10% Off Hyatt Gift Cards

Use promo code GPGIFT14 for a strong 10% off when buying Hyatt gift cards. Even if you use points for your Hyatt stays, you’re probably racking up some money on resort fees, parking, and meals. The egift card with free shipping should be available in a week or two.

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Monday Updates

  • I’ve been told the SPECTACULAR Hyatt Diamond Challenge is now a thing of the past. Yeah, that sucks, but I guess it was just a matter of time. Hopefully it will soon be replaced with something decent. You can still email Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton to try for status in their programs. You can also get Fairmont, Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt status from holding their credit cards.
  • Another death. The Chase Ink Bold credit card is officially gone. Ink Plus is still around…for now.
  • Free money (Amazon gift cards) and United miles (2,500 to 4,000) from Softcard. The Softcard app works with some Android phones. Go here to see if it works for you.
  • Grab 5,000 United miles for your first booking (3+ nights) from Rocketmiles.

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Companion Pass Corrections

Some of you added good ideas/suggestions to my post from 2 days ago. The best of those included:

  • Apparently, for the Southwest Business card offer of 50,000 points, you can call 1-800-278-4370 and apply for it that way.
  • If you’re rich in Marriott points, you should look at their Hotel + Air packages. They can be a very strong use of your points. As far as the Southwest Companion pass goes, you can earn it pretty damn easily this way. Take a look at Package 3. You could book a 7-night trip for 270,000 Marriott points AND earn 110,000 Southwest points for your trouble. This would automatically get you the Companion Pass (and a vacation).
  • There was a long, complicated Amtrak point transfer that I’m not sure actually works. I’ll research it and get back to you.
  • If you’re interested in tracking how close you are to reaching the 110,000 points, you can do it here. I’m not sure how necessary a “Companion Pass Tracker” is for most of you obsessive types, but it can’t hurt.

Again, the goal is to have your Southwest points post early in 2015. You want to have your Companion Pass for as long as possible!

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IHG Quick Deal

If you have InterContinental points to burn, there’s a 24-hour “sale” starting at noon eastern. Instead of the normal 50,000 points per night, you can stay at the Venetian or Palazzo for half that amount. To me, 25,000 a night is pretty good value, especially for some of the high-priced weekends in Vegas. The most common ways to get IHG points are from the credit card and from Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers. MileNerd out.

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Companion Pass Timing

The Southwest Companion Pass is incredible. Actually, it’s hard to argue that anything is better for domestic travel nerdiness. If you’ve somehow missed my 42,000 posts about this, here’s one of them. Well guys, don’t look now but the year is quickly coming to a close. That means it’s a great time to get going with your Companion Pass process. Remember, the idea is to get the 110,000 points to post as early as possible in a calendar year. If you get a Personal and Business card now and time it well, you’ll have your pass for almost all of 2015 and 2016. Again, make sure your bonus 50,000 points don’t post before the end of the year.

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