My mom turned 80 years old yesterday. My sister, who also lives in another state from my mom, organized a card shower so that my mom could receive snail mail greetings from her old friends from various stages of her life. I made sure that my family sent her a gift she would enjoy that […]

Last year, I got the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card as part of my plan to earn points for flying my family to New Zealand.  The card came with 50,000 Amex Membership Rewards points after spending $2000 in three months, annual fee waived the first year. And it served its purpose, as I transferred points […]

Last week, when Southwest came out with $49 one-way fares to Hawaii, I felt frantic, excited and hopeful. The lowest fares sold out within hours. Admittedly, I felt a little envious of the people who could take advantage of these last-minute fares. I had to face the reality that my family just isn’t in the […]

Anytime someone asks me for advice about booking a cruise, I ALWAYS recommend using a travel agent. I am lucky that the travel agent I used to book my first Disney cruise almost 9 years ago is still the one I’m using today. However, there are a few downsides to using a travel agent to […]

Last summer, my husband and I both signed up for World of Hyatt credit cards when the bonus was 60,000 points. We have lots of ideas on how to spend our points stash with current Hyatt properties. In addition to all of the Small Luxury Hotels that are gradually getting mixed into Hyatt’s award chart, […]