Month: March 2012

$699 ai roundtrip to Europe from NYC

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British Airways is running a sale right now until Monday, March 26 from NYC to London (other UK destinations available) for $699 to $988 all-in.

– $699 ai: Oct 26 – Dec 16

– $735: April 2 – May 21; Aug 24 – Oct 25

– $988 May 22 – Aug 23

Don’t forget, this sale ends March 26.

Winner of the Posters & New contest, $100 Hyatt Gift card!

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Winner of the Posters that I received by attending the Travel & Adventure show in Washington D.C. is Maria C.

The winner has been contacted and posters mailed out.

Now that the poster contest is over, I am also giving out a $100 Hyatt Gift card for free.

All you have to do is follow my blog until Sunday, March 25th @ 11:59pm EST and I will randomly choose a winner from the list.  Previous, followers already qualify.  Good luck!

Amazon Local $10 giftcard for $5

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Today, Amazon local is having an amazing deal where you pay $5 and get a $10 giftcard that you can use either at Amazon.com or Amazon Local (a deal site like Groupon).  To purchase go http://local.amazon.com/

Now the trick is, use a gmail account and create multiple accounts and for each account use different credit card numbers to purchase more than 1 giftcard.  To use the same gmail account but register it at Amazon as different new accounts, just add a “.” (period) in between letters.  For example, if your gmail address is xyz@gmail.com, by doing “x.yz@gmail.com”, then another new account “xy.z@gamil.com”, you will be able to open multtiple accounts under 1 email address.  The terms are that you are allowed to purchase only 1 giftcard but by going through this method, you “should” be able to obtain more than 1.  I just purchased 10 using 10 different accounts and credit cards.

Good luck!

Road trip to Atlantic City, Virginia, & DC

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Sorry I didn’t post for few days, as the title of this post suggests I was on a 4 day road trip to AC-VA-DC.

It was a fun trip to do but oh my god, was it tiring driving so much!  I started out by leaving NYC around 10am heading for Atlantic City.  Since I play a bit at Caesar’s properties, I was able to book a free night at Harrah’s.  Once I got there, I politely asked if there was a complimentary room upgrade and got it.

Room was pretty big and the shower was very spacious and it had a sitting area inside the shower.

After some gambling and winning, went to sleep for our next day drive to VA.

The drive was uneventful, nothing much to talk about.  It was just a long drive (at least for me it is) from AC.  It’s close to 4 hour drive.

I headed straight to George Washington’s estate.  I was expecting our founding father to own a fabulous huge house but I was a little bit let down.  But I guess considering that it was so long ago and on an average people barely had a home size 150 sq ft, it is considered grand.

I never knew that George Washington declined to run for Presidency for a 3rd term stating that he would become a King in this new country.  His decision paved the way we run our Presidency now by limiting the terms to maximum 8 years.  Interesting.  I was also very surprised that he thought farming was the most important thing to know.  In his house, he has decorated some of the walls and ceiling with farming tool accents.

Tomb of Washington

After learning about George Washington, I headed to my hotel, Sheraton Herndon Dulles to get some rest before driving to DC next day.  The rate I got was $54/night for a standard room.  I was upgraded to their Club Lounge floor since I have elite status with them.  The room decent size, clean,  and hotel staff was professional.  They also had a small pool which I didn’t take part in.   Obviously, what I really  like about this hotel is the price.  For $54, I got free FULL breakfast for two and evening snacks with drinks.  The breakfast consisted of sausages, scrambled eggs, toasts, cereal, orange/grape juice, yogurt, fruits, and something else.  I can’t remember right now. One thing I did find very unusual was that their Club Lounge was RIGHT outside of the elevator! (see picture below)

Well, I woke up next day dead tired and went to the Travel & Adventure Show where I heard Samantha Brown speak.  I don’t have many pictures of that day.  Well, that’s about it.  All in all, great tiring trip! In two weeks, I will be in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival! More long driving!! YAY!! *sarcasm* =)

How did I do with AMEX promo?

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Yesterday, I blogged about the AMEX promo where if you spend certain amount of dollars at certain stores, you get x amount of statement credit back on your credit card. Since I have 4 AMEX credit cards, I used all of them. So how did I do? Let’s see…..

I bought

  1. (4) four $5 giftcards from McDonalds.
  2. (1) $50 Amazon giftcard from Bestbuy (extra $10 I used my Best Buy reward zone free $10 certificate).
  3. (4) four $75 giftcards (plus $5 reload on their website) from Whole Foods.

Total… I paid $160 out of pocket for total of $390 worth of giftcards!

AMEX promo, free giftcards @ McDonald, Bestbuy, discounted Whole Foods!

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I absolutely love it when American Express runs these promos.  Last year, I was able to buy so many things from food, wines, groceries, etc for FREE!  The thing that makes it even better is the fact I churn credit cards so much that I end up with several AMEX cards to take advantage of these promos!

So what’s the current promo?

Log into your twitter account (if you don’t have one, just make a new one).  Tweet #AmexBestBuy10 for $10 statement credit when you spend $10 or more at Bestbuy.  #AmexWholefoods to receive $20 back when you spend $75 or more at Whole Foods.  #AmexAustin10 to receive $10 when you spend $50 or more at Whole Foods (must purchase from Austin, TX.  See below how to take advantage of this).  #AmexMcDonalds to receive $5 when you spend $5 or more at McDonald’s.

Also, if you like AMEX’s Link, Like and Love and add Whole Foods, you get $10 with any first purchase at Whole Foods.

All of these are sync’d with only 1 AMEX credit card PER facebook/twitter account and it’s only for the 1st purchase.

So now I will explain how to get the free McDonald’s and Bestbuy giftcard.  It’s pretty obvious right? Just go to their store and spend the minimum requirement.  $5 for McD and $10 for Bestbuy.  Just get giftcards if you want.  I’m going to buy $5 giftcard at McD and $10 itunes giftcard at Bestbuy.  I might even see if I can get a $40 amazon giftcard at Bestbuy and have the cashier split the bill to 4 different AMEX cards that I sync’d with 4 different facebook/twitter accounts.

Next up, Whole Foods.  Go to a Whole Foods store, buy a $75 giftcard.  That will trigger your statement credit of $30.  Come home, go to Whole Food’s website and change the local store to AUSTIN, TX.  Go to the giftcard section on their website and “RELOAD” your giftcard and add $5 to it.  This will trigger your last $10 statement credit.  That’s it!  Now you spent only $40 for a $80 Whole Foods giftcard!

I’m doing this with 4 of my AMEX credit cards.  At the end I should have $20 worth of McD giftcards and $40 worth of any giftcards at Bestbuy all for FREE!  And for Whole Foods, I will have spent $160 for $320 worth of giftcards!

Please comment or email me if you need help or just love this promo! 🙂

Thanks!

$25 for $50 Jetblue voucher

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$25 for a $50 jetblue voucher at Livingsocial.  You pay $25 and you get a voucher at Jetblue worth $50, a round-trip departing from Autin, TX (is required) to any of the following:

  • Long Beach (LBG)
  • Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
  • Orlando (MCO)
  • San Francisco (SFO)
  • Boston (BOS)
  • New York (JFK)

To use the voucher, the flight must be booked by May 16 for travel between April 10-May 23.