That Pajama Moment

Last week I posted about our Cathay Pacific First Class flight from New York to Vancouver.  There were a few pictures that I somehow missed when posting the trip report that seem worthy of posting here.

There's something about pajamas on an airplane that makes me feel like I'm 5 years old again.  I realize that this is not something most people will experience crammed into an economy seat with total strangers sleeping all over you.  But that's the point of this blog - the experience is totally accessible with a little effort and organization.

While I typically won't wear them on the plane, (they are too warm) I do have a pretty fantastic collection that I get use out of at home.  That said, it is perfectible acceptable to wear them on the plane and most of other passengers (including Emily) seem to go that route.  But for me, just receiving them is a pretty amazing experience.

Of the 10+ pairs of first class pajamas I've received, Cathay's are the best.  Here's the before.

And the after.  Also a great shot of the open cabin with just 6 total seats.

And a bonus shot of the brand new female amenity kit, (male kit is the same - just a darker color and different products) menu, and pre-requisite glass of Krug.

Last Minute Switch - AA to Cathay

Originally, we were scheduled to fly home from Taipei via Hong Kong - spending the night at the W Hong Kong before taking American's direct service from HKG to DFW.  After a late night celebrating 2015 at the W Taipei, we had a great lazy day walking around the city. We headed back to the hotel in the early afternoon and I before I checked in to our flight to Hong Kong I decided to check if there were any "better" options to get us all the way home.

Strolling around Taipei

Amazingly, I found two first class seats on one of Cathay Pacific's flights from Hong Kong to LAX.  After some discussion, we both decided that we had already had such a great trip, one more night in Hong Kong wouldn't make it that much better and heading home a day earlier would be nice.  So I set about making the change.

2015 Travel Coming Together

The beginning of the year is always interesting as the "clock" resets to zero in so many ways.  I love looking at the calendar with virtually nothing booked and slowly filling it in with a trip here and there.  Weekend trips, long-haul trips, birthday trips, anniversaries, etc...

2015 is now shaping up to be the best travel year yet and I'm really excited about everything we have booked.  Here's a quick overview:

In April, Emily and I are headed to Vancouver for my birthday.  We haven't been in 7 years but our last visit was awesome so we're both excited to return.  The easiest way to get there would be to fly direct from Denver.  But that's not that fun.  So we're flying to New York to take Cathay Pacific's service across the continent...in first class.  We loved our recent Cathay first trip so much that we just had to get another flight in this year.

Cathay Pacific First Class

In May, we're headed to Europe.  This will be our first trip with a long-haul flight direct from Denver. As of now, we'll be visiting Amsterdam, Vienna, and Paris and returning in Singapore Suites!  We also have some great stays booked (all with points) at the Park Hyatt's in Paris and Vienna.

In June, I'm taking my brother on a whirlwind tour of Asia.  We'll start off by flying Cathay First from LAX to Hong Kong on our way to Bangkok where we'll spend a couple of days.  Then back to Hong Kong for a few days (in Thai Airways first class) before flying home on Asiana's A380 First Class Suite.  This will be he first time in Asia so it will be great to show him around.

We'll spend most of the summer in Denver celebrating a couple of key birthdays and anniversaries.  In October, we're headed to Hawaii for a few days at the newly opened Andaz Maui.

All in all, it's shaping up to be a great year.  All of these trips have been fully "paid for" with points and miles.  I hope you'll come along for the ride and maybe pick up a thing or two.

How Many Miles Did We Earn in 2014?

I keep a pretty organized (happy to share if you'd like just let me know below) spreadsheet containing a ton of information about my mileage earning.  It also helps me keep track of our credit card applications, minimum spend required, etc...this is very much a team effort as Emily earned a little over 44% of the total in 2014.  You can read about our earnings in 2013 here.

I looked back at the spreadsheet this morning and summarized it below.  We earned almost 1.3 million miles and points last year with the vast majority coming from credit card bonuses.  We applied for (and were approved for all) 22 credit cards in 2014.  Read this post first if you are new to the concept of earnings points/miles through credit card bonuses.

2014 Earnings

The rest of our earnings shown above were a mix of goodwill from service issues, promotions and other random sign-up bonuses.  We earned 400,000 American Airlines miles from five CC sign-up bonuses which we leveraged to fly Cathay Pacific First Class home from Hong Kong.  The Citi American Executive Platinum was huge as we grabbed three of those and netted 300,000 AA miles for only $750 in fees!

