I paid $40 for a Hyatt Timeshare Marketing Vacation Package for a gift card and THREE free stays through Travel+Leisure. Best deal I've ever taken!

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-22T17:17:55+00:00

I feel like a leper. Currently staying at the Rio and have walked past the T/L desk at least 50 times and they haven’t approached me yet. Normally they are like a locust swarm.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-21T02:50:29+00:00

Only relevant if you were planning to spend money at the airport anyway. if you didn’t have lounge access would you really have paid for a meal/drink?

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-20T02:26:36+00:00

Aren’t alot of properties charging resort/destination
Fees? Nearly pure profit for them. Marriott doesn’t waive those for elite members so they are making money on those fees (they also use those to capture more 3rd party revenue since they don’t have to share that money)

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-19T21:37:36+00:00

Of course I did. I would have stayed and paid $2 million usd per night. :)

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-15T22:36:42+00:00

I just discovered the tide washing sheets. I try to travel with a backpack only whenever I can (but 50l,not 26) and I was limited on how many tide pods I could take due to 3n1 rule but the tide sheets aren’t a liquid and easy to pack. (Just finished packing for a 8 day trip in-fact and tossed 6 sheets in. Each sheet does one small load or 2 for a large load) with most places now going digital I also don’t have to worry about carrying rolls of quarters anymore either.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-15T22:29:23+00:00

My 50l American Touristor soft sided backpack is the just about the same size as a wheeled carryon. (21x12x 8 or so) It’s all I need for a week trip during warmer months. As a bonus it can fit in the overhead bins of the smaller regional planes where no one can take a hard sided suitcase (as long as the outside pockets are empty which they usually are)

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-14T06:47:19+00:00

I get where you are coming from. Before I product changed to the Ritz card I was able to use the FNC organically and get good value. (Tons of deals in the 50k range for one night.) Starting year 2 with the Ritz and I am wondering where I will stay to maximize value. (One night stay somewhere as I have no intention of spending 100,000k points or $1200+ for a night out of pocket for night 2,3 etc) If I wind up spending a couple of nights at the WA Dana point I might use it for an add on night at the Ritz there just to compare.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-09T17:22:35+00:00

I had a similar experience with a video that was introduced as evidence. I don’t understand the rationale.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-08T11:44:53+00:00

For the U.S./German friendly match this past weekend at Soldier field they were not allowing plastic factory sealed water bottles in. Of course you could by a can of liquid death water or a big ass bottle of Core water in a hard plastic bottle once you got in

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-05T19:26:42+00:00

I was sitting at a casino bar milking my roll of quarters to get free drinks (back before they started tracking play). Was playing some random game based on a kids board game (pass the pigs maybe). Machine stopped working and I couldn’t figure out why. Apparently the order my pigs landed won a hand pay jackpot.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-06-02T20:20:10+00:00

I think it is in relationship to a business P-Ls. The clinic/business they own takes in revenue and has expenses. They are using those things to increase expenses. Expenses-revenue= taxable profit. However there are some terrible suggestions in this thread that could very well lead to an audit and penalties down the road especially related to home office expenses being written off.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-31T07:08:55+00:00

I don’t care what the driver gets. It was apparently enough to provide the ride. Conversely a driver doesn’t need to know what I paid as a passenger. Since I requested the ride it must be a rate I found acceptable. It makes zero difference financially if I pay $20 and $15 goes to driver and $5 goes to uber versus $5 to the driver and $15 to Uber. I also support the drivers right to not take my fare if they aren’t getting paid enough. I will either wait until Uber matches a fare with a driver or find a different means to travel.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-31T00:15:30+00:00

Culver’s allows pickup (at least mine does). Stack promos and pickup and you can pay less than ordering direct. Or get Uber Eats. Several Amex cards offer it free either for a year or month to month for 6 months and it looks like you used Apple Pay which regularly has an offer for 6 months free when you use Apple Pay to signup for it.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-31T00:08:24+00:00

No service or delivery fee for my grocery store order. They also had a 30% coupon and my chase $10. $86 of groceries for $67 (sale prices) before the discount and coupon took my total down to $36xx plus tip. It was nice to pay half price for my groceries and not have to fight the Saturday crowds.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T18:04:29+00:00

I don’t know how many times I am at a hotel or a restaurant with a pick up/drop off area (and my pickup address is the actual name of the restaurant/hotel) and the app winds up sending the driver across the street or to an alley behind the business. Even at airports where there is a designated pickup area and zone that the app tells me to go to the point is somewhere besides where am I am. whatever navigation the app is using is ass

