- Marriott Free Breakfast Simplified by Frequent Miler. Despite FM trying to make this easy, Marriott refuses to make it so. Even though some brands are advertised as having all properties offering free breakfasts, some individual properties are able to opt out. If you need to reference a chart to determine if you get free breakfast, you’re doing something wrong when trying to build brand loyalty.
- Pay Federal Taxes Online With A Credit Card Fee-Free With Plastiq by Milenomics. I assume most readers knew this already, but nice guide if you didn’t. Works on mostly anything where Plastiq is accepted and they accept multiple payments without issue.
- A Look at Some of My Successful Upcoming Timeshare Trades by Timeshare Guru. I still don’t think timeshares make sense for my type of travel, but maybe something to consider looking into more deeply for some readers.
- Knife Expert Guesses Cheap vs. Expensive Knives. Really enjoy this series, love learning why each thing is more expensive and the reasoning behind it in a non condescending way.
Deals expiring at the end of today (view the full deal calendar here):
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Deals expiring at end of tomorrow:
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Good summary on the knives! Like he said at the end of the video: A chef only needs the 4 basic knives.
LOL, Knife Porn.
Purchasing the lsat last knife would meet MSR on CIC or CIU card lol.
Loved the comment by the Youtuber: The last comparison was like “Here we have an average knife vs Skycleaver, a knife forged by the last great elves from the heart of a dying star destined to penetrate the hearts of all those who stand against it.”
I think you meant non condescending in the knife summary. 🙂
Without breakfast I really wouldn’t stay at a majority of most of a big chains brands. Its just not worth the additional cost without extras included. The continental options provided at the top tiers of their portfolios to elite status guest have been embarrassing this last year.
Lol, I sure did! Let me fix that.
Keep the epicurious videos coming! I feel knife-inferiority now 🙁
>Ignoring the initial cost of these weeks, I pay about $1200 per week in maintenance fees for 2,000 Hyatt Residence Club points per week.
It’s sentences like that that still make me incredibly dubious regarding timeshare stuff. If there were no upfront “investment”, I don’t think timeshares would be a bad deal, and I know that you can get them on the secondary market for extremely steep discounts, but saying “Ignoring the initial cost of these weeks” is basically like saying “the rest of these numbers aren’t accurate”.
No kidding! I didn’t bother to read that article until I saw your post, and I wanted to see this pseudo-math for myself.
No idea how much the initial cost is, but it should certainly be included if accurately portraying the potential value of timeshares to readers is the desired goal.
If bought off someone desperate enough to get out from under those maintenance fees, on the secondary market, it may have been minimal. I’m sure not going to be buying timeshares either way, but if you’re going to do it, that’s got to be a better deal than buying from the original timeshare company.
I’d recommend reading up on it a bit more, TSG says you can usually get them on the second hand market for very cheap/free. But there are advantages and disadvantages to being a second hand owner.
Ignoring the initial cost of these weeks”
Yeah, I get what youre saying but I think TSG does that because the initial cost of the weeks is going to vary so much. I know a lot of people purchased theirs for $1 for example.
Yeah I totally get how that will vary, and how it would be hard to incorporate a number like that into the other kind of arithmetic they’re doing. But not including the initial cost at all just comes off as obfuscation to a casual observer like me who already has a bias against timeshares.
If the Timeshare Guru’s goal is to present those facts to anyone but current timeshare owners, I think it makes sense for them to be as transparent as possible about all costs involved.
Edit: just looked around the site a bit more and it seems as if there’s a lot of transparency, and I can see why restating the purchase price isn’t really necessarily for a one-off article like that. I still can’t picture myself buying a timeshare (even at a near-zero initial cost), but that blog seems like a great resource!
No more breakfast for Marriott Gold members means that I’ll probably end up choosing Hilton. Marriott made gold into a pretty useless tier.
On a recent trip i learned hilton has already nerfed free breakfast. Only staying at a hilton garden inn gets you a decent hot breakfast. Otherwise its just a Continental now at other brands including double tree which there was literally just cereal.
Embassy Suites Deerfield Beach still offer breakfast, in fact you can order it right there from several options depend of the day and of course a tip to the chef, yes there is a line but worth the wait, they still offer the continental if you don’t want to do the line, I go there every year for 3-5 days in my way back from the Caribbean before hit the city and I like it.
Have stayed at a couple doubletrees in Brookfield, WI and Houston, both offer the standard breakfast or what I consider normal. Eggs, bacon, oatmeal, fruit, hash browns, muffins, etc. I’m gold. Not sure what places you’re staying at..
I agree and am drawing the same conclusion. Hilton will be the only major chain left standing that still makes it relatively easy to consistently get brekkie and/or lounge access when available, even with mid-tier Gold status (and for those of you who say all you get is cereal, I don’t know where you have been staying- included breakfasts in Hilton brand hotels Asia and Europe and most of the world can be pretty substantial.) And they make that status relatively easy to get and keep. And they have consistently generous promos. At this point, Marriott is becoming like IHG for me- a chain to avoid unless there is a special property and a way to get benefits. Hopefully this will just make Hilton stronger and they’ll keep doing what they do and that’s the only real loyalty I will have left. Otherwise I’m done with loyalty to any big chain and will just become opportunistic and go the independent and smaller chain hotels.
Sure, but if you earned Gold the old fashioned way you’ll transition into a Platinum and have the same benefits. If you earned Gold through Amex SPG then sure, I understand you frustration. However a lot of Marriott properties are overrun with the Amex Golds, I’m glad they’re fixing it.