CREDIT CARD SPREADSHEET EXAMPLE

Perk Description & Who's Card	Credit Card Bank	Credit Card Number	Date Applied	Bonus Perks	Min Spend/ timeframe	Yearly Fee	CC Website	Perk Website	Paperless?
ex. Sue's Hilton	ex. Citibank	ex. Xxxx xx 1234	ex. 06/01/15	ex. 50000 miles	ex. $1000/ 3 mnths	ex. Waived first year	ex. http://citbank.com Login: ponderingperks Password: SaveBig	ex. http://www.hhonors.com Login: ponderingperks Password: SaveBig	ex. No

Girlfriend Getaway turned into a Couples Trip!

In July 2014,  Sue and I were discussing putting together a girls trip to Mexico for January 2015. We had such a bad winter the previous year, we wanted to have something on the books to look forward to! We knew we wanted to use our Southwest Miles to fly non stop and hoped it would be 20K miles to Cancun.  We marked our calendar for the date when Southwest would release their flights for January, which is 6 months before your departure date, and started to make plans!  When August rolled around Sue and I grabbed our flights- 20K each/non stop/round trip to Cancun!  From experience, we knew that you need to grab the flights when you see them for low points, because the amount of points needed for a flight changes by the hour.

As it goes with group planning- the other girls hemmed and hawed- excuses ranged from:

* Can't get off work-it is 6 months away- I can't possibly request off! 
* Can't travel in three's-if a 4th girl goes, then I am in.
* Can't leave my dogs, I mean my kids- that is what I meant to say!
* I can't go on vacation without my husband/partner- are you crazy! 
* I love cold weather, you are nuts to leave! 
* Mexico? I heard it wasn't safe.
* I don't have any miles, how can I get miles?

About 2 months prior to us leaving, with no other girls committing, Sue suggested we invite our husbands.  Phone calls were made, Grandparents were booked to babysit, flights were booked with Southwest miles (had now gone up to 25K miles for the guys-still a perk!) and we booked another room. 
   
Please read here about Southwest miles.

Where we stayed...

Azul Sensatori- booked through Edgewood Travel.  All inclusive resorts are tough for points (very limited- maybe only Hyatt, Hilton, IHG but extremely limited)


* loved our rooms- we had the honeymoon suites (complimentary upgrade), oceanfront. Beautiful rooms, amazing outdoor space.

* Great Food- especially enjoyed breakfast delivered to our balcony every morning (nice all-inclusive perk).  For dinner the Italian restaurant was one of our favorites.  There is a restaurant that is an additional cost -Le Cirque and open to people not staying on the resort.  It was disappointing that we could not get in there the entire time we were staying there.  If anyone has eaten there- let me know! Would love to know what you thought!

Meredith on her way to the pool

This is the main pool, that has the swim up bar and daily games

        The Beach is not great-pretty to look at the water but full of seaweed.
They do a nice job of clearing the seaweed from the beach.

. 

Excursion
   We wanted to check out Tulum while in Riveria Maya- looking at the cost of the tours, we decided to rent a car instead for $90 total (instead of a tour for about $90 pp).  We were on our own time and for a fraction of the cost.  Driving in that area is very easy- one main highway that is very well marked.  The check points with police officers with very big guns may be a little intimidating but they don't seem to bother the tourists.


We researched a bit online and wanted to actually go to the beach town of Tulum.  We ended up at a beach bar named Ziggys where we had a great lunch of tacos followed by swimming on the beach.

Enjoying lunch!

Great time to Mexico, even if it wasn't the Girls Trip we had planned!  It was a great, quick getaway escaping the Michigan Winter. Even better that our airline tickets were booked with Southwest Points!

Southwest still has 50K mileage promotion going on- check it out!

HOW TO GET HILTON POINTS

• Listen.   Sign up for HHONORS and start earning Hilton Perks!
• Did you know?   HHONORS is one of very few perks that you can have one membership number for your whole family!  So when I travel I get HHONORS points.  When my husband travels he gets HHONORS points.  When I get a bonus credit card offer I get HHONORS points.  When my husband gets a bonus credit card offer he gets HHONORS points.   All on the same account.  Get the picture?   Points can add up quick with HHONORS.

• Next - sign up for Hilton HHONORS credit card offers from American Express or Citibank to get a lot of points fast. 
• The offers usually vary from 40,000 bonus miles to 80,000 bonus miles.  I like to check Flyer Talk or Million Mile Secrets for the most up to date offers.
• From my personal experience, if you have a good credit score, signing up for credit cards has a negligible affect on your score.  I have been doing it for several years, always paying off the credit card as soon as the bill arrives, and have never had a problem. 

• Credit Card Offer Tips and Tricks
• PLAN AHEAD.  Give yourself 4 months to get your bonus miles deposited into your HHONORS account 
• I recommend having points in your hhonors account BEFORE you start going on the Hilton website and searching for lodging because the amount of points required for a stay changes rapidly. You might see a room for 20,000 points a night and then go back and check an hour later and it's 60,000 points a night, so you need to be able to make a QUICK decision and book it. 
• Pondering Perks Quick Tip!  If you see a great offer for a room(ex. 20,000 points a night for the week of spring break) book it!   You can always book a stay using hhonors points and cancel it later if you decide you don't want it.  It will not cost you anything as long as you cancel the reservation by the cancellation date listed when you book it.  It is usually 24 hours prior to the day your stay will start. 
• Organize your offer (I like to put the following information into a spreadsheet):
• How many bonus miles do you recieve?
• What is the yearly fee and is it waived?
• If the fee is waived for the first year, I just keep the card for the year and when I get a statement charging me a yearly fee I call, cancel the card, and get the fee credited back to me.  They will normally make you a lot of different offers to keep you as a customer.  I always cancel.  There is no bigger PERK than the initial signup bonus and once you cancel the card you can do the signup bonus offer again usually within 6-12 months. 
• How much money do you need to put on the card to get bonus miles and how long do you have to meet that spend amount?
• It can range from making a single purchase to spending $2500 in the first three months. 
• For example, you get 50,000 bonus hhonors miles, if you spend $1000 in the first three months of opening card
• Make sure you write down when your 3 months is up or just make sure you have met the minimum spend by your third billing statement.
• Beware of PAPERLESS BILLING
• Sometimes they offer you additional points if you sign up for paperless and sometimes they require you to go paperless.  They do this because many people miss the email and end up paying late fees and interest.  
• Going paperless is OK as long as you are aware that you will not get a bill in the mail and that you need to watch for the bill in your email. 
• If you do get a late fee and interest, call the credit card company and they will normally credit you back the fees the first time 

• How do you sign up for FOUR (or more) Hilton credit card offers?
• When you start out, you should sign up for ONE card at a time, fulfill the offer requirements, and then put the card away. (I have a box on my desk where I keep the cards and the initial paperwork). 
• If you're super organized and able to complete the min spend on multiple cards simultaneously, do it, but stay organized!  I do it but I'm a pro! ;-)
• You can sign up yourself and your spouse/partner. 
• You can sign up for Citibank AND American Express.
• You can sign up for a business account if applicable.

                We stayed at this all-inclusive Hilton Resort
                 in Costa Rica, for a week, all on points!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

Our friends and family always seem to be amazed at how much we travel.  When not traveling for work, we are trying to maximize our travel dollars using credit card rewards and mileage promotions. Our friends ask us the same questions every time- "How do you afford to go on another trip?",  "What do you mean you didn't pay for airfare?", "What credit card should I get?" and the list goes on.   We want to answer those questions for you as well as share our experiences with our past and current trips. We are travel junkies that love to talk travel! We look forward to sharing this page with you!