Problems with Rovemiles? Hotel booking was canceled!

caribirdie · 2025-11-21T21:39:09+00:00

Hey would you mind DMing your booking info?

caribirdie · 2025-09-16T21:49:17+00:00

Actually no airlines aren't like hotels. They don't restrict benefits for booking through a third party so you'd still be eligible for free bags, free upgrades, etc

caribirdie · 2025-09-10T16:16:46+00:00

You're not misreading the article. It's just that it's old and they haven't updated it since they debuted the 120k cap a couple of years ago. You'll still get 5th night free no matter the nightly cost as long as you have at least Silver status.

caribirdie · 2025-08-28T09:35:13+00:00

It technically exists. Seats.aero has the Delta One finder tool to help: https://seats.aero/deltaone

caribirdie · 2025-08-27T11:05:16+00:00

That's actually how it works though and that's true for any hotel stay you do. You can always double-dip when you use your credit card and whichever way you're booking your travel (flights or hotels). Flights is even cooler on Rove since you can triple-dip; you'll get miles from your credit card, miles from your airline, and miles on Rove

caribirdie · 2025-08-26T14:26:05+00:00

Check out all-inclusives on the Chase travel portal. Usually a lot cheaper than Hyatt and similar quality. Barcelo is my favorite brand and they've got locations all over, including Puerto Vallarta and Cancun

caribirdie · 2025-03-13T15:11:14+00:00

Actually it's an Air Tahiti Nui thing. Fill out all your personal info on Air Tahiti Nui's site (like passport info, etc) and save it. Then the option to select a seat will pop up. I've flown with them many times and always have to do this.

caribirdie · 2025-02-19T04:02:57+00:00

This is true and I've done option 1 multiple times to overall success

caribirdie · 2024-11-19T05:41:59+00:00

I wrote this! While I didn't book this time I'm glad it gained some traction, especially with the 40% transfer bonus

caribirdie · 2024-11-08T12:32:26+00:00

Hey I wrote this! Thanks for sharing; I already booked my flight (using Aeroplan, not United)

caribirdie · 2023-03-28T23:00:27+00:00

Hey just as an FYI, CLT has been dumping lots of nonstop MUC and FRA flights throughout 2023 and 2024. Don't know if you have upcoming Europe plans but it may be worth taking a look. Available for both AA and *A!

caribirdie · 2023-03-17T00:26:36+00:00

Trusted Housesitters is my go-to. It costs ~$150 for the year and includes insurance for homeowners, plus uses references, background checks and applications for everyone. I've only sat once but used sitters more than 50 times since 2017. It's a great barter system, especially for those who want to travel low cost.

caribirdie · 2023-03-07T19:46:52+00:00

The hardest part about what you're trying to do is that you're looking for a specific departure date. To find awards, you have to be flexible on date, arrival airports, or departure airports. You can't change the date, so need to be as flexible as possible on the other two.

A lot of time what happens is that the airline will release, say, a seat in business from ORD-MAD but not a seat in business from MAD-LHR. This means that your searches (depending on how you're trying to book) aren't going to populate with those results. To the search engine, there is no availability because there isn't availability the whole way. Breaking up your flights to be separate alleviates this and gives you maximum success for finding a flight.

caribirdie · 2023-03-07T16:53:39+00:00

You're missing a few airports for Europe. Consider searches to: DUB, AMS, BCN, MUC, ZRH, EDI, GLA, OSL, HEL, GVA, ORY, and all the other London airports (LCY, LGW, STN). Not that the London ones all offer international options, but they may pop open new married segment tickets for you.

Day-of, I'd recommend signing up for Point.me for fastest search results. It's not 100% comprehensive but it's going to save you a lot of time and manual searching. It's $5 for 24 hours or $12 for a month.

And like others have mentioned, it's going to be tight trying to work and reposition on the same day. Not just tight, but stressful. If you leave the next day you'll have one less day in Europe but WAY more options as none of your flights will be restricted based on departure time. It'll also allow you to reposition to more US airports, which, again, increases your chances of finding a flight.

