5 reasons to visit the REAL northern California, a first trip to Japan and how I lost $5700

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the past week of travel information – here’s a recap of what you may have missed from Points With a Crew over the past week or so

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Featured stories

It’s already time for another quarter’s list of the IHG Point Breaks (good through April 30th)

I have updated my current list of IHG Point Breaks with map and sortable table

Which hotels for 5000 points / night are you booking?

When you’re trying to book a cash fare, sometimes it can be tricky to find the best deals

Here are 6 reasons Google Flights is the best flight search engine out there.

Ian is from northern California and he wants to make one distinction

There isn’t just Southern California and the Bay Area

Check out 5 reasons to visit the REAL Northern California

If you’re doing gift card reselling, manufactured spending or anything that requires a lot of volume

Then you know that good organization is a MUST

The other day, I misplaced $5700 and was FREAKING OUT (then I found it)

Family Travel

• United Global First Lounge SFO: A Review
• Our family of 8 is heading to … California! (for “free” on miles)

• My first trip to Kyoto is finally here!

Miles, Points and Credit Cards

• Hotels for large family using points
• 2 shopping portal bonuses – one on United – MileagePlus Shopping portal offering Valentine’s Day bonus points
• and one through American – Up to 1,000 AAdvantage Bonus Miles for Valentine’s Day purchase
• Last month to use 2 Amex Offers for hotel stays
• 2 New Amex Offers for your next Hilton Stay, including Hawaii.
• Register for the new “Hilton 2K every day” promotion and stack with 4 Amex Offers.
• Hilton makes major changes to their loyalty program
• Discover It Categories – Bonus 5% cashback for Q2 2017
• Buy AA miles at 10% discount and up to 42,500 bonus miles
• Are you targeted for a $300 BofA checking bonus offer?
• Best routes and cheapest miles to Japan from mainland U.S.

In the News

• #changeatjamaica with jetBlue – NYC to Jamaica for $99
• 6 New Amex Offers just in time for Valentine’s Day

• Hackers hold luxury Austrian hotel ransom!
• Last day to lock in $10 AwardWallet Prices before they go up exponentially
• More LUV from Southwest with 3-day fare sale
• Frontier adds 10 routes, shows Ohio some love
• Award Wallet pushes back date of price hike!
• Cincinnati / CVG Delta operations are (finally?!) growing
• Get flat-fare Uber rides for as low as $1.99 in select cities!!
• WOW Air makes mixed changes to their carry-on fees

If you’re still up for more travel reading, here’s last week’s recap: Whiny complaints, stiffing the hotel maid, and a place that’s hard to get to