The two most flexible reward programs that are not locked-in to an Airline or a Hotel Chain are Ultimate Rewards from Chase and Membership Rewards from American Express. Both are excellent programs with great redemption opportunities and multiple ways to earn them. This post with compare and contrast some of the key points of these two rewards programs.
Whats Common:

The first thing that is common between these two programs is that they are both not locked to a particular Airline or Airlines (like Miles and More is to Lufthansa, Swiss and …

I am canceling my American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card. The fees is due and $175 seems steep, given the recent changes in my card strategy (more on that in a later post). Furthermore, canceling the card makes me (more?) eligible for other sign-up bonuses from American Express, including (fingers crossed) the elusive, by invitation only 100,000 point Platinum card. Don’t get me wrong, the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card is an absolutely fabulous card with great features. (The current offer for a new card is 25,000 Membership Rewards …

I logged into United.com this morning and saw my lifetimes miles total – 500,024. I am half-way to become a Million Miler! For United MileagePlus, One Million Miles is a significant milestone (no pun intended). It gives you and a significant other Gold Status for life! No matter how many miles you fly in a year henceforth!
Most airlines and some hotel programs have a Lifetime Miles reward. It is their way of rewarding customers who have been loyal over an extended period of time. For airlines, it is typically at …

I am not into churning credit cards for points. I get my fair share every year, but limit to very good deals (like the recently ended 100,000 Avios card). But when I do see a good deal, I apply and get it. The new Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card is one such good deal. Instead of awarding Hilton HHonors points, like such cards typically do, this cards initial offer is two weekend night certificates (after $2,500 spend)! This is, in my opinion a great deal, as pints have more restrictions …

Early last week, I stayed at Hilton Grand Vacation’s newest property – Elara, in Las Vagas. The building itself is fairly new, but it very recently became a Hilton. I am told that the Hilton Grand Vacation sign was just put up a few days ago. Before that it used to be a part of Planet Hollywood. It is a Hilton Grand Vacation resort, which means you can buy up suites there, but also a hotel, which is how I ended up staying there.
The hotel is beautiful and its location …

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago, I just redeemed 480,000 United miles for four business class tickets to India. My mileage balance has now fallen below 200,000 miles. This has left a deep desire in my mind to ramp up some miles! With the large balance I had, I had started taking it easy and had been focussed on other programs and credit cards with points like Chase Sapphire. It is back to getting UNited miles now.
Here is what I have been doing:
Applied for the new United MileagePlus® …

With this post we are starting a brand new feature on UnRoadWarrior – News from around the web. This will be a weekly post with news from around the web. We will basically find interesting stories from around the internet are collect them in one post. We intend to keep these to five to ten stories. Let us know what you think of this new feature by leaving a comment below.
So, here goes:
Flying Through the Airport – From Wall Street Journal
This article talks about Qantas Airlines implementing paper free check-in …

Yeah, I know there are websites that will track it for me all in one place – I have accounts with points.com and gomilies.com , but they just don’t seem to be right or enough. … Staying at a hotel (duh, again, but this can become complex if one earns hotel points, airline miles or hotel points AND airline miles) Credit cards eMiles.com eRewards.com MyPoints.com TopGuest Car rentals (for rental rewards or airline miles) Other sundry events, like filling out a survey, earning miles as compensation for a customer service event, etc.

Also, I would like to break the news about the new fitness and recreational amenities for our guests: We are offering a P90X class every Wednesday at 6:00pm. … In addition, we have partnered with The Lakes at El Segundo , a local golf course close to the hotel, that will offer a complimentary medium bucket of balls for the driving range to our guests.

Author’s note: TopGuest has brought to my attention that ‘drive-by’ check-ins to their program can result in people being barred from TopGuest. My intention was never to promote anything that would be against their Terms and Conditions. This was supposed to poke fun at people who ‘drive-by’ for points. I encourage everyone to read my clarification post.
Who would not like to get Hotel Points for just driving by a hotel? No need to check-in. Heck, don’t even bother to park. Just drive by… and wear your seatbelt and obey the …