Review: ANA First Class 777-300ER Tokyo (NRT) to San Francisco

Introduction
Introduction Part Two
Planning & Booking
Sheraton JFK Airport
Lufthansa Business Class Lounge JFK
Turkish Airlines Business Class 777-300ER New York (JFK) to Istanbul
Turkish Airlines Istanbul Arrivals Lounge
St. Regis Istanbul
Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul
Turkish Airlines Business Class A330-300 Istanbul to Male
Transfer from Male to Conrad Maldives
Conrad Maldives Part One
Conrad Maldives Part Two
Transfer from Conrad Maldives to Male
Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-200ER Male to Singapore
Crowne Plaza Changi Airport Singapore
Singapore Airlines Business Class 777-300ER Singapore to Tokyo (HND)
Andaz Tokyo
ANA Suite Lounge Tokyo (NRT)
ANA First Class 777-300ER Tokyo (NRT) to San Francisco

ANA All Nippon Airways NH 8
Tokyo (NRT) to San Francisco (SFO)
August 27, 2016
Aircraft:  777-300ER
Seats:  2D/2G

We were among the first in line at gate 52 and bounded down the jetway for our first flight on ANA.  We were warmly welcomed aboard by the crew and shown to our seats (2D/2G).  There would be two flight attendants serving the cabin that went out with 4/8 seats occupied.  The other two occupants were business travelers and went to sleep after takeoff.  That left the two flight attendants to give us their full attention.

ANA First Class cabin

2016 Year in Review: Flights

It's hard to believe it's almost 2017!  I'm done flying for the year so here's the year in review.  You can read about my 2013, 2014, and 2015 flying history if you'd like.

In 2016, I traveled much less for work and am going to be well short of achieving even low tier (Premier Silver) status on United.  We went on three long-haul trips including one RTW jaunt to Istanbul, Maldives, Singapore, and Tokyo.

In total, I flew 9 long haul flights (all award tickets) and flew over 63,000 miles after flying 88,000 in 2015, 65,000 in 2014, 87,000 in 2013, and 125,000 in 2012.  That's a total of 428,000 miles over the past five years.

I burned through nearly 1.3M airline miles and flew on 9 carriers across the year.  I don't have anything booked for 2017 so will have to get on that over the holidays!

Here are some of the highlights from 2016:

• Visited 6 countries (1 new)
• Visited 2 continents (Europe & Asia)
• Flew on 9 airlines (United, American, Delta, Etihad, Turkish, Trans-Maldivian, Singapore, ANA, and British Airways) including 3 new airlines
• Flew 24 segments
• Flew 63,012 miles
• Visited 19 airports in 7 countries and 7 US States
• Shortest flight was Male to Conrad Maldives at ~50 miles
• Longest flight was Abu Dhabi to LAX at 8,390 miles (fifth longest in the world)
• Ten flights over 3,000 miles
• The best flight of the year was definitely Etihad First Class Apartments from Abu Dhabi to JFK

And maps...courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper:

Ritz-Carlton Rewards $300 Annual Airline Credit

While I love my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I'm quickly falling for the Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards card as well.  If you're just joining us:

Read my complete review of the Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards card and my review of the $100 off airfare benefit.

Like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, Citi Prestige, and Amex Gold, the Ritz-Carlton card comes with a $300 annual airline credit.  By getting the card before the end of the year, you can actually receive the credit twice for one annual fee.  Once in 2016 and once in 2017.

My $450 annual fee has hit and I'm trying to get as much out of that fee as possible.  While some of the other cards offer more flexible credits, this one is a bit more restrictive.  You have to actually call/write into Chase to have a purchase credited (other credits are automatically reimbursed).  This means that purchasing gift cards is a challenge.  You can find the complete terms on Chase's website but my primary use is going to be for checked bag fees (dropping to zero airline status next year) and seat upgrades to economy plus and first class.

