Carissa Rawson Latest Posts

Freelance Contributor
Distance Traveled in 2025
Visited in 2025

Carissa joined the AwardWallet team in 2023 as an editor and writer, though she’s been around the block a time or two when it comes to award travel.

Since first learning that there was such as thing as ‘free travel,’ she’s made her way to 60 countries and all 7 continents, though the last was a little bit frigid for her taste. She’s redeemed millions of miles and made more stupid mileage runs than one should ever hope, but all her friends and family love her anyway.

With a double handful of hotel and airline elite statuses (including United 1K and Hyatt Globalist), you can frequently find Carissa waxing lyrical about complimentary upgrades and free food.

When she’s not writing about points and miles, you can find her reading about points and miles or traveling using points and miles.

Turns Out We Can’t Have Nice Things: Hyatt and MGM to End Partnership

MGM and Hyatt just announced that they'll be ending their partnership on September 30, 2023. While this isn't especially surprising, it is bad news for those who've relied on the partnership to earn cheap Hyatt elite status or get their resort fees waived on Vegas stays. Thankfully, you have a few more days to take advantage of status matches and a couple of months to enjoy reciprocal earnings. Here are the details of this breakup.