We also used this stash to book a first class flight to Europe on British Airways.  We earned 80,000 Alaska Airlines miles which we'll use for a flight on Emirates in the future.  I did use some of those points to upgrade my parents on their flight to Hawaii earlier this year.

Cathay Pacific First Class - only 67,500 miles one-way to/from Asia!

This doesn't include the miles we earned by flying/staying which amounted to another 125,000.  We also purchased a handful of miles (20,000) during a couple of promotions across the year and earned around an additional 120,000 or so miles and points for our "everyday" spend including category bonuses and shopping portal bonuses.

All in, that is over 1.5 million miles and points generated during 2014!  So where do things stand in terms of point balances now?  According to Award Wallet, we have (again) over 1.6 million miles "in the bank."  This time last year, we had 1.633M points and miles.  So we are basically are at the same number despite of points and miles despite a ton of burn for our trips to Bali and Hong Kong/Taipei!  We need to do a better job of using them I guess!

How I Got Started - Part Two

In case you haven't read part one, here's the link...

So I started getting serious about credit card “churning” in 2012.  Meaning I applied for a round of credit cards every 90 days or so.  I wish I would have discovered it earlier as I would have saved myself a lot of flying.  Leveraging credit cards to earn points and miles can be FAR more lucrative than actually flying.  In fact, over the past three years, Emily and I have collected more than 3,500,000 points and miles from credit card sign-up bonuses.  That doesn’t include points and miles for everyday spend, bonus categories, special offers, or retention bonuses.  Friends, family, and even blog readers have been skeptical.  My credit score has never been higher and my “AwardWallet” account has never been fuller.

Is that a mermaid or a lion?

A week before our wedding we were in Boulder doing what else…preparing for the wedding.  I woke up Saturday morning and checked my email and started reading about how Singapore Airlines had been undergoing a system conversion and mistakenly released all premium award availability to United.  People were booking premium trips (not inventory normally available to MileagePlus members) like crazy.  In business class, first class, and suites class.  I woke Emily up and asked here if she wanted to go to Singapore.  In a haze she asked me what I was up to.  "Seriously - want to go to Singapore next year - it’s a long flight but it will be comfortable.  Here…watch this video of Singapore Airlines First Class.”  After watching the video of the seat, food and service all she could say was “Um, okay!”  So we booked the “mistake” award to Singapore and flew international first class on a real airline together for the first time.  We sat next to Chelsea Clinton.  We explored Singapore and we made plans to return.  Which we did earlier this year.

How I Got Started - Part One

A few readers have asked that I provide a bit of background on how I got started with this hobby.  It's a bit lengthy so I broke it up into two parts.  Here's part one:

It all started in college.  I didn’t realize it at the time but I was about to embark on a life long obsession with traveling for free (okay for cheap).  I did what typical college juniors do.  I flew home a few times a year, I visited friends at other campuses, and I studied somewhere else (Washington D.C.) and I took a random trip to New York to see my college roommate Dana on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”  Dana would get the third question wrong (although he would later return to show without me and win $64,000) because we were out late the night before partying but the frequent flyer miles I racked up during the year made me a newly minted United (what is now Premier Silver) frequent flyer for flying 25,000 miles in a calendar year.  It was 2003 and that was my first taste of elite status.

The next year, I graduated from college and worked on a political campaign.  I mailed in a copy of my college transcript proving that I graduated (unfortunately the program has been discontinued) and United gave me 10,000 MileagePlus miles.  Seriously.  Emily (now my wife) was still in school at Lehigh University.  One fall weekend, we met in Philly for a weekend and I had to ask my parents to borrow some SPG points to pay for the hotel and they were kind enough to help out.  The next year, I moved to Washington, D.C. and started a job at the Corporate Executive Board and picked up my first Starwood American Express.  I worked with a guy who had previously sold Westin timeshares and he told me this was the best credit card I could get.

In 2006, I was promoted and started a job as a traveling outside salesman.  I spent over $100,000 on my corporate credit card in one year.  I stayed nearly 100 nights in hotels.  I met Emily in Europe while she was studying abroad and we had a wonderful long weekend at the Westin Paris courtesy of all those SPG points.  I flew over 100,000 miles and made United 1K in 2007 for the first time and gifted “Premier Associate” status to my 21 year old girlfriend.  Upgrades were easier back then and I flew first class most of the time at 25.

One Simple Idea to Make Your Trips More Memorable

Before our July trip to Bali, I read a great and very simple idea to make trips more memorable.  Photo books are great but they take a lot of work!

