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The Traveling Millenial

American Airlines, Deal Alert, The Traveling Millenial March 17, 2016

Cheap Round-trip Fares to Milan, Italy – $467 on American Airlines!!!!

[Deals like this tend to expire quickly so this article may be out of date after March 19, 2016] Kudos to theflightdeal.com for finding this deal! American Airlines is offering an excellent deal where you can fly for under $500 from the US to Milan, Italy.  American Airlines offers one of my favorite elite programs with perks that include complimentary first class upgrades and reasonable award flight redemption rates.  You can credit the flights below to American Airlines’s or Alaska Air’s frequent flier program.  In addition, you’ll want to use a credit card–such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Prestige, or Citi Advantage Platinum–that offers additional…

The Traveling Millenial, Trip Review March 15, 2016

Downtown Baltimore, Maryland

Given that Baltimore is only an $8, one hour train ride from DC, it’s a great weekend destination.  I originally booked it to take advantage of two tickets for a free tour of the Heavy Seas brewery that my father won at an auction, but I realized after booking the trip that Heavy Seas has an alehouse, not a brewery, in downtown Baltimore.  Alehouses typically serve beer while the breweries typically brew beer.  I brew my own beer so I like to tour breweries and try their experimental beer. Although the media may not portray Baltimore in the best light, the…

Miles & Points, The Traveling Millenial, Verizon March 8, 2016

Verizon Points: How Much are My 150,000 Points Worth? (Part 1)

Update:  click here to read Part 2 after reading this article. I recently checked my Verizon points account and was astonished to learn that I had over 150,000 points!  If these points were American Airlines miles, I could fly round-trip to anywhere in the world that OneWorld alliance partners fly to.  I could also fly round-trip to Europe in business class or I could fly on the Ethiad A380-800 in First Class (complete with showers!).  These are all excellent uses for American miles. Unfortunately, Verizon points are not American miles and they cannot be transferred to American.  In fact, Verizon has no transfer…

Miles & Points, Starbucks, The Traveling Millenial March 8, 2016

Starbucks is Making it Rain (Before the Storm)

I recently posted about how you can acquire a Starbucks Gold card for about $50.  I followed my own advice and reached Gold status last month (the card is delivered 4-6 weeks after) which comes with pretty cool perks.  After every 12 purchases you get a free drink of any size and not to mention the occasional 25% off and other assorted coupons that arrive regularly in your inbox.  Since I typically buy a small coffee (~$2) and redeem my award for a very large frappuccino (~$6), the Starbucks Gold card was pretty valuable to me.  Almost predictably, Starbucks announced within…

Hotels, The Traveling Millenial March 3, 2016

Hyatt Andaz: Wall Street, NY

While visiting New York for New Year’s Eve, I stayed at the Wall Street Hyatt Andaz.  On this trip I also visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and downtown New York.  I chose to stay at this particular hotel during my second night in New York because of its proximity to the Statue of Liberty and the fact that I was able to take advantage of Hyatt’s Best Price Guarantee.  I’ve previously wrote about how you can get up to 25% off a published room rate by taking advantage of a hotel’s Best Price Guarantee.  I successfully invoked that…

Cool Planes, The Traveling Millenial February 29, 2016

Awesome Airplane Landing at SDU in Brazil (With Video)

SDU as seen from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro While in Rio de Janeiro, I rode to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain in a pretty cool cable car.  After two such rides, I arrived at one of the best views of Rio de Janeiro.  From the top of Sugarloaf Mountain you can see Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, the large mountaintop Jesus Christ statue, and Rio’s local airport (SDU).  The local airport mainly flies regional jets to Sao Paulo, a large city located to the west of Rio.  Since Rio is surrounded by mountains, the landing route for…

National Park, The Traveling Millenial February 13, 2016

Winning the Lottery: One National Park at a Time (Half Dome and Mount Whitney)

Half Dome Cables, Yosemite With 2016 upon us, you may have started making a list of the national parks that you want to visit in this upcoming year.  You may not know this yet, but the coolest trails and cabins need to be reserved months in advance.  In addition, you have to win a lottery to visit our nations most prized treasures.  Hopefully I can shed some light on this process. The most useful information about each individual permit—such as lottery win % by date—are located on the National Park Service website.  Links to those pages are included below.  While there…

National Park, The Traveling Millenial February 9, 2016

Visiting the Statue of Liberty: Part 2 (Ellis Island)

View from the second story balcony of the main hall at Ellis Island. Over New Year’s weekend I traveled to New York and had an excellent weekend.  I watched the Times Square fireworks and toured both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  You pay a fairly small fee, about $21, to take a ferry to both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  In a previous post, I discussed arriving at and touring the Statue of Liberty. One of the first things you notice when you arrive at Ellis Island is the view.  You can see the entire New York skyline that…

Review, The Traveling Millenial February 8, 2016

Visiting the Statue of Liberty: Part 1

  Statue of Liberty from a starboard seat on the ferry. Now that I’ve celebrated the Fourth of July in Washington DC and New Year’s Eve in New York, I can call myself a true American.  Accordingly, I felt it was time to visit the Statue of Liberty. Booking the tickets I was pleasantly surprised at the price of the ticket: ~$19.  Unlike my ~$30 ticket to tour the Palace of Westminster in London, my Statue of Liberty ticket included a boat ride.  Plus, the boat ride to Ellis Island comes with the ticket. You’ll want to book your tickets…

American Airlines, Deal Alert, The Traveling Millenial February 5, 2016

Cheap Airfare: $476 Flights to Brazil on American Airlines!!!

[Deals like this tend to expire quickly so this article may be out of date after February 6, 2016] Kudos to theflightdeal.com for finding this deal! American Airlines is offering an excellent deal where you can fly for under $500 from the US to Brazil.  American Airlines offers one of my favorite elite programs with perks that include complimentary first class upgrades and reasonable award flight redemption rates.  You can credit the flights below to American Airlines’s frequent flier program.  In addition, you’ll want to use a credit card–such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Citi Prestige, or the Citi Advantage Preferred–that offers additional…