Get 12,500 Velocity Bonus Points for a Referral!

[We've been busy of late, so haven't had time to post.  We appreciate it if you choose to use our links to sign up for new cards!]

I had to get off a short post about the Velocity co-branded American Express card.  I covered the numerous benefits in a post not long ago.  The card also has a top spot on the left banner of my blog, because I feel it ranks among THE best Aussie card on the market right now!

Two friends of ours used our links to get a card each, since they need to go to the same Melbourne convention we are all attending later this year.  Their approvals gave them each 20,000 Velocity points, and also rewarded us with 12,500 for each approval, for a total of 25,000 points.  Without a friend's referral, the regular offer is just 15,000 for a new card, and no one gets a referral bonus!

But you can get your own referral link so that anyone you refer who signs up, will net themselves a total of 20,000 points, and you'll get the 12,500 yourself!

If you don't already have a card, use my link to get one.  Then once you've received it sign into your American Express online account to create a referral link for anyone you feel should get one also, as explained below.

Deals for This Weekend - January 10, 11

If you're looking for a quick getaway this weekend, that doesn't break the budget, have a look at a few of these Secret Saver hotels.  

If you have kids, these rates will work with 2 adults with 2 children.

I am highlighting 1 bargain rate hotel in each city.

These rates are booking through Expedia.com.au, for this Friday and Saturday nights, January 10-11, 2014.  

Adelaide
4.5* $346 for this weekend

Auckland
4.5* $297 for this weekend  

Brisbane
4.5* $368 for this weekend 

Gold Coast
4* $412 for this weekend 


Melbourne
4.5* $382 for this weekend

Perth
4.5* $307 this weekend

Sydney 
3.5* $487 this weekend

Why Banks Spend Millions

Today's post is short and sweet.  

All of us have gotten value out of huge credit card signup bonuses.  But how do the banks make money from giving away money or airline points?  

Put simply, they earn money from your loyalty.  

Studies show that the average cost for any business to 'obtain' a new client, is 7x what is it is retain a current client.  

Every business would rather spend less to keep its clients, than spend lots more to get new ones.  But in an effort to grow, they do spend money to land new clients.  

With banks, they choose to give away money, points, and other card perks, to gain your business.  They hope you will stick with them, not review your cards, not pay attention to annual fees, or just not bother checking what their competitors offer and switch cards. 

Ah, but we must!  Otherwise we could miss great deals which are worth hundreds of dollars in free giveaways for little effort.  Our doing this also makes the banking system far more competitive here in Australia.  

In the States it is not far-fetched to get more than $5,000 cash and points value from credit cards EVERY YEAR!  Australia is not even close to that figure, but there are good offers out there, and if we pay attention and get them the market here will have to become ever more competitive. 

Hat tip to Million Mile Secrets in this post explaining how banks and large businesses see the return on their huge advertising and new client expenditures.

The Definitive Guide to 10 Best Rate Hotel Guarantees Series: Part 4 - Marriott

We try to get sales on hotels or airlines, since it saves us money.  And we've often gotten some great prices, if we've been able to plan in advance.  Other times, we've gotten some great last-minute prices by using a few tricks that I've posted about earlier. 
 

Hanging With the Locals in Shanghai

Sometimes we have to transit through a city or airport, and need just one night in a hotel.  When that happens I like to start by looking for Best Rate Guarantees, and if you locate one you can stay for free.  And there are some nice places we've stayed at, and others we have coming up.  You can also use them to lower the overall cost of a longer stay, of more than just 1 night.  

But how hard is it to find one?  What are the rules?  How can it be free? 

Most of the major hotel chains, and online travel agencies, have Best Rate Guarantees (BRG's).  Basically, they offer to match, beat, or even give you a free night if you happen to find a better rate with a competitor.  Now admittedly, looking for another competing price takes more time and effort.  However, the payback can be significant if you're prepared to do just a few minutes of work.

Other bloggers have posted some excellent write-ups on BRG's, some extremely thorough, but in this series we're going to explore some popular brands and their rules primarily for Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, since that is where most of us travel around here.  There are many hotels with BRG's, but so as not to dilute, we'll only focus here on 10 Best Rate Guarantees, those which are best for our region.

A few large chains with thousands of locations, actually offer the 1st night of stay for free, if you find a competing and eligible rate which is lower.  So if you are only staying 1 night, you get that night free.  They can give away free nights because they'd rather give you 1 free night, for helping them locate where they need to adjust their prices to compete.  Most consumers won't bother to claim for a free night, they'll just see the lowest rate and book whatever is cheapest. 