The idea:

• Buy a new bottle of cologne/perfume in the duty free shop during a layover
• Use it during your trip.  
• When you get home, put the bottle in the rotation
• When you wear the new scent, you'll be reminded of the great trip you had

Seemed simple enough so I picked up a bottle of Tom Ford Noir in the Incheon airport and used it throughout our trip to Bali.  When I returned home, I put the bottle in my rotation and found myself thinking of Bali each morning I put it on.  

The Ultimate Travel Hacking Sin

I've been working on putting together an end of year trip to Asia for awhile.  Originally we were going to take a bit more time off and head to multiple areas of the continent but for a variety of reasons that wasn't in the cards this year.

So we decided to head back to our favorite place (Hong Kong) and add a few days in Taipei over New Years.  The issue has been finding saver award availability over the holidays.  We're fortunate to have millions of frequent flyer miles across all the major alliances but I kept striking out on finding space for two on the dates we needed.

Looking across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island

As I posted about a few weeks ago, we did find space on the direct United San Francisco to Hong Kong flight the day after Christmas.  While there are certainly better hard/soft products to get you to Asia, the flight time is convenient and we took this exact same flight two years ago (in business class) on our honeymoon.  Plus we get to fly in the nose of a 747.  Something I've always wanted to do.

Using British Airways Avios, I was able to snag two seats on Cathay Pacific for the two hour hop between Hong Kong and Taipei.  We'll get to try Cathay's business class on the way there and first on the return.  A new airline and multiple classes!

But getting home was proving impossible.  We had everything set including our hotel reservations.  There was availability on American's Hong Kong to Dallas route featuring their new 777-300ER product and new flagship first class.  The only issue was that the flight was only bookable at the "anytime" level.  American charges nearly 3x to book these awards!!  So instead of 67,500 miles/person/each way they charge 210,000!

We had over 550,000 American miles thanks to some amazing 2014 credit card bonuses and we really wanted to make the trip a reality.  So I pulled the trigger on two "anytime" first class seats at 210,000 AA miles each and committed the ultimate travel hacking "sin."

I am keeping my eye on availability to see if anything "cheaper" becomes available but at least we have something.  And that is what makes this game/hobby fun.  Everyone has a different reason for playing but at the end of the day making a trip possible is what it's all about.

How to Train Your Wife

Before we took our first long haul trip (December 2012) together, I couldn't get Emily to do any of her online shopping through miles earning shopping portals.  It just "took too much time" and "wasn't worth it" she told me.

Chase Freedom 5x Quarterly Bonus Categories

This morning she was looking for some shoes at Bloomingdale's and not only was she using her Chase Freedom card to earn 5x points (quarterly bonus) but she was double dipping going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall earning another 5x.  Ultimate Rewards points are worth about $.02 to me so that's 20% off (10 x $.02) the purchase for maybe an extra two minutes of work.

Not sure how she changed her behavior but I have a feeling this is what happened..

How to Manage Vacation Photos

One of the most challenging aspects of coming home from a trip is figuring out what to do with all those photos.  It doesn't matter if it was a family reunion, wedding weekend, couples getaway, or a RTW trip in international first class...we all take a million photos.

They're on multiple devices...sometimes the same picture on my phone, Emily's phone, and our point and shoot camera.  I want to remember the trips we've taken and share with others (beyond this blog) and I don't want to resort to sorting through thousands of pictures on dropbox.

Our favorite photo book (and picture) from our trip to Bali

Our solution is twofold.  First, we pick the best pictures from each of our trips and we print and frame them.  We have a nice collection of photos in our dining room from Hong Kong, Istanbul, Dubai, Thailand, and Singapore.  That part is relatively easy.

Second, we (well actually I) make photo books.  I've used a bunch of different platforms over the years from Photozini (now out of business) to Blurb.com.  But the best platform I've used to date is Artifact Uprising.

A few of our vacation photo books

They are actually a local Denver company and the quality of both the software for creating the books and the actual book itself is very high.  I've used them to purchase some prints as well from Bali that our hanging in our bedroom.  Brad Feld wrote a great piece a few months ago on a similar topic - wroth the read.

I love looking back at the books and sharing them with friends and family.  It's a great way to relive the trip and well worth the time it takes to sort and edit pictures.

