Tag: Travel

The Bilt Obsidian Card Could be Perfect For Families

Posted on by David Cox

The Bilt Obsidian Card is a card that could be interesting for families or anyone who has a significant amount of dining or grocery spend, especially for a family with a large rent or mortgage payment. Prior to February 7th, 2026, Bilt allowed people to earn points on rent payments, but after that date, it will allow people to earn Bilt Points when you pay your mortgage.

The payments aren’t charged to the card, but rather you use the Bilt platform to make the payment with your Venmo or bank account and routing number. You earn 1 point per dollar on the transaction, as long as you make the necessary non-housing transactions on the credit card. But finding out how much will require some math.

What is the Bilt Obsidian Card?

The Bilt Obsidian Card is the middle-tier card of the three new cards created for the Bilt program. It has a $95 annual fee and earns 3X on your choice of grocery or dining, 2x on travel and 1X on all other purchases, including 1X on mortgage or rent payments paid through the Bilt platform.

The card also comes with two $50 hotel credits, one in the first half of the year and the second in the second half of the year. These credits are for two-night stays booked through the Bilt Travel Portal. Honestly, this feels almost useless, unless you prefer to use the Bilt Travel Portal, then it’s a nice $50 coupon. Most likely, I wouldn’t even use this credit.

The Bilt Obsidian Card also comes with some travel protections, including MasterRental Coverage, trip delay, and cancellation coverage. It also comes with no foreign transaction fees, purchase assurance, and extended warranties.

The Bilt Obsidian Card currently comes with a signup bonus of $200 in Bilt Cash.

Unlocking Points on Rent or Mortgage

The biggest selling point of Bilt is that they allow you to earn points when you pay for your rent or mortgage through the Bilt platform. However, it’s not as simple as that. Because the points have a cost to Bilt, they have set up a system to ensure that they can recoup the cost of those points.

As with all credit cards, they make money through interchange fees. Therefore, Bilt requires that you spend on the card to help recoup the cost of those points. With the old Bilt Credit Card, you only had to make 5 purchases throughout the month. Now, the rules are, well, a bit more complicated.

Option 1 vs Option 2

As if the new Bilt system isn’t complicated enough, they have introduced two options to unlock the points that are earned on rent or mortgage. Option 1 sets your earning rate on those housing charges based on a “simplified” chart. It looks like this:

Non-Housing Spend as Percent of Housing SpendEarning rate on rent or mortgage
0% to 25%no points earned on rent or mortgage
25% to 50%.5 points per dollar on rent or mortgage
50% to 75%.75 points per dollar on rent or mortgage
75% to 100%1 point per dollar on rent or mortgage
Over 100%1.25 point per dollar on rent or mortgage

The more you spend on non-housing expenses, the more points you earn per dollar on your housing expenses, maxing out at 1.25 points per dollar. In order to choose Option 1, you need to forgo Bilt Cash, which is a feature of Option 2.

In Option 2, you earn 4X per dollar spent on non-housing expenses in a second currency called Bilt Cash. You can use the Bilt Cash at a rate of 3% of the housing expenses to unlock the Bilt Points earned by housing expenses. For example, a $1,000 rent payment would earn 1,000 Bilt points unlocked and paid for with $30 in Bilt Cash. At 4X per dollar, that amount of Bilt Cash is earned with $750 in non-housing expenses.

With Option 2, any spend above what is necessary to unlock Bilt Points can be banked as Bilt Cash, which can be used for a variety of things. These potential uses are mostly coupon-like credits for some of Bilt’s corporate partners. They include things like Lyft rides, Bilt Dining experiences, hotel credits, fitness classes, and even Blade helicopter airport transfers.

The best use of Bilt Cash is the points accelerator, which allows you to turn $200 in Bilt Cash into an extra 1X on all spend for the next $5,000. This means that instead of 3X on grocery or dining, 2X on travel, and 1X on everything else, this card would earn 4X on dining or grocery, 3X on travel, and 2X on everything else for the remainder of the accelerator period. Essentially, it’s a way for the cardholder to turn $200 in Bilt Cash into 5,000 Bilt Points.

The Confusing and Rewarding World of Bilt Cash

When the new Bilt credit cards launched on January 14th, 2026, there was a lot of confusion about Bilt Cash. A week later, Bilt explained what it is used for. Most of the uses are not that interesting, but the point accelerator seems to be the clear best use of Bilt Cash.

David Cox's avatar by David Cox

Average Family of 4 Using Option 2

According to Google AI (take it with a grain of salt) the average family spends around $2,300 per month on mortgage plus taxes and insurance. For the sake of easy math, let’s just say $3,000 all together with taxes and insurance included. The average family of 4 also spends around $1,400 per month on groceries (also according to Google AI).

In order to unlock the 3,000 points earned from the mortgage payment, they would also have to spend a total of $2,250 on non-housing expenses on the card. If they put the entire $1,400 of groceries on it then they would need to spend an additional $850 on other expenses on the card.

That means that they would earn 3,000 Bilt points on the mortgage, 4,200 points on the groceries (3X on groceries), and 850 points on the other spend. That is a grand total of 8,050 Bilt Points earned on what is $2,250 in credit card spend. That is almost 3.6X, which is fantastic. It’s actually more than the 6,450 Amex Membership Reward points that you would earn on that spend on an Amex Gold where there is 4X on grocery spend.

Bilt Points are the Best Points

Bilt points are generally viewed as being the most valuable points of the major programs. That is primarily because they have a great list of transfer partners, with some highly coveted partners such as Atmos Rewards and World of Hyatt. The full list of partners are:

  • Aer Lingus (1:1)
  • Air Canada (1:1)
  • Atmos Rewards (Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines) (1:1)
  • Avianca Lifemiles (1:1)
  • British Airways (1:1)
  • Cathay Pacific (1:1)
  • Emirates (1:1)
  • Etihad Guest (1:1)
  • Flying Blue (KLM and Air France) (1:1)
  • Iberia (1:1)
  • Japan Airlines (1:1)
  • Southwest Airlines (1:1)
  • Spirit Airlines (1:1)
  • Tap Portugal (1:1)
  • Turkish Airlines (1:1)
  • Qatar Airways (1:1)
  • United Airlines (1:1)
  • Virgin Red
  • All Accor Limitless (3:2)
  • Hilton (1:1)
  • Hyatt (1:1)
  • IHG (1:1)
  • Marriott Bonvoy (1:1)

Rent Day Specials

Bilt Rewards has a tradition of having special deals only available on rent day. They have offered things like free fitness classes in the past, but the thing to really look out for are massive transfer bonuses.

In December 2025, for example, British Airways offered a transfer bonus of up to 100% based on your Bilt Status. The bonus was 100% for platinum members, 75% for gold members, 60% for silver members, and 50% for blue members. Your membership tier is based on how much you spend within the Bilt program. For a Silver member, this transfer bonus would mean that if you transferred 10,000 Bilt Points to British Airways, you would end up with 16,000 British Airways Avios. That’s a great way to get extra value for your Bilt points.

There is an indication that you can use Bilt Cash to unlock higher transfer bonuses; however, we have no idea how much Bilt Cash will be required to do so. But there is a chance you could make good use of your Bilt Cash to take advantage of status for these rent-day transfer bonuses.

Who is the Bilt Obsidian Card For?

I think, if there is one thing common to the three new Bilt Cards, it is that they are great for people who would like to earn points for travel but don’t want to sign up for a bunch of credit cards. There is no doubt that signup bonuses are the best way to accumulate a ton of points and miles, but there are many reasons why people might not want to sign up for a new credit card every few months. Bilt Cards appear to be designed to be more rewarding the more you use them, making them perfect for people who only want to deal with one credit card.

With the ability to earn points on rent or mortgage, as well as 3X on your choice of groceries or dining, 2X on travel, and 1X on everything else, depending on what you use your credit card for, it could be a pretty good overall earner. If you are able to accumulate enough Bilt Cash to activate the point accelerator and add 1X to all spend, it could get really lucrative.

The $95 annual fee isn’t too much of a barrier for most people, and besides the two $50 hotel credits there isn’t any coupon-like things to worry about, so it is fairly simple.

Overall, I think it’s a great card for someone who has a decent amount of grocery or dining spend each month, to take advantage of the 3X category (or 4X with the point accelerator). To me, it makes a lot of sense for a family, because of how much a family spends on groceries.

