Showing posts with label United. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United. Show all posts

July 10, 2016

A Trick to Buy United Miles on the Cheap

Buying miles can be a great way to acquire the incremental miles required for an award.  In that sense, they can unlock a ton of value"given that without the purchase of incremental miles, you'd be unable to redeem for the desired award ticket.

In planning our upcoming trip, we were short 1,500 United miles to book the final segment.  While I could have easily transferred 2,000 (you can only transfer in increments of 1,000) Chase Ultimate Rewards points,  I opted to buy some extra miles for exactly 2 cents each.

United's current "buy miles" promotion
United typically sells miles for 3.5 cents plus at 7.5% tax.  That amounts to 3.76 cents per mile.  United's pretty much always having a sale on miles including right now.  The sale is tiered and you can bring down the cost from 3.76 cents a mile to 1.88 cents a mile by buying 150,000 miles for $2,821.

June 19, 2016

1,000 Bonus Miles with United MileagePlus Shopping

United's MileagePlus shopping mall is out with another bonus.  This time, they are offering 1,000 bonus miles for spending $250 between now and 6/30/16.


 They ran a similar promotion in May but there was only a week or so to complete the $250 in spend.  If you're new to earning miles and points by shopping online, you can read the getting started post here.
I'm going to be taking advantage of this promotion as I have a few extra Sephora gift cards to burn.  Sephora is currently paying out at 6x United's portal so for those purchases, I'll be earning 10x points for the purchases leveraging the already discounted gift cards.

Earn 500 United Miles for Using Visa Checkout

You can earn 500 free United miles in about 3 minutes by adding your United MileagePlus credit card to your Visa Checkout account and making a $5+ purchase by 9/30/16.  Note that you have to make the purchase within 15 days of enrolling.  Apparently this is a targeted promotion (Emily had the promo but I did not) and only valid for new Visa checkout accounts.  I have a feeling it will work regardless.


To claim the bonus, click here to go to the landing page and enter your United MileagePlus number.  You'll be asked to login to Visa Checkout to add your United MileagePlus credit card to your account.


You'll be taken the confirmation page showing that you've been enrolled.  The page has prompts to make a purchase at about a dozen Visa Checkout merchants but you can find the full (and much larger) list of merchants here.

I enrolled both of our accounts and made a $10 Starbucks reload purchase with each Visa Checkout account.  The points haven't posted, but I imagine they will in the next few days.

This (in theory) is a quick and easy 500 United miles which I value around $10.  So in the Starbucks reload scenario, you're basically getting the reload for free.

June 5, 2016

United Airlines Targeted Spend Bonus

United's been on a role the last couple of weeks with the announcement of a new business class experience as well as an upgraded offer on their co-branded Chase credit card.

United's also out with a targeted spend promotion which could be fairly lucrative depending not the offer you receive.

Go to this site, enter your United MileagePlus number and you'll be taken to the page with your offer.  Note that flights purchased prior to registration won't count and then promotional period runs through 11/30/16. You'll then receive an email confirming registration and your specific offer.


Both Emily and I received the same offer on our MileagePlus accounts.  
  • Spend $2,500 and earn 10,000 bonus miles
  • Spend $3,000 total and earn 25,000 bonus miles
  • Spend $4,500 total and earn 50,000 bonus miles

We're both unlikely to hit the lowest milestone as $2,500 in spend/flying is a lot.  That said, this is a pretty rich promotion.  At the high end, you're earning north of 11 miles per dollar spent.  Add that to (at least) 2x from credit card spend and 7x (for me as a United Silver) and I'd be earning 20 miles per dollar spent in terms of RDM (redeemable miles).  At my valuation of ~2 cents/United mile, that's 40% off the $4,500 spend in the form of United miles for future travel - not a bad deal at all.

It's definitely worth checking your offer and registration.  There are multiple offers - some with much lower spend requirements.  

