I love traveling and go where I can when I can. I prefer to use points & miles as payment! This site will concentrate on trip reports and how I used points to accomplish it. Happy to help others 2B Traveling with points too!
My final ski trip of the season was to Copper Mountain, Colorado. It was my first visit back to the resort since 2020, just before the pandemic. As was the case five years ago, when my ski club booked group lodging we were only allowed to book gold-, silver- or bronze-level lodging. Gold units are those closest to the slope. Our club chooses to book silver-level lodging. The last time we were at this resort all our units were in the Village Square condos or in Mountain Plaza. This time around most of our units were again in these two condo complexes, but we also had one unit in Silver Lake and our unit in Passage Point.
Passage Point Condos street view
Shortly before the trip we were told which buildings our condos would be in, but not which units. When I checked the Center Village map I was at first a little disappointed we were “so far” away from everyone else. (Note that nothing is really that far away from anything in Center Village. It only feels like a long way if you’re walking in ski boots!) But it wasn’t too long before I decided we had the better end of the deal. Continue reading →
It’s time to activate bonus categories for card that have quarterly bonuses for next quarter. All of these cards offer bonus points or cash back on up to $1500 in purchases during the quarter.
US Bank Cash+
If you’re not already getting 5x Ultimate Rewards points by using a Chase Ink card (and even if you are!) you may want to switch the card you’re using for payment for TV/Internet/Streaming Services and Cell Phones. You must register your card before December 15th to get the bonus cash-back in the categories you select. As a reminder, you choose two 5% categories and one 2% category. Effective November 2023 US Bank changed the way you select your categories. Now you’ll need to log into your account and go to the Rewards Center. I found it a little clunky but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. For more info, see this post from Travel with Grant. I’m choosing Home Utilities again as 5x categories and will select to TV, Internet and Streaming as my second 5x category; since I dropped my Amex Platinum card this will be my best choice for streaming services. I’ll continue with Grocery Stores for 2x although I’ll use my Discover card for a better rate..
US Bank Categories for Q1 2024
Discover Card
Discover’s Q2 categories are Grocery Stores and Wholesale Clubs. Even if you don’t spend a lot on groceries, remember that grocery stores tend to have a lot of types of gift cards for things like clothing stores, online games/apps, restaurants and I’ve even seen Delta and Southwest Airlines gift cards. Plus some grocery stores will have 2x or 4x bonuses on gift cards for their fuel points.
To activate the bonus, simply log into your Discover account and click on the Activate Now button or look for the email where you can register in one click.
Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex
Chase is offering bonus points on Amazon and on streaming services.
For now, my Barclay’s Hawaiian Airlines card is offering a $3 credit on streaming services. I think, but am not positive, that this credit ends this month. But I’ll hold off making any changes until I’m sure. If the credit has ended then I will switch over to this card. I’ll also switch my Amazon Music subscription as it should qualify either way.
I once again had the opportunity to stay at a Denver airport-area hotel as I arrived a day before my ski club. This time I selected the Atwell Suites Denver Airport, as it was an IHG property and I could use the free night certificate I have with my IHG Select credit card.
I have to admit I’d never heard of the Atwell brand but, in general, I quite liked the hotel. It’s located just off Tower Road, a main thoroughfare that has many similar hotels lining each side. It has its own private shuttle. I had a friend pick me up at the airport but it was very nice not to have any other stops on the way back to the airport the next day.
The hotel has a very modern feel. As I understand it, this building is only a couple of years old so it’s still in quite good shape. The front desk was straight ahead upon entering. I arrived quite early, before noon, and asked if I could get a ground-floor room since I was wrangling both my skis bag and a larger wheeled duffel. None of those rooms were ready yet, but that was fine as my friend and I went off for lunch and a free tour through the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which is now a wildlife preserve. While we were in the Arsenal I received a call that my room was ready. Continue reading →
Big Sky Resort is one of my happy places. This is Lone Peak which tops out at 11,166 feet (3403 meters). From the top you can see across Idaho and into Washington state as well as into Wyoming.
A large bull that was once atop a grave at the Kerameikos Archaeological Site in Athens, Greece. This one is now in the museum while a replica has replaced it outdoors.
My last visit to Big Sky was in 2019, just a year before the world changed. While our most recent previous stays had been at The Summit condos, our 2019 stay and our stay this year was at the Huntley Lodge, a hotel. This building was the original lodging at the resort and is located right at the base. Our club has been trying to get back to Big Sky ever since our last visit, but employee housing has become such a difficult thing that one entire wing of the hotel has been given over to housing the workers. That’s made getting reservations quite difficult. However, this year our club attended as part of a larger group from our ski council and with roughly 175 guests we were finally able to secure rooms.
The lodge underwent renovations in 2021, so I was excited to see the upgrades since our last visit. The lobby is mostly the same and the common areas got some new carpet and wallpaper but I’ll concentrate this review on the hotel room itself.
Guest Room
The wing that is open for guests has a fairly long hallway with a dogleg about halfway down. Our room was right in the “outside” part of the dogleg. That meant the room’s layout was different from a standard rectangle hotel room and also gave us a bit more floor space, which was nice.
The bathroom was immediately on the left when entering the room. The bathroom in this configuration is not as large as the one we had in the more standard rooms but it was fine. The sink was on the right side and positioned slightly to the right, so you didn’t have to worry about squeezing between the counter and the toilet. There were two sets of ceiling lights: one over the mirror and one for the room in general, including over the shower stall. In addition, there was a button in the lower middle portion of the mirror that backlit it, though we didn’t use that at all. Though you can’t see it in the photo below, there was a make-up mirror on a wall-mounted arm that could swing out from the wall and tilt as needed. It had its own light, which was quite helpful.
2B Traveling 
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