Let’s go back to the earlier example, but in addition to the $3,000 mortgage, $1,400 in grocery spend, they have an additional $2,600 in spend on the card (at 1X). In this example, they earn Bilt Cash along with their points and use the vast majority of Bilt Cash earned toward the point accelerator.

Over the course of one year, they would earn 36,000 Bilt Points on Mortgage, 50,400 Bilt points on grocery spend, 31,200 Bilt Points on other spend, and 25,000 Bilt Points on the point accelerator. That totals 142,600 Bilt points for the year. The Points Guy values Bilt points at 2.2 cents per point, meaning that amount of Bilt Points is worth a little over $3,000. That’s not bad for simply using one credit card for everything.

Conclusion

While not being as lucrative as signing up for multiple credit cards, the Bilt Obsidian Card is a great credit card for anyone who wants to earn a decent number of Bilt Points but doesn’t want to spend all of their time thinking about points and miles. Cardholders can simply put all of their spend on one card and earn the most valuable transferable currency in points and miles.

While the Bilt program itself is complicated, having to just concentrate on the one program will make it much easier for people to learn the nuances of the program and take advantage of transfer bonuses and Bilt Cash. It’s a great card for people who want to do a little travel hacking, but don’t want to spend too much time on it.

The Bilt Blue Card is Disappointing, But is Still a Good Option

Posted on by David Cox

On January 14th, 2026, Bilt released the details on the three credit cards that were replacing the original Bilt credit card. The original Bilt card was issued by Wells Fargo and it was widely reported that it was a significant money loser for them. These three new cards are issued by Cardless, and are intended to be a profitable way for the Bilt Program to issue credit cards.

The Five Banana Problem

The original Bilt credit card allowed users to earn one point per dollar when putting their rent on the credit card as long as they used their card five other times per month. The intention was that Bilt would recoup the money lost from interchange fees (which landlords don’t pay but retailers do) by generating it back through interchange fees from other purchases. The problem was that many savvy users swiped the card for five small purchases each month (such as a single banana), which didn’t generate much revenue for Bilt. Therefore, the joke was that Bilt had a five-banana problem.

With the new credit cards, Bilt believes they have solved the five-banana problem by creating a second currency called Bilt Cash that is earned each time the user swipes the card on non-rent or mortgage purchases. That Bilt Cash can be used to unlock the points earned from rent or mortgage payments. It’s strangely complicated, but the short answer is that if you spend 75% of your mortgage payment on other things, you earn enough Bilt Cash to unlock your points. In other words, to get the 1,000 points earned from a $1,000 mortgage payment, you would need to use it for $750 worth of other spending. Five banana purchases won’t work anymore.

What is the Bilt Blue Card?

The Bilt Blue Card is a no-annual-fee credit card that earns 1X on all spend and 4X Bilt Cash on all purchases (mortgage and rent payments are not made on the card itself). It also earns 1X on all rent or mortgage payments, but requires 3% of the total transaction in Bilt Cash to unlock those points. In other words, you need $30 in Bilt Cash to unlock the points from a $1,000 mortgage or rent payment, and at the 4x rate to earn those points, you would earn $30 in Bilt Cash after $750 in purchases.

Technically, the 1X earned on housing spend is not on the credit card, since that is not allowed. The housing payments must be done by ACH or Venmo using the Bilt website. The old card allowed you to charge the rent to the card itself, and this change appears to be an effort to reduce costs and make the Bilt card profitable.

Yes – I get it – this is complicated, but the point is that you can earn valuable Bilt Points on your rent or mortgage as long as you are actively using that credit card for a significant amount of your monthly spend. This is unique because you cannot do this to earn Chase Ultimate Reward Points, Citi Thank You Points, Amex Membership Reward Points, or Capital One Venture Miles.

Transfer Partners

What is also unique about the Bilt Blue Card is that it is a no-annual fee that allows you to earn points that can be transferred to airline and hotel programs. Transfer programs are what really make Bilt Points valuable, and while Citi, Chase, Amex, and Capital One have transfer partners as well, most require a credit card with an annual fee to unlock the ability to transfer.

In addition, Bilt points are the most valuable of any of the major transferable currencies. That is because they have a ton of transfer partners, and some of the most coveted. On the airline side, Atmos rewards is a highly valued currency for its ability to book partner awards for not a lot of points. On the hotel side, you can transfer to Hyatt, whose points are extremely valuable. The complete list of transfer partners, as of January 2026 are:

  • Aer Lingus (1:1)
  • Air Canada (1:1)
  • Atmos Rewards (Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines) (1:1)
  • Avianca Lifemiles (1:1)
  • British Airways (1:1)
  • Cathay Pacific (1:1)
  • Emirates (1:1)
  • Etihad Guest (1:1)
  • Flying Blue (KLM and Air France) (1:1)
  • Iberia (1:1)
  • Japan Airlines (1:1)
  • Southwest Airlines (1:1)
  • Spirit Airlines (1:1)
  • Tap Portugal (1:1)
  • Turkish Airlines (1:1)
  • Qatar Airways (1:1)
  • United Airlines (1:1)
  • Virgin Red
  • All Accor Limitless (3:2)
  • Hilton (1:1)
  • Hyatt (1:1)
  • IHG (1:1)
  • Marriott Bonvoy (1:1)

Why are People Disappointed?

The old Bilt Card was a fantastic card, especially for young renters. For example, let’s say that you are a 25-year-old who is out of college and lives in a major city, but you’re not earning a big salary yet. In this example, let’s say that you are spending $2,500 per month on a small apartment and it’s a large chunk of your salary. With the old card, you would earn 2,500 Bilt points for simply putting your rent on the card and then swiping it 5 times throughout the month.

Now, to unlock the 2,500 Bilt points, you would need to spend $1,875 in other spending on the card. Even if you are putting your car insurance, cell phone, all utilities, your groceries, and all of your shopping and entertainment on the card, you might not reach that amount. So, for the person who spends a large portion of their income on rent, they’re not going to earn all of the points that they would have with the old card. In addition, the old card earned 3X on dining and 2X on travel, while the Blue Card is 1X on everything.

There is also the pesky problem with how Bilt changed the way that it allows you to pay rent. With the old card, you could actually use the card to pay your rent. This meant that you could essentially float your rent for 30 to 45 days by waiting until the credit card bill is due. With the new program, that is gone, and you have to pay by ACH, which saves Bilt money in interchange fees. In practice, this means that there are a whole bunch of people who are going to have to pay two rent payments in March as the last rent payment on the Bilt Card comes due, and they have to pay their rent with ACH simultaneously.

These changes are painful for people who had the old Bilt Card. I would argue, however, that if you forget about the old card for a second, the Bilt Blue Card is probably still the best option for this person.

Comparison to Venture Card

I think one of the best travel cards for someone in this situation is the Capital One Venture Card. That is because it earns 2x on all purchases and has only a $95 annual fee. It also has great transfer partners, although not as great as Bilt Points transfer partners. Let’s talk about the same person in the above example.

Let’s say that their personal spending can’t quite reach the $1,875 that they would need to unlock all of the points from rent. Instead, they average $1,500 per month other spending on their credit card. Since no points are earned on rent with Capital One, they would earn 2x on the $1,500 spent. That would total 3,000 Venture Miles.

On the Bilt Card, the $1,500 in spend would unlock (and I’ll spare you the math on this) 2,000 (out of the total of 2,500 points possible), plus 1,500 points from the spend. That is 3,500 Bilt Points earned. If you ignore the housing spend for this comparison (since Bilt is the only card that allows it), until you unlock all of the Bilt Points from the housing spend, you earn 2.33X on all spend.

That’s 500 more points, and I would prefer Bilt Points over Venture Miles, because the transfer partners are better. In addition, the Bilt Blue card is a no-annual-fee card, while the Venture Card costs $95 per year. In the end, it’s actually better than the Venture Card, even though it’s 1X vs 2X if you don’t spend past the threshold where you’ve unlocked all of the points from rent.

What about Bilt Cash?

Bilt Cash was created to force people who wanted to earn points on rent or mortgage to spend on the Bilt credit cards. It solves the five bananas problem mentioned earlier. However, because each card earns 4x Bilt Cash on every purchase, there is a real possibility that there will be excess Bilt Cash accumulated by any Bilt cardholder who uses their card for most or all of their everyday spend.

For the most part, Bilt Cash can be used to essentially purchase coupons on various things like Lyft rides, Bilt Dining experiences, hotel credits, fitness classes, and even Blade helicopter airport transfers. The best use of Bilt Cash appears to be the points accelerator, which is unfortunately unavailable on the Bilt Blue card.