In this series I'm also introducing a new feature, that I hope will be helpful for you.  I'm including a short youtube video clip, where I quickly walk you through how to find, book, and submit a claim for a free or discounted BRG stay.  This will show you just how easy it is.

You can go straight to the Hyatt (from Post 3 in the series) how-to video now, if you're like me and don't want to read the instructions!  Or keep reading if you want written details.  

Best Rate Guarantee Series

• Part 1 - Choice (match, and 1st night free)
• Part 2 - Intercontinental Hotels Group (match, and 1st night free)
• Part 3 - Hyatt (match, and 20% off total stay)
• Part 4 - Marriott (match, and 25% off total stay)
• Part 5 - Starwood
• Part 6 - Best Western 
• Part 7 - Club Carlson 
• Part 8 - Rydges
• Part 9 - Mövenpick
• Part 10 - Expedia

Marriott Hotels have some nice properties.  The JW Marriott in Shanghai is amazing and can go for $300 a night!  It is a beautiful hotel.

They also include the Ritz-Carlton ultra-luxury hotels, one of the many brands that fall within the Marriott umbrella.  Ritz-Carlton hotels are found in many Asian countries, but not Australia.

JW Marriott Shanghai

 

Grand Staircase on the 38th Floor

GETTING DISCOUNTED NIGHTS

How hard is it to find a discounted night with the Marriott Hotels chain?  

Marriott has over 3,800 properties, in 74 countries.  

In Australia most of the major cities have at least 1 Marriott. 

GENERAL RULES

1. Must book a reservation on Marriott website. (I book refundable so I can cancel if they deny my claim)
2. Must have found a lower rate on a competitor website.
3. Submit the claim within 24 hours of booking. 
4. Amenities must generally match. (same room type, same description, or close)
Submit your BRG via their online form.
5. The Marriott rep will search the competitor site you've found, to verify your rate.  If they find you've found a cheaper rate elsewhere they will apply a 25% discount to your entire stay.  You should get a response the same day.

HOW TO DO IT

I prefer to use Kayak or HotelsCombined, each are similar with pros and cons, but work the same to search lots of sites for prices to compare and find a BRG.   

At the Kayak homepage, enter your info such as: how many persons, date, city, etc.  We will search for a hotel in Shanghai a few weeks from now.

The results in our dummy booking will give you hundreds of hotels in Shanghai to select from.  Scroll down and at the lower left you will see the 'Hotel Name' search box.  You can also select an entire hotel chain from this box, and in our search we enter 'Marriott' to get only those hotels which we know offer a free nights for 25% off.
 

The search will come back with only hotels from the Marriott chain.  

When clicking through to the actual websites prices dropped for both Marriott (USD $166) and Travelocity (USD $159).  

Search for a price discrepancy.  When you find one, you might have a winner!  In this case I found Travelocity to be lower in price than the Shanghai Marriott City Centre hotel.  Click on the link of the lower price competitor, and the Marriott hotel, to see if both pages load with valid prices.  Occasionally prices are out-of-date, but by clicking through you'll quickly know if there are any updates or errors. 

VERIFY THE PRICES AND AMENITIES

Take a good look at the prices.  Are they more then a $1?  1%?  Do the currencies match?  Are the amenities the same?  So quickly read through and ensure they look similar in description.  Check to see if the pictures on both sites are the same, thus the same room type.  This will be what the Marriott agent searches for when deciding to give you a free night.  Is the price refundable, in case your claim is rejected, and you need to cancel and find another free night elsewhere? 

If you are satisfied then make the reservation and immediately submit a claim for a BRG.  I do it so that the agent at Marriott who handles your claim can get onto it as soon as possible to give me an answer.  

If I'm rejected I cancel as soon as I find out.  Then I may try again right away or soon after.

MULTIPLE NIGHTS

In this post, by looking and finding a cheaper rate you would have saved $42 ($6 per night x 7 nights) + $133 (25% off of $159 = $19 X 7 nights), saving a grand total of $175!  

CONCLUSION

Take a few minutes next time you're traveling to save serious money on your trip, by learning how to use BRG's.  You'll definitely Travel Better..and Travel for Less!

Buy Frontier Miles and See the US for Cheap(er)

Frontier Airlines serves many major US cities in lots of states, though not all.  But they do cover most of the ones you'd want to visit, such as New York, Texas, Florida, and many, many more.

Of note is that they fly to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Alaska, at far lower redemption prices than other major airlines.  This is an award sweet spot for buying and redeeming miles, and especially when they are running discounted points sales, like now until 14 January, 2014.

