I've been writing All the Right Points for nearly 2 years. Nearly 300 posts in and it's still fun to share tips, strategy, and a summary of my travels. I especially enjoy looking back on the top posts of all time as it's interesting to see what people consume on the blog.
In order, here are the top 5 posts of all time:
1) Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class from San Francisco to Hong Kong
A snow storm in Denver and a medical diversion made for a pretty epic Christmas night adventure. We had to run to make the flight which made it an even better story.
2) Chase Sapphire Preferred Overview
An overview of my favorite credit card sits firmly in the number two slot. I've probably sent this post to 50+ family and friends over the past couple of years.
3) Using EVreward to earn miles and points when shopping online
A great tool to streamline the process of finding the "best" shopping portal when making an online purchase.
4) Cathay Pacific 777-300ER First Class Hong Kong to LAX
Our first flight on Cathay Pacific was a great one. We actually changed our plans during our trip to take this flight. And we were glad we did.
5) Managing Credit Cards with Annual Fees
This is especially key for beginners who are nervous about juggling multiple cards with annual fees.
Enjoy the top posts of the last couple of years and thanks for reading!
October 31, 2015
Lufthansa's Denver to Munich Service is Back!
Denver International Airport (my home airport) has been on a tear of late. United's service to Panama City was announced last year although has since been scaled back to a seasonal route. British Airways upgraded their service from a 3 class 777 to a 4 class 747. We had an opportunity to fly the route in May and it was pretty awesome to take a long haul flight from our home airport.
And now Lufthansa is set to bring back direct service (previously cancelled in 2008) from Denver to Munich (in addition to current service to Frankfurt) on a 4 class A330. We flew the aircraft in first to Frankfurt in 2013 and were wowed by the entire Lufthansa experience. The service will start in May of 2016 - I look forward to a long weekend in Munich at somepoint in the future.
DIA's been working hard to expand international service for both tourism and business purposes. This is pretty phenomenal route in that it opens up direct service to Munich and yet another option for 2-stop service to a number of locations in Europe.
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| Lufthansa A330 First Class |
And now Lufthansa is set to bring back direct service (previously cancelled in 2008) from Denver to Munich (in addition to current service to Frankfurt) on a 4 class A330. We flew the aircraft in first to Frankfurt in 2013 and were wowed by the entire Lufthansa experience. The service will start in May of 2016 - I look forward to a long weekend in Munich at somepoint in the future.
DIA's been working hard to expand international service for both tourism and business purposes. This is pretty phenomenal route in that it opens up direct service to Munich and yet another option for 2-stop service to a number of locations in Europe.
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.
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.
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 |
Tracking Point Balances with AwardWallet
AwardWallet is one of my favorite miles and points tools. Staying organized in this hobby is critical to success and keeping track of point balances, expiration dates, free night certificates, etc... would be much more challenging without a place to aggregate all that information.
If you're getting started with miles and points, I highly recommend signing up for an AwardWallet account and adding all of your loyalty program accounts. It will make life much easier for you as your start to accumulate points. They even have a new interface (in beta) which I like a lot.
To that end, feel free to signup using my link and signup with coupon code free-fyvqsm (10 total) for a free upgrade to a plus account.
If you're getting started with miles and points, I highly recommend signing up for an AwardWallet account and adding all of your loyalty program accounts. It will make life much easier for you as your start to accumulate points. They even have a new interface (in beta) which I like a lot.
To that end, feel free to signup using my link and signup with coupon code free-fyvqsm (10 total) for a free upgrade to a plus account.
All the Right Points at Work
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk a bit about miles and points to a group (40+) of co-workers as part of our monthly "lunch and learn" sessions. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and I think I picked up a blog reader or two in the process.
Given many of the attendees were new to the miles and points world, I've posted a few introductory links below. Looking forward to hearing about your own travel hacking success stories as you get started!
Getting Started Page
How I Started
Credit Cards & Travel Hacking Overview
Miles & Points vs. Cashback
Managing Credit Card Annual Fees
I'm going to work on a few additional introductory posts including finishing my 5 Steps to a (Nearly) Free Trip series. Feel free to email me with any additional questions about getting started!
Given many of the attendees were new to the miles and points world, I've posted a few introductory links below. Looking forward to hearing about your own travel hacking success stories as you get started!
Getting Started Page
How I Started
Credit Cards & Travel Hacking Overview
Miles & Points vs. Cashback
Managing Credit Card Annual Fees
I'm going to work on a few additional introductory posts including finishing my 5 Steps to a (Nearly) Free Trip series. Feel free to email me with any additional questions about getting started!
October 17, 2015
Double Starpoints with Uber
I was in NYC last week for a few days and used my fair share of Uber's to get around the city. Earlier in the year, Uber and Starwood rolled out a partnership where SPG members would earn 1 point/dollar spent on Uber's and 2 points/dollar spent on Uber's during a Starwood stay. That bumps up 3 pints/dollar spent for elite members.
While I would use Uber to get around the city anyway, an extra ~300 Starpoints is a nice bonus.
The points (standard and bonus) post in a couple of days and I've never had a problem with the points posting accurately. My Uber account is linked to my Chase Sapphire Preferred card where I also earn 2x points on my Uber spend. Earning 5x points on Uber rides is pretty awesome.
While I would use Uber to get around the city anyway, an extra ~300 Starpoints is a nice bonus.
The points (standard and bonus) post in a couple of days and I've never had a problem with the points posting accurately. My Uber account is linked to my Chase Sapphire Preferred card where I also earn 2x points on my Uber spend. Earning 5x points on Uber rides is pretty awesome.