Curb to Train in 4 Minutes

I'm flying today and set a new personal record.  I made it from the curb at DIA to the train (that provides transportation to the gates) in four minutes.  There was a pretty big general security line (probably 10-15 minutes waiting time) but no pre-check line.

Three beeps later, I was speeding through the metal detector to grab my bags and head for the train.  I can't say enough good things about the TSA's pre-check program.  Getting through an airport would really suck without it!

Smoothest Weekend Trip in a Long Time

Emily and I were in Vegas over the weekend and had perhaps on of the smoothest weekend trips ever.  There is definitely an art to planning a weekend getaway since you're short on time and a good portion of that time is taken up by traveling and sleeping.  But we're at the place now where we can leave Friday after work and return Sunday and still feel ready to tackle the week.

The logistics absolutely matter and things like pre-check, lounge access, and wifi on planes make a short weekend more enjoyable.

We left Denver around 4 on Friday and were in the parking garage by 4:30.  In three minutes we had one of the best (probably the best) parking spots we've ever had at DIA.  We were literally 100 feet from the terminal.  Three beeps later and we were through pre-check and on our way to Lounge 5280 for a pre-flight cocktail.

Our flight boarded on time and was completely empty.  We had exit row 21 (pro tip:  always select row 21 on United flights if you're able to get an exit row) all to ourselves.  As they shut the door my upgrade cleared so of course I sent Emily upfront.  While she enjoyed a cocktail and a bigger seat, I had three seats to myself and fast wifi.

We landed 15 minutes early and made our way to the Centurion Lounge for some dinner.  We had a great time on Saturday checking out the brand new SLS Las Vegas and eating dinner at Andrea's which is one of the best new restaurants in town.

We woke up this morning...showered, packed, and headed to the airport around 9 for our 11AM flight.  We literally made it from the hotel room through security in 30 minutes thanks to light traffic and pre-check.

Another stop in the Centurion Lounge for breakfast and some fantasy football line-up setting before boarding.  I'm writing this at 37,000 feet while watching the second half of the morning NFL games.

We'll be on the ground by 2...giving us plenty of time to get home and enjoy our Sunday afternoon.  If only things went this smoothly at the blackjack table.

Nothing Booked in 2015

Usually about this time of year I start booking travel for the following calendar year.  It was really warm in Denver this weekend but fall is definitely coming and it's always good to have a handful of getaways planned once it starts dumping and the temperatures plummet.  

The rest of 2014 is pretty busy - Vegas in October, New York in November, St. Barths in December...and then hopefully Asia over New Years.  But as of now, we don't really have anything booked.  We have a loose trip planned to Europe next May but that is it.

So I'm thinking about booking some speculative hotel rooms...in Vegas, Phoenix, LA...maybe Mexico...maybe Panama City.  

Berners Tavern - London Edition - should we go back?

But I'm not entirely sure what we'll end up doing.  Where should we go?  What would you like to see on the blog in 2015?

AlltheRightPoints.com

Check it out.  The blog is now hosted at www.alltherightpoints.com. 

So bookmark and tell your friends.  The old (blogger) link will work as well.

Blog Update After 50 Posts

It's hard to believe, but I've already posted 50 times (here's post # 1) across the past 7 weeks.  I started this blog basically to get thoughts out of my head and on (virtual) paper.  Over the past couple of years, we've taken some incredible trips and people are constantly asking me why we chose a certain place, hotel, flight or how we could afford to go to Singapore for 4 days in Singapore First Class.

I've learned a tremendous amount by reading and trying things out so I decided to start this blog in the hope that I can share some of what I've learned with friends, family, and others.

Hopefully you've enjoyed my posts thus far but I'd really like to make sure I post on topics that are interesting/helpful to you.  So please let me know (in the comments below, via Twitter, Instgram, you can email me, etc...) what topics would be helpful.  It could be about a specific location, trip, airline, hotel chain, elite status, credit card...whatever.

You can receive updates on content by following me on Twitter, Instagram, subscribing to the blog feed on the right hand navigation, or bookmarking the blog and returning daily.  Thanks for your support and here's to another 50 posts!

Taking Trains Around International Cities

When we visit a new city, there are two great ways to move around physically also get to see how people live everyday.  One is to walk...the second is to take the train.  Most major international cities have metros/subways/trains and for the most part, they are reliable, clean, and super cheap.  Taking the train is also a great way to get a feel for the vibe of the city, dress, where people are going, the languages they speak.  We try not to take cabs as much as possible but we break down once in awhile.

