Time For IHG Card?

Thanks to reader Sunil for reaching out about the IHG card. I feel (very strongly) that this is the most underrated hotel card and don’t even know what I’d even consider next in line. Probably Hyatt. But the gap is huge.

Why?

Pretty simple. A $49 annual fee to get yearly free nights anywhere is a killer deal. Other cards (like Hyatt) limit their anniversary nights by category. That’s not the case with IHG. Cardholders (at least the ones I know) book a stay worth hundreds of dollars every year with this card.

According to Sunil, it sounds like links are starting to disappear. That means two things…

A) There’s a good chance the clock is ticking on this version of the IHG card.

B) There’s a possibility the new version won’t be as good. It could potentially have no anniversary night and/or a higher annual fee.

There’s no guarantee with any of this…just an educated guess from past experience. But it might be worth looking at the current IHG card very soon if you don’t have it already. Another factor is that, as Chase goes, this is one of the few options available if you apply for bunches of cards every year. This, Hyatt, Ritz, British, and Marriott Business are basically the only Chase products I get approved for anymore. Again, no guarantee here. Who knows, all IHG cards might get converted to the new and potentially worse version in a few months. But I think this is a gamble worth considering. Times change. We knew the IHG opportunity wouldn’t last forever.

 

End Of Week Stuff

  • Here’s a chance to save 15% if you have Points + Cash bookings coming soon with IHG.
  • Ending tonight is another very big sale from the very average airline known as Frontier. Saving 90% is possible if you have Tuesday or Wednesday flights to take.
  • A new Citi ThankYou transfer bonus is available to JetBlue. Most people see at an extra 30% and think of it as pretty decent. I look at the sweet words “JetBlue” and consider it to be the GREATEST DEAL OF ALL TIME. Ok, not really. But I do get excited. Remember how Tom Hanks felt about Wilson the volleyball? That’s me with JetBlue.

Have a great weekend, nerds!

 

Free Lyft Ride

Thanks to reader Sandy for sharing this link from Lyft. If you’re going to one of the 50 “March For Our Lives” demonstrations this week, Lyft will get you there for free. I was going to leave it at that, but I’m just not a “leave it at that” kind of guy.

So…

Seriously, what’s wrong with people in 2018?

Forget this march for a second. I’m thinking about something more general.

I truly believe that if I organized a peaceful sit-in at a park tomorrow to support something that all of us should agree on…let’s say a “human rights for all Americans” rally…I’d bet everything I have that MANY people would have a problem with that “cause.” They’d loudly and passionately take the opposite “political” view. Against something that has no ulterior motive…the “cause” being nothing more than human rights.

It sure doesn’t help that we have so many narratives coming at us…so much constant information…that we’ve lost our damn minds. We don’t know why we react to things. And we don’t even know what’s real or fake anymore. That’s not a figure of speech, by the way. As a society, we have actually lost the ability to tell the difference between reality and total bullshit. If we’ve learned nothing else about 2018, we should all understand that very well by this point.

Now, if you’re feeling the familiar blood boiling sensation just hearing the word “politics,” have you ever examined the root of your emotions with that stuff?

Do you even care to look at what that might be?

Or is all of your energy spent fighting the never-ending army of people who disagree with what’s “right” within your story?

I’ve been really curious about something lately…

Let’s get to the eye of the storm. If someone asked you to stop investing any emotion on deeply flawed candidate Hillary Clinton or total nutjob Donald Trump…could you actually do it?

What if you were offered a million bucks to completely stop your emotional reactions on that one subject for the rest of 2018?

Could you actually do it?

Let’s say the bet is to take all of the emotional reactiveness, resist it every time it comes up, and redirect it into a kind gesture towards a person in your life instead…

I honestly wonder if anyone could do that for a year (even for a million bucks).

Anyway, if you want a free ride to a march, the link is at the top of this post.

 

IHG Points

Yeah, part of me still dies when I talk about buying points. But with so many people short on hotel points these days, it’s an option that does need to be considered for some. This IHG sale is good only if you have a stay in mind, do the math, see that it works, and have no better option. I wouldn’t buy just to hoard these.

 

Fairmont Contest

(Really big thanks to reader Julie for this valuable giveaway. It’s something she could have sold and made a good chunk of change on but she chose to offer it up here. I really appreciate that, Julie)

This giveaway is for 2 free night certificates at any Fairmont hotel (other than the Plaza in New York). Obviously, these aren’t cheap stays. The one fairly big catch is that these certificates expire in 15 days (March 31st) and must be used by then. Because of the extra time crunch complication, I’m going to give both nights to the same person. Please don’t enter if you’re not 100% sure you can use them. Not much time to work with on this one.

To enter, please email the address below. Blank emails are fine. The subject should be, “Fairmont Contest.” As always, I don’t read messages there so please only use that inbox for contests. I’ll pick one random winner at 4:00 PST this afternoon. Have a great weekend, nerds!