Starwood Selling Points at a Discount

Through May 31st, Starwood is selling SPG points at (up to) a 25% discount.  If you haven't read my getting started post on buying points and miles, start here.

While not the best deal in the world, the 20,000+ purchase block brings the total cost down to ~2.6 cents.  Although SPG points are tough to acquire, they do run this promotion a handful of times each year (I have taken advantage of it in the past).

It is pretty easy to get more value out of SPG points than that.  For example, we're headed to The Phoenician in Scottsdale in a couple of weeks.  Our room (booked prior to SPG category change) cost 12,000 SPG points and at the time of booking, was selling for over $500 AI.  That's well over 4 cents a point.

I wouldn't speculatively buy these points but if you are headed on a trip and have enough points for 3 nights and want to go for 5, purchasing enough points to get the 4th for free would also get you the 5th.  Remember - Starwood gives the 5th night free on award redemptions.  So from that perspective, you would get a lot for your money.

Earning Starpoints with Uber

I've been meaning to write a post about Starwood's partnership with Uber but just haven't gotten around to it.  If you're not familiar with the details, you can check them out here.  The partnership enables SPG members to earn 1 Starpoint per dollar spent with Uber.  Double that if you ride during a Starwood stay.  Triple it if you are staying with Starwood and are an elite member (I am).  You'll see your Uber bonus points post on your SPG account within 1-2 days.

Remember - to earn the SPG points, you'll need to have at least one SPG stay.  This is an awesome way to earn extra Starwood points which are both extremely valuable and difficult to obtain.

What's in My Wallet - March 2015 Edition

It's been awhile since I've posted about what's in my wallet.  I'm going to try and keep this up quarterly.  You can check out other posts here:

What's in My Wallet?  October 2014

What's in My Wallet?  April 2014

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

1)  Amex Simply Cash Business Credit Card

I usually prefer to earn points and miles vs. cash back, but this offer is pretty hard to pass up given the strong bonus ($250 on $5,000 in spend so 5x cash back all with no annual fee) and bonus categories (5x on office supplies and cell/cable bills, 3x on a category of your choice - in my case restaurants).  This card is a keeper given the lack of an annual fee although I probably won't put a ton of spend on the card once receiving the signup bonus.

2)  Barclays US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard

Given the merger with American and the fact that this card is going away (likely in April) as the merger progresses, I figured I'd pick up this card again (I've had it before a couple years back).  The sign-up bonus is really strong - 50,000 USAir miles after first purchase for an $89 annual fee.  These miles will become AA miles in April so you should definitely get this card before it goes away.  The card is still in my wallet due to a promotion Barclays is running offering 1.5x miles for the next few months.  After that, I'll stick it in a drawer.

3)  Chase Sapphire Preferred

All of my travel spend goes on the CSP.  Once I've hit the sign-up bonus on my Simply Cash Business card, I'll move back to the CSP for restaurant spend.

4)  Amex Starwood Preferred Guest

This card is perpetually in my wallet.  In fact, I just paid my taxes with the card.  Even though there is a ~2% fee to pay taxes with a credit card, it's a no brainer for me.  I would buy Starwood points all day long at 2%.  I am staying at The Phoenician Resort in May for 12,000 points a night.  The cash rate is >$500 per night.  If I was to "buy points" at $.02 that would be $240 per night...a huge discount versus the $500 cash rate.

Review: W Taipei

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
The Bridge Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
The Wing Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge
Cathay Pacific 777-300 ER First Class Hong Kong to Los Angeles

The cab from TPE to the W took about 40 minutes and cost 1200 TWD (~$38USD).  Upon arrival we were greeted warmly by the bell staff.  The main lobby of the hotel is actually on the 11th floor. We had a ton of stuff so we gave the bellman our bags and headed up to 11 to check in.  There was a dedicated check-in desk for Gold and Platinum members and we were helped immediately.

W Taipei Lobby

W Taipei Exterior

2014 Year in Review: Hotels

I recently posted about my 2014 year in flight.  You can also read about my 2013 hotel stays here.

