Best of February – mistake fares, PointBreaks, cost of a “free” trip, budget for a family of 8, missing (and deceptive!) award charts, 10 flights for $160, free Hyatt points and more!

Another month has flown by – it’s hard to believe!  I’m getting ready to head to the Family Travel for Real Life (#FT4RL) conference this weekend (along with another, work, conference) and it kind of snuck up on me!

If you missed anything from Points With a Crew this month, you’ll want to make sure to sign up for our once-daily email to make sure you don’t miss out on any of these or other great travel deals.

• The biggest news of the month was United having a fare “sale” where you could get a transatlantic first-class ticket for ~$90.  Later, United said they would NOT honor the tickets purchased, and the DOT declined to force them to do so.  If you missed out on that, here are 4 reasons why you’ll miss out on the NEXT mistake fare sale.  So make sure to be one of the ones who DOES get in on these kinds of sales!
• Continuing on United’s bad rap in the news, there was what I found to be the INCREDIBLY deceptive United award chart to Alaska.
• Delta, not to be outdone, decided to completely remove their award charts from their site.  Luckily, we still have the Delta award chart 2015 here on the site!

• In better news, IHG announced their Points Break list for March 2015 – May 2015, where about 150 hotels are bookable for only 5,000 points a night.  To help visualize where these hotels are, I came up with a map that shows all the IHG Point Breaks locations.
• American is now waiving phone booking fees on certain award redemptions
• Singapore Airlines introduces their Premium Economy class.
• I took a trip to San Juan where we stayed at the Hyatt House San Juan.  Did you wonder how much my “free trip” actually ended up costing? With a new place visited, it was time to update the travel map!

Viva Puerto Rico!

• Southwest announced that they would be devaluing their Rapid Rewards currency, but wouldn’t say how or in what way.
• After several false starts, AirAsia’s ASEAN pass, which offers 10 flights for $160 in Southeast Asia, is finally live!
• If you get denied for a credit card, you might need the Barclay reconsideration phone number and website.
• If you haven’t yet, take a few minutes to vote in the Freddie Awards, for the best hotel and airline loyalty programs and promotions.  Here were my Freddie Awards votes!
• If you sign up for (or already have!) the Chase Hyatt card, you can sign up for this promotion to give you a 20% rebate on ALL Hyatt stays for the next few months
• Last but not least, if you are interested in personal finance, here was my guest post on budgetsaresexy.com on what a budget for a family of 8 looks like.  Some great conversation in the comments as well!

See also: The best of January at Points With a Crew – Chase is best, Arrival for small transactions, European airport taxes, quizzes, British Airways devaluation, beating occupancy limits, and more