Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 7: Transfer Bonuses, End of Q1 Reminders, and a Baby Bonding Roadtrip
346 Plays3 months ago
Spring is here!
Kristoff and Raymond check in on the public podcast feed to discuss:
1. Current transfer bonuses with the big 4 bank point currencies.
2. Reports of the Amex Resy credit triggering at Walgreens?
3. Adapting to the need to hit spend requirements with Amex. We noodled on paying taxes and whether or not we need to reconsider buying groups. Lastly, a few Q1 spending reminders.
4. We touch on loyalty program devaluations including Southwest and Hyatt. The Southwest changes especially felt like a paradigm shift.
5. An End of Baby Bonding Roadtrip: Burning Hilton FNCs and Hilton GCs/Amex Hilton benefits at higher-tier Hilton properties in California. Also an unplanned trip to Disneyland with 2.5 month old P3.
Join The Points Project Patreon!
Intro/Outro Music Credits:
"Vibing Over Venus"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and recap of recent travels
00:00:00
Speaker
Transfer bonuses, end of Q1 reminders, and a baby bonding road trip in this episode of The Points Project.
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello and welcome to The Points Project with your hosts Christoph and Raymond. Hey Raymond, it's been a while. How have you been? i heard you're traveling and also you're back to work now with your P3.
00:00:27
Speaker
ah How are things going? Yeah, man, it's ah it's springtime. I'm back to work. Just in case you haven't been following, you know, we had a baby three months ago. And so, yeah, it's it's awesome to have a three-month-old.
00:00:38
Speaker
ah He's super, you know, getting into the interactive phase. And I love it, man. Like, I never thought being a father was going to be so enjoyable. Just, and a lot of new experiences, man. It's... It's probably one of the the greatest things that's ever happened to me.
00:00:51
Speaker
I mean, it it feels like springtime, right? Like everything feels like it's on the up and up here.
Discussion on bank point transfer bonuses
00:00:56
Speaker
And so let's actually dive right into some bank point transfer bonuses. I just wanted to go over these because I think that a couple of these are actually ending in you the next two weeks or so. So, you know, thought we'd mention it here.
00:01:08
Speaker
Chase has an Ultimate Rewards Transfer Bonus to British Airways and Aer Lingus and Iberia through March 31st. Now, Kristof, are you a fan of the Avios program? like What are we really using our Avios for these days?
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, so for avios, I don't know, I have a love and hate relationship. I haven't really used it that frequently. I know there's a couple of really good angles booking, especially business and first class even, right, far out in the calendar.
00:01:37
Speaker
Actually, I remember you told me even a story about ah Japan booking somewhat recently, right? That's right. Yeah. um And actually, you know, I'm, I'm working on a return home from Japan right now, and there's a lot of different flight options that I'm thinking, but really this chase transfer bonus to British Airways, that's really intriguing me because I'm looking at booking basically from anywhere in Japan, but primarily Tokyo, right? You're going to get through your trans-Pacific flights.
00:02:03
Speaker
Back to San Francisco. And um the nice thing about BA is that they have their calendar, you know, their award calendar looks out 355 days. And I'm seeing Japan Airlines availability show up. And so, you know, Japan Airlines direct flight back from Tokyo, you're looking at... yeah I think with this transfer bonus, I think I just need to transfer like 136,000 miles over to BA. And I think that becomes like 163,000 miles ah once they're in BA. And it's nice because BA is really good for infant fares as well. right like I know that, Christoph, you've talked about Star Alliance and Aeroplan being the king for infant bookings, and I'm not denying that.
00:02:41
Speaker
But I think that BA is another option, right? And like, of course, I want to fly JAL or ANA, but ANA, I don't know, the awards, they just don't seem to be coming up especially far out. So I'm liking the pattern that I'm seeing for release and ah two business class seats.
00:02:55
Speaker
And I think like the the infant ticket is only like 7,000 or 8,000 Avios, which is pretty good, right? Like I think most programs you'll see 10% of a revenue fare, which is not something that I'm a fan of.