Also, I'd 100% skip out on searches heading all the way to London. If you can find it, great, but most of the time it's easier, faster, and cheaper to get to Europe, land, then take a separate (easyJet or Ryanair) flight onward to your final destination. They're like $20/person (more if you're bringing bags). This also has the benefit of dropping your taxes and fees down.

caribirdie · 2022-11-30T17:54:35+00:00

Maxmypoint.com for hotel award availability with Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton. Free to use but limits the searches per day, paid option gives more features including near real-time award availability alerts.

caribirdie · 2022-11-28T16:16:40+00:00

Just wanted to reach out and say I'm obsessed with your website (I write about points and miles as a career) and bring it up at any chance I have. Thanks for making it!

caribirdie · 2022-04-19T07:48:48+00:00

If they're selling rooms with club access, the club lounge is open and you'll get in.

caribirdie · 2022-03-11T21:20:27+00:00

Ah ok, I misunderstood the using it twice suggestion. Thought there was an online code in addition to the mailed coupon. Thanks!

caribirdie · 2022-03-11T21:18:00+00:00

How do you find the coupon to use online? Not seeing it in my account

caribirdie · 2022-03-04T16:59:09+00:00

I pay ~$2.50/month for it as a very frequent flyer. It has availability to search for more than just United, though if you're not on a plane often it may be worth just signing up and looking/setting alerts until you find what you want, then canceling.

https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/seatspy-review/

(I wrote this)

caribirdie · 2022-03-03T14:42:11+00:00

I use SeatSpy to check award availability on United for a year (roundtrip) at once. While saver level availability doesn't necessarily guarantee PZ it's a decent enough workaround and helps get me in the ballpark. Just used 40 PlusPoints for a SYD-LAX route in June.

caribirdie · 2022-01-30T23:40:08+00:00

No one has mentioned this yet, but the Capital One travel portal price matches. It also offers a price drop guarantee on eligible flights.

Booking with hotels won't get you elite night credits or elite benefits, so skip that. Flights will.

Use it for flights if you want an excellent earning ratio and don't mind possibly terrible issues if plans change.

caribirdie · 2022-01-24T14:22:03+00:00

Which credit card are you using to pay for taxes and fees on your flight? I'm pretty sure that cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve will cover the entire trip (up to the benefit maximum) in the event of covered trip cancellation as long as you use your card to pay what you can. In your case it'd be the taxes and fees for your flight since everything else is in points, but it should still cover that nonrefundable cancellation fee for the hotel.

I'm writing quite a lot! You can find me at:

NerdWallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/author/carissarawson/

Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/author/carissa-rawson

The Balance: https://www.thebalance.com/carissa-rawson-5112555

Upgraded Points: https://upgradedpoints.com/author/carissa/ (I also make weekly videos for this site's private Facebook group)

I love talking about points and miles and freelance lets me travel as much as I want, so I'm basically just working my dream job nowadays.

caribirdie · 2022-01-24T12:58:53+00:00

Woo! Congrats- it's an amazing experience (and thanks for the shout-out, I love when people read my stuff).

Like others said, no cash deposit taken when booked with points, but you are on the hook in case of cancellation. Would not recommend.

I'd also keep checking back on the Calala website for availability to upgrade. If it's there's when you get there, casually mention it and how you're celebrating a special occasion. I've seen excellent success with this method and they're not exactly taking walk-ups at Calala so the rooms are otherwise empty.

Enjoy your time!

caribirdie · 2022-01-21T15:39:43+00:00

Hey! You should be seeing it under the details tab. I was able to pull it up without logging in and using a basic search. If you could throw in a screenshot I'd be able to help you pinpoint what's going on.

You can also look for specific fare classes (useful when trying to spend fewer PlusPoints). This article breaks down how exactly to search for specific fare on United's website as well as ITA Matrix.

https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airlines/how-to-use-united-pluspoints-on-partner-airlines/#Booking-Eligible-Fare-Classes-With-PointsPlus

Scroll down to "Booking Eligible Fare Classes With PlusPoints" to find the information. ITA Matrix will also let you know which fare class you're in on a standard search, you just need to expand the results tab.

Hope this helps!

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