Finding affordable lodging in the SF Bay Area is a challenge, whether you’re looking for a hotel to stay in while visiting, or looking for a place to live.

For visitors with a stash of Marriott or SPG points (points from either program can be transferred to the other), there’s a relatively affordable new option.

At 25k Marriott points per night, hotels on the peninsula side of the Bay don’t get much more affordable than the TownePlace Suites San Mateo Foster City. Continue reading →

In just a couple of hours of searching for flights last night using the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, I ran into three different glitches.

Here they are:

1. Want to do a search with results from all fare classes? Select the “All Classes” option in your search, and there’s a good chance you won’t in fact get all classes as results.

I was searching for a red-eye flight, and I wasn’t getting many options in the points-price range I was hoping for.

Fix: I tried searching under “Premium Economy,” and suddenly there were some Delta Comfort+ (premium economy) flights that were not there when I searched under “All Classes.” Continue reading →

Frontier Airlines just changed its elite qualification to be based on a calendar year, instead of the confusing previous 12-month rolling-calendar qualifying system.

I got this email from Frontier on Thursday: Continue reading →

Using a status match that took only 15 minutes to complete, I received United’s lowest level elite status a few months ago.

At SFO, on one of the 10.

Here are the benefits of the various levels of United elite status.

The benefit I cared about the most was getting free access to United’s Economy Plus seats, which have a few extra inches of leg room.

Even as a lowly Silver, each United flight I take I’m put on the list to be upgraded to First or Business class.

How’d I do on upgrades after 10 flights? Not well. 0/10. Continue reading →

Without a doubt my favorite travel tool, Google Flights is where I start researching any flight I want to take.

Though Google Flights has dozens of features, here are the three that any traveler can use:

1. Discover trips.

Know you want to take a trip but not sure where to go on your budget? Just put in your airport of origin and approximate dates, and Google Flights will make some suggestions for you.

Continue reading →

I bought a flight in business class one time on Aeromexico because it was cheaper than the economy seats.

But I’d never flown in first class, until Alaska Airlines gave me a free upgrade this week.

Why did Alaska upgrade you? Continue reading →

The mid-60s North Carolina couple next me were heading to San Francisco for the first time, celebrating their 25th anniversary, and their party had already started.

Vodka/Red Bull with Bud Light was their go-to for refreshment on the 5+ hour flight (die-hard Stoli loyalists, they settled for the Texas-made Tito’s vodka).

I knew I’d picked an exit row seat, but I had no idea there’d be a small dance floor in front of my row: Continue reading →