00:03:06
Speaker
And that's what I'm actively trying to avoid. Actually, let's let's move into um some of these other transfer bonuses that are going on. So Amex Membership Rewards also has a 20% transfer bonus to Qatar Avios. So this is basically you know a mirror copy of the BA Chase transfer bonus that's going on. And this is also entering March 31st. And so you know if you want to combine your Avios, that's one of the nice bonuses of the Avios program.
00:03:30
Speaker
BA, Qatar, FinAir, these are all you know buddied up on the background. And so if you have Avios in one program, you can just transfer them freely. from one account to the other. And so it's funny, I don't really have any Amex points right now to transfer over to Qatar. But, um you know, if I did have some Amex points, you know, then, you know, let's say I had Amex and Chase points and I wanted to combine them up. know, it's pretty, pretty easy to take advantage of both of these transfer bonuses and just get them into one bucket.
00:03:57
Speaker
Now, Capital One actually also has this 40% Etihad guest transfer bonus. And so, i don't know, 40% sounds really good. And I know that Etihad a long time ago used to have really good sweet spots for, i think American, like domestic bookings and F. I remember reading about like 25,000 Etihad guest miles.
00:04:19
Speaker
for, I think that was like their flagship first product, right? Like you could go SFO, JFK, 25K. I mean, that was probably one of the best sweet spots that um that the Etihad Guest program had. And I don't know, I think the Etihad Guest program is a little bit of a shell of itself.
00:04:35
Speaker
Have you looked at Etihad Guest, Christoph? Yeah, i know there was a major devaluation, right? I mean, it's been almost like, what, a year ago now, right? um So since then, I haven't really looked into it too much.
00:04:47
Speaker
ah You already suggested it. like My bookings are mostly on Starlines right now, but especially, say, like Aeroplane or so. Everything that works well with, well, a P3 as well, right? Kind of youre in the same boat here.
00:04:59
Speaker
That's for sure. Yeah, I think it's funny that we're both going through this like, OK, what's the best way to book an infant? But I think you're further down that road, right? Like I'm pretty sure you know in the in the next six months or so, you're going to be like, all right, now I have to look for three J seats when I fly with my family.
00:05:13
Speaker
That's going to be interesting for sure. Once we have to book business class ah without having the lab infant option, ah there's certainly another
Strategies for booking flights and using credits
00:05:21
Speaker
question there. And first, finding the inventory and second, paying for it.
00:05:24
Speaker
And actually, maybe because you mentioned this here, um I'm already thinking about this. but This is also kind of the last transfer bonus that we want to bring up here. which is Citi, I think has 25% to Lifemiles right until mid of April. So I think April twelfth right?
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, Lifemiles is one of these options that might work here. I know Lifemiles also has had some devaluations, right? They were, well, painful, but not completely devastating.
00:05:54
Speaker
And so some of the options of going especially back to Europe or ah You know, somewhere to Asia is like it's still in the books. Right. And if you get a 25 percent bonus like with City here, then actually this becomes quite rewarding.
00:06:07
Speaker
And then that also works when you're booking for a P3 that is no longer two years old. Yeah, I think at that point, right, like when P3 is now paying you know full fare award prices, then you know I think now you're looking all of a sudden for you know the cheapest business class award that you can find. And yeah, I mean, 25%, nothing to sneeze at.
00:06:27
Speaker
I have some life miles that you know are just kind of like orphaned out there and I'm trying to find a use for them. And every time I use them, I find a better flight. I think I end up paying some of these cancellation fees or I try to weasel my way out of them through a schedule change. And so it's just like one of those buckets of points that I just can never seem to get through.
00:06:45
Speaker
They do have value. I think really for me, like with life miles, the thing i I'd love to see is like, okay, booking really far out, technically they can book 360 days into the future. Sometimes you can find, you know, close in availability and that's probably where the biggest sweet spots are. But I think like for me, at least with my travel patterns, so There needs to be like, I don't know, nine months out, life miles availability. And that just never seems to happen. And that's why this, this dash of points just seems to stay there forever.
