September 2020 – Cafes and Alleyways

Keep or Cancel our American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card?

Post author:CafesandAlleyways
Post published:September 11, 2020
Post category:General Points+Miles

The American Express Hilton Aspire card comes with a strong set of benefits. This includes: Diamond status with HiltonA $250 resort credit at select Hilton propertiesA $250 Airline creditAn annual free night at Hilton Properties It also comes with a $450 fee. We’ve had the card for over a year, and got great value for the $450 annual fee. This card easily paid for itself during our trip to the Conrad Maldives in February of this year. This week the annual fee once again hit our account. With travel on hold, we couldn’t justify paying $450. So what to do? Options included: Cancelling the cardDowngrading…

The Pie Hole, Los Angeles

Post author:CafesandAlleyways
Post published:September 8, 2020
Post category:Destinations General
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On a hot Summer Saturday in Southern California we spent the afternoon in the City of Orange. The old town area is blocked off for pedestrians. One of our stops was the Pie Hole on the corner of Glassell and Maple avenue. We tried the Mexican Chocolate Pie Hole, the Strawberry Lavender Pie Hole, and a slice of Earl Grey Pie. The shop is located on Zirkle corner, former site of Wally’s Market. Here's some pictures from our visit. 🥧 🍊

Saving Our Trip to Paris – Why We Applied for an Air France Credit Card

Post author:CafesandAlleyways
Post published:September 7, 2020
Post category:Destinations General Points+Miles
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As the saying goes, “Paris always a good idea”. We love visiting Paris and had a trip planned for May 2020. The flight was booked with Air France Miles. The trip was cancelled due to Covid 19. We called Air France, cancelled the flight, and the Air France miles were redeposited into our frequent flyer account. So far so good. The problem is, these miles, along with our existing balance, resulted in over 300,000 Air France miles that were set to expire in May 2021. This is over $3000 worth of travel that would evaporate unless we took action. Air France miles expire…

Canal de L’Ourcq, Paris

Post author:CafesandAlleyways
Post published:September 4, 2020
Post category:General
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We flew into Paris after spending a week in the South of France. The plan was to meet three of our adult children who were flying into to Paris from California. We arrived in Paris a half-day early, checked into the hotel and headed up to the 19th Arrondissement to have lunch at the Paname Brewing Company. We had met the owner on a previous trip to Paris and wanted to check it out. ⁣⁣The restaurant overlooks Canal de l'Ourcq and was busy on this Spring day in May. After lunch we strolled along the walking path and made a stop at Le…