This week I've headed off on the longest trip I've ever taken. After travelling non stop for around three months last year, this year I'll be travelling for even longer, from now through to the start of next year. I'm starting with a few places in Western…
According to weather.com (and, really, most major news outlets), Tropical Storm Florence has been upgraded to a hurricane, and is set to descend upon the East Coast later this week. While the exact location of landfall and date of arrival are still unknown,…
This could shape up to be a tough week weather-wise. If you haven't heard, there are several large storms brewing in the Atlantic, with Florence being the most imminent and aggressive. Florence is now a Category 4 hurricane, and is expected to reach…
As I've written about before, I have been able to obtain American Express credit cards in the UK as I continue the journey to build credit in a new country, though the credit card market is hardly lucrative there. I also travel internationally as much…
A reader emailed me the following question: "I am a college student and I was looking to open my first credit card today. I applied for the Chase Freedom Unlimited Card but was instantly rejected. I had called Chase before applying to make sure that…
We spend a lot of time here talking about international first and business class award redemptions. While that's great and will often get you outsized value for your points, that's not how most people are looking to redeem their points. So I figured…
For those of you who have not used hotel comparison site Trivago before, it promises to compare major hotel booking platforms (Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia.com, etc.) to show the best deal for each room type at each property. The idea is that you…
For all of British Airways' faults, they do have an easy to use search engine, which has become my go-to search engine to search oneworld award availability. Here's a step by step guide on how you can search for your next award flight. Note that this…
Earlier this summer, I wrote about a somewhat harrowing experience getting stuck in Chicago overnight. While delays at O'Hare are probably more snooze-worthy than news-worthy, the unexpected overnight stay in Chicago did present the opportunity to take…
If you're one of the people who was able to take advantage of the killer Hong Kong Airlines deals last week, you might be wondering where to credit the miles. I personally booked tickets to Vietnam -- a trip with our moms that my cousin Heather and I…
As I'm sure everyone knows, it's possible to redeem frequent flyer miles for magazines. It's definitely not the most exciting use of miles, but there are reasons to do it sometimes. That said, I'm guessing that most of us really only redeem for magazines…
We're often asked about donating miles -- both whether or not it's something we do, and if it's a good way to contribute to a cause. To be completely transparent: to my recollection I have only ever donated miles as a last-ditch effort to keep an account…
You may have read in the news over the weekend that the Turkish currency, the 'Lira,' has dramatically devalued. A week ago, one US Dollar bought approximately five Turkish Lira. Today, one US Dollar will buy almost seven Turkish Lira, so that represents…
Summer travel can be pricey in many regards, and renting a car is no exception. While I often rent a car for a couple of days at a time, I'm getting ready to leave for my annual three-week trip to the Bay Area (the site of last year's car disaster trifecta),…
A couple of days ago I wrote a post about the 10 airlines with the best international first class products. Several people asked if I could write a similar post about the worst first class products in the world. While I'd generally rather focus on the…
Last year I wrote a series of posts about what I consider to be the world's best first class products. I wrote an intro sharing my methodology, I ranked the 10 best first class products, I ranked the 10 best first class airline lounges, and then Tiffany…
Recently I wrote about a security incident at Germany's Frankfurt Airport, and said that the terminal affected handled Star Alliance 'Schengen' flights. As I wrote about this I realised that some readers who may not travel around Europe regularly may…
For years, if you wanted to earn American AAdvantage miles, then you were likely going to use one of the Starwood Preferred Guest cards from American Express. Sure, you could get bigger welcome bonuses with co-branded cards from Barclays or Citi, but…
I know plenty of you are very competent travelers, but I'm often asked questions about redeeming miles that I had just assumed everybody already knows the answer to. So in addition to some of the more advanced stories that I write, I'll also be writing…
For years, airlines around the world made huge profits by charging customers exorbitant fees in order to pay for flights with a credit card. People had different reasons for wanting to use credit cards, though for many of us it's all about earning points/miles.…
I'm off on an extended trip to Africa later this year, and am booking the flights as we speak. After years of travelling on efficient, direct and extremely affordable low cost flights around Europe, I must admit I am finding the African transportation…
