As a frequent traveller, I've picked up some super helpful & practical packing tips over the years. 📦

These practices make packing and unpacking a breeze and keep me organized on the go. 👇 👇 ☁️ The Weather app is your best friend!

Don’t just assume the weather at your destination! Too many people pack based on seasonal expectations.

Use the weather app, check the predictions for the period of your travel and check it till the last moment until you leave. You can make any changes required to your packing if there’s a change in the weather patterns.

You can use any weather app or website for this, I use Mercury Weather on iOS. It allows me to add my trips to the app and get a quick look at the current weather and upcoming weather and monthly averages for each of the destinations.

All the Different Ways to Redeem your American Express Points - Beginner-Friendly Thread

The complete guide on how to make the most of your Amex Membership Reward Points.

This is a long one, make sure you bookmark this to read later. 🔖 AMEX offers a variety of cards with a straightforward reward structure, quick credit point turnaround, and exceptional customer service.

All cards earn Membership Rewards Points (MR points). These points can be redeemed in a variety of ways.

Let's look at them. 👇

Here's an easy way for score premium flights at a fraction of the cost! Right now, flying to Europe in business class can be as affordable as 45,000 INR, and North America for just 90,000 INR.

Curious how? Read on. 👇 👇 🪄 The secret lies in buying miles and points strategically during sales.

LifeMiles, one of my favourite and most used Star Alliance program, is running a sale until March 12th.

They're offering a whopping 165% bonus on purchased miles!

The Marriott Titanium to United Premier Silver and thereby Star Alliance Silver is a well-known benefit are you aware that you can now match your Marriott Elite Status to Singapore Krisflyer too?

And unlike with United, you can do this with Bonvoy Gold and above.

Here's how.👇 𝟭️⃣ 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲?

Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite and above are eligible for this status match and they are offered a reciprocal benefit on Singapore Krisflyer.

Let's look at what you get depending on your elite status. 👇

Buying an iPhone on EMI is bad. ❌ But not always, one such scenario is below. ✅

If you are buying using an HDFC DCB card via the SmartBuy Imagine store. Since DCB has a per day capping of 2500 points on SmartBuy, you lose out on a lot of value. Easy way to get around this👇 Opt for a no-cost EMI on the SmartBuy Imagine store.

Usually, EMI transactions do not earn reward points, however, EMI on SmartBuy purchases on the Imagine store do and you get the 5X every month for the EMI paid, bypassing the 2500 per day limit.

I shared with you how to save money on award tickets when flying out of the UK. ✈️

I showed you how to save money on tickets to various attractions and tours in the UK and all over the world. ⛪️

Today let me show you how to save money when eating out in the UK. 🍔 🍕 Get a tastecard membership, think of it sorta/kinda an Eazydiner equivalent wherein you get discounts, or other savings when eating out across their partner restaurants, cafes, and other establishments in the UK. Discounts can go up to as high as 50% or even more in some cases.

🚨Attention Please 🚨

I have previously written about various tools that I use (and you can too), to make my award searches easier and quicker. Most of these require you to purchase a subscription typically.

However, today let me introduce you to - 👇👇roame.travel Yes, a very Airbnb inspired design, but it does the job. 😂

Currently it searches across the following programs 👇

Aeromexico
Air Canada
Air France/KLM
American
Avianca
Delta
Emirates
JetBlue
Iberia
United
Virgin Atlantic

On taxes and the beautiful UK - 🇬🇧

The UK is one of the most magical places in the world, and a country that you can keep going back to. Incredible landscapes and countryside, historical cities, and beautiful architecture.

Miles & points are a great way to explore this country. However, one thing that the #ccgeeks & the #milesfreaks cannot help but keep getting smacked on the face with is - fees.

These charges on award tickets for a trip to the UK can potentially be as high as an economy revenue ticket.

So, what can be done? Let's see. 👇

💪 Power of Points & Miles

I recently got back after completing a 20 days long trip from the land down under, almost entirely funded by miles and points.

Here’s a quick log of all the redemptions that were a part of the this.👇

The goal? To demonstrate what’s possible. 🙌 ✈️ Flights (all figures are for 2 pax)

Route: PNQ - BLR
Airline: Vistara (UK)
Cabin: Economy (Y)
FFP: Club Vistara
Status: CV Gold
Points: 8000 CV Points
Taxes & Surcharges: 1660 INR

🧵 As promised, here goes The Amex Trifecta Thread.

The 🇮🇳 version of the Amex Trifecta is basically a set of 3 cards that you can use and maximize your MR earnings through milestone bonuses on the cards.

Let’s start with, why this Trifecta. 👇 The baseline reward for most Amex cards is 1MR per ₹50, which isn’t particularly great, & hence earning MRs on Amex can be a long and slow journey. This setup accelerates this process enabling you to earn a total of 1.09L MRs for the first year and around ~85K MRs next year on.

🚨 Long Thread Warning

Since Amex has finally come out of the ban and applications are expected to open soon, let's do a 🧵 on the AMEX Platinum (Charge Card). So here it goes.

The ONLY Amex Platinum Thread that you will EVER need. 👇 Let's get the basics out of the way.

💵 Annual Fees: ₹70,800
📝 Eligibility: 15L Annual Income for Self-Employed, 25L for Salaried.
🏎️ Card Limit: NPSL (No Pre-Set Spending Limit)
⚒️ Form Factor: Metal
🏦 Type: Charge Card (must pay off the entire bill after each statement)

On the 4th of April, I transferred $2000 USDT to the wallet address provided and my account was set up subsequently. The nav apparently is updated daily.

The last investor update by CIO Suman Banerjee was published in December. In April Hedonova set up a Bahamas-based fund to "reduce regulatory risks" for US-based investors. Wonder why the sudden move?

hedonova.io/bahamas-mitiga…

I had to delete the previous thread because someone went complaining to Twitter that the thread contained private information.

Reposting this story again with some edits. A week back @artijourno from @livemint published this piece about @HedonovaFund

I had a small investment with Hedonova purely from an experimental and curiosity point of view. I was always apprehensive about their legitimacy.

So let's dive deeper. 👇

livemint.com/market/stock-m…

Let’s talk about some insurance “hack” to save some money on your insurance payments. A lot of card issuers do not offer rewards/points on insurance payments. So how can you still get some cashback and save money on insurance payments?

Let’s find out 🧵 You can essentially become an insurance agent/POS advisor and sell insurance policies to yourself, your family, friends, etc and earn a commission of anywhere from 5%-25% depending on the type of policy and company.

Best part: you earn this commission on renewals as well. 💰