Maximize Travel Benefits

We are back on a weekend and time to plan Costa Rica. I needed to decide how many of us were going and where we were staying. I had one daughter commit, so I knew I needed a house or a hotel with double beds, or 2 hotel rooms. Tip Make sure you have an airline frequent flyer accounts. I made sure to enter my daughter's information so that she not only gets the miles but also free wifi on the flight. I decided I wanted ocean view. I looked at some houses, but nothing with ocean view for the time we were going. I then decided I wanted breakfast included and yoga classes in addition to ocean view. Since that upped the cost, I decided that we would just get one room with 2 queen beds. It was then between 2 hotels. I ended up choosing the one in town versus a 20-30 minute drive. I knew my family would not want to eat the hotel food each night and would definitely want to experience a little night life. I did not want to do a 20-30 minute drive for those things. Next it was time to check how to earn points from the reservation. I ended up not choosing the Marriott location (it was the one farther from town). I then went on to Delta and found the hotel for the same price BUT I also earn Delta airline points and MQDs by booking the stay through them. Tip Always check for a hotel you earn points at. If that doesn’t work for what you want, can you earn airline points? But not rushing a hotel selection last week, I was able to earn miles and MQDs for this hotel stay. MQDs are Delta’s Medallion Qualification Dollars. This is how you earn Medallion Status with Delta. You can earn this through travel with Delta and/or a credit card. They have silver, gold, platinum or diamond and your level is based on your spending activity. Even at the lower levels you can get baggage fees waived, free upgrades, priority check-in and priority boarding. You do not pay extra for this, so I highly recommend signing up for a frequent flyer account to start earning. Even if you do not earn many MQDs you automatically begin at the silver level and can get free wifi on some flights. Check out Delta for more information.