00:07:12
Speaker
I mean, LiveMiles itself is an interesting program to dive into, right? I mean, it was before because it has all kinds of pricing anomalies. It still does. They're just different now. And then they also introduced this essentially mileage subscription, right? um Which is, well, on the surface, not very exciting because you're just signing up to buy miles at an inflated price, right?
00:07:35
Speaker
But guess what? There's another angle to this in the sense that some of these subscription levels actually waive cancellation fees. right And so that may become interesting, especially when you book more than, say, two tickets, for example, three tickets. right Then there's another option there. I think Cardless has an Avianca card that now gives you a discount on the subscription. So there might be some maybe slightly niche play there in order to really get the maximum out of life miles.
00:08:03
Speaker
And if you can waive these horrendous cancellation fees that they have, I mean, that would make this program potentially very interesting. But yeah, it's something to dig into more in detail ah so far. I haven't explored it, but maybe we'll get that opportunity.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds like we have a life miles focus episode in the book sometime in the future. So, Christoph, I saw this post on Reddit, and have you used your Resi credit? Let's just start with that. I i i have not, and i have Delta cards to deal with. Yeah. Okay, well, I think this is right up your alley.
00:08:38
Speaker
So, I saw this post on Reddit on the Amex subreddit, and it was like, hey, the Resi credit seems to be triggering ah guess where? Walgreens. Oh, yeah.
00:08:50
Speaker
Does your Walgreens show up on the Resi app? And have you made any reservations lately? I have not, but this is definitely something to explore, right? As the MX front page promises, Resi helps you turn guests into regulars. So who knows? Maybe I'll be a regular my nearest Walgreens soon.
00:09:08
Speaker
Oh yes, the same with me. I think I need to go test this for myself. I still have one of those $50 Resi credits to use up. And so I'm just wondering, like... I wonder how the service is going to be when I make my booking, my closest Walgreens. We'll see how it goes.
00:09:22
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it's just hilarious. Like what is going on here with Walgreens? And um yeah, I'll include the link to this Reddit post in the show notes. So you can go and look for yourself. Like I think people were like charging, you know, at random 13 bucks or something like that. And yeah, boom, you get a Resi credit. So I don't know.
00:09:40
Speaker
Christoph, make sure you bring your Delta cards next time. Yeah. Next thing you know, the pharmacy starts calling us a restaurant. That would be great. Yeah. That would solve a lot of my problems right now. So Christoph, um let's check in on Dell because we're like what? Halfway through Q1. Oh no. You've got three more months to use your Dell credits. Dell, my nemesis.
00:09:59
Speaker
Yes. Okay, so this year i took a slightly different approach to to my usual. So you see, first of all, I pretty much have everything that I want or possibly need from the Dell store, from, you know, like lamps and laptops and yes, even office chairs, which by the way, just broke a few weeks back. and So the product quality is not that great.
00:10:21
Speaker
But, you know, We have these credits and it's like 2 times 200 dollars per year. So might as well take advantage while we can. right The credit might stay around or might go away. Nobody knows.
00:10:32
Speaker
But yeah, while we have the credit, it we gotta get rid of it. In the past, I used to actually go and buy some laptops and then shipping to buying groups. ah But this year I decided I'm not gonna do this.
00:10:43
Speaker
I'm actually just gonna buy some laptops and donate them to charity. I actually donated them to a local school and they were very happy about that. So that was an easy way to get out of the Dell credits, you know not completely waste them, still get a bunch of nice cash back. I think that one was from Rakuten.
00:11:01
Speaker
ah That was like tiny x i think. yeah So that was decent. And well, you get a donation receipt, right? So you get a little benefit at tax time. It's not as good as a buying group, but it was a hell of a lot less effort.
