Mountains Of Flowers In Hokkaido Japan

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Shibazakura in Hokkaido Japan

A Surreal Floral Experience In Hokkaido

Babies! I’ve spent the last year bouncing around the globe shooting videos for the site and I’m really excited to finally be able to start sharing them with you!

This first video is from an incredible and surreal adventure I had in Hokkaido, Japan this last May. While researching an upcoming Spring trip to Japan I came across a picture of these mountains covered in flowers and I just couldn’t believe they were real. I had to see it for myself, so I planned a trip to experience Shibazakura in Japan first hand.

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The Best Option For Traveling Around Japan

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Temple in Nagano

Why You Should Use Award Tickets To Travel In Japan

The first time I visited Japan back in 2012 (which was also the first time I used miles to fly first class) common wisdom held that the JR pass was by far the best and most cost effective way to travel within Japan and so I shelled out the $600 or so dollars to Shinkansen my posterior all over the country. I went to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Miyazaki, Arita and Nagano and while I definitely got my money’s worth out of the pass, I have since found a faster and cheaper way to get my Japan fix without spending all my cat cafe money on a JR pass.

AA first class
Where it all began…

I have since learned that award tickets present a much better value than the JR pass.

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Hack The Planet! All The Airport WiFi Passwords

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Hack The Planet! All The Airport WiFi Passwords

All the airport WiFi passwords
All the airport WiFi passwords

Traveling can be tough and it is my personal goal to make your travel a little bit easier. To that end, I am introducing a semi-regular series called “Hack The Planet!” where I share my favorite practical travel hacks that are useful no matter what cabin you are traveling in.

We’ll start things off with a really useful hack for anyone who finds themselves waiting in an airport without free wifi and doesn’t have access to a lounge. As much fun as it would be to strike up a conversation with your nearest no-wifi neighbor, wouldn’t it be even better to connect to the wifi and then share the password with them too?

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The JAL Promotion That Just Won’t Die

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screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-3-02-01-pm
JAL Discount Mileage Promotion

I first came across a post about a JAL 5,000 mile discount on Angelina Travels back in April of 2015 and made a mental note that the next time I wanted to fly Bangkok Airways this was a pretty solid option. The fact that many of these awards were discounted by 50 – 66% caught my attention and while I had intended to do a post about it then, it got lost in my drafts pile.

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Aeroplan awards on Cathay Pacific?

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cx-first-seat
The countdown to Justin Trudeau redeeming his Aeroplan miles for CX first has begun (maybe)!

Here’s an interesting development from my favorite airline awards program based in “America’s top hat.” Air Canada has recently expanded their little-known codeshare partnership with Cathay Pacific and their subsidiary Cathay Dragon and has hinted that soon they will begin allowing redemptions of Aeroplan miles for these flights as well.

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The Servepocalypse And How To Budget Your Miles

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Serve card
Reminiscing about all the great times we had together

The Servepocalypse:

For those of us who eat, sleep and breathe the points game the news that American Express was killing the Serve card was a bit like hearing that they were going to have to amputate our right arm. In terms of easy avenues for manufacturing spend, the Serve card was indeed just as indispensable as our dominant hand. The ability to liquidate $5,000 per month in gift cards in a fairly easy way has long been the backbone for many people’s mileage earning strategy (myself included), especially when it enhances your usual spending to allow for higher rates of credit card churning.

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Amex Offers: $50 off $100 purchase from AirBNB

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AirBNB website
Airbnb website

I know that there is more to travel than just drinking champagne and watching Despicable Me 2 while hurtling through the sky in an aluminum tube, which is why I like to keep you guys in the loop when a really killer deal that pertains to travel pops up. One such deal has appeared over at Amex offers.

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