A Mattress Run

Another blog post from Mr. Deals…

My parents happen to be in town for a few days before everyone embarks on their holiday travels for the year. Truth be told they just wanted to see little baby deals before we hit the travel circuit with her at the end of the month. At dinner last night, Mrs. Deals got to chatting about some of our upcoming travels and out of nowhere, my mom goes “Your father needs to do a ‘mattress run.'” Mrs. Deals was speechless.

So let me rewind for a second and give you the background on my mom and dad. Dad, he travels a fair bit for work. He’s relatively savvy with all things miles and points related though Mrs. Deals gives him a ton of crap for when he books cheap rooms on points rather than paying for them. Unlike Mrs. Deals who hoards points, my dad has decided it’s ok to use them. It’s a battle that Mrs. Deals will probably never win with him.

Moving on to my mom, she defers all things travel related to my dad. She could be the blogs biggest fan, reading nearly every post and handing out Mrs. Deals business card to all of her friends everywhere. Admittedly, she says she really doesn’t understand a lot of what’s going on. That said, last night she did get really excited about Chase Freedom giving 5% back on grocery store purchases in the near future. This was coming from a woman who up until about a year ago paid cash for just about everything which made Mrs. Deals cringe on the amount of points that were being left on the table.

Now when my mom used the term “Mattress Run” Mrs. Deals was just so impressed. In the same conversation we also heard mileage run come up as she was talking about a friends son who had just done a San Fran to Seattle leg for some extra miles. The conversation kept going into where my dad could actually do his mattress run because he needed to keep his Marriott Gold status. Mrs. Deals first reaction was “pathetic.” She clearly was not impressed with my dads status. Of course, she whipped out her phone to see if she could find a cheap room somewhere for him to book, but wasn’t having much luck given that travel season is in full swing right now.

The conversation between Mrs. Deals and my dad often revolves around travel and status and whatnot. This was nothing new. That said, my mom hopping in with her new lingo was pretty impressive. I honestly think Mrs. Deals felt like she had changed the world a bit when these terms were thrown out.