TopGuest

More Points Available During SPG’s Fall Promo

October 11, 2012By Edward Pizzarello0 Comments

For those that frequent Starwood properties, they have a good, if not great promotion for the fall. And, while I won’t be moving stays over to SPG because of the promo, they have sweetened the pot a bit. I’ve been a foursquare guy since TopGuest started handing out points like candy for online check-ins at certain chains, though it’s gotten less valuable lately. This could be pretty lucrative if you have a decent number of stays with SPG during the promo period. You’re already getting 500 points if you use […]

TopGuest Slowly (Quickly) Becoming Less Valuable

June 26, 2012By Edward Pizzarello1 Comment

I was pretty psyched when points first started posting from my TopGuest check-ins. I had written about how easy it was to setup TopGuest to interact with FourSquare a few months ago. Most of the reason why I signed up was to earn points for a potential repeat of the USAirways Grand Slam promo that I earned 100,000 miles from for virtually no money. Shortly after I signed up, Comfort Inn points stopped posting and we learned they had withdrawn from the program. No biggie, still plenty to feast on. […]

Plenty of Details: Air Canada Launches A New Loyalty Program With A Familiar Name

Allow me to nerd out for just a minute. I’ve been a hardcore points and miles nerd for over 20 years. Rarely in that time have we seen a completely new loyalty program emerge. Even more rare is to see a new loyalty program from a large, established airline. Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards program is the one that immediately comes to mind when I think of big airlines with new programs. Fast forward to today, and we have the reimagined Aeroplan program. Many moons ago, Air Canada spun off Aeroplan. […]

Wow! American Airlines and JetBlue Form The Strategic Partnership I Always Hoped For

American Airlines and JetBlue have announced a very interesting partnership this morning. For over a decade, I flew American Airlines every week. During those times, there were always two weak areas in their coverage. The northeast and northwest parts of the country were lacking great connectivity. American Airlines solved the northwest issue by forming a much tighter partnership with Alaska Airlines earlier this year. Side note: it’s been such a crazy few months I thought this happened last year….. Now, American has worked to shore up their lack of connections […]

Beginner’s Guide To Renting An RV During COVID-19 Crisis: Choosing A Rental

Our family loves to travel. We’ve frequently bypassed desirable destinations in the United States in favor of using our miles and points to travel abroad. Italy is one of our favorite places, but we’ve also had incredible trips to Australia, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam and many more great destinations. Disney parks around the world are another of our favorite destinations. Those trips have made it difficult to explore very much of the US. COVID-19 turned that formula on its head. Most countries won’t even let Americans in right now. Many of […]

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 […]

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. […]