June 4, 2016

United Launches Polaris Business Class

United's long lagged the other major US carriers (American/Delta) in terms of business class offerings.  While United "BusinessFirst" is pretty great on the upper deck of the 747, the product is 8 across on the 777 with a 2-4-2 configuration!  That means 4/8 seats have to step over a neighbor to get to the aisle.  Terrible.  I haven't flown Delta or American in a premium cabin but both products are supposed to be far superior to United.


United does offer first class which is marginal at best and being phased out as the 747 fleet gets retired.

Earlier in the week, United held a customer event in New York to launch their new business class experience dubbed Polaris Business Class.  I'm not sure the fancy branding is necessary but at least someone got paid millions of dollars to come up with the name.  The seat will begin rolling out later this year on new 777-300ER aircraft.  It is going to take years (maybe 5) to add the new seat to the existing fleet but they claim that after 12/1/16, you'll be flying "United Polaris Business Class" even if you have the old seat.  That means the soft product should be the same across the entire fleet.

Polaris features a completely redesigned lounge experience with preflight dining at 9 global locations.



United MileagePlus Explorer 75,000 Bonus

Back in March, I wrote about the 55,000 mile United MileagePlus Explorer offer from Chase.  It's been a while since we've seen super compelling credit card offers especially from Chase.


Well now is the time to check your United MileagePlus account to see if you qualify for the a great new offer!  The new offer provides 70,000 Unites miles after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days.  You'll also receive 5,000 bonus miles for adding an authorized user and $50 statement credit.  All of the standard benefits (including 2 free United club passes) still applies.  The annual fee is not waived for the first year.  After meeting the spend requirements, you'll have 78,000 United miles for a cash outlay of $45.  The offer expires 6/30.


I wasn't targeted but Emily was.  She recently received the card (in March) and after a quick secure message to Chase with a couple of screenshots showing that she's been targeted, she was matched to the higher offer!


If you haven't had this card, I would highly recommend logging in to your MileagePlus account to see if you've been targeted.  I value the 78,000 miles at around $1,500.  The value of the club passes is around $45 (you could sell them on eBay for maybe $30 total) so essentially you're getting 78,000 miles for free.


As an example, roundtrip business class ticket to Europe on United runs 115,000 miles.  If you've had the card before, you can get the bonus again as long as it's been 24 months since you last had the product.

May 30, 2016

United Shopping Mall 1,000 Mile Bonus

United's online shopping mall is out with a solid bonus this week.  Spend $250 prior to June 5th and you'll receive 1,000 bonus miles.  That's in addition to the bonused spend through the mall and credit card spend.

Earn rates seem to be fairly low (most stores between 1 and 3 bonus miles) at the moment - much different than the bonuses we usually see during the holidays (5 - 15x).  That said if you are going to spend $250 on stuff this week anyway, you might as well take advantage.  A store offering 2x turns into 6x plus any points you'd receive from credit card spend.

Here are the full rules if you are interested.

May 15, 2016

Award Availability on Lufthansa's Denver to Munich Service

I've written several posts on Lufthansa's brand new (started this week) service from Denver to Munich.  While the route won't have first class forever, availability is quite good at the moment.  

New routes are often great places to look for award availability especially "lower tier" routes like this one.  For those of us living in Denver, having another nonstop option to Europe is awesome.

Keep in mind that Lufthansa only makes first class award seats through partners (i.e. United) available 15 days in advance.  So if you want to fly first class (before it goes away) on this route, you'll have to wait until the last minute.

Here is what first class looks like this month:



As you can see, 8 of the next 15 days have a seat available in first class on the nonstop flight.  This will cost you 110,000 United MileagePlus miles and $55.60 in taxes and fees (one-way).  Close-in business class availability is also quite good at 70,000 miles and $55.60 each way.  

Beyond that, there are only a handful of days this summer with availability in economy or business class.  Hopefully that opens up over time.  I am looking forward to trying the new service out in first class before it's removed next year!

March 27, 2016

United MileagePlus Explorer 55,000 Mile Bonus

I've had the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (personal and business) several times over the last few years.  Emily recently reached her 24 month anniversary of cancelling the personal version (Chase limits sign-up bonuses on products to once every 24 months) so she applied for the card.  The standard bonus you'll see on planes and in airports is terrible.  Only 30,000 miles which really won't get you very far on United.

