Friday, October 26, 2012

I moved my blog...

Please go to http://DadtoGO.wordpress.com to stay up to date with my blog!  Thanks!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Earn free points with your daily routine...

While I personally believe the easiest way to Maximize your travel and minimize your cost is to apply for credit cards...  Some people may not be interested due to things such as credit issues, getting ready to apply for a big home or auto loan, or a short credit history.  Well... fear not my friends.  You can still get points for just going about your daily routines.

Topguest is a site that gives you points with certain rewards programs just for checking in through social media outlets Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram.  Just go to Topguest, create an account, enter in your information for each of the rewards programs that you want to get points with and finally link it to your social media accounts.  Then all you have to do is check in at one of the affiliated reward programs properties to start earning points.  What makes it even easier is that you don't have to be staying at the property or even inside it to check in and earn the points.  You just have to be in the vicinity.

Here is a list of current programs where you earn points/Rewards with check ins.

Airlines:
  • Virgin America
Hotels:
  • Hilton HHonors
    • Double Tree hotels
  • Priority Club
    • Intercontinental
    • Crowne Plaza
    • Holiday Inn
  • Voila Hotels
  • MGM Resorts
  • Club Hotels




While you get points for checking in at any of these properties the most valuable are Hilton HHonors and Priority Club.  Topguest in association with the hotel rewards program will give you 50 points for every check in that you complete through one of the social media outlets listed above.  While 50 points does not seem like a lot it can add up fairly quickly.  

Example:  Let's say you drive by a Holiday Inn every day for work.  If you check in each day as you drive by you would be getting 250 points per week...  You do this every week for let's say 48 weeks (assuming you have 4 weeks of vacation) and you'll have 12,000 points within the year... all for doing your normal routine.  You do it going to AND from work and you're up to 24,000 points. (Almost 5 FREE nights using a Priority Club points break hotel)

Priority Club hotels start at 10,000 points per night meaning at a minimum you could get at least 1 night in a hotel for free.  Priority Club also has what they call "Point Breakers" which are hotels that have reward nights for only 5K points.  They release these on a quarterly basis.  That means you are up to 2 nights in a hotel just for checking in every day that you drive by on your way to work.

While doing this you won't necessarily earn enough points to stay at the Waldorf Astoria or Intercontinental it would definitely be a good start.  Plus... maybe your goal is to just get a couple nights at a hotel near an airport or for a quick trip to visit friends.  At the end of the day what you get out of it is what YOU want.  Using this outlet you could get those points quicker than you think and start maximizing your travel and minimizing your cost.