January 8, 2017

Chase Sapphire Reserve Bonus Ending

As has been widely reported, the Chase Sapphire Reserve 100,000 point sign-up bonus is ending this week (1/12).  The bonus will drop to 50,000 bonus points and apparently will still be available in Chase branches through March.

I've had the card in my wallet since September and plan on keeping it in perpetuity.  This is the strongest (overall) points earning card on the market and is stocked with benefits that make the $450 annual fee pretty easy to overcome for nearly all situations.

Use your Chase Ultimate Rewards for free nights at the Park Hyatt Maldives
The $300 annual travel credit effectively lowers the annual fee to $150.  If you spend $1,000 on travel and dining per month, you'll earn an extra 12,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per year over the Chase Sapphire Preferred (2x) card.  That is worth nearly $240 in my book and far more than the difference in annual the leftover ($150 for Reserve vs. $95 for Preferred) annual fee.

If you're been considering a new credit card or had your eye on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, now is the time to apply!

Churning the Barclaycard Arrival Plus MasterCard

Update:
I applied for the 50,000 point signup offer back in November.  I've completed the minimum spend requirement and received the 50,000 points in my account.  So that makes 3 signup bonuses in ~3 years.

Barclaycard offers the Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard in the US with a 50,000 point signup bonus.  This card is a great "cash replacement" for travel expenses as you'll get 2x miles on all purchases which can then be redeemed against travel purchases.  You also get 5% of the miles back in the form of a rebate on all redemptions.  The minimum redemption is a $100 purchase (used to be $25 and the rebate used to be 10%).


Effectively, this is a 2.10% cash back card on travel purchases with a $525 signup bonus.  The $89 annual fee is also waived for the first year.  Like the Alaska credit cards issued by Bank of America, Barclays will generally provide the signup bonus more than once.  Here's my experience:

  • January 2014 approved and received 40,000 mile bonus (cancelled prior to 12 months)
  • March 2015 approved and received 40,000 mile bonus (canceled prior to 12 months)
  • November 2016 approved and received 50,000 mile bonus

December 31, 2016

Review: British Airways First Class 747-400 London to Dubai

Introduction
Planning & Booking
British Airways First Class 747-400 Denver to London
British Airways Concorde Room LHR
British Airways First Class 747-400 London to Dubai
JW Marriott Marquis Dubai
Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa Dubai
Park Hyatt Dubai
Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class 777-200LR Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles

British Airways BA 107
London (LHR) to Dubai
November 21, 2016
Aircraft:  747-400
Seats:  1A/1K

After a shower and breakfast in the Concorde Room, we headed over to the gate where boarding had already commenced.  We headed down the extremely long jetway and met the smiling crew as we stepped onboard the aircraft.  I knew immediately that this was going to be a great flight.  The crew happily showed us to row 1 and offered up the storage closet for our carryon bags so that we would have more room at our seats.  Lead cabin crew member Jenny introduced herself and insisted that she bring over the Champagne to kick our holiday off right.  The crew also offered Arabic Coffee prior to pushback.


Pajamas, amenity kits, and slippers were distributed prior to takeoff which I thought was a nice tough for a 6 hour dayflight.

December 30, 2016

Top Hotel Stays of 2016

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've already seen my top 5 hotel stays of 2016.

Here's the countdown starting with number 5:

5)  St. Regis Istanbul



2016 Credit Card Year in Review

Last year, I posted a recap of credit card annual fees paid across 2015.  If you're interested, checkout my other 2016 year in review posts:
This year, I'm going to provide a recap of all cards acquired in 2016.  There are 25 so grab a cup of coffee (or a cocktail) before you sit down to read this one.

Summary:
In total, we acquired 25 new cards generating 1,659,500 miles and points from sign-up bonuses.  We paid $2,448 in annual fees but received $1,200 in travel credits.  Since we spend more than $1,200 a year on travel, I value the credits as cash.  That means we paid $1,248 out of pocket.  That doesn't include another $800 in travel credits we'll receive in 2017 from annual fees paid in 2016.  If you include that, our out of pocket expense for nearly 1.7M miles and points was less than $450.  If you add the $200 in flight discounts from the Ritz-Carlton Rewards card, our out of pocket expense is down to about $250.

Review: British Airways Concorde Room LHR (2016)

Introduction
Planning & Booking
British Airways First Class 747-400 Denver to London
British Airways Concorde Room LHR
British Airways First Class 747-400 London to Dubai
JW Marriott Marquis Dubai
Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa Dubai
Park Hyatt Dubai
Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi

We made our way from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5, cleared security, and used the "Millionaire's Door" to the Concorde Room.  All of that took about 45 minutes so we only had an hour and change until we needed to leave the lounge for our flight to Dubai.

LHR Millionaire's Door
The "Millionaire's Door" is off to the right after exiting security on the same level.  We missed it during our last visit and consequentially added another 15 minutes of walking/searching to our transit.

Review: British Airways First Class 747-400 Denver to London

Introduction
Planning & Booking
British Airways First Class 747-400 Denver to London
British Airways Concorde Room
British Airways First Class 747-400 London to Dubai
JW Marriott Marquis Dubai
Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa Dubai
Park Hyatt Dubai
Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class 777-200LR Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles

British Airways BA 218
Denver to London (LHR)
November 20, 2016
Aircraft:  747-400
Seats:  5E/5F

In the fall/winter, the flight leaves at 5:45PM so we had a great day in Denver packing and getting ready our trip to Dubai.  We had lunch at Denver's Union Station before hopping on the RTD A-line train to the airport.

Train to DEN
We live about a mile from the station and it's such an improvement to be able to take the train vs. drive/park/Uber.  The train is relaxing in the way that a car ride isn't.  

We pulled into the airport station around 3:30PM and headed up to check-in for our flight.  We were carrying on so check-in took <5 minutes and we soon had boarding passes all the way to Dubai.