$100 Off Airfare With the Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card

Last week, I shared my review of the Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards card.  One of the great benefits of the $450 annual fee card is the ability to receive $100 off airfare when you book through the Visa Infinite portal.  The ticket must be a round-trip in domestic coach and is available for 2-5 tickets.  There's no limit on the number of times you can leverage this benefit and I plan to get A LOT out of this perk.

Booking through the portal was surprisingly easy and prices matched United's website exactly.  There's even a place to enter your frequent flyer details and Global Entry/PreCheck number.  Once I completed the booking, the reservation showed up in my United account immediately.  Here's how to take advantage of this benefit:

First, go to the Visa Discount Air Benefit portal.

Login with your name and Ritz-Carlton Rewards card number.  One thing to note is that in order to receive the benefit, the ticket must be charged to the card.  Obviously a small price to pay to receive $50 off each ticket.

Second, search for flights.  This is a pretty standard airline search engine and I'm confident all of you will be able to figure it out.  Going through the process the first time, I was in disbelief that this would actually work.  It seems too easy and too good to be true.

Third, select flights and add personal information for each ticket.

 Here's the exact same flight itinerary pricing on United.com for the same price.

Book.  It was that easy and took less than 10 minutes included price checking on United.

This is an incredible benefit and since we will likely book 5-6 domestic coach roundtrip flight in 2017 we should be able to save $500 - $600.  I wasn't expecting the card to be a keeper, but combined with the $300 airline travel credit, the $450 annual fee is easily offset.  Will have more details on my experience redeeming the $300 travel credit in another post.

Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card Review

Chase has had a Ritz-Carlton credit card product for years.  This year, they changed up the signup bonus from two free nights (and sometimes targeted 140,000 points) to there free nights after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.

The card comes with a $450 annual fee and a $300 calendar year airline incidental credit.  So now is a great time to get the card since you can effectively get the rebate twice (in 2016 and 2017).  This will essentially offset the annual fee plus some.

Save Big with Verizon and Amex Offers

If you've been reading ATRP, you know that I'm a huge fan of American Express Amex Offers.  Over the last few years, I've saved over $2,500 by leveraging Amex Offers to obtain statement credits on stuff I was going to buy anyway.

Nearly $1K in savings on one card

The concept is simple - login to your American Express account online, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the available offers. Scroll through the offers that make sense for you, and click "Add to Card."  Meet the spend requirements at that merchant and you'll receive the statement credit a few days later.

Amex is out with two targeted offers for big savings with Verizon.  First, 10% off a cell phone bill (could be any wireless carrier) up to $30 off ($300 in spend).

But the good news is that you can double dip this Amex Offer with one of two targeted offers that I received.  The first is $25 off $100 in spend with Verizon up to two times.  The second, is 2,500 American Express Membership Rewards points on $100 in spend with Verizon.  I value MR points around 2 cents each so this is like getting $50 back in addition to the 10% off.

Both of the Verizon specific offers are good through 2/21/2017.  Verizon will let you pre-pay up to $500 and I did just that to trigger several of these bonuses.  I'll make another round of pre-payments in February to finish them off.  In total, I will be putting $600 in Verizon spend on various Amex cards and receive 5,000 bonus MR points receive a $160 rebate on the payments.  That's 40% off my cell phone bill!

Incredible Etihad A380 Flyover at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

We returned from Dubai last weekend after an awesome week at Al Maha, the Park Hyatt Dubai, and a night in Abu Dhabi.  We were fortunate enough (thanks to an ATRP reader) to attend the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday for qualifying.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Yes Marina Circuit 

Race time

Before the race, Al Fursan (UAE Blue Angels equivalent) put on a spectacular performance.

UAE Al Fursan putting on a show

Before the actual race on Sunday, they stepped it up even further performing with an Etihad A380.  Check out the video.  Unreal.  Love the soundtrack as well.

Stay tuned for our flight last week on Etihad from Abu Dhabi to LAX.  We had a near perfect flight despite the length (5th longest in the world).