The Honeymoon Guy

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Credit Card Cash Back and Statement Credits are Worth About 25% More Than You Might Think

Credit Card Cash Back and Statement Credits are Worth About 25% More Than You Might Think

Most Americans realize that there is a lot of value in using credit cards including the ability to earn points, miles or cash back for purchases.  In fact, the percentage of purchase volume associated with credit cards is increasing from recession-related lows and without the high delinquency rates of yesteryear.  That’s good news and it turns out that because the rewards from credit cards are…

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Highlighting Southwest's International Destinations, Part 5: Dominican Republic & Puerto Rico

Highlighting Southwest's International Destinations, Part 4: Dominican Republic & Puerto Rico

The Dominican Republic As of writing, the taxes and fees for a roundtrip nonstop award ticket to/from PUJ total $104.66 per person. Puerto Rico – The Isle of Enchantment As of writing, the taxes and fees for a roundtrip nonstop award ticket to/from SJU total only $11.20 per person.  That is significantly less than you’ll pay in taxes/fees for flights to/from non-US territories. Turks and…

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Changing the Guard in London - Skip Buckingham Palace

Looking for tips to pile up points and miles in 2017? I’m sharing my strategy for the remainder of the year here, in hopes it helps some others! The Secret to Happiness is Freedom That’s a quote from Thucydides.  It seems he was a real trailblazer in the points and miles game, recognizing the value of the Chase Freedom millenia before it arrived. In all seriousness, one of the main elements of my…

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[thehoneymoonguy]

Highlighting Southwest's International Destinations, Part 4: Jamaica

Highlighting Southwest’s International Destinations, Part 4: Jamaica

n this series of posts I’m sharing the details of Southwest’s international destinations.  Check out the previous posts: Highlighting Southwest’s International Destinations, Part 1: Overview Highlighting Southwest’s International Destinations, Part 2: The Bahamas & Cuba Let’s home in here on two more of Southwest’s island destinations: the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.   Jamaica Hey mon!  If you…

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Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Chase Hyatt Visa - Which Has Better Signup Bonus?

For months I’ve had the Chase Hyatt listed as my number one travel credit card.  That said (all right, written), the Chase Sapphire Reserve has the travel community abuzz.  Its signup bonus is extraordinary.  So which card is the better option if you’re looking for free or almost-free luxury lodging for a vacation or honeymoon?  Read on to find out! An Overview of the Signup Bonuses and the…

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Review: Savanna Private Game Reserve (South Africa)

Review: Savanna Private Game Reserve (South Africa)

South Africa’s Kruger National Park area is renowned for its incredible safari experiences and the Savanna Private Game Reserve lodge is designed to allow you to combine luxury with nature.  Patty and I stayed here on our honeymoon and were wowed by the experience.  It was unforgettable – the lodge itself, the food, the service, and of course the wildlife.  The one downside is that it is not…

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[thehoneymoonguy]

Get 5X Bonuses for Gas, Grocery, Internet, Cable, Phone, Select Streaming Services, and Walgreens and CVS for Q1 of 2020

Get 5X Bonuses for Gas, Grocery, Internet, Cable, Phone, Select Streaming Services, and Walgreens and CVS for Q1 of 2020

In a previous strategies post I highlighted the tremendous value you can pull from quarterly bonus offers.

Two credit card programs are offering great bonuses for the first quarter of 2020!

Let’s dive in!

5X Back for Gas Stations, Internet, Cable & Phone Services, and Select Streaming Services with Chase Freedom

The Chase Freedom regularly ranks as one of the best no-annual-fee cards.…

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Honeymoon/Vacation Plan Bravo: __ Night in the Florida Keys for $__

Honeymoon/Vacation Plan Bravo: __ Night in the Florida Keys for $__

Does five nights in the Florida Keys sound pretty stinkin’ good to you?  In this post I’ll show you how to book a five-night honeymoon or vacation to the sunny American islands for under ___ out of pocket!  This includes Last year I published a post in which I laid out a plan for getting a 9-day honeymoon/vacation in Cancun for 4% of the cash price.  Well, a recent reader request from Amy in…

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[thehoneymoonguy]

The Best Travel Card Deals for June 2019

The Best #Travel Card Deals for June 2019

It’s been a while since I updated my list of the best travel card deals but I’m back at it.  I decided to break down the list a bit differently to really differentiate the best offerings.