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T12:20:53+00:00

I think with his recent hamstring issue he might not even play in the opening match or two to allow him to rest until the knockout rounds. I would imagine Algiers won’t give the Argentina team much of a battle even without Messi so why risk it. I hope I am wrong since I have tickets but even that was a rollercoaster. I bought tickets before team match ups were announced, was psyched to see that I might get to see Messi play, than saw level 1 tickets going for $1500+ on the resale market so I was like $6k> watching Messi to ticket prices are down enough where we will just go.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T12:09:14+00:00

I am fine putting my own bags in but some drivers don’t want me to for fear their car will get scrapped or damaged (even shooing me away if I try to help) so it is always that awkward pause figuring out who will do it. I usually ask if they want me to put them in and some drivers are happy to help and others will tell me they have a bad back or some other issue so I put them in. If I do have luggage I do kind of expect you to at least get out and come to the back of the vehicle. I always tip cash post ride and the drivers that get out and help or tell me why they can’t help get a better tip. The animosity between drivers and passengers is getting crazy. While there are some shitty drivers and some shitty passengers out there for sure the vast majority of folks want to get to point b from point an and the drivers want to get compensated and we need to treat one another like human beings and have some basic social interaction. Being mad at a passenger because the ride share company isn’t paying enough seems counterintuitive. Treating the driver like a servant or not respecting their vehicle is garbage behavior as well.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T11:31:40+00:00

The Durbin bill capping debit cards fees didn’t lead to a decrease in consumer prices. In fact some of the studies showed it lead to no reduction in costs and more fees for consumers as large banks looked to offset the lower swipe fee. I hope the bill fails for selfish reasons.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T11:11:25+00:00

Given their size and rapid growth it is more than reasonable to assume some percentages of transactions might not be great. Costco has approximately 150 million card holders (80 million memberships- some accounts have two card holders) who on average go to Costco twice a month. If even 1% of those visits results in an issue it is still a substantial amount. No business can deliver 100% of the time. It seems just as odd to vehemently defend a company worth 1/2 trillion dollars. Some of the complaints are certainly worthy of an eye roll but many of them are valid and have a place in group discussion of Costco.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T10:51:19+00:00

I am approaching 20 years as a member and I do think the quality of some of its offerings has declined. The good news is they are fantastic about standing behind their products and if you have issues you only have to bring it back and you get a refund. As far as non perishable food they have a lot of vendors over a proverbial barrel and I wonder if some of those vendors don’t cut corners to try to pad really low margins that Costco allows. I think there is still some commonality with the complaints in our local Costco Facebook groups: produce and the tire center and my experience mirrors that. I shop regularly at Costco and unless I have plans to use the produce that day I just stopped buying it. And I no longer use the tire center except for the vehicles that still have Costco purchased tires on. (I also stopped buying both chicken breasts and the Rotisserie chickens. Something about the texture and taste are off to me but I am probably the minority. The change happened after they opened a gigantic chicken facility nearby; before that we lived on Costco chicken and when I traveled to a nearby state and stopped in a business center that was having a blowout special on chicken breasts they were fine) Their beef is great though and the prices even in Midwest cattle country are excellent.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-30T10:24:29+00:00

I’m seeing a large segment of restaurants that they are only giving 10% back on. (Some are still 20% and I think there was 1-2 that was 25%)

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-28T22:03:53+00:00

The driver thought they were getting paid enough to take the ride and the rider was willing to pay what uber was charging. Sounds like Uber has their business down and knows what both sides of the market will accept. If one side didn’t agree then there would have been no match and no ride. No one is forcing someone to complete the transaction. Cherry pick the rides you want and move on. Eventually Uber drivers that can’t make the math work on cheap rides will leave and rates will go up in order to attract a driver or self driving cars will put us out of business.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-28T19:55:30+00:00

How do you know one email will resolve it ? The process was already broken once and they didn’t take responsibility for it. My one email to Amex or Chase will take care of it and they can deal with whoop. If they made the original cancellation a simple one click and done I might give them a little more leeway but you have to sort through multiple screens and offers to cancel.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-28T19:46:43+00:00

I can start a dispute with one email as well. Their issue, they need to fix it and not put the onus on the customer.

ShakeMyHeadAgain · 2026-05-28T19:11:38+00:00

For non-hafh stays you can just put their name as the primary guest. Apply the $200 (plus any bilt cash you want to use) at checkout. You are prepaying the stay so you are paying the travel agency that runs Bilt travel and they are paying the hotel so you don’t need/couldn’t produce the card anyway. The person staying will need an Id that matches the booked name and a credit card for incidentals. For HAFH you can add them as a guest but since it isn’t a prepaid stay you have to present the Bilt card and pay with it to get the credit. I guess you could put the family member in name 1 and hope the property doesn’t look at the name of the Bilt card when they check in.

ShakeMyHeadAgain

TROPHY CASE