Award Travel 101 Podcast Episode 31: Go Crazy with AT in the TC & Next Meetup Announcement

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Previous Episode Show Notes

• 1 — Meet Award Travel 101 Community Administrators Angie & Joe
• 2 — Booking a Dream (African Safari) Trip
• 3 — Creating Memories Through Big And Small Trips
• 4 — 8 Steps to Better Award Travel
• 5 — Cruise (on Points), Racking and Stacking, and Keep or Kick it to the Curb
• 6 — Transfer Bonuses, Hyatt Bonus Journeys, and Benefits of AwardWallet
• 7 — So Many Program Changes with AwardWallet’s JT Genter
• 8 — Hyatt Changes, AA Domestic First Class Routes, and Meet the Mods (Jackie Wisniewski)
• 9 — Sapphire Lounge Opening, New Bonuses, Meet the Mods (Jerod Morales), and Business Class for Six
• 10 — When to Part with Points and Angie's Safari Trip
• 11 — AvGeeks, Spreadsheets, & Cheatsheets – Meet the Mods (Mike Zaccheo)
• 12 — Status Matching for More Value
• 13 — How Often Do You Get a New Card
• 14 — Incredible Trip to New Zealand on Points, Plus a Trip to the Freddie Awards
• 15 — Best Card for Groceries & Award Travel Community Meetup
• 16 — Citi Product Change Rules and Meet the Team: Allison Caraway
• 17 — Husband Cashes in All Their Points and Programs To Book Round The World Flights
• 18 — Gorgeous Pictures from Iran and Cards That Earn Status
• 19 — The Tools We Use
• 20 — Mistakes We've Made
• 21 — Crafty Way to See Taylor Swift and Ways to Earn Hotel Free Night Certificates
• 22 — First Class Trip to Croatia and Should You Speculatively Transfer Points
• 23 — Our Favorite Award Programs
• 24 — LIVE From a Lounge & Is American Airlines Status Worth Chasing
• 25 — What Are Points Worth
• 26 — All the Upgrades & Traveling With Kids on the Spectrum
• 27 — Which Card Offers the Best Travel Protections
• 28 — Pancakes and Points
• 29 — Favorite Card Perks and Putting Them All Together
• 30 — What's In Our Wallet

Award Travel 101 Podcast Episode 31 Show Notes

The Award Travel 101 Community and Podcast are brought to you by AwardWallet. Check out all of the features in AwardWallet Plus that can help you better track your progress and prevent loss or expiration. If you register for our next-level Award Travel 201 Community for $89.99 annually, AwardWallet Plus is included in your subscription (which means you get access to next-level strategies for just $5 per month). If this interests you, register here.

Post of the week

This comes from our Daniel Mark Adsit who shared how he booked an entire 27-day trip to South America utilizing rewards. Check it out and let us know in the comments what your longest rewards trip was.

News

• Lots of time-sensitive stuff that ended the day before this episode was released, but that's why you should be following along in the Award Travel 101 community for all of the updates and discussion on those topics
• Chase 30% transfer bonus to British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus
• Is my American Airlines account being hacked?

What bonuses did we get?

• Mike:
  • The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: An offer that ended recently included a Free Night Reward. Immediately redeemed it for a trip to Niagara Falls.
  • Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card: Halfway done with the minimum spending requirement. Also got two referral bonuses for a total of 80,000 points.
• Joe: Almost done with the Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card spending requirement for the welcome bonus.

Highlight feature: MSP meetup recap

We brought almost 100 Award Travel community members to Minneapolis for “Let's Go Crazy with AT in the TC” to party like it's 1999.

• Arrival: Flight disruptions caused some havoc. Did Mike's non-stop or Joe's connection through Chicago arrive first?
• Tram: Was inexpensive, but was it safe?
• Reception at Graze Rooftop: This is where the rubber hits the road. Members of the community and the team meet for the first time (or again).
• Elite breakfast: The two properties where most stayed provided similar experiences for most. Was one better than the other?
• Presentations: Presentations kicked off with AwardWallet's JT Genter, reseller Taylor Thomas, and Award Travel 101 moderators Eric Holly and Mike Zaccheo
• Free time: Prince Museum, fair, socials — what did each of us do?
• Brits Pub: Party like it’s 1999. How do we wrap it up?
• After party (Loud dance club): How Joe helped a member use a tool he'd just learned about from JT's presentation
• Hell’s Kitchen: Did we do the unthinkable and skip free elite breakfast?
• Airport lounge hopping and catching influencers: Forget about hopping. We just skipped them all and went to the newest and best. Any guesses as to which one that was?
• First class home (free Wi-Fi!): Joe booked with just 8.5K Virgin points, so how did he get first class?
• Next meetup in San Antonio: Taco ‘Bout A Fiesta! Limited amount of tickets left (and an even smaller amount of discounted tickets using code: SAT20 to save 20%).

Tip of the week

Our Tip of the Week comes from Mike, who's been updating the Award Travel 101 website. Check out some of the tools we've produced to answer common questions from group members:

• Transfer Partner Matrix: Simple view of which card points transfer to which travel partners
• Card Earning Charts: Quick view of potential earnings
• Cents Per Point Calculator: When you want to know how much value a point returns
• Transfer Bonus Calculator: When you need help figuring out how many points to transfer
• Lounge Map: Visual stacked on Google Maps
• Airport Maps: Visual stacked on Google Maps