Check out their route map if you want to see exactly where they fly.  

Currently Points.com is running a promotion to sell Frontier miles for US$.0179 each.  This means that you could fly from any one of their US locations, to any other, for US$181, and return for $362.  Nice!  Including Alaska!

A ticket to Alaska usually sets you back US$400 one-way from most cities in the US.  

I did a cost analysis to buy points with the current promotion, on a trip from:
New York to Alaska, on to Florida, and back again to New York.

A trip to those 3 locations would cost you +US$1,000 cash or more.  

But to buy 30,000 points right now, which would take you to those same 3 places, would cost you just US$591.  

If you have any future trips coming up to the US, buy points now so you can save money later.

Hat Tip to MileValue.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Part 4 - Highway 1

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for last-minute deals! 

Bindi and I have been able to see lots of places that we could never have afforded to, if it were not for using points, or at least defraying the cost by searching out bargain fares on flights or hotels.  

We've been spending some time in Panama of late.  So we started our trip from there. 

In September we converted Delta 35,000 points each, to travel up to visit my family in Ohio, and then from there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary by driving and touring the US West Coast.  

Delta allows you to have a stopover at 1 location, and then another flight to an entirely different destination, when redeeming award tickets.  Effectively, you're getting 2 trips, for the price of 1 redemption. 

So we flew from Panama to Ohio, then later to California, and finally back to Panama at the end.  All for 35,000 points. 

We had decided to visit Las Vegas, the Napa Valley, and drive south along Highway 1, since these are places we've always wanted to see.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Index

• Part 1 - Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• Part 2 - Las Vegas to San Francisco
• Part 3 - Napa Valley
• Part 4 - Highway 1

Deals for This Weekend - January 3, 4

If you're looking for a quick getaway this weekend, that doesn't break the budget, have a look at a few of these Secret Saver hotels.  

If you have kids, these rates will work with 2 adults with 2 children.

I am highlighting 1 bargain rate hotel in each city.

These rates are booking through Expedia.com.au, for this Friday and Saturday nights, January 3-4, 2014.  

Adelaide
4.5* $355 for this weekend

Auckland
4.5* $263 for this weekend  

Brisbane
4* $253 for this weekend 

Gold Coast
4* $336 for this weekend 


Melbourne
4.5* $432 for this weekend

Perth
4.5* $346 this weekend

Sydney 
3.5* $388 this weekend

Holiday Report US West Coast: Part 3 - Napa Valley

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for last-minute deals! 

Bindi and I have been able to see lots of places that we could never have afforded to, if it were not for using points, or at least defraying the cost by searching out bargain fares on flights or hotels.  

We've been spending some time in Panama of late.  So we started our trip from there.

In September we converted Delta 35,000 points each, to travel up to visit my family in Ohio, and then from there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary by driving and touring the US West Coast.  

Wine Tasting in the Napa Valley

Delta allows you to have a stopover at 1 location, and then another flight to an entirely different destination, when redeeming award tickets.  Effectively, you're getting 2 trips, for the price of 1 redemption. 

So we flew from Panama to Ohio, then later to California, and finally back to Panama at the end.  All for 35,000 points. 

We had decided to visit Las Vegas, the Napa Valley, and drive south along Highway 1, since these are places we've always wanted to see.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Index

• Part 1 - Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• Part 2 - Las Vegas to San Francisco
• Part 3 - Napa Valley
• Part 4 - Highway 1

Holiday Report US West Coast: Part 2 - Las Vegas to San Francisco

Bindi and I have been able to see lots of places that we could never have afforded to, if it were not for using points, or at least defraying the cost by searching for bargain fares on flights or hotels. 


We've been spending some time in Panama of late.  So we started our trip from there.

In September we converted Delta 35,000 points each, to travel up to visit my family in Ohio, and then from there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary by driving and touring the US West Coast.  

Our Upgraded Room

Delta allows you to have a stopover at 1 location, and then another flight to an entirely different destination, when redeeming award tickets.  Effectively, you're getting 2 trips, for the price of 1 redemption. 

So we flew from Panama to Ohio, then later to California, and finally back to Panama at the end.  All for 35,000 points. 

We had decided to visit Las Vegas, the Napa Valley, and drive south along Highway 1, since these are places we've always wanted to see.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Index

• Part 1 - Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• Part 2 - Las Vegas to San Francisco
• Part 3 - Napa Valley
• Part 4 - Highway 1

Las Vegas to San Francisco

We set off early from Vegas and drove along the inland highway, which was faster to get to Northern California.  We planned to take our time as we drove South later along Highway 1.  Since we'd never been through this part of the California, we loved getting to see all the produce and orchards in this part of the state.  It was very sparsely populated, but beautiful.  

