Review: Etihad Airways First Class 777-200LR Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles

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

Etihad Airways EY 171
Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Los Angeles (LAX)
November 27, 2016
Aircraft:  777-200LR
Seats:  2D/2G

We boarded the 777 for what would be the longest flight of our lives.  Clocking in at #6 on the longest flights in the world, the Abu Dhabi to LAX flight is blocked at 16h 30m and covers nearly 7,300 miles.  The Buffs had just beat Utah and were headed to the Pac 12 Championship so we were ready to celebrate.  We settled in for what would be a fantastic flight.

GO BUFFS!

Earn Up to 10,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles

American AAdvantage is out with a new shopping/partner bonus that has the potential to be pretty lucrative.  I received and email about the promotion but my understanding is that it's open to everyone.  You do not need to register and you must complete purchases by 6/15/17.  You can read the full terms of the offer here.

There are four total partners:

• 1-800 Flowers
• AAdvantage eShopping Mall ($50 minimum)
• AAdvantage Dining program ($25 minimum)
• Vinesse Wine

You can earn up to 10,000 total bonus miles:

• 2 partners = 2,000 bonus miles
• 3 partners = 5,000 bonus miles
• 4 partners = 10,000 bonus miles

Vinesse wines is a non starter for me.  I'll likely end up with more charges than I expected and a lot of bad wine so I am focused on the 5,000 mile bonus.  Here's how I'm thinking about it:

• I've already completed a transaction with 1-800 flowers for $40 earning including a $15 Amex offer.  I also earned 900 AA miles given the current 30x bonus.
• I made a $54 purchase at Saks using a gift card through the eShopping Mall earning 250 additional miles
• There are a couple of Dining program restaurants in our neighborhood so it shouldn't be a problem to earn an additional 75 miles (3x) on a $25 purchase

All in, I will spend ~$100 and earn 6,225 AA miles.  The miles easily wash out the cash outlay, essentially make the flowers, Saks merchandise, and a meal free.  I wouldn't go out of my way to chase this bonus but it seems worth it for an extra 20-30 min over the next month.

Review: Etihad Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi

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 Hyatt Capital Gate in a cab around 5:45 AM.  It was still dark out and traffic was very light.  I think we made it to the airport in 15 minutes.

AUH Etihad Airways First Class Check-In

We pulled up to first class check-in and made our way to an open check-in desk.

Peloton Cycle and Westin Launch Partnership

I've had a Peloton bike at home for a couple of years and love it.  If you're not familiar, Peloton sells very high quality spin bikes with a 23" tablet mounted so you can enjoy live/on-demand studio style spin classes from home.

The bike runs ~$2,000 and the monthly subscription is $39.  It's not a cheap purchase but definitely worth it in my opinion.  We've had zero issues with our bike and the quality/production of the classes (filmed in their NYC studio) is excellent.

Peloton just announced a partnership where participating Westin hotels will make Peloton bikes available in their fitness centers and in-room.  This is pretty awesome.

I figured Peloton would partner with hotels eventually but never considered they would make bikes available in-room!

Given the "Peloton hospitality" branding on the site, I have a feeling Westin is not the last partnership for Peloton.  I'd highly recommend checking out Peloton next time you're staying at one of the participating properties.  I would definitely go out of my way to book a participating property knowing that there would be a bike available in the fitness center or in-room.  I'm curious how they are going to manage shoes for these bikes - is it BYOS or will they make them available in the fitness center?

Has anyone stayed had a participating Westin and experienced Peloton yet?

Are Amex Offers Posting Slower Than Normal?

Amex offers are a great way to extract additional value from Amex cards.  I'm now up to nearly $3K in savings from my stable of Amex cards over the past few years.  Credits have always posted very quickly - within a day or two after meeting the spend requirements.  Emails/mobile notifications would fire immediately.

Well it seems Amex is either making a change to the way things work or they are having IT issues.  Travel With Grant has noticed the same thing and posted a good summary of his experiences a few days ago.

