OPEN Benefits

Last Day For Increased SPG Amex Bonus

September 14, 2015By Edward Pizzarello1 Comment

Last day for the increased sign-up bonus on both the personal and business SPG Amex card.

An Interesting Deal To Stretch Your Wyndham Rewards Points

Stretching your points is key to saving money on vacation, especially when traveling as a family. With hotel occupancy increasingly high it can be tough to find availability when you want to travel. A Wyndham promotion might just be an answer to your vacation search.

Sour Grapes: When Seat Assignments Go Away

Have you ever had the airlines lose your seating assignments? Does it bother you? What did you do to resolve it?

Hyatt Credit Card Members Now Earn Bonus Points At SLH Properties

Hyatt has been on a bit of a growth tear over the past 12 months. The biggest part of that growth has been the integration of Small Luxury Hotels of the World into World of Hyatt. They started this in late 2018 and have now expanded the partnership to over 200 hotels. With that and other additions, such as Thompson, Joie de Vivre and Alila hotels, Hyatt now has over 1,000 hotels where you can earn and redeem points. Hyatt Credit Card Bonus Points At SLH Properties Effective immediately, both […]

My 2019 Mid-Year Hotel Status Check

We’re halfway through the year and it’s time to look at what’s working and what’s not with hotel status. My patterns have followed largely what I thought they would have in 2019. I’m further ahead than I want to be in some respects, with too much time on the road. What’s your year look like chasing hotel elite status?

Bose Headphones, Earbuds and Speakers On Sale For Amazon Prime Day

Side note: you can find my master Amazon Prime day page that will contain a list of all the deals I find over the course of the two Amazon Prime days. I’m a big fan of Bose gear. To be more specific, I’m a big fan of Bose as a company. They stand behind their product, they have a phenomenal replacement plan. I washed my wireless bluetooth headset a few years ago and they still replaced it for a minimal fee. There are a handful of Bose items I recommend that are on […]

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. […]