Tip #2: Try Out e-rewards.com

It's 2012! Happy New Year!

For today's post (and for the first of the year!), I have found a great website which will get you earning hotel points and airline miles even faster. In yesterday's post I talked about how you can get points by signing up for the rewards programs and seeing how you can apply them to other purchases than travel. But I also found the e-rewards website which can get you a good amount of points, too. How it works is that you have to fill out surveys on the website that ask questions about topics such as movies you watch and restaurants you eat at. For every survey, you will get some amount of money. If you qualify to fully complete the survey, you can get often $4 or $5. But if you don't qualify to fully complete the survey, which may happen often, you will get $0.50 or $0.25. But what is great about this website is the money you recieve you can use to buy hotel points and miles for flights. While the money is not actual money you can use in the real world, you can buy things from the e-rewards shop. For example, when you have $75 in e-rewards money, you can buy 4,500 Hilton HHonors points to be used at Hilton hotels. Or, for $50 you can buy 1,000 JetBlue TrueBlue miles. While this may seem like alot of money to have to earn by taking surveys, I earned $20 in about a month. You can choose how often you want surveys emailed to you; so, depending on your frequency of using it, you could be earning free nights in just a few months.

Now the one thing about the program that is a downside is that, while it is free, you can only join it if you get an invitation. To get an invitation, you have to be invited from one of their sponsors. I believe that you will get an invitation if you are signed up on the email lists of the sponsor companies. The sponsors include:

Carlson
Hertz
La Quinta
Priority Club Rewards (InterContinental)
Hilton
JetBlue

I got my invitation from JetBlue because I was signed up on their email list. While I don't know this for a fact, I am assuming if you join one or two of the companie's email lists from above (especially JetBlue), you will soon get an invitation to join e-rewards. (I will also be talking about in a future post other advantages of having your name in a brand's email list.) It is free to join, and you just have to give some information about yourself (email, phone number, etc.), then you can start filling out surveys and earning rewards! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Happy travels!

Here is their website: http://www.e-rewards.com/home.do

Fun Find #1: Westin St. Francis- San Francisco, CA

The picture above is of a castle I discovered in the lobby of the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA. The entire castle and the small houses around it are made completely of sugar. There are even two trains that go around it. Even if you don't go during Christmas, this is still a nice hotel to visit!

Tip #1: Sign Up For Rewards Programs

My  first tip to start out the blog is something that is completely free and very easy to do: sign up for travel rewards programs! These programs reward you for your loyalty to the brand by giving you points; points which you can use for free hotel stays, free airfare, and often even more.While this may seem pointless to do if you are not going to actually stay at the hotel or fly on the airline, you can earn points other ways. For example, let's look at Marriot hotel's rewards program, simply called Marriot Rewards. The most obvious way to earn points to be used at Marriot hotels is by staying at the hotel itself. But you can also use points if you give your rewards number to one of over 30 airlines before you fly with them, including JetBlue, Delta, and Southwest. But there are even easier ways to earn points! You can earn up to 75,000 points when you finance your home with Chase Home Mortgage. You can earn points by being a Diner's Club member, renting a car from Hertz, and even making purchases at Sky Mall. With Marriot hotel rooms starting at just 7,500 points, you wil be traveling in no time! And Marriot is not the only brand that does this. My favorites are listed below (in no particular order):

Marriot (Marriot Rewards)

Hilton (HHonors)

Amtrak (Amtrak Guest Rewards)

Choice Hotels (Choice Privileges)

Southwest Airlines (Rapid Rewards)

JetBlue (TrueBlue)

These are not credit cards, and you do not have to buy anything. They are a great way to get points and travel more! Also, if you already have a favorite brand (whether it is one that I mentioned or not), they will most likely have a similiar pogram where you can earn points with other purchases than just travel. Be sure to look into it on the rewards program's website! If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Happy Travels!

Welcome!

If you are like me, you love to vacation and visit new places. But if you are like everyone else in America, the current economy is becoming a barrier to your travels. So how do we fix this? Simple! Everday, I will  be posting a new tip that will introduce a way to save you money on airfare, hotel stays, and more. I will also include some "Fun Finds" every now and then that will show you places you can visit on your budget-friendly vacations! So please enjoy this information and comment on a post if you have any questions. Happy travels!