In each city, Emily tries to grab a picture (three examples below) of me working to figure out the ticket dispenser for train tickets...a tradition we very much started by accident.

Each ticket dispense is different.  Credit cards are widely accepted but it's not always obvious how to change the language on the ticket dispenser, calculate the fare for a specific destination or even figure out what will be dispensed by the machine.  In Istanbul, they use red plastic tokens (these are really cool - we bought an extra as a souvenir) vs. paper cards.  I always use my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card to get 2x points on travel and because the card doesn't incur foreign transaction fees.

Super Clean Dubai Metro

The Art of the Weekend Trip

We are fortunate to be able to travel as much as we do.  We both have full-time jobs but for the most part our weekends are free.  We don't have kids (yet) or a dog (yet) so we're able to manage our schedule without too much juggling.  Over the past few years we've taken a crazy number of weekend trips.  We've been to San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Washington, and Phoenix.  And we've been to most of those places more than once.  We've taken a three day trip to Hawaii and a four day trip to Singapore.

Last weekend at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA

How Many Miles Did We Earn in 2013?

I keep a pretty organized (happy to share if you'd like just let me know below) spreadsheet containing a ton of information about my mileage earning.  It also helps me keep track of our credit card applications, minimum spend required, etc...this is very much a team effort as Emily earned roughly 48% of the total.

I looked back at the spreadsheet this morning and summarized it below.  We earned almost 1.7 million miles and points last year with almost 90% of that coming from credit card bonuses.  We applied for (and were approved for all but one) 24 credit cards in 2013.  Read this post first if you are new to the concept of earnings points/miles through credit card bonuses.

The rest of our earnings were a mix of goodwill from service issues, promotions and other random sign-up bonuses.

We earned over 500,000 Hilton points which (enough after their devaluation) is good enough for 6 nights at the Conrad in the Maldives.  This property can retail for over $1,500 per night so that is almost $10,000 in value!

We have already burned the 321,500 American Express Membership Rewards points we earned to fly Singapore Airlines Suites Class back from Bali in July.

Conrad Maldives

This doesn't include the miles we earned by flying/staying which amounted to another 225,000.  We also purchased a handful of miles (25,000) during a couple of promotions across the year and earned around an additional 150,000 or so miles and points for our "everyday" spend including category bonuses and shopping portal bonuses.

All in, that is over 2 million miles and points generated during 2013!  So where do things stand in terms of point balances now?  According to Award Wallet, we have over 1.6 million miles "in the bank."  We are planning a few trips for later in the year so hopefully we'll be able to put them to good use very soon.  All in all, it was a very good year in terms of earning and burning!

2013 Year in Review - Hotels

I spent some time over the holidays compiling a few stats from 2013.  We stayed in some awesome hotels (and had some great flights) all over the world.  There was less business and more personal travel  I ended the year with 55 total nights across Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, and IHG.  About 8 of the nights were business travel and I earned 10 total "night credits" with my Starwood American Express credit cards.  I closed out the year with four "mattress runs" to re-qualify for Starwood Platinum for 2014.

The four incremental stays brought me to 25 nights and cost about $250.  I'll have more on on the value of Starwood Platinum in a future post but for me...the combination of the renewal gift, free internet, upgrades, and free breakfast during each stay for the next 14 months far outweighs the $250 spent to re-qualify at the end of this year.

Here are a few of the highlights and pictures from 2013:

2013 Year in Review - Flights

Happy New Year!  I spent some time over the holidays compiling a few stats from 2013.  Overall, it was a was a really fun year in flight.  There was less business and more personal travel.  I still managed to fly over 87,000 miles after flying 107,000 in 2012.

I redeemed United miles for two amazing award trips to Singapore and Dubai/Istanbul.  I flew both Singapore (thanks to the July 2012 mistake) and Lufthansa First Class and thoroughly enjoyed my United 1K status throughout the year. 

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Visited 7 countries (6 new)
• Visited 2 continents (Europe & Asia)
• Flew on 6 airlines (United, Frontier, Thai, Singapore, Lufthansa, & Turkish)
• Flew 56 segments
• Flew 87,361 miles
• Visited 30 airports in 10 countries including 13 US States
• Shortest flight was Phuket to Bangkok at 417 miles
• Longest flight was Istanbul to Houston at 6,388 miles
• Favorite flight was Lufthansa First Class Dallas - Frankfurt

And the visuals:

2013 Domestic Flights

 2013 International Flights

I am excited to see what 2014 has to offer.  We already have some great trips planned!