Round the World in 11 Days: Introduction
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
After a summer break due to our new family member, Emily and I are 30 days away from our most anticipated trip yet. Both of us have had the Maldives at the top of our bucket list and we actually had a trip booked in late 2014. Life got in the way and we ended up canceling the trip...and I'm glad we did because a year later, our itinerary is even better.
The Maldives is far. Really far. Almost 11,000 miles far. For those keeping score, that is nearly halfway around the world. So we decided to break up the trip on both ends with stops in Dubai and Singapore. Flying through Singapore on the way home enabled us to make this a true round the world trip (RTW) which has been another bucket list item of ours. In total, we'll fly nearly 23,000 miles as we make our way around the world.
After an early morning flight from Denver to Dallas, we'll spend a few hours in the American Express Centurion lounge relaxing before the 14+ hour Emirates A380 flight to Dubai. This will be our first time flying Emirates and we're both pretty excited for the onboard bar, shower, and overall experience. We were in Dubai a couple of years ago and enjoyed our time in the city. For this trip, we're headed to the Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa thanks to Starwood's generous 35% off promotion. Al Maha is supposed to be an incredible resort and at nearly $2,000 a night would be completely unattainable without a large stash of SPG points.
After a four hour flight on Emirates first class to Male, we'll transfer via domestic prop plane and speed boat to the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa. While there are dozens of reviews of the property online, we're both super excited to experience it for ourselves. With just 50 villas (14 overwater and 36 on land) and a staff to guest ratio of nearly 2:1, it is supposed to be a very special place. We'll spend three nights in the standard park villa and our last night in an overwater bungalow/villa. Another bucket list item checked off.
We'll spend four nights at the Park Hyatt before transferring back to Male for a five hour redeye on Singapore Airlines. Not looking forward to that but we'll be tired and use the flight to rest up for Thanksgiving in Singapore.
We've been to Singapore a couple of times and stayed at the same property (Conrad) during both trips. We decided to check something new out and stay at the Grand Hyatt near Orchard Road. It will be cool to stay in a different neighborhood and spend more time in a different part of the city.
While I would have loved to fly Singapore Suites again, availability was challenging post Thanksgiving. So I "settled" for Singapore's 777-300ER first class which isn't fully enclosed but still an excellent way to fly. We'll be flying Singapore to Hong Kong to San Francisco and then overnighting at SFO before catching an early flight back to Denver.
This is the best itinerary I've put together thus far. We were able to cover all of the flights (with the exception of the connecting flights to Dallas and from SFO) and hotels with miles and points. The Maldives is expensive and the fact that we were able to do so leaves us with a bit more cash to splurge on activities. I'll cover the booking specifics in costs more in the next installment. Stay tuned!
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
After a summer break due to our new family member, Emily and I are 30 days away from our most anticipated trip yet. Both of us have had the Maldives at the top of our bucket list and we actually had a trip booked in late 2014. Life got in the way and we ended up canceling the trip...and I'm glad we did because a year later, our itinerary is even better.
The Maldives is far. Really far. Almost 11,000 miles far. For those keeping score, that is nearly halfway around the world. So we decided to break up the trip on both ends with stops in Dubai and Singapore. Flying through Singapore on the way home enabled us to make this a true round the world trip (RTW) which has been another bucket list item of ours. In total, we'll fly nearly 23,000 miles as we make our way around the world.
 |
| Round the World in 11 Days: ~23,000 miles of flying |
After an early morning flight from Denver to Dallas, we'll spend a few hours in the American Express Centurion lounge relaxing before the 14+ hour Emirates A380 flight to Dubai. This will be our first time flying Emirates and we're both pretty excited for the onboard bar, shower, and overall experience. We were in Dubai a couple of years ago and enjoyed our time in the city. For this trip, we're headed to the Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa thanks to Starwood's generous 35% off promotion. Al Maha is supposed to be an incredible resort and at nearly $2,000 a night would be completely unattainable without a large stash of SPG points.
After a four hour flight on Emirates first class to Male, we'll transfer via domestic prop plane and speed boat to the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa. While there are dozens of reviews of the property online, we're both super excited to experience it for ourselves. With just 50 villas (14 overwater and 36 on land) and a staff to guest ratio of nearly 2:1, it is supposed to be a very special place. We'll spend three nights in the standard park villa and our last night in an overwater bungalow/villa. Another bucket list item checked off.
We'll spend four nights at the Park Hyatt before transferring back to Male for a five hour redeye on Singapore Airlines. Not looking forward to that but we'll be tired and use the flight to rest up for Thanksgiving in Singapore.
We've been to Singapore a couple of times and stayed at the same property (Conrad) during both trips. We decided to check something new out and stay at the Grand Hyatt near Orchard Road. It will be cool to stay in a different neighborhood and spend more time in a different part of the city.
 |
| Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class |
While I would have loved to fly Singapore Suites again, availability was challenging post Thanksgiving. So I "settled" for Singapore's 777-300ER first class which isn't fully enclosed but still an excellent way to fly. We'll be flying Singapore to Hong Kong to San Francisco and then overnighting at SFO before catching an early flight back to Denver.
This is the best itinerary I've put together thus far. We were able to cover all of the flights (with the exception of the connecting flights to Dallas and from SFO) and hotels with miles and points. The Maldives is expensive and the fact that we were able to do so leaves us with a bit more cash to splurge on activities. I'll cover the booking specifics in costs more in the next installment. Stay tuned!
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