I’m currently planning a trip for my parents to Turkey. They both had 60,000 IHG points, and I wanted them to have a “splurge” trip rather than staying at a cheaper hotel. I was trying to book them two nights at the Intercontinental Istanbul, which costs 50,000 points per night. This is where I met an incredibly frustrating problem – IHG minimum nights for award bookings.
The Chase Marriott Visa, which carries an excellent 50,000 Marriott point + free night certificate sign-up bonus, has sort of “disappeared” from the Chase homepage. Here’s what I mean:
I was booking a flight between Hobart HBA and Melbourne MEL on Jetstar, a popular Australian and Asian discount carrier. As I was going through the booking process on jetstar.com, they were trying to charge me $8.50AUD per passenger for the pleasure of using my credit card. Credit card fees are uncommon in North America, however in Australia, they’re the norm, with most retailers charging a percentage fee for using your credit card. Although there’s no fee for using a debit card to pay, my Canadian debit card wasn’t eligible for their payment service. If I booked on an online travel agent, the cost was substantially more.
Today’s Sunday Reader Question is actually a question I asked myself (yeah, I cheated on the SRQ, get over it). I will be going to Oceania in May, and decided I wanted to go to New Caledonia. Qantas, a OneWorld partner, flies to New Caledonia, and therefore should be bookable on BA Avios. Unfortunately, NOU (Noumea Airport) doesn’t show up on the BA Avios search tool, nor do a number of other airports served by Qantas within Oceania and Australia. So I asked myself: how do I book BA Avios tickets on Qantas in Australia/Oceania?
A reader pointed out that it was irresponsible for me to post this because if you’re in an accident, improperly using a coupon could invalidate your insurance coverage. Follow an article by Million Mile Secrets for a more legitimate way of getting your fee waived.
A reader sent me this highly detailed and interesting trip report! It’s quite a bit different from the kind of travel I do, and certainly in a different writing style. I thought it’d be fun to post it here. The reader went to the Club Med Turks and Caicos Resort.