You should be able to get the higher bonus offer (55,000 miles in total) by logging into your United MileagePlus account.  You'll typically see a banner add on the homepage or after clicking "View Account."

Click on "Learn More"
The higher offer provides 50,000 United miles are spending $2,000 in the first 90 days.  The $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.  You will also receive an additional 5,000 miles for adding an authorized user (Perry has a few cards in our household) as well as 2 United Club passes.

55,000 total bonus miles

If you add an authorized user, you'll have 57,000 miles after reaching the bonus.  That is nearly enough for a roundtrip economy ticket from the US to Europe (60,000) or a one-way business class ticket between the US and Europe on United (Star Alliance partner flights cost 70,000).

United offers a free stopover and open jaw on award tickets making a roundtrip ticket even more valuable.  Given that purchasing that type of ticket (in economy) could run you north of $1,500, that's a pretty solid value from one sign-up bonus.


If you're a United flyer, this is a card worth acquiring.  You'll also receive priority boarding and a free checked bag.  Perks that are especially valuable if you don't already have United status.

March 20, 2016

United Premier Tracker Overview

In terms of loyalty, Starwood and United are my primary hotel and airline programs.  I've been loyal to both really since college and as my work and leisure travel patterns have evolved over the years, both companies continue to provide products that work for me.

Starwood launched a dashboard last year that shows stats towards elite status (both status year and lifetime).  United's done the same in recent months at mystatus.united.com.

To view your tracker, login to your United MileagePlus account and click on "View Premier Progress."

Click on "View Premier Progress"
Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of additional information beyond what is shown on the my account page.  But it's cool to see the data in infographic terms and hopefully United will build this out a bit more in the future.

Current and lifetime stats
I've primarily flown United for 15+ years and am still only at 459,000 lifetime miles.  At this rate, it's going to take another 15-20 years to hit million miler status.  Time to step it up I guess!

Progress towards status year goals

March 12, 2016

Review: United Arrivals Lounge London

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Washington Dulles (IAD) Lounge Hopping
United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London
United Arrivals Lounge London
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge London
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment London to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment Abu Dhabi to New York
American Express Centurion Lounge LGA

Terminal 2 at London's Heathrow Airport is really something.  It is after all, The Queen's Terminal. 

Our bags were out in less than 10 minutes and were soon in the arrivals hall.  It took us a minute to find the arrivals lounge...as you exit, make a left and look for the signage on the wall.  We didn't see any signage on the overhead signs.


Entrance to the LHR Arrivals Lounge in Terminal 2
We were quickly admitted and the lounge attendant asked if we'd like a shower.  Yes was the answer.  They offered to store our larger bags while we showered/ate which was greatly appreciated.  

Review: United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Washington Dulles (IAD) Lounge Hopping
United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London
United Arrivals Lounge London
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge London
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment London to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment Abu Dhabi to New York
American Express Centurion Lounge LGA

Boarding was called promptly at 9:15 and we were greeted at the door of the 777 and shown to our seats.  We were seated in 2C/2H in the so called "honeymoon" seats in the center of the cabin.  Waiting at our seats were two medium sized pillows and a super comfortable (and light) duvet.  

We were highly excited for the flight as it would be our first time flying United Global First.  After more than 20 international first class flights on some of the best airlines in the world, we were both eager to see how United would stack up.  Expectations were low but we both went in with an open mind.

United 777 Global First Seat 2C

Review: Washington Dulles Lounge Hopping

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Washington Dulles (IAD) Lounge Hopping
United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London
United Arrivals Lounge London
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge London
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment London to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment Abu Dhabi to New York
American Express Centurion Lounge LGA

After an easy flight from Denver, we landed at Washington's Dulles airport around 4:30PM.  Our flight to London was scheduled to boarded around 9:15 so we had nearly 5 hours to work/eat/drink/shower before boarding.  We deplaned and took the train over to the B concourse and the Lufthansa Senator lounge.  I lived in the DC area for a few years before moving to Denver and this was my first time on the IAD train.  While I still enjoy the people movers, the train is so much more efficient.  The walk from the train stop to the Lufthansa lounge took maybe 5 minutes. 


