Review: Park Hyatt 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

We had booked a car through Al Maha and while the driver arrived a few minutes late, everything else was smooth.  Our ride took around an hour given traffic in Dubai.  The Park Hyatt is located in a great location - only about 10 minutes form the airport and situated on Dubai Creek with great views of the small marina and of the Dubai skyline.  Getting into Dubai from the hotel is easy - we made a couple of trips and the longest ride was about 20 minutes.

I had booked a cash rate and used 6,000 HGP per night to upgrade to a suite.  I emailed the hotel prior to see if we could be placed in a terrace suite but didn't have any expectations that they would honor that request.  Upon check-in, we were informed that they'd upgraded us to the terrace suite included complimentary breakfast and minibar - score!  No idea why they upgraded us - surely not due to my lowly Hyatt Platinum (prior to program changes) status or my world renown blog.  I think we just got lucky.

Our room wasn't ready yet so we had a complimentary cappuccino and caught up on email for 30 minutes and checked out the views of the Dubai Creek and skyline.

Review: Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa

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

We left the JW Marriott Dubai en route to Al Maha around 11AM.  Our driver was super friendly and explained a number of sites along the road as we exited the city and headed out into the desert.  30 minutes later we were pulling up to the first gate to enter the conservation reserve.

Welcome to DDCR

Al Maha!

Upon seeing the small footprint of Al Maha set against the desert, both of us were so excited to be back again.

Jump on the bed excited

Chase Offering 10x on Hotels and Rental Car Spend in March

Chase is offering 10x points on up to $2,500 in rental car or hotel spend booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards.  This offer is available on the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards although it sounds like the offer is also available on the Ink Business Cash card.

This has the potential to be very lucrative.  If you have one of the Chase premium Ultimate Rewards cards (Sapphire, Reserve, Ink Preferred) these points are just not good for cash back but available to be transferred to Chase's travel partners such as United, Singapore Airlines, Hyatt, and more.

While the spend has to occur in March, travel can occur anytime.  This means that you could book a hotel stay for $2,500 and earn 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points which could be used to transfer to Hyatt to book a night at the Park Hyatt Maldives.

I value Chase Ultimate Rewards around ~2.0 cents so for me, this is 20% back on spend.  I don't have any rental car needs but do need a hotel room later in the year and will take advantage of this to earn a couple thousands bonus points.

Award Ticket Downgrade - What to Do?

Back in December, I was able to book both of us in Cathay Pacific first class from Tokyo (NRT) to Hong Kong.  I used Alaksa Mileage Plan miles to book each ticket for 27,500 miles.  A great deal considering this is a five hour flight on a premium route on one of my favorite first class products.

Unfortunately, Cathay Pacific isn't doing great financially and they've been cutting first class (frequencies and service on board).  I received an email from Alaska a couple weeks ago letting me know that my first class flight had been downgraded to business class in a regionally configured aircraft.  While that isn't the end of the world, the whole point of flying out of Narita (90 min bus ride) vs. Haneda (20-25 min taxi) was to fly Cathay in first.

I used the British Airways website to check Oneworld availability and on the day we're looking to fly, there really only are a few options.  I called Alaska to see what they could do for me and it was either keep the ticket or refund the miles and taxes and figure it out from there.

I opted for the latter option and am going to wait it out a bit to see if anything opens up.  At this point, my options are direct flights in business class on JAL or Cathay.  Or we could get exotic and book a paid flight on Hong Kong Airlines (haven't flown them but hear the business class product is decent) for around $650 each.  Or we could get really nuts and book Thai Airways first class all the way from Tokyo to Bangkok to Hong Kong with a stop at the first class spa for 60,000 United miles each.  That is a bit of a crazy routing (would take an extra 5-6 hours) but would be a lot of fun.  Emily still needs some convincing to pull the trigger on that one.

Will keep you all posted as we figure it out.

United Offering Big Bonus on Purchased Miles

United has a pretty compelling offer goingon the sale of MileagePlus miles.  The offer is setup as a mystery bonus so not sure what other people have received.  Both Emily and I received the 75% bonus offer.  Here are the details:

• Buy miles through 4/20/17 to receive the 75% bonus
• You can buy anywhere from 1,000 to 85,000 miles
• 5,000 - 14,000 - 25% bonus
• 15,000 - 29,000 - 50% bonus
• 30,000 - 85,000 - 75% bonus

If you received the 75% bonus offer, you should consider buying no less than 30,000 miles.  If you didn't, you probably don't want to take advantage of this offer.

If you opt to purchase 30,000 miles, you'll get a 22,500 mile bonus and the entire thing will cost $1,128.75 with taxes.  That breaks down to 2.16 cents.  I'm not a speculative buyer at that price but this offer could be worth it in certain situations.  A one-way business class ticket to Europe (on United metal) will set you back 57,500 miles.  You can outright purchase those miles through this offer for $1,241.  That's way cheaper than buying the ticket although you'd be foregoing award miles and miles towards elite status qualification.  

How Quickly Do SPG Amex Referral Points Post?

Last week I posted about the outstanding SPG Amex signup bonus.  I've had half a dozen people ping me for referrals and a couple have already posted (thank you!).

ATRP reader Elissa emailed me on Sunday, 2/19 to ask for a referral.  She applied and was approved that day.

The 5,000 points posted to my account on 2/22 so just 3 days later.  Kudos to Starwood for such a compelling offer for both parties and for posting the points in such a timely manner.  Who else is interested in picking up this card?

300 Free Points from Marriott Rewards

Marriott Rewards tweeted at me the other day to offer 300 Marriott Rewards points for my "anniversary."  Not exactly sure what that means - I've been a gold member for 4-5 years thanks to credit card benefits and now am Marriott gold for life (assuming they don't change the terms) thanks to my Starwood SPG lifetime gold status.

Certainly a nice and unexpected gesture (I value the points around $2.50) but the funny thing is that I don't have the points yet.  I received the tweet on 2/22...it's now 2/25 and they haven't posted.  You would think they would send the tweet on the day the points would post since that is fully in their control.

Doesn't really matter - it's a nice gesture and I appreciate it.