In 2014, We stayed in really great hotels although didn't receive as many "upgrades" as in prior years.  I'll end the year with ended the year with 57 total nights (I was at 55 last year) across Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, and independent brands.  Interesting to note that 5 of our stays and 13 of our nights were at independent properties where we were unable to earn/burn points.

None of the nights were business travel although 10 of the "nights" were credit from the Starwood American Express cards and two additional nights were "mistakes" credits.  So I actually stayed in hotels 45 nights during 2014.  I will be dropping from Starwood Platinum to Gold (lifetime) which I'm okay with.

Starwood Gold for Life

Starwood sent me a nice note a couple of days ago after I qualified for SPG Lifetime Gold.  250 nights over 10 years in the program means I've averaged 25 nights per year since joining.  While Starwood Gold is pretty easy to obtain through spend on the Amex SPG card or holding the Amex Platinum card, it's great to get it for "free" for life without jumping through any additional hoops.

I've had some great stays over the years.  A few recent stays include the St. Regis in Bali, St. Regis in San Francisco, and the Grosvenor House in Dubai.  Earning 3x points on all stays, free internet, and the chance at an upgrade will definitely keep me loyal to Starwood...even in years when I don't qualify for top tier Platinum stays which will be the case in 2015.

How to Build Your Own "Cash & Points" Redemption

One of the best uses of hotel points is the "cash and points" redemption.  Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, IHG, and Starwood, all offer some sort of cash and points redemption opportunity.  Often times, you can get "more value" out of your points redeeming this way vs. redeeming points outright for a room.

That said, it can be challenging at times to find availability.  So sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.  Em and I are presently in New York for the weekend and wanted to stay at the W Union Square.  When we first made the reservation, rates were going for $400++ so I booked two nights at 20,000 SPG points a piece.  That's a steep price to pay but getting 2.25 cents a point isn't bad either.

Friday night in Union Square

Over the last couple of months, rates dropped from $400 to $350 and finally down to $270.  But I could only secure that rate for the first night of our stay.  The second night was going for $370.

So I made my own "cash and points" rate by booking the first night at $270 and the second for 20,000 points.  If you average the two nights, that's $135 and 10,000 points per night.  Compare that to the Starwood Category 6 cash and points rate of $180 cash and 10,000 points per night and I'm actually coming out ahead.

I was able to quickly chat with SPG Platinum customer support and they linked the reservations together.  Upon check in, we were upgraded to a suite (two categories) for the first night but they only had availability the second night at a one level upgrade.  We opted to "downgrade" the first night so we didn't have to switch rooms on Saturday night.

That was a good choice as our Spectacular room is spacious (as far as NYC rooms go) and has a great view of Union Square.

Ringing in 2015: Planning & Booking

Introduction
Planning & Booking
United 747 Global First San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Club
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class A340 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
W Hong Kong
American Airlines 777-300 ER Flagship First Class Hong Kong to Dallas

We're only 40 days away from our trip and we're pumped.  Emily is always slightly bummed in the few days after Christmas (no more presents to open or family to hangout with) so it is great to have a trip to look forward to.

In the scheme of things, this trip was relatively easy to book.  There are three award tickets (two one-ways and a roundtrip) and three hotel stays.  Not like our last trip where we had five hotel stays including two overnights and four flight segments to get to our first destination!  If I had more time, we could make the itinerary MUCH more complicated but I still feel like we got great value from our hard earned miles and points.

Here's how we booked the trip:

Ringing in 2015: Introduction

Introduction
Planning & Booking
United 747 Global First San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Club
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class Taipei to Hong Kong
W Hong Kong
American Airlines 777-300 ER Flagship First Class Hong Kong to Dallas

I've already dripped a couple of posts around our flight to Hong Kong and the return flight so figured I might as well write the first couple of posts since the holidays are coming up and things tend to get busy.  Beyond that, we had a flood in our house a few days ago and while everyone is okay, our house is a mess.  We were looking forward to this trip before but now we are REALLY looking forward to a week on the other side of the world.  And writing about the trip gets me even more excited.  Anyway..now on to the intro.