IAD train
Boarding passes were scanned and we entered the lounge.  Lufthansa actually has two lounges at this location - a Senator lounge and a Business Class lounge.  


Lufthansa IAD lounge entrance

February 22, 2016

First Class Birthday: Planning & Booking II

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
United Airlines Global First Lounge IAD
United Airlines 777-200 Global First IAD to LHR 
Andaz Liverpool
Etihad Airways Business Class Lounge London
Etihad A380 Business Class London (LHR) to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad A380 First Class Apartments Abu Dhabi to New York (JFK)
The New York EDITION

Update:  I was able to make a few changes (noted below) to our trip over the weekend.  First, a single Etihad First Class Apartment award seat opened up between London and Abu Dhabi.  Like a good husband, I promptly booked the seat and put Emily up front.  I'm still hoping another seat opens up...if not, you'll get my review from the business class cabin and a few comments from Emily about her First Class Apartments experience.  I was also able to change our routing to London.  Two seats opened up in United Global First (777-200) from Washington Dulles to London.  The change cost us 20,000 miles $150 in change fees which perfectly offset the cost for a hotel in Toronto.  I've updated the post below with the changes.  Stay tuned for the trip report segments coming in March!
________ 

I've been grounded since November when we returned from our round the world adventure.  So I am really excited to get back in the air and travel somewhere.  Once we had our Etihad First Class Apartment booked from Abu Dhabi to New York, we just needed to build a trip around it.  We decided on London for a few days prior to Abu Dhabi and New York.  It's been a few years since we were in London and it's one of our favorite cities in the world.  So it was an easy choice.  Here's how I booked everything.

Hotels:

In London, we decided to stay at the Andaz which cost 75,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points, transferred in from Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

In Abu Dhabi, we settled on the Park Hyatt.  We arrive early in the morning (1AMish) and depart early the next morning (3AMish) so I booked two nights to guarantee we can be in the room the entire team.  Not the best use of points/cash but we'll be comfortable and given the overall cost of the trip, made sense.  I booked one prepaid night at a rate of $220 USD.  The second night cost 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points and $125.

In New York, we'll be staying at the New York EDITION for a total of 80,000 Marriott Points.

In total, I used 85,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points and 80,000 Marriott points.  The cash outlay will be $345 for 7 total nights.


Flights:

The flight from Denver to London cost us 160,000 United miles and $11.  London to Abu Dhabi in a combination of Etihad business/first class cost 70,000 American AAdantage miles and $520 in taxes thanks to the dreaded UK premium departure tax.  We received 7,000 miles back for holding the AA Platinum Visa card.

The Etihad first class apartment flight cost us 170,000 AAdvantage miles after the 10,000 mile rebate.  We also paid $73 in taxes.

To get home, we paid cash for a United flight from LGA to DEN.  While the flight actually cost $410 for both of us, I paid with my Citi Prestige card which rebated $250.  So the total cash outlay was $160.

In total, I redeemed 160,000 United miles and 233,000 American miles.  We also paid $764 in taxes, fees, and airfare.

Summary:

Despite the heavy departure tax in London, I still put together a pretty sweet trip for less than $1,109.  I redeemed a total of 558,000 points and miles for all of the flights and hotel nights.    That compares favorably to our previous trip where we spent 654,000 points and miles and more than $2,100 in cash for a 9 night trip.  Stay tuned for the individual trip report segments coming next month!

February 14, 2016

Finding a Star Alliance Partner Confirmation Number

For my upcoming trip to Tokyo, I used United miles to book my trip home on ANA.  Obtaining the ANA confirmation number allows me to select seats and make sure that the award ticketed properly.  Typically, this would require a phone call to United or ANA to retrieve the partner (in this case ANA) confirmation number.  Sometimes, United will make the confirmation number available within the booking on their own website.  I've found this to work for ANA, Air Canada, Turkish, and Air India.  I haven't had luck with Thai or Lufthansa.