While traveling, we decided to stay at some Holiday Inn hotels along the way, in small towns.  Prices were reasonable, and it allowed me to qualify for my needed stays in order to get my Big Win promotion points.  Since I have Platinum status with IHG, it meant better rooms and other perks as well.

I was targeted for 90,000 points if I completed all my stays.  Spending the ~$400 or so I needed to to qualify for 90,000 points is well worth it since I try to redeem these for PointsBreak nights, which could cost ~$2,000 in cash, instead of using 90,000 points. 

We've stayed in PointsBreak hotels a few times and plan to do it more.  They are a great bargain for 5,000 points.  Before I realised how valuable they were, and went I began learning about the value of points, I purchased points to make my stays more affordable.  Since then I've built up points with credit cards and promotions like the Big Win.

Now we have +200,000 points so we'll be using those for some future trips we have coming up.

We took 2 days to drive from Las Vegas to San Francisco.  But we enjoyed the slow place, and getting to actually drive, and see the countryside.  Since we usually fly, when we have the chance to drive and see something, we like to if we have the time to spare.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Part 1 - Los Angeles to Las Vegas

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for last-minute deals! 

Bindi and I have been able to see lots of places that we could never have afforded to, if it were not for using points, or at least defraying the cost by searching out bargain fares on flights or hotels.  

We've been spending some time in Panama of late.  So we started our trip from there.

In September we converted Delta 35,000 points each, to travel up to visit my family in Ohio, and then from there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary by driving and touring the US West Coast.  

My Cousin Who Lives in Africa, Was Also Visiting Ohio

Delta allows you to have a stopover at 1 location, and then another flight to an entirely different destination, when redeeming award tickets.  Effectively, you're getting 2 trips, for the price of 1 redemption. 

So we flew from Panama to Ohio, then later to California, and finally back to Panama at the end.  All for 35,000 points. 

We had decided to visit Las Vegas, the Napa Valley, and drive south along Highway 1, since these are places we've always wanted to see.

Holiday Report US West Coast: Index

• Part 1 - Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• Part 2 - Las Vegas to San Francisco
• Part 3 - Napa Valley
• Part 4 - Highway 1

The Definitive Guide to 10 Best Rate Hotel Guarantees Series: Part 3 - Hyatt [with Video]

We try to get sales on hotels or airlines, since it saves us money.  And we've often gotten some great prices, if we've been able to plan in advance.  Other times, we've gotten some great last-minute prices by using a few tricks that I've posted about earlier.

Sometimes we have to transit through a city or airport, and need just one night in a hotel.  When that happens I like to start by looking for Best Rate Guarantees, and if you locate one you can stay for free.  And there are some nice places we've stayed at, and others we have coming up.  You can also use them to lower the overall cost of a longer stay, of more than just 1 night.  

Bindi and I in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh)

 But how hard is it to find one?  What are the rules?  How can it be free? 

Deals for This Weekend

If you're looking for a quick getaway this weekend, that doesn't break the budget, have a look at a few of these Secret Saver hotels.  

If you have kids, these rates will work with 2 adults with 2 children.

I am highlighting 1 bargain rate hotel in each city.

These rates are booking through Expedia.com.au, for this Friday and Saturday nights, December 27 - 28, 2013.  

Adelaide
4.5* $385 for this weekend

Auckland
4.5* $263 for this weekend  

Brisbane
4.5* $246 for this weekend 

Gold Coast
Nothing available

Melbourne
Nothing available  

Perth
4.5* $320 this weekend

Sydney 
4.5* $337 this weekend

The Definitive Guide to 10 Best Rate Hotel Guarantees Series: Part 2 - IHG

We try to get sales on hotels or airlines, since it saves us money.  And we've often gotten some great prices, if we've been able to plan in advance.  Other times, we've gotten some great last-minute prices by using a few tricks that I've posted about earlier.

Sometimes we have to transit through a city or airport, and need just one night in a hotel.  When that happens I like to start by looking for Best Rate Guarantees, and if you locate one you can stay for free.  Totally free.  Hotels which could cost +$500/night, FREE.  And there are some nice places we've stayed at, and others we have coming up.  You can also use them to lower the overall cost of a longer stay, of more than just 1 night.  

But how hard is it to find one?  What are the rules?  How can it be free? 