The Confusing and Rewarding World of Bilt Cash

When the new Bilt credit cards launched on January 14th, 2026, there was a lot of confusion about Bilt Cash. A week later, Bilt explained what it is used for. Most of the uses are not that interesting, but the point accelerator seems to be the clear best use of Bilt Cash.

David Cox's avatar by David Cox

Option 1 vs Option 2

If all of this sounds confusing to you, you’re not alone. So many people complained about this that after 2 days, Bilt offered an alternative. Option 1, is to completely forgo the Bilt Cash system and instead earn points on your rent or mortgage based on this chart:

Non-Housing Spend as Percent of Housing Spend
0% to 25%no points earned on rent or mortgage
25% to 50%.5 points per dollar on rent or mortgage
50% to 75%.75 points per dollar on rent or mortgage
75% to 100%1 point per dollar on rent or mortgage
Over 100%1.25 point per dollar on rent or mortgage

Option 2 is using Bilt Cash to unlock points on housing. Based on what we know about Bilt Cash and the fact that the point accelerator isn’t available for the Bilt Blue Card, you would have to look through the list of uses for Bilt Cash and decide whether or not anything is interesting to you. I would guess that many people will choose option 1, because it’s just simpler.

Who is the Bilt Blue Card For?

Because it is a 1X on all spending credit card, it’s not going to be great for earning points unless you are using it for rent or mortgage. I think the ideal candidate for this card is someone with a fairly large rent or mortgage payment and just enough everyday spend to earn all of the points on that housing spend. Frankly, I see the ideal candidate as a young professional with oversized rent or mortgage payments.

In the example above, the individual with a $2,500 mortgage and $1,500 in other spend per month would earn 42,000 Bilt Points in one year. I put that into Daydream Explorer on PointsYeah.com for the entire month of February (filtered for Bilt Points), and this is what I got for one-way fares from Chicago:

Obviously for a round-trip ticket you would need a ticket home as well, but there are plenty of places in Florida that you can fly for 7,500 points, Cancun for 10,000 points, or Punta Cana for 11,600. A category 1 Hyatt during standard time can be had for 5,000 points or a category 2 for 8,000 points. It might not be the most luxurious vacation ever, but when I was that age I just wanted to go somewhere warm and hang out at the beach. While 42,000 points isn’t a ton, a vacation can be assembled for that, especially if traveling with friends.

The card is currently being offered with a $100 Bilt Cash signup bonus, which would make it easier to unlock the points earned from rent or mortgage.

Conclusion

I think the Bilt Blue Card, while a disappointment to people who loved the old Bilt Card, is a good card for a fairly specific segment of the population. For other people, the Bilt Obsidian Card or Bilt Palladium Card might be a better fit. But for a young professional who doesn’t want an annual fee and wants to be able to take a no-frills trip every once in a while, I think this works better than any other option I can think of.

A Busy Stayover in Dublin

Posted on by David Cox

We had a short amount of time to spend in Dublin. We were using Dublin as a stopover on our way home from Nice, and that meant we had a full day and an additional evening to soak up everything we could. Our friends, Bill and Theresa were on this trip with us, where we participated in the UTMB Nice Côte d’Azur ultramarathons. The result of our races meant that both Bill and I were injured and hobbling around town.

Normally, I’m the trip planner, suggesting bars, restaurants, museums, and activities, but this time I deferred to Jenn. She had been to Dublin for three days on a girls’ trip earlier in the year, and she was in a much better position to guide our visit.

As soon as we had checked into our hotel, we were hungry and needed to go get a bite to eat. Jenn was excited about taking us to a couple of old taverns in Dublin, so we went to the Brazen Head, a classic Irish pub, founded in 1198.

The Liberty Belle, along our walk to the Brazen Head

There was a line stretching out into the street, but the service was efficient, and the line moved quickly. It didn’t take too long before sitting at an old wooden table in a crowded bar, ordering our first real Irish ales. A few minutes later, I was enjoying a properly poured Guinness while Jenn and Bill were both drinking Smithwick’s red ales. It was great to have a beer with a little malt backbone after spending the last few days in France drinking light Italian and French pilsners. It wasn’t too long before they delivered me a plate of fish and chips, which really hit the spot.

There isn’t many things more beautiful that watching a Guinness settle

After our trip to the Brazen Head, we walked down to the Temple Bar District. For it being fairly early in the evening, we certainly ran across enough people who were already overserved. That is the general reputation of the Temple Bar District, a place for overindulging. After wandering around the district for a while, we tucked into the Old Storehouse to grab a drink and listen to a little music.

The Temple Bar District

The bar was packed, standing room only, and not much room for standing either. The bar itself is another classic Irish pub with a long wood bar, tons of wainscoting, and every inch of the wall above the wainscoting covered in framed pictures. We grabbed some pints of ale and then walked outside to enjoy our beer. The weather was cool but comfortable, and outside we were able to enjoy the music at a reasonable volume.

Enjoying a Smithwick’s Red Ale outside at the Old Storehouse

We enjoyed our drinks, then headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep so we could get ready for the day ahead.

Many bars had decorated with balloons to attract NFL fans who were in town. The Norseman couldn’t decide between the Vikings and the Steelers, so they decorated with both.

The next morning, we woke up and grabbed a light breakfast and a cappuccino from a little coffee shop called Two Pups, less than a block away from the Hyatt Centric, where we were staying. It was a quaint cafe with warm hosts and delicious food. The Irish are much friendlier than the French, and after several days in Nice, being treated so well by the staff felt like a warm hug.

Pastry and Cappuccino from Two Pups

Following breakfast, we headed over to the Jameson Distillery to do a tour of the facility. It was 10 AM, which seemed a little early for a distillery tour, but hey, we’re on vacation, right? The tour was wonderful, very informative, and came with samples of various Jameson products. I really enjoyed the tour, probably more than I should have, because Jenn was sliding me her samples too.

Second floor at Jameson Distillery

Following the distillery tour, we started walking toward Trinity College. However, after a kilometer, we were feeling like we needed to stop for another drink, so we ended up stopping for a pint at Trinity Bar and Venue, where I had a nice glass of Murphy’s Stout. I know, we had just left the distillery, but in our defense, Bill and I were limping pretty bad, so it did take a while to get there.

Tap selection at Trinity Bar and Venue

After the pint, we walked into Trinity College. It would have been nice to see the Long Room at the Old Library, but Jenn had been there just been there a few months earlier, and ongoing maintenance on the Library had affected the experience. They had removed a lot of the books as part of the project so I think I’ll try to return when the shelves are full again.

Old Stone Buildings at Trinity College

Trinity College itself is a beautiful campus with ancient stone buildings, cobblestone plazas, and copper statues. It’s a calm and beautiful place to visit, and I can only imagine what a privilege it is for the students to study there.

Statue of William Hartpole Lecky at Trinity College

After Trinity College, we walked down to Grafton Street, where we walked around looking at shops. The area was packed, which surprised me for a Tuesday afternoon. There were buskers playing music and singing, spread out strategically to not interfere with each other. It is a very nice area; however, for the most part, it was the most modern of the areas that we had visited so far, and I was enjoying the old buildings throughout Dublin.

We found a pub and stopped in for lunch, where I had another pint and some bangers and mash. After lunch, we left Grafton Street and headed back towards the hotel.

Bangers and Mash

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was on the way back to the hotel, and we decided to stop in. I’m always in awe of the amazing churches and cathedrals in Europe. St. Patrick’s Cathedral did not disappoint. It was founded in 1191, and like most cathedrals of the era, took more than a generation to complete. It was completed in 1270.

St Patrick’s Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a classic Gothic cathedral, characterized by its pointed arches and ribbed vaults. It features some amazing stained glass windows and statues, as well as ancient flags hanging from the walls. Many important people were buried here as well, including Jonathan Swift, most famous for being the author of many great works, including Gulliver’s Travels.

The bar at Teeling Distillery

Of course, we couldn’t attend an Irish cathedral without following that up with a trip to another distillery, so following St. Patrick’s, we walked over to Teeling Distillery. The Teeling Distillery is a beautiful and modern-looking distillery with a really nice bar. We sat down and had a couple drinks, some of us drinking whiskey and others mixed drinks. I went for the cheaper whiskeys on the menu and was a little disappointed, but everyone else was happy with their drinks.

