Miles and Points, Lice

1. The expiration date for the first year annual fee waiver on Chase British Airways card has been extended to March 31st. The card pays me commission. (h/t to commenter on  Millionmilesecrets)

1. You can get 10% cash back on IHG booking when you go through Topcashback (my link) before December 29th. Potentially useful if you plan to participate in the “Set your sights” promo. (h/t Millionmilesecrets)

2. A couple of airline shopping portals are running special promotions on flower purchases made through December 31st. United Mileage Plus shopping mall will give you 30 miles per dollar on FTD.com Check other airline portals as well.

3. Via Loyalty Lobby, SPG has announced a new list of Hot Escapes for the next 6 weeks. Some decent prices on many US properties.

4. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’ve recently applied for 40K miles offer on US Airways Barclaycard, send a message in your online profile and see if they can match it to the better 50K miles offer. I’ve seen many bloggers have success with this strategy, and some have even been able to get the anniversary benefit thrown in.

5. Wanted to let you know about an interesting quirk I’ve come across with IHG “Into the nights” promo. Instead of 2 free nights, my husband got 4. Oh IHG, you quirky beast of a hotel program!

I’ll be honest, I was tempted to keep them due to all the nuisance they’ve put me through. But I did end up calling and telling the agent about it, so the nights were deducted. I did the right thing… I think? Anyway, just wanted to let you know, so you’ll have the option of checking your “Into the nights” log-in page.

On my mind

Don’t worry, my fellow blogging compadres, the rant is not an industry metaphor.

This is about lice, as in the real deal. For most parents, it’s a rite of passage. Well, our initiation happened last week. I’ll spare you all the gory details, but needless to say, it was (still is) a mother of all infestations. Anyone who has a blond daughter with long hair probably understands my terrible predicament.

Fortunately, I had my husband’s sister and mother to help. I was literally clueless, but, thankfully,  they took charge. I even affectionately called them my “lice fairies,” but they didn’t appreciate the title. After all these years, my in-laws don’t get my quirky sense of humor.

We are still working on getting rid of our uninvited guests (the lice). Any reader tips are welcome. So, why share this mundane and disgusting story  with you? Well, today we were actually supposed to head to North Florida to visit some relatives. The hotel was on the PointBreaks list, so the cost was only 5,000 points per night. Score!

Unfortunately, the lice situation has nixed our vacation  plans. And so it goes with small kids: You just never know what to expect. Fortunately, when you are using hotel points, you can cancel your reservation without penalty. Within the IHG chain, you can usually do it a day ahead, and sometimes even the same day. You just can’t get that same flexibility when booking rentals. You would have to roll the dice with lice. It rhymes!