We had originally planned a more robust trip to Asia where we could spend more time in each place and also see more places.  For a variety of reasons, we had to rethink our itinerary so that we could be here for Christmas and return prior to the first week of January.  That left us with 8-10 days to play with.

Nearly 18,000 miles in the air - courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper

We knew we wanted to go back to Hong Kong as it's easily one of our favorite places in the world.  The combination (and juxtaposition) of cultures, sheer size of the city, and the setting make it a great place to visit.  We'll be leaving for Hong Kong on the 26th of December which has special meaning for us - we took the same flight two years ago when we departed on our honeymoon and also got engaged on the 26th four years ago.  Last time around we stayed on the Kowloon side at the W...this time we decided to mix it up and stay on Hong Kong Island at the Grand Hyatt.

So we'll spend a few days in Hong Kong exploring before we head to Taipei for three nights.  We are really excited about Taipei.  It's just a quick hop (2 hours) from Hong Kong and from everything we've read, is a real gem of a city.

We're staying at the W which is supposed to be one of the best of the W's.  The location is perfect and we'll have a great view of the Taipei 101 (second tallest building in the world) New Year's celebration.

We then head back to Hong Kong for one night where we'll return to the W we stayed at in 2012 before heading home on American's 777-300ER direct to Dallas.

Hong Kong taxi and view of the skyline

Flying "legacy carrier" first class from the US to Asia was once the way to go.  Not so much anymore with all of the competition from Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines among others.  But it will be fun to ride in the nose of a 747 (I'm in seat 1K where the window faces slightly forward) and see what American has to offer on their brand new 777.  And it will be fun to compare to our previous first class experiences.

I'm most looking forward to the actual trip and getting there in style just makes it that much more fun.  The entire trip was paid for with miles and points with the exception of our last night in Hong Kong.  I'll have all the details on each redemption in the next post but I believe our total cash outlay (for flights and hotels) will end up being less than $600!

What's in My Wallet - October 2014 Edition

This is the next post in my periodic series outlining the cards in my wallet and my rationale for spending on each.  I try to be as purposeful (and organized) as possible about the cards in my wallet and when each one comes out.  The best analogy is really a swiss army knife.  You want to have a handful of tools for different jobs and understand which tool to use for a specific job (purchase).  This will help you maximize your earning on spend.

Here are the four cards (in addition to my debit card) in my wallet this month:

1)  Starwood Preferred Guest American Express

I put half of my non-bonuses everyday spending on this card and the other half on my Chase BA card.  Starwood points are among the most difficult to earn yet the most valuable.  Putting non-bonuses spend (i.e. non dining and entertainment which go on the Sapphire card) is a great way to earn incremental Starwood points.

2)  Citi Executive AAdvantage World MasterCard 

I've already earned the bonus on my first of these cards.  I'm working on the second at the moment and should be complete in October.  After I complete the minimum spend on this card, we'll have earned 327,500 American Airlines miles from these cards this year.  We'll be using the miles to help us get home from Hong Kong later in the year.

3)  Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Card 

No minimum spend needed on this card.  Just my workhorse everyday card earning 2x (actually 2.14X when you include the annual 7% dividend) on travel and dining. This card is also linked to my United dining program account.

4)  Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card 

I've already met the minimum spend on this card as well as the incremental bonuses (25,000 points after spending $10,000 and another 25,000 points after spending $20,000 in the first year of card membership).  I am now working on reaching $30,000 of spend this year in order to earn the British Airways Travel Together Ticket which is basically a 2 for 1 certificate.

Two Nights Away from SPG Lifetime Gold

I logged into my SPG account the other day to check on an upcoming reservation and noticed that I am just two nights away from lifetime Gold status.

We have a W Union Square stay coming up in November so I'll cross the 250 mark in a month or so.  It is crazy to think that I've stayed nearly 250 nights in Starwood properties over the last 11 years.  I won't re-qualify for Starwood Platinum this year but Gold should be fine based on our expected travel in 2015.

