9 headlines you may have missed – check out these “amenities”!?!

Here’s a breakdown on the recent posts from Points With a Crew.  As always, to make sure you don’t miss out on another deal, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or our once-daily email

Family Travel

• As a family of 8, sometimes we run into challenges that smaller families don’t – here’s why we’re a 2 (rental) car family.
• As part of our recent $6500 (free!) Amtrak trip, we stopped by the Amtrak Chicago Union Station Metropolitan lounge – here’s my review… it’s underwhelming.  Check out these “amenities”

Chicago Union Station Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge “amenities”

• We had a blast on our Amtrak trip, but due to the delays and crazy schedule, I probably will never travel Amtrak again.  All those delays were good for one thing though – here’s how we called and got $1100 in Amtrak travel vouchers.
• I’m (finally) going to Europe!  Take a look at our itinerary and see if you have any suggestions!

• Continuing on with Amtrak, here’s a look at the Amtrak Superliner vs. Amtrak Viewliner routes – which Amtrak routes are served by which types of cars?

Miles, Points and Credit Cards

• With the start of a new month (and a new quarter), it’s time to start earning on the Q3 Chase Freedom 5% bonus categories:
• For a limited time, you can earn a 50% bonus transferring SPG points to American Airlines
• I used to think that the Barclay Arrival Plus was one of the best cards out there, but here’s 4 changes to the card that mean that mine is getting canceled

News, notes and other posts

• News and notes from around the travel world – my favorite quote was that Delta is “happy to reinvent [the cause] to suit whatever argument it may be making at a given time?”