A Hotel We Got for Free in Manhattan! Regularly $450/night

35,000 Points - HSBC Platinum Qantas Credit Card ~ $400 Cash Value - Till 31 Dec 2013

[Disclosure: I receive no commission from this card.]

The HSBC Platinum Qantas Credit Card may be the best Qantas card on the market right now.  But it ends in 2 weeks, so now is the time to apply for it if it's of interest to you.

35,000 Points for the HSBC Platinum Qantas Card

Lots of Velocity Award Space in January 2014

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for last-minute deals!

With points and cheap deals we've been able to see many more places than we could have otherwise afforded on our small budget.  Recently, I've highlighted some perks of the Velocity Escape card, and Gold card, which if approved for both would give you enough points for a return ticket between heaps of cities, including Melbourne and the Gold Coast. 

If you already have points with Velocity, you could cash in now for some getaways if you live in either of those cities, or others.  Since lots of folks want to get away this time of the year, if you haven't already made plans, there is plenty of availability to cash in your points for flights if you still want to get out of town. 

Just a Few of the More Than 9 Flights Using Points This Friday 27 December and Tuesday 7 January

The Definitive Guide to 10 Best Rate Hotel Guarantees Series: Part 1 - Choice [with Video]

We try to get sales on hotels or airlines, since it saves us money.  And we've often gotten some great prices, if we've been able to plan in advance.  Other times, we've gotten some great last-minute prices by using a few tricks that I've posted about earlier.

Sometimes we have to transit through a city or airport, and need just one night in a hotel.  When that happens I like to start by looking for Best Rate Guarantees, and if you locate one you can stay for free.  Totally free.  Hotels which could cost +$500/night, FREE.  And there are some nice places we've stayed at, and others we have coming up.  You can also use them to lower the overall cost of a longer stay, of more than just 1 night.  

But how hard is it to find one?  What are the rules?  How can it be free? 

A Hotel We Got for Free in Manhattan! Regularly $450/night

Deals for This Weekend

If you're looking for a quick getaway this weekend, that doesn't break the budget, have a look at a few of these Secret Saver hotels.  As always, there must be a few hotels hoping to fill up, since weekends are their lowest earning days.  Save some money yourself while having a nice weekend away.  

If you have kids, these rates will work with 2 adults with 2 kids.

I am highlighting 1 bargain rate hotel in each city.

I'll also include Auckland for the Kiwi readers.  

These rates are booking through Expedia.com.au, for this Friday and Saturday nights, December 20-21, 2013.  

If this is of help to you I might just make it regular thing, so please let me know what you think!

Million Mile Secrets Interview

Last week I was interviewed on Million Mile Secrets.  I learned a lot of my miles and points tricks from that blog.  Now, I'm tweaking those and adding lots more to help people Down Under to get the maximum value from our own points programs.

Thanks for visiting, to any new readers who've linked over to check out my blog!

I hope some of the information I'm sharing will not only help my Aussie friends, but maybe even some the US folks who have a look through my site.

And thanks to Daraius for the interview!

4 Must-Have Communication Tools When You're Overseas

When we're overseas, there are a few communication tools that we always use to save money.  We're frugal travelers, so if we save $5 here or there, it adds up.  Plus, why would you want to throw money away when you don't have to?  Enough said, I'm sure I don't need to convince you!

This post is not meant to cover every single app on the market.  Why not?  There are more coming to market every day!  So, here I'm sharing just a few common tools I use to stay in touch while overseas.  

These are established companies which offer a good product for a fair price, and if you're not using them you could be throwing your money out the door.  

Sure, you could enable your Telstra or Vodafone phone to receive calls in Bali when you're there.  But you could pay a fortune if you're not extremely careful.

Which of the 4 programs should you use, and when?  I'll cover the pros and cons of each.

Final Chance - Buy American Airlines Points for a Discount

If you saw the earlier post about buying American Airlines points, and redeeming them on Qantas flights, then you'll know that today is the final day to signup for an American Airlines account, if you don't already have one, and then buy the points while still on sale before 31 December, 2013.  

In that post we covered a number of scenarios as to how how you could redeem those points for great trips you'd otherwise pay much more for in cash.

You really need to start thinking out of the box to consider the multitude of ways you can make a trip with points and extracting value from this deal.  Feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have a question.

Today, I'll post once more about this, so you can see why you should consider buying points to use for a future trip.  I'll be showing you how to make a trip from the Gold Coast to several destinations, but your starting point could just as easily be almost any city in Australia or New Zealand.

Queenstown - Jump-Off Point for a Ski Holiday