Starwood Gold Benefits

I'll post again once I qualify in November.  As a reminder, tt's actually pretty easy to earn Starwood Gold either by staying 10 times in Starwood properties, spending $30,000 in a calendar year on the Starwood Amex, or getting complimentary status with the American Express Platinum.

SPG's Q4 2014 Promotion

Starwood's Q4 promotion is out and it's actually pretty good with one exception.  There are a ton of hotels excluded on the list.

The "More for You" promotion (you have to register by 10/31/14) will award 2x points on eligible stays of 2+ nights. You'll get 3x points if your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night.  So this is a solid promotion for leisure travel.

We actually have a stay coming up at the W Union Square in November that would earn 3x points (in addition to my Platinum elite bonus) but it is one of the excluded hotels.

Since so many hotels are excluded, I wouldn't go out of my way to book more stays with Starwood but if you have work or leisure travel over the next few months, I would definitely register.

How to Request Starwood Missing Stay Credit

A couple of weeks ago, we stayed at the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa.  The stay was great but when I logged on to my account to check that my stay posted correctly, I didn't receive any points for actual spend at the property.  I did receive my SPG Platinum amenity (500 points) and points (1,000) for making "the green choice."  I also received proper night/stay credit toward elite status.

No points for my "award stay"

I spent $270 at the property which should have earned my 3x points (since I'm Starwood Platinum) so I waited until a week after checkout and submitted the "report a missing stay" form within my SPG account.  This is really easy - you can find the form in several places but on the activity screen, it's on the right hand side.

The right hand navigation contains the "Report a Missing Stay" link

You'll need the dates of your stay, property, and rough amount you spent during your stay.  It's really VERY simple.  I filled out the form and within a few days I had an email from Starwood explaining that my account had been updated and the stay "properly credited."  This amounted to 810 points which I value at around $25 so it was definitely worth it to take the 3 minutes out of my day to ensure they posted correctly.

Interesting enough, I also received 2 nights/1 stay towards elite qualification.  Either it was my lucky day, someone made a mistake, or there's a bug in their system when retroactively fixing these issues.

All in, I spent $270 at the property for two nights (Cash and Points) and earned 2,310 Starwood points.  Total value for me is around $70 so not a bad rebate on the spend.  The fact that I received 2 stays and 4 nights toward elite qualification was a bonus:)

Review: St. Regis Bali Resort

Introduction

Planning & Booking

Sheraton JFK Hilton JFK Conrad New York

Asiana 777 First Class Suite New York to Seoul

Asiana First Class Lounge Seoul Incheon

Asiana 767 Business Class Seoul to Bangkok

Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Thai Airways Business Class Lounge & Royal Orchid Spa Bangkok

Thai Airways 777 Business Class Bangkok to Bali

Four Seasons Bali at Sayan

St. Regis Bali Resort

Exploring Bali

Singapore Airlines 777 Business Class Bali to Singapore

Conrad Singapore

Exploring Singapore

Singapore Airlines The Private Room

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class Singapore to Los Angeles

The ride to the St. Regis took about an hour as we wound our way through villages and down to the coast through a mix of rain and sun.  We had arranged transportation through the St. Regis so when we arrived, they were expecting us and our room was ready despite it being a couple of hours before check-in.  Check-in was processed in the lobby while seated enjoying a welcome drink.  All of our Platinum benefits were explained (a few extras given that breakfast is included for all resort guests) and then we were shown to our room.  The only odd part about check-in is that you're seated in chairs in the lobby but the agent has to run back and forth to the desk with your credit card, passport, etc...which seemingly makes things inefficient.  But we were relaxed and on vacation so didn't really care.

Welcome to the St. Regis Bali

Welcome drink

Lobby shot

The grounds of this property are beautifully maintained.  There are 110 rooms (vs. about 60 at the Four Seasons) many of which are villas so the guest to room ratio is higher.  My guess is that there were about 300 people staying at the resort during our stay.  But between the size of the beach, lagoon pool, and other stuff to do in Bali, it never really felt crowded.