00:11:13
Speaker
So that was my Dell credit story. Yeah. Oh, my God. that's I mean, that's that's great that you did that, Christoph. I'm actually proud of you. But yeah, I'm glad that you're getting a tax benefit as well. so I can really pat myself on the shoulder here for like the three laptops. But, you know, whatever.
00:11:29
Speaker
At least I got rid of the Dell credits and it didn't expire like, you know, sometime earlier last year. So at least at that one. Actually, how are you doing with your Dell credits? Yeah, um I actually ended up using them.
00:11:42
Speaker
I forgot what i bought. I bought like, I don't know, maybe like a PS5 on Dell. And I just, you know, went on, put it on Facebook Marketplace and resold that. So um I just, you know, I wanted to use it. Plus there's capital on Shopping Portal that's giving routinely like 20% back plus, you know, sometimes up to even I think 35% I've seen.
00:11:59
Speaker
So um I just went that route and just getting it done with is kind of the point here. um I didn't want to deal with buying groups just because, I don't know, I just haven't been keeping my head in the game on buying groups.
00:12:12
Speaker
And, you know, with the game changing and evolving constantly, I think I actually do have to get back into buying groups. And so that kind of transitions me out of the Dell credit stories, but really more into like, you know,
00:12:25
Speaker
What am I doing with buying groups for me personally? And Christoph, I'm very interested to see what you're you've been up to with buying groups. But for me, like I haven't done buying groups really other than maybe one or two deals in the past year.
00:12:38
Speaker
um I kind of stopped doing buying groups just because it was a whole another level of organization that I just wasn't prepared to mentally take on. But, you know, I think this is probably if you're heavy into buying groups, you probably have, you know, a spreadsheet for all your regular orders. And then you probably have like another tab on that spreadsheet for like orders that just went wrong. And so I had a bunch of these that I just had to, you know, follow up on.
00:12:58
Speaker
And so I have a story here. Back in June 2024, I redeemed buyinggroup.com. I think they had these points back then. um And then you could redeem the points and get like a little extra kick.
00:13:10
Speaker
And so I redeemed it for a $320 Visa gift card. Plan to liquidate that, you know, through another method. I actually put off using that. I like forgot about it because i I wasn't doing buying groups. I wasn't checking my spreadsheet.
00:13:21
Speaker
I went back to get that card like six months later. and then when you clicked on the card to see the data and I was going to go use it wherever I don't load it to Amazon at that point because I think the the liquidation route was dead.
00:13:32
Speaker
I went back to look at it and the card was coming up blank, like no card data was showing. And so, man, like the nice thing about buyinggroup.com is they they do tickets through, you know, a Discord server. And I think that's a little bit better than some of these clunky buying group interfaces.
00:13:46
Speaker
But yeah, like it took them four months to finally like reissue this, you know, this Visa gift card, but they didn't even reissue it as a Visa gift card. I think that like partnership probably ended for them.
00:13:59
Speaker
But yeah, like I finally got my money back as an ACH. And so I was like, man, like, is my checking account on this buying group even correct anymore? like Are they depositing it into a closed bank account?
00:14:12
Speaker
So um yeah, I'm just glad that this is ah this saga here is over. I mean, like 320 bucks, yeah, it's not that much money. But just, i you know, it's it's on the spreadsheet. I got to go follow up on it. But yeah, like now that I'm kind of made whole with buying groups, I'm like, okay, game's evolving. We got adapt. We got to improvise.
00:14:29
Speaker
What are we going to do now? And so I think probably in the next three months, you know, I'm going to start settling into a a nice little buying group for them. And, you know you know, all of the big players like BFMR, Buyinggroup.com, I think Max Out Deals, you know these three are reputable buyers groups.
00:14:45
Speaker
They constantly have deals, and I think I'm just going to try to dive back in. So Christoph, you know how have you been doing with buying groups? like I know we don't talk about it that often on this show. Yeah, it used to be a much bigger thing for me, like maybe two or three years back. This was actually probably just after COVID, right?
