2020 Reflection: The Good and Bad of a (Mostly) Forgettable Year
2020 was a challenging year, but I stayed focused on achieving the goals I set for myself, including achieving Hyatt Globalist status and earning over three million points and miles.
ToP Blog | Author: Derrick Dye
REVIEW: Hyatt Regency at Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport
Picture yourself sipping a cool beverage at the lakefront restaurant in your hotel. Across the lake, but outside of earshot, you see numerous airplanes on approach to the local international airport. Much closer, you see single engine airplanes taking off and landing at the local flight school.
How I Used Credit Card Rewards to Sell Our House
By late summer, we had more points & miles than we could possibly use for travel in 2021. Almost simultaneously, we decided that we were ready to sell our home and move elsewhere. So what’s the correlation between selling your home and vast sums of points & miles? I’ll explain below!
Do Yourself a Favor and Don’t Convert Southwest Travel Funds to Points (Yet)
I don’t recommend you convert your travel vouchers to Rapid Rewards. Sure, it’s quick and easy. Exactly the way Southwest designed it to be. Take a few moments, days, weeks or months to step back and think about it. You’ve got until December 15, 2020 to make a decision.
Marriott Launches New Status Match Challenge
Status Match challenges can be a great way to utilize your status in another program to add on a second program. Having status with multiple programs can add flexibility for your planning when going on a trip. Marriott has been having some great sales so it may be a chance to add on to some planned stays.
Using the Fetch Rewards App
Fetch is a receipt scanning app which awards you points for scanning receipts. If you buy certain brands, you earn even more points.
Guide: Shifting Credit Between Cards
Many times, especially after you’ve been in the award travel world for a while, you may be approved for a smaller credit limit than you wanted or expected. This could be for various reasons, such as issues on your credit report, credit extended to you with that specific credit card company, total available credit, or low credit utilization or non-use of your existing credit cards.
Using the Ibotta App
I am always excited about free money and that is no different with the Ibotta app. You’re earning cash-back for groceries that you were planning to purchase anyway. In addition, it may give you a way to try new products for much less. It is nice to cash in that $20 every now and then. Overall, I have earned almost $220 cash back with Ibotta without doing any extra work other than a couple clicks and a receipt picture.
Is Now the Perfect Time to Add an American Express Platinum Card to your Wallet?
Now might be the time to add an American Express Platinum Card to your wallet, specifically a Charles Schwab Platinum. Let me explain why I added this card to my wallet back in late May and why you may want to do the same.
Using the DO$H App
DO$H is a mobile application that links to your existing debit and credit cards and earns you cash back. Some offers may be a percentage and some may have a fixed amount. As with other apps, there is a $25 minimum to cash out.