Hi everyone,

That was a hell of Sabatical. What a trip!

I really did it to myself this time. 7 days, 7 flight segments, 2 destinations. I have to admit—it was tiring even in business class.

In most cases, my layover time was about 40-45 minutes. At AMS, it was nothing short of a zoo, and I was almost certain at one point that I wouldn’t make it. Same in Copenhagen. Everything turned out to be fine eventually.

At the end, I came to see places I had been dreaming about for a long time.

I saw the astonishing beauty of Icelandic geysers, lakes, and waterfalls, and I took a dip in the world-famous Blue Lagoon. And yes, it’s as amazing and beautiful as people say it is!

I went to the Miniature Wunderland in Hamburg—and it was a sight to behold even up close. And I wandered around in the old port and marveled at the magnificent Rathous. Hamburg is not a touristy city, which is a shame—it should be!

The reports are coming, and—enough about me.

My Lists of Best Credit Cards for Free Flights and Free Stays Are Updated

Best Credit Cards for Miles — Free Flights

Best Credit Cards for Points — Free Hotel Stays

I swear, every time I come back from a trip lately, I come back to some bad news. Last time I returned from Paris, it was the AGC portals fiasco, now it’s US Bank Buxx that’s closing the doors for reloads on October 24th.  Sucks! I wouldn’t want to depend on Manufactured Spending as a full time income. Hell, I woldn’t want to depend on MS as an important stream of income. I wouldn’t want to depend on MS for many reasons, one of them being that I would feel like that little fellow in Frogger. What? You forgot Frogger? That, according to  the Softline magazine, was:

the arcade game with the most ways to die

Anyway, thank god for credit cards sign up bonuses that are still with us—is all I can say!

So, what’s up?

A Transcon roundtrip for $150

Virgin America can take you from New York La Guardia all the way across the country to LA and back for $150 for limited days in October. If you have to fly Transcon in coach, Virgin America is a great airline to use, as they have this ridiculous old-fashion concept of providing their passengers with some minimal dignity in terms of service and personal space. I know—totally ridiculous.

Availability is extremely limited, but some flights in October are still available at the time of writing (around 11:20PM EST). HT to The Flight Deal.

LGA-lax for $149 Roundtrip

Getting a Free Hotel Night

Miles to Memories has posted a personal account of how he asked (and received) a free Club Carlson night certificate from US Bank via a Secure Message. In all honesty, I didn’t even know there was  a secure messaging function on a thoroughly dysfunctional USB website. Sent two requests from myself an wife, will see what happens.

Free Processing for $1,000 in Manufactured Spending

Pay Anywhere is a credit card mobile reader that is not better or worse than other credit card readers; all of them charge around 3% fee that makes them quite useless for manufactured spending. Well, actually this one is a little better than others, as it charges $2.69 which is slightly more than Amazon Local Register but less than PayPal, Square and others. I ordered the reader a long time ago after reading a report that Pay Anywhere folks might send you a free offer after a period of inactivity. I received the reader back in Novermber and forgot all about it until I received this email from them a few days ago:

Did you forget about us? We didn’t forget about you! We noticed that you haven’t been using PayAnywhere to process payments. We wanted to make sure that you have everything you need to get started, including $1000 in free processing until September 28, 2015!

All you have to do is start swiping.

• Launch the PayAnywhere app to login using your email address and the password you created. Reset your password at PayAnywhere Inside, if needed.
• Set up your profile for your receipts, create an item library for quick and easy transactions, and you’re ready to start swiping!

So, they did remember me after 10 months! Well, free money is free money–I’m not throwing it back. Whether or not you want to order this thing is up to you. It’s free, so why not? Might turn it into a free $30 down the road.

Finally, let me recommend this post for some light reading. It’s not brand-spanking new, but it’s one of the best blog posts I’ve recently read.

How to make your rewards / loyalty program more evil by PFD. Hilarious and right to the point.

I will resume my newsletter service next week. So sign up for it if you have not already.

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