It’s been an exhausting week for me as the “featured blogger” on Boarding Area this week. I don’t know how some of those guys that post 5 or 6 times a day (or more!) EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK do it! If you liked the posts that you saw from me this week, make sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or sign up for our once-daily email.
If you missed any of the posts from the past week, take a gander down below and see if anything catches your eye
Featured posts
Some of what I consider my “top” posts of the week:
- Something I have been working on for a few months now is the Mile Matrix, which is an app I wrote to answer the question of how many miles it takes to get from any country to any other country, on any airline. See also the FAQ for the Mile Matrix
- The parable of the 47 mail-in rebates: a lesson in persistence in deal finding
- When is a free one-way not actually free?
- My $6500 Amtrak train trip – the beauty of miles and points. See also – maximizing your train trip with the Amtrak Zone map
- Here’s my recap of the Family Travel for Real Life conference, including my live-blog of all 5 speakers!
Travel
- On Throwback Thursday (#TBT), I posted some reviews of past trips I took – visiting all 88 counties in Ohio in less than 24 hours, visiting 67 counties in New England in a day (with a timelapse video!) and a video of my friends and I jumping in all 5 Great Lakes in less than 9 hours.
- Continuing the reviews from my recent trip to Puerto Rico, here is my review of the Condado region of San Juan, as well as Old San Juan (a UNESCO heritage site!)
- While touring around the Mountain West, I finished up visiting every county in Utah, and took a trip to Four Corners monument.
- Ever been driving around and wondered: “Is this a road? Or someone’s driveway?”
Tips and tricks
4 tips to survive a red eye flight in economy.- If you book a partner flight with Avios, here’s one way to get the confirmation number for the airline that you’re ACTUALLY flying on.
- 3 ways to get elite status with rental car companies, to let you skip the lines and/or get free upgrades.
- 4 ways to not pay the UK Air Passenger Duty taxes.
- The trick to searching Star Alliance flights 7 days at a time.
Free money / points
- In the time it took you to read this post, I got a $25 Visa card for (not) test-driving a Kia.
- 1000 free points for changing your password at Hilton, 1000 Club Carlson points for clicking a link or two and 1000 American AAdvantage miles for renting a car with National.
- It’s time to activate your 5% bonus categories (restaurants) for Q2 with your Chase Freedom card.
- Free money at Staples this week!
- You can get a “free” trip to Sweden… all you have to do is buy a Volvo!
I found about 20 sites to visit from Roadtrippers.com
Reviews
- Is it ever a good idea to stay at a Rodeway Inn? I stayed there and it wasn’t that bad!
- I stayed at the Hyatt House Salt Lake City and wondered about when hotels can’t seem to get the little things right.
- Then I had my first ever 5-star hotel visit at the Hyatt House Charlotte Airport.
- Review of the site Roadtrippers.com – where you can find unique destinations along the path of your road trip.
Other posts
Window seat? Aisle seat? Try both!
- How I got burned by not paying attention to the answer to the question “Do annual fees count towards meeting minimum spend?”
- Window seat or aisle seat? I’ve got the definitive answer to that question!
- I had some business travel last week and wondered about whether you travel differently if someone else is picking up the bill?
- Delta is now offering some of its award seats within the US for only 10,000 Skymiles one-way
- Some of the IHG Point Breaks hotels for March 2015 – May 2015 are now MISSING from the original published list!
I hope you’ve enjoyed at least some of my posts this week! It’s kept me busy, but I’ve enjoyed writing them as well! Make sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or sign up for our once-daily email to keep in touch!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Well done during your featured week! I struggle to post three times a week, so I have no clue how you do and all the others do it.