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

United's Excursionist perk has been around for many years but I've found surprisingly very few people know about it. This perk allows you to add a free one-way award on a multi-city ticket booked with miles, similar to the free stopover perk that many airlines offer. When booking a roundtrip flight in and out of the same region using points, this perk allows you to book a free flight within that same region - perfect for a vacation where you are planning to visit 2 destinatio

I used to take an annual weeklong ski trip with a group of friends, but since getting older it's now several years between ski trips. The first time I visited Utah was with this group when we skied Park City in 2015, just after the merger with Canyons. In the past 10 years, the skiing landscape in the US has changed dramatically with consolidation of resorts and skyrocketing prices at the most popular resorts. In December 2024, the Salt Lake Tribune reported a study that Park

Our original honeymoon plan was to spend a week in the Côte d'Azur and end with a few days in Paris as Gwen had never been before. Due to the constantly changing COVID restrictions, we moved our planned trip from June to September and spent a weekend in St. Kitts right after our wedding instead. During this time, France introduced a mobile pass you needed to enter all public venues to prove either COVID vaccination or a negative test every 3 days. For those outside the EU wit

I figured I would start a series of posts which go into detail how I've booked some of the trips we've been on. I'll talk more about some...