After our drinks, we finished the evening at Darkey Kelly’s, a traditional Irish tavern with live music. It was suggested by the clerk at our hotel. The food was good, but it was so busy that we had to sit outside, where it was raining a little. We were under an awning, but the air was cold and moist, which did make things a little uncomfortable. We had dinner and a couple of red ales, enjoying our last night on vacation before the long flight home.

Outside at Darkey Kelly’s

We were only in Dublin for a day and a half, and what is amazing is just how much we were able to enjoy in a short amount of time. Dublin is full of history, old buildings, and especially distilleries and pubs. It’s also quite dense, meaning we were able to see quite a bit, even though we weren’t able to walk very well. We had a great time in Dublin, and I can’t wait to go back – only next time I will spend a little more time there.

Jameson Irish Whiskey Tour

Posted on by David Cox

We had the opportunity to be in Dublin for a couple of days on our last trip to Europe, and we decided to use the opportunity to visit the Jameson Distillery. We debated whether we would rather visit the Guinness Brewery or the Jameson Distillery, but Jameson won out because I’ve done a few brewery tours, but never a distillery tour. The Jameson tour didn’t disappoint.

We walked to the distillery from our hotel, which was about a 20-minute walk, and even though you would assume that a distillery would be in a gritty industrial zone, it was in a lovely area with brick and stone buildings and cobblestone streets. From Bow Street, we walked through an archway and into the Jameson complex.

Bar in the lobby

Inside the Jameson Complex, there is a small plaza with a gift shop and a restaurant. We skipped those and went straight into the distillery. The building has a modern loft feel, where the building seems old but fresh, with brick bones and lots of black iron and wood finishes. The color that brightens the room is an endless supply of green Jameson bottles.

Jameson Distillery sign near tour entrance

We went straight to the ticket counter to buy a ticket for the tour. The Bow Street tour is a 45-minute tour, and it currently costs € 26. Luckily for that price, there are some drinks that are provided. Once we paid for our tour, they sent us to the bar to get our complimentary drink before the tour began. Since I was there to fully experience Jameson Whiskey, I ordered a Jameson neat.

Workers used to be rewarded for their labor with glasses of whiskey

I’ll be honest, before this tour, I had never tried Jameson Whiskey. I had developed an affinity for American bourbon, and given how much bourbon is available in the US, I hadn’t even thought about trying Jameson. I took a sip and immediately noticed the caramel notes. It was also surprisingly smooth and gave me a pleasant, warming sensation. Ok, Jameson, you have my attention.

View from the waiting area before the tour

We waited around at the bar as the other guests began to join us. They were mostly Americans who were in town for the Steelers/Vikings game that happened the previous day. When the tour began, we were shuffled into a round brick room with some seats around a table, where the tour guide began to tell us the history of the Jameson brand. There was also a video that was artfully projected upon the table in the center of the room, which also helped explain the history of the distillery.

The projection on the table tells the history of Jameson

After the history of Jameson had been discussed, we were then moved into another room where we were asked to group up and stand around one of a series of display tables. Each of these tables had exhibits of various elements of the process, showing color development as well as demonstrating aromas that come from the maturation of the whiskey.

Demonstrations of the development of color and aroma in the whiskey

There was another video projection on the wall. This time, they demonstrated the process that they use to make Jameson Whiskey. This included the triple-distilling process as well as the maturation process in the barrel. This also included how they pick the barrels themselves. These barrels are reused American bourbon and Spanish sherry barrels, which add to the flavor and color of Jameson Whiskey.

Video showing the method of making Jameson whiskey

Finally, after the demonstration of how the whiskey is produced, we were ushered into a third room where we were given a tasting set. The guide walked us through the tasting notes of the three different whiskeys sitting in front of us. There was a classic Jameson Whiskey, Jameson Distillery Edition, and Jameson Black Label. There was also a glass of water there to cleanse your palate.

I enjoyed all of the samples, and again was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Jameson Whiskey. I had come into this experience thinking that it would be wildly inferior to the American bourbons that I’ve had, but it compares favorably. It’s definitely not better than some of my favorite bourbons, but I have to say it was better than some of the $40 bourbons that I’ve had. At the price point around half of that, it’s a solid whiskey.

Tasting three different versions of Jameson’s Whiskey

Jameson opened my eyes a little on this tour, and as I write this, I’m having a glass of Jameson right now. I learned that I don’t necessarily have to spend over $40 for a decent bottle of whiskey. It’s definitely not my favorite whiskey, but for its price, it’s very good.

I would recommend taking this tour to any Whiskey lover who finds themselves in Dublin. It was extremely informative, had great demonstrations, and a fabulous tour guide. The fact that I was able to consume some of that delicious whiskey is pretty nice, too.

Points check December 2025

Posted on by David Cox

As 2025 came to a close, we looked back at what turned out to be a fairly hectic year of travel. In March, we went to Portugal and Spain, to hike six days on the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. In July, Jenn went with Emma, her sister, and her niece to Munich and Dublin, while Alex and I went to Dresden, Saxon Switzerland National Park, and Berlin. In September, we went to Nice and Dublin. It’s been a lot.

We had a blast, but it did seem to add a bit of chaos to our lives, and we agreed to do a little less in 2026. We’ll probably still take three vacations, but we’re going to stay a little closer to home and keep the trip lengths a little shorter. That being said, we’ve only planned one trip for 2026, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s a long way away and ten days long. But I swear – after that – we’ll be good, I promise!

That trip is to Tenerife, a place I’ve wanted to visit for years now. We will also spend two nights in London on our way to Tenerife and one night in Madrid on our way home. Virtually everything is booked, except for the flight from Tenerife to Madrid.

Picking an Airbnb

Tenerife is an interesting place to try to plan a vacation. There is so much to do spread out on an island that takes about an hour and a half to two hours to drive from the south side of the island to the north side. In the north, there are lush forests with beautiful hiking trails. On the south side, there are also beautiful hiking trails, but instead of pine forests, there are deserts with succulents and cacti. On the south side, there are tourist beaches, bars, and restaurants, while on the north side, the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the major city of the island. Also, slightly south of the center of the island is Mount Teide, a volcano towering 12,000 feet above the sea, and sometimes covered in snow.

Because there were so many things to visit all over the island, it made it tricky to pick an Airbnb. We had looked at rentals almost everywhere on the island, and finally, we just threw up our hands and let our son Alex pick. He chose a rental in Costa del Silencio, which I think will be nice. It looks like a quieter part of the island, only about a 20-minute drive from the tourist hot spots of Playa de los Americas, and about a 50-minute drive to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Plus, if the Airbnb sucks, I can blame it on Alex.

Points or a Certificate?

It can be difficult sometimes to decide whether or not to use a hotel certificate or to use points. We have a 40,000 point IHG certificate that we wanted to use for a night in Iowa City. We have season tickets for the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball team, and we decided to go up the night before one of the games and enjoy Iowa City for an evening. Since we had the IHG certificate, we wanted to use it for the stay.

The problem was that the nicest IHG hotel in Iowa City was 22,000 points per night, which is well below the value of the certificate. Since the certificate expires in the fall of 2026, we figured that we probably will have the opportunity to book something more worthy of that certificate. We also had plenty of IHG points, so we decided to use points and save the certificate. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for people to make this bargain, and then find themselves later on with a certificate that they never used – so hopefully that isn’t our fate.

On to the point check!

There were no new credit card signups this month, and I think that’s because we just haven’t seen any offers that have gotten our attention lately. Since we don’t have another vacation in mind yet, we can be patient and wait until something grabs our attention.

That also means that Jenn hasn’t worked on a signup bonus in a while, and she defaulted to using her Amex Gold card. With Christmas spending being a significant part of our purchases, and there not being a consistently good way of earning points on Amazon purchases, the earning rates were a little low. That being said, we still managed to earn a return of a little over 5% on our spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus.