Elite Status "Status" Update

As we near the half way point of 2014, I wanted to provide an update on where things stand in terms of status qualification.  The last time I discussed status qualification was prior to 2014 in one of my first posts.  Being based in Denver, my main airline program is United.  In terms of hotels, Starwood is my program of choice although I have a lot of Hilton and Hyatt stays coming up in the next 6 months.

United:

After United gutted their award chart and the MileagePlus program earning structure, I feel much less included to go out of my way to re-qualify for Premier Gold (requiring 50,000 miles flown).  Half way through the year, I've flown. 18,491 qualifying miles.  I have another 8,000 or so miles booked already so will easily qualify for Premier Silver which essentially provides no value.  I really value Premier Gold for the ability to select Economy Plus seats at booking and change flights within 24 hours of departure for free but there's no way I am going to fly an incremental 23,000 miles  this year for those benefits.

I will likely fly more on award tickets next year anyway as we are sitting on about 300,000 United miles that need to be used.

How Many SPG Points Can You Earn From One Stay?

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Toronto for the weekend.  The original plan was to stay at the Westin with Cash & Points.  But I found a great deal and changed the reservation to a cash rate of $264 USD for the entire stay.

I've pasted my SPG activity below (ignore the CC spend and the W Union Square redemption) to illustrate how many points you can earn on one stay:

• I spent a total of $279 and earned 837 points (3x) because I am a Starwood Platinum
• I took the points (500) as my Platinum amenity
• I went for the Starwood Green Choice (meaning no housekeeping) and earned an additional 500 points
• Starwood's current quarterly promotion (SPG Earn Away) offers double points so I earned another 558 points from the promotion
• Since the stay was in Canada, I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card with no foreign transaction fees and earned 2x points for my travel (hotel) spend

So in total, I earned 2,395 SPG points for my 2 night stay.  I value SPG points at $.03 each so that's a "rebate" of $72.  I also earned 558 Chase Ultimate Rewards points which I value at $.02 each so that's an additional $11.

All in, I earned a "rebate" of $83 on $279 in spend.  The combination of savvy choices, (Green Choice) elite status, and leveraging the right credit card and hotel promotion can really add up!

Suite Trip to Bali: Planning & Booking

Introduction

Planning & Booking

Sheraton JFK

Asiana 777 First Class Suite New York to Seoul

Asiana First Class Lounge Incheon

Asiana 767 Business Class Seoul to Bangkok

Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Thai Airways Business Class Lounge Bangkok & Royal Orchard Spa

Thai Airways 777 Business Class Bangkok to Bali

Four Seasons Bali at Sayan

St. Regis Bali Resort

Exploring Bali

Singapore Airlines 777 Business Class Bali to Singapore

Conrad Singapore

Exploring Singapore

Singapore Airlines The Private Room

Singapore Airlines First Class Suite Singapore to Los Angeles

As I mentioned in the introduction, we originally booked this trip for February of 2014.  So the planning process actually started late last summer when we had amassed enough Amex Membership Rewards points to book two first class return tickets from Singapore.  We knew we wanted to go to Bali and we knew we wanted to fly Singapore Suites.  So once we got that piece of the trip booked, most everything else fell into place.  Since we booked one-way tickets, I've broken up the booking thought process for each leg of the trip below.  If you have questions about the trip, let me know in the comments or email me.

This is the last pre-trip post.  Get ready for the actual trip reports coming in July.

Denver - Bali:

Getting to Bali is hard.  It's not that close to anything and from Denver, you're in for three flights at a minimum.  Last summer, I booked one-way business class tickets flying from Denver to Toronto United.  Then Toronto to Taipei on EVA with the final leg on EVA continuing on to Bali.  In December, first class space opened up (see:  importance of gardening reservations) on the Asiana New York to Seoul route.  This is the only Asiana (until they launch their A380) flight operated from the US with the closed door suites so it was an easy decision to change the routing.  The change required a nerve racking call to United (they weren't sure they could book the ticket and I was on hold for almost 30 minutes) but it ticketed and we have seats and an Asiana booking reference number.  There was no cost to change the routing - just an incremental 10,000 miles a piece for the first class segment.

