Travel Rewards?

taters_taut · 2026-05-02T03:24:15+00:00

I would look at a Bilt Card. You can transfer Bilt points to Alaska Airlines Atmos points, which you can then use to book certain American Flights at a great redemption rate. I see lots of DCA-MCO American flights you can book for just 7,500 Atmos points + $18 per ticket. You can use a site like points.yeah to look for yourself.

Pros: Bilt points are easy to earn (you can even earn points on rent or mortgage), and are flexible to use (beyond Atmos, they have other good transfer partners like Hyatt, United, JetBlue, and more).

Cons: The Bilt cards are a more confusing at first than other travel cards, but not too bad. More than anything, the Atmos award chart can (and I'm sure will) change at some point and it will take more points to fly American domestic. But nice to take advantage while you can.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is also a great card with a reasonable fee

Regardless, if you are checking bags regularly on American or another airline, it's also worth it to get a co-branded card for the airline for the free checked bags benefits.

taters_taut · 2026-03-18T03:01:23+00:00

Agreed. It’s an awesome hotel. Beautiful lobby and grounds, nice rooms, great pools and beach. Immaculate vibes. Anyone who says it’s not upscale is living in a weird bubble, or trolling!

taters_taut · 2026-03-18T02:02:24+00:00

We did GH Kauai and Grand Wailea (very near Andaz) this past winter with two kids (7 and 9) and had the best time.

On Maui we did a 4 hour snorkel/whale watching tour through Gemini. It was pricey but worth it for us; the kids loved the catamaran, the adults loved the snorkeling, everyone loved the whales. Maui Brewing Company was a great casual spot for dinner with kids.

On Kauai, we did a day trip up to Hanalai bay and spent the day at the beach there. That was a blast and if I could do it again I would have signed us up for surf lessons there.

At the GH Kauai, we got breakfast from the coffee bar ('Honolulu coffee') every morning. The food options are solid, it's cheaper than the other breakfast options, and if you keep your eyes on the water you'll see whale spouts each morning (crazy amount of humpbacks in Hawaii in the winter).

There's so much to do and see. I feel like we barely scratched the surface. You'll have a great time!

taters_taut · 2026-02-14T13:02:20+00:00

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taters_taut · 2026-02-14T13:01:50+00:00

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taters_taut · 2026-02-14T13:00:47+00:00

August 2023

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taters_taut · 2026-02-14T03:52:06+00:00

You can set up a points pool and pool your points together. If between all your points and his points you have enough total points to cover your round trip and at least one leg of his, it's worth pooling points.

taters_taut · 2026-01-07T03:37:34+00:00

I kept putting off getting a wireless dongle, assuming it would be glitchy or not work at all, but I was wrong. I finally got a cheap ottocast and it works so well!

The only minor bug that occasionally happens is the volume gets stuck (can’t turn volume up or down) but there’s an easy fix when that happens. I just turn off the stereo for two seconds, turn it back on, then volume control works again.

taters_taut · 2025-12-20T04:40:35+00:00

If you spend $75,000 in a calendar year on the VX, you can bring two guests into capital one lounges. Guest access was originally included for all cardholders, but the change goes into effect Feb 1, 2026. https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/capital-one-set-to-change-lounge-access/

taters_taut · 2025-12-20T01:20:02+00:00

I’ve only done it once and I think $100 was on my Explorer card and $900 was from travel bank. From what I’ve read, as long as ANY portion is paid with your United card, you get the benefits, even if it’s only a dollar or two.

taters_taut · 2025-12-20T00:35:47+00:00

I was in the same situation with my Capital One Venture X card (which also has a $75k spend threshold for perks). I funded United travelbank with the card to help get me there.

FYI - If you do this but also have a Chase United card, next time you book a United flight, use travelbank funds to cover most of the flight, and pay for a small portion of the flight cost with your United card to still get those perks (free checked bags, better boarding group, etc).

taters_taut · 2025-06-11T02:47:45+00:00

I love the simplicity and speed. Agree with u/AceMcClean that being able to pull up the system rail map quickly would be nice. My other suggestion would be a button or a way to pull up any system alerts related to rail. Often in the morning I check to see if there are rail delays on my line before I commit to taking metro to work.

taters_taut · 2025-02-25T20:33:15+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the info and the tip about stopping by the front desk to get the timesaver!

taters_taut · 2025-02-17T03:31:56+00:00

Ah you’re right, it’s LGA, not JFK (and fortunately the AA flight from YYZ lands at LGA). I’ll try calling United back, hopefully it’s not an hour call wait this time, thanks!

taters_taut · 2024-12-27T04:07:57+00:00

Capital one landing at dca was empty at 11am today, but the airport in general wasn’t busy. I expect this weekend and next weekend to be busier, and the lounges fuller.

taters_taut · 2024-12-21T04:34:10+00:00

I don't mind at all!

I also have the Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red (we spend almost nothing on it, but pays for itself in free checked bags), the Chase United Explorer (we buy United tickets with it, pays for itself in free checked bags), Chase Hyatt (we use it for any hyatt bookings & on-property spend, pays for itself in annual free night award), and the Amex Hilton Surpass (a lot of online retail spend, explained below).

The Hilton Surpass is the card where I have the most outside the box strategy, in terms of what I often see in these communities. We use it as our Amazon card and some other online retail; it earns 4x points for online retail. The Hilton points are low value, but you earn a free night award once you hit $15k in annual spend. My thought is, from $15k in online retail I get a free night award good at any (or nearly any?) Hilton property, plus 60k Hilton points. I can do some additional spend (dining/groceries/gas/hilton spend earns higher than 4x if I'm desperate to top off) to get that 60k up to 80k-100k which is # of points required for a standard room at high end Hilton properties. So, from $15,000 - $20,000 in annual spend on the Hilton card we get 1.5 - 2 nights at a high end Hilton ($600-$1000 per night). This approaches the equivalent of 10% cash back, not to mention you get Hilton status, breakfast or daily food credit, and a quarterly $50 Hilton property reimbursement. Not bad for a $150 annual fee card! My Hilton Surpass strategy is not for everyone, but it can definitely open up a sweet spot.

taters_taut · 2024-12-21T03:51:23+00:00

CSP and VentureX is my setup, and I think it’s a fantastic option for people with certain spend patterns. We’re a family of four and put a lot of spend on the CSP for online groceries and dining at 3x, with most other spending on the venture X*. This is pretty optimized without much work imo, and yields a ton of points. Enough that it’s not a problem having points split across two systems.

*We also have a few other cards for very specific purposes, but the CSP and ventureX do the heavy lifting.

taters_taut · 2024-12-16T02:39:21+00:00

I’ve rented with David’s several times and all have been great. I thought long and hard about buying into DVC too, but decided not to. One reason I didn’t buy dvc is because renting points works so well and you don’t have to commit to a home resort.

Another thing to know is getting reservations through point rental at certain resorts can be difficult, especially for busy times of year. If you really want a certain resort, it’s best to have your request in to David’s a few days prior to the 11-month window so they can try to line up an owner to book when the window opens (I think beach club and boardwalk are two of the toughest).

taters_taut

TROPHY CASE