United makes it easy to view (some) partner confirmation numbers

To view the partner confirmation number, view your reservation and click on the "view additional confirmation numbers" link.  If an additional confirmation number is available, it will be shown within the modal.  Write down the confirmation number.  You can then enter the confirmation number (often called a booking reference number with international airlines) along with some combination of your name to retrieve the reservation on the partner airline's website.  This should enable you to validate the award ticketed properly, select seats, meals, etc...and save you a phone call!



Huge Improvements to United Award Search

Continuing on the theme of United customer experience enhancements...United overhauled their website last year and the changes were mostly negative.  While the UI has been improved, functionality seemed to go backwards.  Expert mode was removed, (now back) logging in was made more difficult, and searching for awards was made more challenging for a variety of reasons.  Notably, the ability to search for nonstop flights was removed.

Well good news...United has now added back the ability to search for a nonstop award and applied the feature to their "calendar" page where you can search for nonstop awards two months at a time. This is a great enhancement.

Here's how to take advantage.  Go to United.com and login if you have status to see even more award space (United makes additional award inventory available for elite members).

On the "book travel" screen, you'll want to click the "Search for award travel" and "Nonstop" checkboxes.  

Searching for nonstop awards on United's new website

Click search and you'll see the 2 month calendar.

2 months of award availability between LAX and NRT

You can see all of the days across a 2 months window where United has nonstop award availability between two cities.  In this case, LAX and Tokyo's Narita airport.  A white box means no saver (low level) availability, yellow means there is economy saver availability, blue means premium availability, and green means both economy and premium availability at the saver level.

It's now SO much easier to piece together a complicated award.  By searching nonstop availability between two cities and then piecing multiple segments together, you can much more effectively find award space to make that dream itinerary a reality.

Thanks United for making our lives easier!

Gogo Internet on United CRJ

I'm headed back to Denver from a quick visit to San Diego this morning.  6:45AM flight on a CRJ 700.  Typically not the most desirable of flights.  But United is doing a lot to improve the customer experience of late.   I was pumped when I was able to grab exit row 18 (21 on most mainline flights) with a ton of leg room and recline.  I stepped on the plane to find brand new slimline seats.  Even better, the RJ has working (on the plane now) Gogo wifi!!


I'm not crazy about the pricing structure especially with only 90 minutes of real useable flying time.

Gogo pricing SAN - DEN

Seems like they should adjust pricing based on how long you can actually use the service.  But I'm certainly not complaining.  Great job United getting wifi on the entire (including regional) fleet!

January 9, 2016

First Class Birthday: Introduction

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Sheraton Gateway Hotel Toronto
Air Canada 767-300 Business Class Toronto To London (LHR)
Andaz Liverpool
Etihad Airways Lounge London
Etihad A380 Business Class London (LHR) to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad A380 First Class Apartments Abu Dhabi to New York (JFK)
The New York EDITION

I realize I still have a few trip report segments to finish for our last trip to Singapore but I'm so excited about this trip, I wanted to get the Introduction post out.

I've already posted about booking Etihad's First Class Apartment and will probably be posting about the experience several times before/after the trip.

Since the timing worked out, we decided to make this a trip to celebrate my birthday.  Emily's excited as this is a step up from last year's flying east to get west adventure.

Trip route - courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper

We'll leave after work Friday evening taking United's direct service to Toronto.  The flight arrives late and we have another flight the next morning to London so we'll spend the night at the Sheraton Gateway which is connected to the airport.

The next morning, we'll take Air Canada's day flight (often called the CEO flight) from Toronto to London.  The flight leaves around 8AM and arrives around 8PM.  Pretty perfectly timed to be able to minimize jet lag and get to sleep upon arrival.  I'm still hoping we'll be able to upgrade to a Lufthansa First Class flight (connecting through Frankfurt or Munich) but that would be a last minute change if at all.  If not, we'll be perfectly fine in AC business class and I'm excited to review an option that is widely available on points in advance.