Asiana First Class Suite

Because of the routing change, we'll have four flight segments and two overnights (first in New York then in Bangkok).  It's a lot of flying but we'll get to experience the Asiana suite, first class lounge in Seoul, and the Royal Orchard Spa in Bangkok.  Our final itinerary looks like this:

DEN - LGA in United First
JFK - ICN in Asiana First
ICN - BKK in Asiana Business (Two Cabin Flight)
BKK - DPS in Thai Business (Two Cabin Flight)

Total Cost:  140,000 United Miles & $28.80 in taxes and fees

Bali - Denver:

First, we had to figure out how to get from Bali to Singapore which was pretty easy.  I booked us in Singapore Airlines for the 2.5 hour ride to Singapore using United miles.  There are no fuel surcharges on this route which is great.

Singapore Airlines used to only make Suites class tickets available for around 1,000,000 miles per ticket.  They changed this policy at some point and now enable their own frequent flyer members (KrisFlyer) to book at the standard first class price.  Finding one seat at the lowest level (saver) is pretty easy but it's virtually impossible to find two seats on a flight to the US.  So if you want two seats on the same flight, your best bet is tell book one at the saver level and one at the standard level.  Luckily, we had been stocking up on American Express Membership Rewards points from multiple credit card sign-up bonuses.  Once I found the flights, I transferred the points in my KrisFlyer account and waited.  The transfer took a couple of days and it was time to book the flights online.

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites

Singapore Airlines provides a 15% discount if you book online.  The saver award ticket cost us 91,375 miles and the standard ticket cost us 178,500 miles.  Certainly a lot of miles but worth it considering this is the only way to fly this product together.  We also had to pay the fuel surcharges which total $796 USD.  During the 19 hour flight, I am pretty sure we will polish off a few bottles of Krug.  So we're getting a good amount of value for the fuel surcharges:)

Since the Singapore - LA flights using Singapore KrisFlyer miles, I had to pay our own way back to Denver.  I booked one way economy tickets on United for $290.  Our final itinerary looks like this:

DPS - SIN in Singapore Business (Two Cabin Flight)
SIN - NRT in Singapore Suites
NRT - LAX in Singapore Suites
LAX - DEN in United Economy

Total Cost:  35,000 United Miles, 269,875 Membership Rewards Points, and $1,086

Hotels:

Emily and I have traveled a fair amount together but we've only had a couple of airport overnights.  So we are doubling that with this trip!  We land at LGA around 10PM and will take a cab over to JFK and stay at the Sheraton JFK.  Rates were reasonable ($180) given the holiday weekend and I've heard the hotel is serviceable for a quick overnight (our flight leaves at 1PM the next day).

In Bangkok, we land around 10:30 PM and have a 9AM flight the next day to Bali.  We both want to be at the airport early the next morning to enjoy the Royal Orchid Spa for a bit so we decided to stay at the Novotel at the airport.  We found a prepaid rate on hotels.com for $130 and we can walk to the hotel.  I'm pretty happy with the decision especially given the current situation in Bangkok.

In Bali, I booked three nights in a pool suite at the St. Regis for 113,250 SPG points.  I have heard amazing things about the hotel...the rooms, property, service, and food are all supposed to be among the best in the SPG portfolio.  It was certainly a lot of SPG points to spend on a few nights but  a pretty good redemption given that rates for this room category (2,000 square feet, pool, butler service, breakfast included, airport transfer included, etc...) typically go for around $1,000/night.