Card UsedSpendPoints EarnedPoint ValuePoints Per $Return on Spend
Amex Gold$2,7226,585$131.702.44.8%
Ink Cash$4412205$45.205.010.3%
Wyndham Business Earner$4212,246$24.715.35.9%
Sapphire Preferred$376376$7.711.02.1%
AAdvantage Platinum$223223$3.461.01.6%
Blue Business Plus$66132$2.642.04.0%
Total$4,24911,767$215.412.85.1%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

In addition to the spending listed above, I spent a little under $2,400 on my Chase Ink Unlimited card, earning me a little less than 3,600 Ultimate Reward points. I should be hitting my signup bonus on that card in January, which is 90,000 points. We finished up the year with:

  • 268,300 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
  • 264,900 IHG Points
  • 155,400 Amex Membership Rewards Points
  • 98,800 Wyndham Points
  • 79,400 Alaska Miles
  • 33,900 American Airlines Miles
  • 19,300 Citi Thank You Points
  • 16,700 United Miles
  • 15,900 Marriott Bonvoy Points
  • 1,500 Delta Miles
  • 300 Hyatt Points
  • $133 Cash Back

According to the points valuations published by The Points Guy, these points and miles are worth a total of $12,800. We started off the year with $13,700 in points and miles. It’s shocking to me that, given the amount of travel we did in 2025, we finished the year only $900 behind where we were the previous year. Our vacation plans will be much tamer in 2026, so I expect our points balances should go up throughout 2026. That probably means we will have a wild 2027 – can’t sit on those points forever!

Hotel Credit Cards that are Worth it For Free Night Certificates

Posted on by David Cox

Credit cards that come with free night certificates can be a great way to reduce the cost of vacations or weekend getaways. We have been travel hacking for a few years now, which generally means opening up credit cards, earning points and miles, and then redeeming them for flights and hotel stays. Many of these credit cards aren’t worth keeping, and we close those accounts after a year, sometimes two, depending on the situation. This is generally to avoid paying ongoing annual fees on a card we no longer value.

However, hotel credit cards can often continue to be valuable every single year, even if you don’t use them, and even if they have annual fees. This is because many of them come with free night certificates and some level of hotel status. Typically, in my experience, it’s easy to get more value out of those certificates than the cost of the annual fee.

Hyatt

Hyatt has two credit cards, both issued by Chase Bank; one is a business card, and one is a personal credit card. The business card does not offer a free night certificate, but the personal World of Hyatt Credit Card does.

World of Hyatt Credit Card

The World of Hyatt Credit Card is a card issued by Chase. It has a $95 annual fee, but in exchange for the annual fee, you will receive a category 1-4 free night certificate. I find it fairly easy to book a hotel with these certificates that would normally cost between $200 and $300. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will also receive:

  • Discoverist Elite Status (2nd lowest of 4 status levels)
  • 5 Elite Qualifying Nights
  • Additional category 1-4 certificate when you spend $15,000 on the card in a year

Marriott Bonvoy

The Marriott Bonvoy program has 6 credit cards, and all but one come with an annual free night certificate. The Marriott Bold credit card doesn’t come with a free night certificate, but it also doesn’t have an annual fee. The rest of the Marriott credit cards have a variety of annual fees as well as benefits and free night certificates. Marriott’s free night certificates allow you to use up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points on top of the value of the certificate. This means that if a hotel is just a little too expensive to book with a certificate, you can add some points to make the stay work.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card is issued by Chase Bank and has a $95 annual fee. It comes with a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. I generally find it pretty easy to find a hotel that typically costs between $150 and $250 per night where these certificates work. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Silver Elite Status (lowest of 5 status levels)
  • 15 elite qualifying nights
  • 1 elite night for every $5,000 spent on the credit card

Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card has an annual fee of $125. Like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, it comes with a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 points. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Gold Elite Status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
  • 15 elite qualifying nights

Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful card is issued by Chase Bank and has an annual fee of $250. It receives a 50,000-point annual free night certificate. That certificate can be redeemed for a hotel that would probably cost $300 to $400. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Gold Elite status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
  • 15 elite qualifying nights
  • 1,000 bonus Bonvoy points with each qualifying stay

Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card is issued by American Express and has an annual fee of $250. Like the Bountiful card, it also receives an annual 50,000-point free night certificate. Also, like the Bountiful card, the cardholder will receive:

  • Gold Elite status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
  • 15 elite qualifying nights
  • 1,000 bonus Bonvoy points with each qualifying stay

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card is issued by American Express and has a whopping annual fee of $650. This card comes with an annual 85,000-point free night certificate. That can be used on a luxury hotel stay, probably somewhere in the $500 to $800 range. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Elite Status (3rd highest of 5 status levels)
  • 25 elite qualifying nights
  • Priority Pass membership with 2 guests
  • $25 per month dining credit
  • Global Entry Fee Credit

Hilton

Hilton has four credit cards that are all issued through American Express. Only one of these cards has a free night certificate as a perk. The Hilton Honors and Hilton Business card don’t have any ability to earn a free night certificate, but the Hilton Surpass can earn a certificate after $15,000 in spend in a calendar year. That might seem like a lot of money to spend on a card just to earn a free night certificate, but Hilton certificates are uncapped. This means if you have your heart set on spending an evening in an ultra-premium hotel and being completely pampered, one certificate can get you there. Upgraded points has a great post on how to completely maximize the value of those certificates.

Hilton Honors Aspire American Express Card

The Hilton Honors Aspire card is issued by American Express and is a premium credit card with a $550 annual fee. It does come with an uncapped annual free night certificate that can be used on amazing ultra-premium hotels. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Diamond Status (highest of 3 Hilton status levels)
  • $400 Hilton Resort credit ($200 semi-annually)
  • $200 flight credit ($50 annually)
  • Clear Plus credit

IHG

IHG has three credit cards, with two offering annual free night certificates. The IHG One Rewards Traveler card has no annual fee and doesn’t come with a free night certificate. The free night certificates that are issued by IHG are worth up to 40,000 points and can be topped off. That means if the hotel room you really want costs 60,000 points, you can use a certificate and 20,000 points. For a 40,000-point certificate, you can generally expect to be able to book a hotel that would cost $150-$200.

IHG One Rewards Premier

The IHG One Rewards Premier credit card is issued by Chase Bank and has an annual fee of $99. It comes with an annual free night certificate worth up to 40,000 IHG points. Besides the annual free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Elite Status (2nd highest of 4 levels)
  • Fourth night free on award stays
  • Up to $50 per year United Travel Bank Credit

IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card

The IHG One Rewards Premier Business card is pretty much the same as the IHG One Rewards Premier card, but for businesses. It has an annual fee of $99 and comes with a free night certificate worth up to 40,000 IHG points. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Elite Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
  • Fourth night free on award stays
  • Up to $50 per year United Travel Bank Credit

Wyndham

With a collection of brands like Super 8, Travelodge, and Ramada, Wyndham Rewards isn’t the sexiest program on this list, but it is solid. Barclays issues 3 credit cards for Wyndham with impressive earning rates, especially on gas purchases. The Wyndham Earner card earns 5x on gas, the Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card earns 6x on gas, and the Wyndham Business Earner card earns a whopping 8x on gas and 5x on utilities.

None of these cards issues a free night certificate per se, but they do issue points on an annual basis, which, unlike a free night certificate, don’t expire. The Wyndham Earner card has no annual fee and doesn’t earn any annual bonus points. However, the other two cards do issue annual bonus points.

Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card

The Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card has an annual fee of $75 and earns 7,500 points each anniversary year. 7,500 points can typically book a room worth around $60 to $90. In addition to the 7,500 points, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
  • 10% Discount on Free Night Awards

Wyndham Business Earner Card

The Wyndham Business Earner Card has an annual fee of $95 and earns 15,000 points each anniversary year. 15,000 Wyndham points can typically book a room worth between $125 and $200. In addition to the 15,000 points, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
  • 10% Discount on Free Night Awards

Choice

Like Wyndham, many of the brands that Choice is famous for are low-end hotels, such as Travelodge and Rodeway Inn. They do have some nicer brands, such as Cambria and the Ascend Collection. Choice has two credit cards, which are issued by Wells Fargo: The fee-free card called the Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard and the Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select.

Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select

The Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select has a $95 annual fee. While it doesn’t come with a free-night certificate, the cardholder gets 30,000 Choice Privileges points every anniversary year. That number of points can book a hotel worth somewhere in the $125 to $200 range. Since they are points and not a certificate, you could also use them to book two nights at a less expensive hotel. Besides the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

  • Platinum Status (2nd highest of 4 levels)
  • Cell Phone protection (up to $800 per claim)

My thoughts

I love having free night certificates ready for me to use. Typically, we tend to stay in vacation rentals, but we like to use certificates to book one or two-night stays. If the place we wish to go to doesn’t have a major airport or is difficult to get to in one day, we like to stay for a night or two in a city with direct flights to the US like London, Madrid, or Amsterdam as a way of adding a little extra excitement to our trip and a good way to get over jet lag. Being able to book a hotel for free (or essentially the cost of the annual fee) is clutch in these circumstances.