We are both really excited to check out the Andaz Liverpool in London which is located in London's East Side.  We both loved the Andaz in Amsterdam and it will be great to check out another Andaz property in Europe.

After a few nights in London, we're off to Abu Dhabi via Etihad's A380 business class.  Again, I'm hopeful that a couple of First Class Apartment seats open up (only 10,000 more miles each) but it will be cool to review both the business and first class apartment cabins on the A380.  

In Abu Dhabi, we'll spend a couple of nights at the Park Hyatt before heading to the airport for 14 hours in our first class apartments!  We're mixing it up a bit - staying a couple nights in New York before returning home to Denver.


Nearly 17,000 miles of flying

All in, this will be nearly 17,000 miles of flying and a couple of new airlines to review!  I'll post the Planning & Booking segment prior to our departure as well as a couple other posts about Etihad.  Stay tuned for another great trip report!

November 7, 2015

Big Holiday Bonus from United Shopping

United's MileagePlus Shopping portal is out with a pretty lucrative bonus for the holidays.  As a reminder, all the large airlines and US hotel programs offers online shopping portals where they award miles/points for shopping through their portal.  It's pretty simple - go to the portal, search for the store (i.e. Nordstrom, Best Buy, etc...) and click-through.  Shop as normal.

The bonus (which runs through 11/24) is in addition to the miles you'd earn through the portal.  Here's the earnings structure:

  • 500 bonus miles for $150 in spend (3.33x)
  • 3000 bonus miles for $650 in spend (4.62x)
  • 6000 bonus miles for $1250 in spend (4.8x)



That is a pretty strong bonus.  $1,250 is a lot of spend in a few weeks but I think $650 seems doable especially if you're getting a head start on holiday shopping.  Let's look at a hypothetical example at the $650 spend level:

  • Spend $650 at Nordstrom (currently 6x) and earn 3,900 miles
  • Earn another 650 miles for the spend on your credit card
  • Earn 3,000 bonus award miles

That's a total of 7,550 miles on $650 in spend.  I've seen stores (like Nordstrom) go 12x+ in November to entice people to shop early.  So be patient - possible that you could earn more than 18 miles per dollar spent at some point in the next few weeks.  Keep an eye on your email as I'm sure the other portals will be putting out competing holiday offers soon.

October 28, 2015

Round the World in 11 Days: Planning & Booking

Introduction
Planning & Booking
American Express Centurion Lounge DFW
Emirates A380 First Class Dallas to Dubai
Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa Dubai
Emirates First Class Lounge Dubai
Emirates 777-300 First Class Dubai to Male
Transfer to Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa
Park Hyatt Maldives
Transfer to Male
Singapore Airlines 777-200 Business Class Male to Singapore
Grand Hyatt Singapore
Singapore Airlines The Private Room Singapore
Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class Singapore to Hong Kong
Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco

They say the best part about a vacation is the anticipation.  This trip is no exception.  Emily and I have had The Maldives on our bucket list for years.  For us flying halfway around the world to get to a beach is part of the fun.  When the opportunity to spend time in The Maldives and Al Maha, (outside Dubai) I started to work on flights.  Here's an overview of the booking process and what everything cost.

Hotels:

We've already covered our first couple of nights in Dubai at Al Maha.  This cost me 78,000 SPG points (normally 120,000) thanks to Starwood's recent promotion.  Given the fact that the resort is all inclusive (3 meals per day and 2 activities) and room rates go for more than $1,500 USD/night, I consider this a great deal.

Cash rates at Al Maha Dubai

All in, I'm getting about 5 cents worth of value from my SPG points.  Not that I would ever pay $2K for a night in a hotel but this regardless, this is one of the best redemptions of my life.

We'll then head to the Park Hyatt Maldives for 4 nights using Hyatt Gold Passport points.  The hotel used to be a category 6 then went to 7 and now is back to 6.  So 25,000 points per night for a total of 100,000 for our stay.  I used a combination of Hyatt points earned from stays and transferred in the rest from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account.  I did pay cash to upgrade us to an overwater bungalow for the last night of our but I'll leave that out of the booking process since that was totally optional.

Park Hyatt Maldives beach