Travel Tips to Save Money, Earn Miles, And Fly for Free

In early July I wrote a post about the most useful and interesting developments in miles and points over the previous month>

It turns out, surprisingly, that the feature was really popular, at least judging by the emails I got — people that don’t read the blog every day really appeciated the recap and not having to dig through all of the posts to find the most enduring ones.

I didn’t do a similar feature in August, but I thought I’d revisit the 170 posts I wrote in August. I hope you were happy with some of the posts and got something out of them. These are some that were my favorites from August.

Saving money

• Always enter car rental confirmation numbers into AutoSlash for free and easy savings.
  
• Get instant free status from Avis and National. (Avis has since stopped offering this, I think they were surprised by the demand..)
  
• Free 2-day weekend rental from Avis (if you already signed up for status from one of my posts, you may have free rental days already).

Earning

• The biggest new cash back card has launched
  
• Why won’t credit card companies let you upgrade to a more expensive card (within your first 12 months)?
  
• 90,000 bonus mile offer for the Virgin Atlantic MasterCard sadly no longer available.
  
• The 2.6% cash rebate card.
  
• Which frequent flyer program should you ditch United for?
  
• Earning hundreds of thousands of miles with TV signups
  
• A bigger credit card bonus for a frequent flyer program you should know more about
  
• Google Wallet eliminates fees on debit card transactions

Award redemption

• How to Book Star Alliance Awards Using American Express Points – Without Fuel Surcharges (Aeroplan awards on partner airlines that don’t incur fuel surcharges.)
  
• Malaysia Airlines first class awards available
  
• Business class award availability for the whole family to Australia
  
• What happens when there’s an impossible schedule change to your award ticket?
  
• The Singapore Suites route with the best availability
  
• Award space bonanza — take your whole family to Europe in business class
  
• When do hotels make their rooms available on points?
  
• How to put your American or US Airways frequent flyer number into a British Airways Avios award ticket
  
• Award space wide open – take your whole family to Asia in business or first class
  
• Here’s when you’re protected traveling on two separate tickets

Understanding the programs

• Hidden facts about American AAdvantage: how many members, how many miles, how many earned by partners, and how many redeemed?
  
• Secret rules of the Club Carlson program that only their hotels know
  
• Secrets Holiday Inn Express tells their hotel owners
  
• Court rules that bank account points redemptions are taxable
  
• How much US Airways pays for partner award tickets
  
• AAdvantage won’t go revenue-based any time soon
  
• American’s totally new approach to integrating with another airline during a merger

Travel Knowledge

• What are the worst airports in the U.S.?
  
• The true ranking of the best first class airlines
  
• If your upgraded flight gets cancelled, here’s how to keep your business class seat
  
• Is US Airways charging taxes they shouldn’t, and even keeping the money?
  
• Here’s why US airlines charge for lounge membership
  
• American’s new airport lounge strategy
  
• How much do hotel toileteries cost and why it’s ok to take them
  
• First look inside the new American Express Centurion lounge at New York LaGuardia
  
• Why the bigger the hotel chain, the less rewarding it becomes
  
• Which frequent flyer program is best?

Travel News Stories

• Miami airport lounge staff steal millions of dollars.
  
• Do passengers have a right to recline their seats in coach?
  
• People Express teaches other airlines a customer service lesson
  
• Is the Airbus A380 a failure?
  
• An inflight cell phone ban is on the way — but that’s a bad thing

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