We typically aren’t too picky when it comes to where we stay, as long as the location is good. We don’t spend a lot of time in the hotel when we are traveling, since there is always so much to see, drink, and eat in these locations. For these reasons, the credit cards that work best for our purposes (in order of my favorites) include:

  • World of Hyatt Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
  • IHG Premier Card
  • IHG Premier Business Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy American Express Business Card
  • Wyndham Business Earner Card
  • Choice Privileges Select

The most expensive card on this list has a $125 annual fee, and I think that it’s pretty easy with each of these cards to get at least the value of the annual fee back. Usually, better, especially the ones higher on the list.

The ones I left off are ones where I think you basically need to be using the other benefits of the cards to make them worth the annual fee. They are also great if you need higher value certificates because you want to stay at luxury hotels. If your goal is to stay at luxury hotels and utilize status, your best bets are:

  • Hilton Honors Aspire Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card

Free night certificates can be a great way to enhance your travels. My suggestion is to take advantage of elevated sign-up bonuses on those cards when they are available and then hold onto them if you find the certificates to be worthwhile.

Yacht blocked in Monaco

Posted on by David Cox

I’ve never been comfortable with wealth. If you catch me in a pair of Brooks running shoes, I feel like I have to explain that I got them on sale. It’s the Midwestern in me; if you own anything nice, you have to explain to everyone who notices it that you’re not rich, you just got a great deal. Hell, this entire blog is practically an apology for taking fancy trips. “Oh sure, Margaret, we went to France, but I had coupons, doncha know.”

Monaco is the opposite of Midwestern frugality. People come to Monaco to flaunt their wealth. They pull into the marina in multimillion-dollar yachts and unload their multimillion-dollar sports cars to drive around town. Designer clothes and expensive jewelry are standard.

Monaco is an odd country. It is the second-smallest in the world, measuring less than one square mile. Its size, combined with its population of around 38,000, makes it the most densely populated country in the world. It is also extremely wealthy, with its GDP per capita of over $250,000 per year, around triple that of the United States.

There aren’t many places on earth where I feel more out of place than Monaco, but we decided to visit anyway. Since we were spending five days in Nice, which is only a 20-30 minute trip from Monaco, it would seem like a missed opportunity not to visit when we were nearby.

Despite my discomfort with wealth, I was looking forward to the visit. The country is undeniably beautiful. Port Hercule sits on the Mediterranean Sea, filled with numerous yachts, and the hills encircle it in a crescent shape, acting almost as an amphitheater, with the port at its center. To the east of Port Hercule is the Old Town area, where the Palace and the Cathedral are located. The hills to the north and west of Port Hercule are lined with beautiful, modern mid-rise condos where even the most basic condominiums sell for well into the millions of dollars.

White tents block the view of the Marina

We arrived from Nice by Uber, which turned out to be a great choice. The drive to Monaco is beautiful, crossing through the maritime Alps and then, at the end of the trip, following switchbacks perched over the Mediterranean as you descend from the Alps. There are also a lot of tunnels, as Monaco and France needed to fit modern infrastructure in pretty steep, rocky terrain. We were let out of the Uber right by the marina.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the marina because of a line of white tents blocking the view of the marina from the road. The reason, as we found out, was that the Monaco Yacht Show was happening. This is not an ordinary boat show. This is an exhibition of superyachts, and they certainly didn’t want people who couldn’t afford those boats to look at them because admission to the event was 725 Euros per day.

I had planned to go to Monaco Brewery and have a beer while enjoying the view of the marina, but unfortunately, the view was now just the backside of a set of white tents. We went to the brewery anyway and asked to be seated. The hostess asked us if we would be eating, and we said no, so she told us there was no seating. We then told her we would eat, and they found us a table.

People queuing to enter the Yacht Show

We ordered a couple of beers, I believe a brown and a wheat beer. Jenn ordered a salad, and I had the fish and chips. I’m a bit of a beer snob, so take this with a grain of salt, but I felt like the beer was below average, at best, and certainly not worth the 12 euro price. The fish and chips were very good; however, although definitely on the pricey side at 28 euros.

Monaco Brewery

I knew that prices in Monaco were going to be inflated, so that was no surprise, but not getting a view of the Port Hercule, when that is our main draw to the brewery, was a huge letdown.

After lunch, we walked from the marina up to the top of the hill where Monaco’s old town sits. There is quite a climb from the base of the hill to the old town, which makes for some incredible views.

Port Hercule

We walked along the road heading up the west side of the hill, which overlooked the marina. Finally, we were able to see the boats from above the tents. The marina is quite impressive, as are the yachts that are docked in it.

Condominiums surrounding the marina

This was also where we started to get a sense of the city itself, with its midrise condo buildings looking out over the marina and Mediterranean. Past the rows of condominiums are the beginnings of the maritime Alps, with their white stone cliffs and trees.

Port Hercule

As we climbed up the road, the views became even more impressive as we could see more of the city as well as longer views of the deep blue Mediterranean.

Ships out in the Mediterranean who weren’t able to dock in Port Hercule

We finally arrived at the top of the hill, where there are some amazing viewpoints looking out over the Mediterranean. There is also a giant frame, where people were lining up for their Instagram-worthy portraits, looking over the marina.

Once we began to walk into the old town itself, I began to feel more comfortable. The old town, with its older buildings and its narrow streets, is very similar to most older European cities.

Old Town in Monaco

Walking through the old town to the Prince’s Palace, we passed several shops, and I noticed that the posted prices were much more typical of a European city rather than the inflated prices at Port Hercule. We probably should have stopped for a drink and food in the old town rather than at the brewery.

Prince’s Palace and the plaza

The Prince’s Palace was a beautiful white building sitting behind a large plaza. It was surprisingly quiet, with just a couple of guards outside and a handful of tourists snapping pictures. It’s also remarkably plain with just a couple of statues outside. I expected something a bit more gaudy, but was pleasantly surprised by the elegant simplicity of the area.

Grimaldi Statue in front of the Prince’s Palace

We hung around the area for a while and then proceeded to head back down the hill and go to the train station to return to Nice.

Ministry of the State Building

Going to Monaco was definitely an experience. I wish that we had been there when the yacht show wasn’t in town, because I would have really enjoyed a walk around the marina. There is also a ‘you don’t belong here’ vibe that I sensed almost everywhere I went. From blocking the view at the yacht show to not allowing you to drink at the brewery if you weren’t eating, it was clear that we weren’t the preferred visitors.

That being said, the views were spectacular, and I imagine that if we had spent a little more time in the old town, our experience would have been more positive. So if you’re like us and would like to check Monaco off your bucket list, I would recommend less time around the marina and more in the old town. I think you’ll find yourself a little more comfortable.

Thanks to our Travel Companions

Posted on by David Cox

As long as I can remember, I was fascinated by geography. When I was a child, we had a driftwood-framed color map of Puerto Rico that my parents brought home from a trip before I was born. I stared at that map for hours, imagining what it would be like to live on a Caribbean island.

When I was in Junior High, my Mom bought a beautiful, large-format world atlas. I spent so much time flipping through those pages, imagining what life is like in different areas of the world. I was fascinated by what was outside of my narrow world.

My family didn’t travel much, and when we did, it was to areas within the Midwest that were pretty much the same as where I grew up. Travel wasn’t a priority for us, but it was always something I wished I could do.

Marrying an Adventurous Soul

I always tell people I married a hippy, but that’s not really accurate. I married a woman with an adventurous soul. For most of our marriage, I felt like the cautious person who was always saying no to every crazy idea that she had, but over time, she wore me down, and I started to see life more in the way she saw it.

For example, in 2022, on a camping trip in Colorado Springs, we were talking to a couple at a microbrewery, and they suggested that we hike the Incline, a trail on an abandoned funicular line that climbs 2,000 feet in one mile. Jenn said, “That sounds awesome, let’s do it!” I looked at her like she was crazy, but I agreed to go. It turned out to be an insanely challenging hike, but it had amazing views and was unbelievably rewarding.

At the top step of the Incline in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

Getting off the Couch

Doing the incline was a great experience, but we wouldn’t have attempted it if we weren’t in pretty good shape. I personally wouldn’t have been capable of doing it without Jenn’s persistence.