St. Regis Bali

The St. Regis is on the beach and we wanted to spend a few days in Ubud to get a feel for that part of Bali.  We agonized over where to stay since there are SO many places none of which can be reserved with points.  We finally settled on the Four Seasons at Sayan which we are both really excited about.  I booked through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts.  The hotel is pricey but it's the Four Seasons and daily breakfast and a couple of massages are included.  Since most everything else was paid for with miles and points, we figured we could splurge on this hotel and pay cash.

In Singapore, we booked the Conrad using points.  We stayed here last year and loved it.  It is in a great location with a phenomenal lounge.  We hope to explore a bit more of the (albeit small) country and this is a great jumping off point to do just that.

Total Cost:  113,500 SPG Points, 120,000 Hilton Honors Points, $310 plus cash for the Four Seasons

Summary:

This is our second anniversary trip so we wanted to go pretty big.  We managed to redeem 678,375 points and miles for this trip.  Our total out of pocket (with a significant portion going toward our hotel in Ubud) cash expense for the entire trip should be under $3,500.  Considering coach paid tickets to Bali would have set us back about $2,000 each, I feel pretty good about the cost.  We leave in early July so look for the next installment in the next 6 weeks or so.  Thanks for reading!

Toronto for the Weekend

We just returned from our weekend in Toronto.  The weekend was awesome and we had a great time exploring the city.  Here's my consolidated (flights, hotel, city, concert, lounge) review of the weekend.  Enjoy!

We left downtown Denver around 3:15PM for our 5:40PM departure.  Traffic was light and thanks to TSA Precheck we were at lounge 5280 (the best spot for a drink at DEN - located in terminal B) enjoying a pre-flight cocktail.  We made our way to the gate and were quickly on our way to Toronto. If you are ever on a United CRJ-700 and have access to Economy Plus, definitely pick row 7.  The "bulkhead" separating the seat from first class is a "curtain" so you have essentially unlimited leg room.

Mayor Ford welcomes you!

Sorry not Sorry

We landed in Toronto around 11PM and parked at a remote gate.  So we had quite the hike (seriously it took us almost 20 minutes) to get to immigration.  I've always found entering Canada to be pretty comical.  I have made over a dozen trips over the last seven years yet always get interrogated upon arrival.  I think that is the standard treatment but who knows...maybe they think I'm super dangerous.

The Importance of "Gardening" Reservations

About once a month, I "garden" my upcoming hotel and flight reservations.  What does that mean?  I check the out to make sure nothing has changed or if there is anything I can to make them better.  The most common scenario is an airline schedule change which causes an early morning wake up call, a late departure, or a missed connection.  In those cases, finding out about the schedule change prior to departure enables me to either accept the change (with United, you can do this online) or call and request a different flight/connection, etc...because the airlines made the change on purpose (vs. weather, mechanical, etc...) they are FAR more likely to allow you to change your reservation to something better.

But this can be a great strategy with hotel reservations as well.  A few months ago, I posted about our weekend trip to Toronto which is now just a couple of weeks away.  This morning, I checked on our hotel reservation and discovered that the hotel was actually running a promotion the weekend of our stay.  The cash rate had dropped from $252 to $132 per night AI.  

Originally, I had booked using cash and points so the stay would have cost me 10,000 points and $150 for both nights.  So now, I could spend an additional $110 cash and save the 10,000 points.  Since I value the Starwood points at roughly $300, that is a big win...I will definitely put them to good use in the future!

I cancelled the current reservation and rebooked the new one in about 10 minutes.  It doesn't take a ton of time to do this especially if you only travel periodically.  But it is definitely worth the time to ensure that everything goes smoothly and/or you're getting the most value out of your miles/points/cash!

United & Starwood Selling Points at a Discount

United & Starwood are both selling miles at a discount this week.  If you're been reading my blog, you know I am pretty loyal to both brands. 

Starwood will sell you up to 20,000 SPG points at a 25% discount through May 31st while United will sell you miles at a 30% discount when you purchase more than 12,000 through April 23rd.

I don't think either of these are especially good deals but if you are close to an award, the "marginal" value gained by buying a few thousands miles/points can be pretty huge.  You can read my primer on buying miles here.