Check out my page on credit score information if you’re looking for more info on that topic.

To help you quickly make sense of the various strong offers I’ve created a table highlighting key elements of these…

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[thehoneymoonguy]

A Strong Signup Bonus for The Hilton Honors American Express - Is It Worth Getting?

A Strong Signup Bonus for The #Hilton Honors American Express - Is It Worth Getting?

The Hilton Honors Card from American Express is back with a 100,000 point signup bonus! I’ll break down this offer, and the pros and cons of the card in this post.

The Value of the 100,000 Hilton Honors Points Signup Bonus

Hilton Honors points are valuable in that they are almost always usable for your destination. That’s because Hilton boasts over 5,600 properties worldwide. As an…

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Activate 5X Bonuses for Grocery & Home Improvement Stores, Gas Stations, Uber, and Lyft for Q2 of 2019

Activate 5X Bonuses for Grocery & Home Improvement Stores, Gas Stations, Uber, and Lyft for Q2 of 2019

In a previous strategies post post I highlighted the tremendous value you can pull from quarterly bonus offers.

Well, the strong categories continue for the second quarter of 2019!

Let’s dive in!

5X Back for Grocery and Home Improvement Stores with Chase Freedom

The Chase Freedom regularly ranks as one of the best no-annual-fee cards. That’s in large part because of the huge return…

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[thehoneymoonguy]

How We Got Three People Two Disney World Tickets Each, for Free!

How We Got 6 Disney World Tickets for Free! #DisneyWorld

Getting Disney World (or Disneyland) tickets for free is tough. It’s doable though! In this post I’ll share a step-by-step recap of how I did it, so that you can use the same approach for some free Disney (or Universal Studios) tickets of your own.

A Travel Reimbursement Credit Card For the Win

The first step in obtaining our free Disney tickets was to establish the approach we would use.…

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Using Capital One Venture's Global Entry Reimbursement Feature for Someone Else

Using Capital One Venture's Global Entry Reimbursement Feature for Someone Else #globalentry #capitalone

I’m a big fan of Global Entry.

So much so that we got it for our son when he was a tiny babe.

I’ve posted on Chase adding Global Entry reimbursement to the United MileagePlus Explorer card.

When I got a Capital One Venture card a few months ago I knew full well that a benefit of the card is Global Entry reimbursement.  I had other cards (e.g. the aforementioned Chase United MileagePlus Explorer)…

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Here's Why I Bucked My Own Advice and Earned a Southwest Card Signup Bonus at the End of the Year

Here's Why I Bucked Conventional Wisdom and Earned a #Southwest Card Signup #Bonus at the End of the Year

Over the years I’ve raved about the value of getting a Southwest Companion Pass at the beginning, instead of the end, of the calendar year.

So why did I just intentionally earn Companion Pass in November?  I’ll explain my rationale in this post!

Earning a Companion Pass with Southwest means you can fly a companion for free on any flight you take – it’s one of the best travel perks around! Photo…

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Reader Request: Which Cards Should I Get for Bathroom Renovation

Reader Request: Which Cards Should I Get for Bathroom Renovation #travel #rewards

A long-time reader by the name of Emma* emailed me asking for advice.  She wanted to know which travel card or cards she should get and use to cover the cost of a bathroom renovation.  I’ll walk you through my recommendation progression with Emma as other readers have told me that these sorts of examples are incredibly helpful.

*Name changed for privacy

The Situation

Emma’s first message to me…

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Chase Changes Sapphire Bonus Language to 48 Months but You Can Still Get 24 Month Offers

Chase Changes Sapphire Bonus Language to 48 Months but You Can Still Get 24 Month Offer #ultimaterewards #bonus

For years the terms on many, if not all, Chase cards have included a 24 month timeline for bonus eligibility.  Well Chase just changed that eligibility timeline for public links for their Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cards to 48 months.

However, at least for the moment, you can still get Sapphire offers with the 24 month language via referral links.  Here are some screengrabs I…

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How to Get Free Disney World Tickets With Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

How to Get Free Disney World Tickets With Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

It’s long been a challenge for even the most frugal of travelers to get Walt Disney World or Walt Disney Land tickets for free.  That has now changed, thankfully!  Here’s the scoop on how we used Chase Ultimate Rewards points for tickets to the Happiest Place on Earth – and how you can do so too!

The Backstory – It Started Off Rocky for Us With free Disney tickets via Ultimate Rewards points…

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