When our children were young, we found it difficult to get much activity because our lives revolved around working, cooking, watching the kids, and shuffling them to activities. But as they grew older, she insisted that we exercise more. She dragged me, kicking and screaming, into fitness, and since that time, I’ve run eight half marathons, two marathons, and an ultra marathon, usually one event each year.

Starting line at the UTMB Cote d’Azur 55K in 2025.

Camping Against My Will

Jenn grew up camping. I absolutely did not. My family’s idea of “roughing it” was staying at a hotel that didn’t have a pool. Jenn did not accept my unwillingness to camp, and I’m glad she didn’t. When the kids were very young, we started off tent camping, then moved to a pop-up camper, and later to a full-sized travel trailer.

The family at St Mary’s Lake near Idaho Springs, Colorado.

I enjoy camping now, but my favorite part of camping is the hiking that accompanies it. When we took the kids to Colorado in 2022, we camped for two weeks, and in that time, we were able to do some amazing hikes. My favorite was a hike to the lake next to St Mary’s Glacier at 10,000 feet.

Exploring Other Countries

I had always dreamed of visiting other countries, but other than one trip to Cancun, I had never left the United States. The main problem was always the expense of flying. I never thought we could afford to take a family of four overseas with the cost of flights. However, in 2022, I started to look into travel hacking and specifically how to use points and miles to lower the cost of our flights and hotel stays.

Travel hacking lowered the cost of our travel and allowed us to be much more adventurous than in the past. Since then, we’ve had five trips to Europe, one to Mexico (two for Jenn), a trip to Canada, and a trip to Costa Rica. It has allowed us to share these amazing locations with our kids at ages where they can truly appreciate them.

Opening the World for our Children

Our daughter, Emma, graduated from High School in 2023, and to celebrate, we went to Europe for the first time. We had a whirlwind trip, visiting Zurich, Munich, Venice, Rome, and Stockholm over the course of two weeks. During that time, we were able to share as much food, culture, and sightseeing as we could with our kids.

Swiss flags line a street in Zurich

On the last day of our trip, Alex, who had been extremely quiet the entire trip, said that he didn’t want to go home. We honestly couldn’t tell if he was having a good time before that. He was just quietly soaking it all in. At that moment, I realized that we could take our kids anywhere and they would be happy to join us.

The Bridge of Sighs in Venice

In 2024, we took a spring break trip to Costa Rica, where we spent some time at the beach, did some hiking, and soaked up some authentic Costa Rican culture. The thing that we all remember more than anything on that trip was visiting the Blue Falls of Costa Rica. It is a hiking location with seven amazing turquoise blue waterfalls that cascade from the side of a volcano. It was a memorable hike.

The family enjoying the pool in front of a waterfall in Costa Rica

That summer, we took our camper to Hamilton, Ontario, and visited Toronto and Niagara Falls. It was crazy to me that I had never visited Canada, but it was well worth the trip across our northern border.

Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls

For Spring Break in 2025, we did something a little more adventurous and spent six days on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, where we hiked over 100 kilometers from Portugal to Spain. It was a difficult physical challenge, but it also allowed us to spend a lot of time in the Spanish countryside.

Alex hiking through a village on the Camino

Exploring the world with our children before they were too old to tag along with Mom and Dad was something we really set out to do. I’m really grateful that in the last few years we have been able to travel in a way that I hope shaped their views on the world. What I didn’t expect was that our children wouldn’t be our only travel companions.

Our Other Travel Companions

In the fall of 2024, we went to Italy with our good friends Bill and Theresa, and Jenn’s parents, Mark and Margie. I was a little apprehensive because there is a risk that spending that much time together could result in arguments and annoyances that can ruin a relationship. Travel can be stressful and can expose problems you were unaware of.

A church at the marina in Vernazza, Italy.

It turned out that we had a great time with very little stress. We visited Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, and Rome on our trip. It was a great trip, and since we had visited Venice and Rome before, we were able to show some of our favorite stops from our first visit to Italy.

Port of Nice

We enjoyed traveling with Bill and Theresa so much that when we went to Nice, France, for the UTMB Côte d’Azur ultramarathons in September of this year, they came along and participated in the races as well. We had a great time visiting Monaco and Nice. On the way back, we stopped in Dublin, where we visited a few old pubs and toured the Jameson Distillery.

Temple Bar District in Dublin

Jenn also did a girls’ trip to Playa del Carmen to celebrate her sister’s 50th birthday, as well as a trip to Munich and Dublin to celebrate our niece Zoey’s high school graduation.

While the girls were in Munich and Dublin, Alex and I took a trip to Berlin, Dresden, and Saxon Switzerland National Park in Germany. We spent time visiting the historic sites and hiking a couple of days on the Malerweg trail.

View of the Elbe Valley from high up on the Malerweg trail

I also had the opportunity to reconnect with my old high school friends on a trip to Montana, where our friend Mat was getting married. While we were there, we did some hiking in Glacier National Park and drove the famous Going to the Sun road.

Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park

That has been a lot of travel in a short amount of time, and at times it has been stressful. But I think back to how we were just a little over a decade ago, when we were staying close to home, watching a lot of television, and not doing much physical activity. Because of Jenn’s insistence that we not rot on the couch, I’ve been able to experience the world I dreamed about visiting when I was younger.

But it hasn’t just been the fact that we’ve experienced the world; it’s the fact that those experiences have been with people who were really important to us.

Whether it has been hiking to waterfalls in Costa Rica with our kids,

Or having drinks with friends along the beach in Nice,

Or catching up with some old friends in Montana,

Or hiking with my son in Germany,

Or exploring Cinque Terre with Jenn’s Parents,

Travel is so much better when you do it with people you love.

I’m thankful to my wife, Jenn, for pushing me to do all of the things that have enriched my life over the years, and thankful to all the people who accompanied us on our journeys. I couldn’t imagine travel, or life, without you all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vacasa and Wyndham are Divorcing, Now What?

Posted on by David Cox

Recently, the news broke that starting November 30th, 2025, Wyndham points will no longer be redeemable for Vacasa vacation rentals. Earlier this year, Casago, a vacation rental management company purchased Vacasa. Casago apparently didn’t like the arrangement with Wyndham and now has ended it.

What was the Vacasa/Wyndham Partnership?

Vacasa had a deal with Wyndham, which allowed people to rent vacation rentals that were posted on the Vacasa website with Wyndham points. Originally, they charged 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night up to $500 per night, but eventually shrank that to $250 per bedroom per night. What that essentially meant was that for a one-bedroom vacation rental, if its cash rate was less than $250 per night, you could rent that for 15,000 Wyndham points per night. If it was a two-bedroom vacation rental with a cash rate under $500 per night, you could rent that for 30,000 Wyndham points per night.

View from Vacasa Jenn stayed at in Playa del Carmen

This was a tremendous deal, but it was made even better with the fact that Wyndham has one of the best/quirkiest business credit cards available. The Wyndham Business Earner card earns 5 points per dollar on utilities and 8 points per dollar at gas stations. At 8 points per dollar at gas stations, it’s not hard to imagine that someone who drives a lot could earn a ton of Wyndham points quickly. Holding that card also meant you got a 10% discount on points redemptions, making those Vacasa rentals 13,500 Wyndham points instead of 15,000 points.

For us, it was a way to quickly accumulate a lot of points that we could use for a vacation rental. We had actually booked with Vacasa using Wyndham points twice, once for a beachfront condo in Playa del Carmen and once for a condo in Nashville. Both were tremendous deals. In general, we prefer vacation rentals over hotels when they are available, and now the best method for booking them with points is no longer available.

What are the Alternatives?

Some partnerships could potentially be interesting. Hyatt has a Homes & Hideaways vacation rental program, and Choice has a partnership with Bluegreen Vacations, but both of those seem really limited in terms of properties. Marriott Homes and Villas has quite a few properties, but given the number of points needed to book a stay there, I wouldn’t even consider using points for it. I would consider paying for a Marriott Homes and Villas to earn Marriott points though.

If you can find vacation rentals through one of the bank travel portals, such as Amex Travel, Chase Travel, or Capital One Travel, you could potentially book on points that way. To be honest, though, nothing is really going to replace the Wyndham/Vacasa partnership. It was just a great way to get value for Wyndham points and rent a vacation rental for no out-of-pocket cost.

What am I to do with all these Wyndham Points?

