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Showing posts from February, 2013

The Importance of Planning a Credit Card Churn -Part One

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Today the Internet is filled with outrage over Hilton's tremendous devaluation of their Hilton HHonors program.  Hilton points were already widely considered by many to be among the least valuable of all the hotel points.  I have always taken the stance that on a point per point basis they were worth less, but it has been so easy to earn Hilton points that it was still a valuable program.  Today that changed .  No longer is the Hilton HHonors program going to be anything worthwhile to me.  As a Hilton Diamond, that is a sad thing to say. They have changed the number of hotel categories from 7 to 10 and they have increased the redemption at the highest category hotels from 50,000 points to as many as 95,000 points.  This essentially cuts in half the value of your points. There is a grace period until this takes effect at the end of March.  You can still book stays under the old guidelines past that date, but they need to be booked before the deadline.  If you have a stash of

St. Regis Punta Mita Review - Part Two

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We've been home less than a week from our vacation in paradise at the St. Regis Punta Mita and I am already planning the return visit for next year.  I guess that tells you everything you need to know about our stay.  Nonetheless, I will tell you why it was the best couples vacation EVER! That's a pretty significant thing for me to say as my wife and I have been to dozens of luxury resorts throughout Mexico and the Caribbean over the years. There have only been a couple of resorts that we have even discussed a return trip. We arrived at the St. Regis around 3 pm.  We were greeted by a very friendly staff.  Of course they took our bags, handed us a cool cloth and offered us a cold drink.  We were then escorted to the private reception room/bar where we met 1 on 1 with our personal guide who updated us on the details of our stay.   We were offered complimentary Margaritas as we chatted.  (I had a second one).  We were introduced to our personal St. Regis butler, Luis.  H

St. Regis Punta Mita Review - Part One

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There is nothing like a warm sunny destination in the middle of winter to take away the winter blahs.  I thought that I would begin writing my review before we headed home to the cold of Philadelphia.  I hear it has been snowy and 20 degrees there during the past week.  Too bad. Lol. Meanwhile, my wife and I have been enjoying the warm tropical breezes and sunshine from the patio and the beach in front of our little casita at the St. Regis Punta Mita . (The ocean is no more than 15-20 yards from our patio). For those of you not familiar with the St. Regis brand, it is the Luxury brand of the Starwood hotel group that also includes, Sheraton, W Hotels, Westin and at least 4-5 others.  I am writing this from our patio while looking at, and listening to the ocean.  It's whale watching season here. Yesterday about this same time, two whales jumped out of the water right in front of us!  Priceless.  Speaking of priceless, the best part of all is that our time here has been FREE!