I've qualified for 4 Amex offers in the past couple of weeks (Saks Fifth Avenue, Bouqs, Boxed, and Jonathan Adler).  Only the Boxed and Jonathan Adler credits have posted:

• Boxed offer on Hilton Amex - posted within 2 days
• Jonathan Adler offer on Everyday Preferred - posted within 1 day

I'm hoping this is just an IT issue and not Amex posting the credits after the offer expires - that would make it much harder to keep track of.  I'll keep you posted on the other two pending credits.  I

Have you noticed slower credits from Amex on Amex Offers?

Saving on United Flights with United.com Club

United has some seriously confusing branding.  This post is about the "united.com Club" vs. the "United Club" which is the name for United's lounge system.  First, let's get a few things straight:

• The United Club used to be called the Red Carpet Club which was a pretty awesome name.
• The united.com Club used to be called the Travel Club @ continental.com which was a really dumb name.

United bought Continental so they obviously had to rebrand.  I'm not sure any club should have the name ".com" in it but that's a different conversation.  

I've been a member of this "club" for five year nows.  It costs $25 a year and provides a $5 rebate for each United ticket booked through United.  That is seriously the only benefit.  I almost always book directly through United (vs. an OTA - Online Travel Agency) so this is a great deal for me.  The only reason (now) to book away from United directly is the 5x MR points on airfare through Amex travel on the Platinum card.

If I'm booking a roundtrip and I can break it into two one-ways for the same price, I will do that as I'll earn $10 back vs. $5.  I've also found that I still get the $5 even if I'm booking for other people.     I was looking at my activity this morning - in 5 years, I've received $500 in credits for $125 in fees.  Pretty solid return!

It is very easy to redeem from the "Travel Bank"

The credits end up in a "travel bank" which makes it very easy to use.  When on the checkout screen, just click the radio button to redeem and your credit is automatically applied to the price of the ticket.  I have typically waited until that amount gets to $100 or so and then used them. But you could totally redeem $10 here, $5 there if you'd like.

It's interesting that United doesn't do a lot of marketing around this club.  Perhaps they're just keeping it around because there are loyal members from the Continental days.  Doesn't really matter to me as long as I continue to get the opportunity to save $100 or so a year on $25 in spend.

A Week in Japan: Planning & Booking II

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Star Alliance First Class Lounge LAX
Asiana First Class A380 LAX to Seoul (ICN)
Asiana First Class Lounge Seoul (ICN)
Asiana A330 Business Class Seoul (ICN) to Kyoto (KIX)
The Ritz-Carlton Kyoto
Cathay Pacific Business Class 777-300ER Kyoto (KIX) to Hong Kong
Conrad Hong Kong
The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong
Singapore Airlines First Class 777-300ER Hong Kong to San Francisco
Hyatt Regency SFO

For a variety of reasons, we shortened our upcoming trip by a few days.  Unfortunately that means no visit to Osaka or Tokyo but we'll still get 3 days in Kyoto and 3 days in Hong Kong.  All hotels remain the same - we just mixed it up a bit with the flights.  If you're interested in reading more about the initial booking process, please read the first planning and booking segment.

We swapped our United Polaris flight for Asiana's A380 first class service from LAX.  Instead of 130,000 United miles, this set us back 110,000 United and 105,000 Aeroplan miles.  Not the greatest use of an additional 75,000 miles but we'll be more comfortable.  In Seoul, we'll visit the Asiana First Class lounge for a shower before boarding an Asiana A330 in business class to Osaka (KIX).

After three nights in Kyoto, we'll take the train back to KIX and fly Cathay Pacific business class direct to Hong Kong.  Not as fancy as Cathay first but should be plenty fine for a 4 hour flight.  I booked this flight with 40,000 (total) British Airways miles - pretty good deal considering the length of the flight and better than Alaska's award chart by 5,000 total miles.

Everything else remains the same.  I should have the first segment up in the next month or so!