple points earning promotion across their entire portfolio of properties. They traditionally focus their summer promotion on rebating points to folks who hold their co-branded credit card. This summer, they’ve chosen so far to incentivize paid travel (though they did offer […]

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. […]

Bank of American Finally Catches Up, When You Get Too Many Free Night Vouchers, How Theme Parks Can Be Political Landmines - Your Mileage May Vary - July 8, 2020:
[…] follow the rules than others. In the past week, we read [...]

Once Glorious American Airlines MD80, Rotting In The Desert - View from the Wing - July 5, 2020:
[…] What it’s like to go to a theme park – now, [...]

Denise - July 5, 2020:
Way to push yourself through the anxiety! As someone who's been there, [...]

Evelyn Walsh - July 4, 2020:
Cat, you are such a good writer. My younger daughter dealt with [...]

Nathan - July 4, 2020:
Great job! Sounds like fun too.