Hilton Honors has long been considered one of the least valuable rewards programs due to high points prices, constant devaluations, and limited status benefits like guaranteed late checkout and suite upgrades when compared to World of Hyatt or Marriott Bonvoy. While I'll agree there are some absurdities to the Hilton program, particularly at it's highest end properties, I personally still feel like I can often find some very good value in the program at what I'll call the "se

I get asked this question a lot - "where do I start with points & miles?" My answer is usually something along the lines of getting a credit card and importantly DO NOT REDEEM THE POINTS FOR STATEMENT CREDITS, GIFT CARDS, OR PRODUCTS. I feel a small part of me die inside when people tell me that's how they use their points. So I thought why don't I actually write down step by step how I would start in the points & miles world. And it just so happens that with the birth of our

2025 was a big year for us as we welcomed our first child. Going into 2025, I knew the second half would have very limited travel, but with some work projects winding down the first half also wasn't that busy. I actually ended up traveling fewer miles in 2025 than I did in 2020 when COVID shut down the entire world for most of the year. I thought I would for sure lose United 1K status this year, but I learned that once every 5 years you can request a status extension due to l

When I tell people my favorite Hotel program is Hyatt, the first question I usually get is "why not Marriott?" Anecdotally, I've felt that since the merger with SPG the continued devaluations have just gotten out of control. For example, In 2019 we stayed at the Ritz Kyoto for 60,000 Marriott points per night. Looking at the 2025 calendar, there's one night going for 96,000 points at the low end and some nights reaching as high as 152,000 points. Hyatt has had it's share of d