Windbag Miles

It’s old news by now, but in case you’ve been stuck in cave and have just learned that the shadows you saw were not an accurate representation of the world, Marriott rebranded their sensibly-named Marriott Rewards loyalty program as Marriott Bonvoy. I’ll wait here while you do the finger-down-the-throat pantomime for five straight minutes. IContinue reading “I spent way more time messing around in Photoshop on my jokey graphics than I did actually writing this post about Marriott Bonvoy.”

I’ve been pretty critical of Hilton in the past, mostly because things that are easy to do with other hotel loyalty programs are inexplicably difficult with them. Case in point is the free night certificates that you can earn through their co-branded Amex cards (either by having the card and/or by spending a certain amountContinue reading “A couple Hilton updates, including a “trick” that’s either a great award booking hack or just me having good luck over the phone for once.”

Quick Windbag Miles update: I have a podcast now! It’s only accessible if you’re a Patreon subscriber, though, so if you want to listen to my dulcet tones, consider supporting the blog with your money in addition to your eyeballs. As of this writing, I have eight subscribers, which means that, yes, I make aContinue reading “How does the Morgan Stanley “Invest with Rewards” program work?”

I finally know what it feels like to be an upper-tier elite member!!! How to describe it? It’s not unlike the feeling you get when you pour pure maple syrup on a hot golden-brown waffle. Or the spark of excitement when you see a lover after an extended time apart. Now I know why peopleContinue reading “American Airlines gave me four months of “Platinum Pro,” which is an elite status tier, not the name of an extended warranty on a laser printer.”

If you haven’t heard, Citi is introducing a new card in the Thank You Rewards portfolio. It doesn’t earn transferrable points on its own, but you can combine points with Citi’s premium cards. You know the drill. It’s not an especially compelling card, except that it rounds every transaction up to the nearest 10 rewardsContinue reading “How brutally are people going to game this new Citi card before it gets nerfed?”

[2022 UPDATE: Per One Mile at a Time, at least one of these dream hotels is still opening. No news on the Hilton Turkish Hotel In Norway, though. As long as I’m updating, I will say that it’s kind of funny how three years ago, my dream destination (according to this post) was Norway, butContinue reading “Hilton’s Turkish hotel in Norway and two dream hotels that will probably never open [2022 Update: Oh yes they will…]”

There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the state of credit card churning and travel hacking.. It’s always getting worse — can you remember back when you could get an Amex bonus once every twelve months? I barely do. Or that time I signed up for five Chase cards in one year? ThatContinue reading “Fuck it, I’m going to be optimistic about churning in 2019”

Sometimes I don’t know whether I should write posts like this or just put out a series of tweets instead. If you go back through my past posts about the Faroe Islands, you’ll come across a lot of information that’s no longer true, since — as a tourist destination on the rise — things seemContinue reading “Some Faroe Islands route news that will probably be out of date by the time I need to book any of these flights”

While the Platinum card gets the majority of the attention paid to Morgan Stanley’s Amex co-brand cards, they do offer a no-annual-fee option for some reason. (I say “for some reason” since Morgan Stanley isn’t known for courting the type of people who would be averse to paying high annual fees — after all, theContinue reading “Is the basic Morgan Stanley Amex card worth one of your precious, precious Amex slots?”

I have a ton of reviews backlogged right now, so I might as well get to it. We’ll start with the Hilton Stucky Molino Venice, which is not named after a guy called “Stucky Molino,” in case you were wondering. I was disappointed by that fact, but I soldiered on and had a pretty niceContinue reading “Stuck on you: A review of the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice, a hotel in Venice with a really long name”