One of the things that is painful about this is that we’ve been earning 2,000 to 3,000 Wyndham points monthly on the Wyndham Business Earner card, thinking that we would at some point book a Vacasa when we were vacationing in Mexico or the US (Vacasa doesn’t operate in Europe, where our recent vacations have been). Now we have close to 100,000 Wyndham points that would have gone a long way with Vacasa. Now what? Am I stuck with a bunch of points that are only good at places like Travelodge, Super 8, and La Quinta?

Ok, let’s be honest, Wyndham hotels aren’t typically high-end hotels. It’s known for its no-frills brands. That being said, Wyndham has been trying to expand its portfolio of hotels to include all-inclusive resorts in their Alltra brand as well as a boutique brand called the Registry Collection.

This appears to be working, as I was able to find several hotels in areas where luxury and all-inclusive hotels are typically located. There are nine all-inclusive resorts in the Riviera Maya area in Mexico alone, most of which were bookable for only 30,000 Wyndham points.

Additionally, they offer Club Wyndham, a timeshare organization that allows individuals to book select properties. Although most of those apartments will be occupied by timeshare owners, some are available for rent with cash or points.

Personally, I have a feeling we will be leaning toward an occasional all-inclusive stay. For 30,000 Wyndham points per night for many of those resorts, a couple of nights testing my liver at the pool sounds like a good use of all of those hard-earned Wyndham points.

Conclusion

The ending of the relationship between Wyndham and Vacasa is quite a bummer. There isn’t a good alternative way to book a vacation rental property at a good value using points. Since that was my primary reason for accumulating Wyndham points, I really thought long and hard about whether I would just use up what points we have left and abandon the program.

The problem with that thought is that the Wyndham Business Earner card earns 8x on gas and 5x on Utilities, which is so good that I would almost have to have no other use for the points to stop using that credit card. The earnings are too good, I just need to find a decent use for those points.

For the time being, I think we will try using them on all-inclusive resorts, and if we don’t like the quality, then we will have to use them on random hotel stays. For now, I think that’s okay, but I’m just not happy about this.

Forget Destin – We’re Going to the Canary Islands for Spring Break

Posted on by David Cox

When our kids were younger, we used to do the typical Midwestern “I’m tired of the snow” Spring Break trips. This usually meant a 15-hour drive each way so that we could rent an Airbnb somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico between Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Destin, Florida. Every year, it seemed like these vacation rentals would get more expensive, the beaches more crowded, and the trips overall became less and less enjoyable.

After four years of doing that, I was bored with the same old Spring Break trips. When we got into points and miles, I started looking for more exotic ways of spending Spring Break. A couple of years ago, we took a trip to Costa Rica, where we rented a house near Grecia, a fairly small community in the Central Valley more known for agriculture than tourism. We spent the week hiking to waterfalls and on volcanoes and eating local cuisine.

One of the seven falls at the Blue Falls of Costa Rica

This year, for Spring Break, we went to Spain and Portugal to hike the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. It was an amazing trip, but it was physically challenging. It resulted in Achilles’ tendon inflammation, hip bruises, and blisters. Because of that, I had to promise to plan a much more relaxed Spring Break trip; otherwise, my family might murder me.

Walking through the city walls in Valenca, Portugal.

After a couple of pretty active Spring Break vacations, we decided it was time to find a beach again, but this time, not in the United States.

Why Visit The Canary Islands?

The Canary Islands are a set of volcanic islands off the coast of Africa, near Morocco. It has been a part of Spain since the late 1400’s, when they conquered the island from the native Guanche population. While tourism is popular throughout the islands, Tenerife is the most popular island, with over 5 million annual visitors.

Jenn and I have talked about visiting the Canary Islands for a while. It’s intrigued me, since it’s a very popular destination for European travelers, but mostly unknown to American travelers. There are no direct flights between the US and the Canary Islands, even though there are seemingly endless flights between Europe and the US. It’s basically a secret to Americans.

This, however, makes it a perfect alternative to typical Spring Break destinations. It has all of the trappings of a tourist hotspot, but because Europe doesn’t have Spring Break, it’s not going to be busy. Even though it’s bit further from the US, and there are no direct flights, I thought it would make for a better trip.

Screenshot from Google Maps shows plenty of resorts and condo complexes in Playa de las Americas, Spain. From the aerial photo, this looks like any major beach town in Florida.

The weather during March is fairly similar to Florida, with high temperatures in the low to mid-70s. The climate in South Tenerife, where we are flying to, is considerably drier than Florida as well, which should mean the chances of being rained out are much smaller.

In addition to Tenerife’s beach life, it’s an Island with an active volcano, Mount Teide, which is over 12,000 feet high. Because of that volcano, Tenerife has a dramatic landscape and amazing hiking trails.

Booking the Trip

I started by searching on PointsYeah for flights from our home airport, Moline, to Tenerife, but most of the available flights were a ton of points or less than ideal. For example, the quickest itinerary included a stop in London with an airport change. I’m not thrilled about the idea of switching airports in the middle of a flight itinerary; there are just too many things that could go wrong. After searching for a while, I became convinced it would be better to book a flight to Europe and then move on to Tenerife.

Because Tenerife had a lot of flights that arrive from all over Europe, I went looking for any flight to Europe that was inexpensive on points. I was able to find a flight on American Airlines that landed in London Heathrow for 19,000 American Airlines miles and $5.60. The total time on the flight is less than 11 hours. I was pretty happy with that.

From London Gatwick, we can fly to Tenerife South airport on a direct flight for 13,750 British Airways Avios and $1. The flight into London lands on Tuesday morning, so we decided to book the flight out for Thursday morning, to give us a couple of days in London. That is great because we are able to get to Tenerife for 32,750 points and under $7 each, and we also get a short visit to London.

For our flight back, the only thing that was comparably reasonable was a flight on American Airlines from Madrid through Chicago and back to Moline for 34,000 AAdvantage miles and around $50. We also need to get from Tenerife to Madrid, but there are direct cash flights available on Iberia Airlines for only around $50, so it’s better to pay cash than use points. We plan to fly to Madrid the morning before our flight to Moline so we can spend one afternoon and evening there.

We were able to use a couple of Hyatt category 1-4 hotel certificates to book two rooms for our first night in London (one for Jenn and me and one for the kids, since, as usual, there aren’t many hotels in Europe that accommodate families of four). While I don’t obsess about maximizing the value of those certificates, London is an extremely expensive city, so we booked the nearest hotel to the downtown that would accept those certificates. That was the Hyatt Place London City, and for that night, the rooms would have cost $300 each, which is about the maximum value you can get for one of those certificates.

For the second night, we booked a Courtyard by Marriott near the London Gatwick airport that did accommodate a family of four, which should allow us to get to the airport quickly for our morning flight to Tenerife. We used a Marriott free night certificate that is good up to 35,000. That room would have cost around $190, so I’m pretty happy with the use of that certificate as well.

We were also able to book a couple of rooms in Madrid, for the one night we plan to spend there before flying out. For that, we used Jenn’s $150 Delta Stays credit that comes with her Delta Gold Card.

Aside from that, we haven’t booked an Airbnb in Tenerife for the 5 nights we are there, but I expect, based on the prices I’ve seen, that we should be able to book something nice with a heated pool for around $900 that will accommodate the family. I also expect to spend around $200 for a car rental, again based on what I’ve seen in searches for car rentals in the Canary Islands.

Total Cost

When we put all of that together, I expect that we will spend 212,000 American Airlines miles, 55,000 British Airways Avios (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards), and about $1,500 to book all of our transportation and lodging. That’s really good, and we will get to experience a Spring Break-like destination without the Spring Break crowds. I’m pretty happy about that. In addition, we get to spend some time in London and Madrid as well, which is fantastic.

I looked up the total cost of the exact flight itinerary, booked through British Airways, and I was surprised to find that the itinerary with stopovers in London and Madrid was only $880 each. That’s actually a really good deal. You could completely recreate what we did without points for around $5,500. Anyone who has priced flights, car rentals, and an Airbnb in Florida might want to reconsider their trip at those prices.

We were able to book that for $1,500, but if you consider that we probably needed around $600 in credit card annual fees to make this work, you could say that we would end up spending $2,100. But wow, for a little over two thousand dollars, we have the opportunity to visit London, Madrid, and the Canary Islands. That’s pretty amazing, and it’s exactly why we’re points and miles junkies.

Now it’s just a matter of deciding where we want to stay and booking the Airbnb. Then we can dream of lying on the beach and soaking in the sun. Don’t tell the kids, but I’m definitely going to drag them on some hikes.