00:15:04
Speaker
um I did quite a bit of volume on buying groups, right? And so... The thing that I've noticed is that there is, of course, buying groups are different. right Sometimes ah there's a team with one buying group and then eventually split up and they form their own buying group. So it's a little bit of a socializing game.
00:15:22
Speaker
But the other part is that I think for me, there were like two sweet spots. And the one thing that I wanted to avoid is being somewhere in the middle. In the sense that either, you know, I just i get rid of my Dell credits, right?
00:15:34
Speaker
And so you maybe do like one or two deals per year ah just to liquidate some credits and you call it a day. Or, well, you really try to scale it up and you know take advantage of ah deals and shopping portals and like stuff that stacks. right But whenever I did it in kind of like a halfway fashion right where yeah I put in some orders but not really enough for it to pay off, you still kind of have to deal with the problems that come with having a bunch of orders.
00:16:04
Speaker
If you have like one order and you know usually it goes through and like you don't care about it. But if you send in 100 orders, well, you know usually there's a problem with two or three of those, and you have to fix it.
00:16:14
Speaker
And it's it's quite a hassle to kind of do this with like one or two things, unless you're really willing to scale it further to like several hundreds of orders where you kind of have to, yes, you still have to deal with the problem, but it reaches industrial scale. right Well, it just becomes part of the the ongoing effort. right And so you kind of have routine like dealing with it.
00:16:36
Speaker
So anyways, like for me um right now, I'm kind of in the ah lower end sweet spot again. I'm like, I hardly ever use buying groups right now unless maybe you know there's like some deal or some credits or some category spend I want to deal with.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, the thing with buying groups is I feel what you're talking about, which is either you're really casual, you do one or two orders and that probably will go pretty well.
00:17:01
Speaker
If you just happen to get really unlucky in those one through, you know, one to five orders, one of those goes bad, you have a 20% fail rate. And so you're just like, what's the point of this? Right. but I think majority of the time, like the, the issue rate out of, you know, a hundred times, yeah, two or three sounds about right to me.
00:17:19
Speaker
And, you know, I think that really long-term, like as you go into the thousands of orders, I think that two or 3% kind of failure rate that seems to hold true, right?
Specialized knowledge in points and miles hobby
00:17:28
Speaker
Like, uh, so the thing about buying groups is like, okay, I can operate in this, like couple orders every few months and just kind of like, yeah, get rid of some credits or, you know, find a way to liquidate something,
00:17:39
Speaker
But what I really want to get back to, because yeah, during COVID, I was also heavy into buying groups. And i really got familiar with like different merchants and like what their cancellation policies, how many you can order within a given period of time.
00:17:53
Speaker
And um I think that's the key, right? Is like you do something more. And so build this like very specialized trade knowledge. And then you really scale up that trade knowledge to really start getting basically escalating the profits here.
00:18:07
Speaker
And so ah part of me wants to get back into that and like start relearning some of the things that I've kind of forgotten over the years. um I think I've gotten too comfortable in some other methods where, hey, it's just easy to spend this way, very low hassle, and you get really good at that.
00:18:21
Speaker
And now, you know, game changes. we We start thinking about, well, what other options do we have? And so I think buying groups probably for me going to get back in, you know, I still want to you know be able to hit, you know, high min spends on Amex cards. That is always an option for me.
00:18:36
Speaker
um And so I think that's probably the path forward here, um but we'll see, you know, let's see, let's play back the tape, Kristoff, in like three to six months and let's see how we're doing here. How's that? Yeah, I know it sounds good, right? And I think and Funny enough, buying groups, kind of as you say, like you build this, I don't know, muscle memory, right? Or this very specific knowledge that you just need, and then you can scale that knowledge.
00:18:59
Speaker
It's somewhat similar, honestly, to dealing with all of these credits on credit cards, right? Say if you just have, I don't know, an Aspire card and you get your $50 quarterly airline credit, okay, now you have to figure out, okay, well, what do I do with that airline credit?
00:19:13
Speaker
Just so you can deal with like $50 every three months. and Totally not worth it. But if you then add it up and you say, OK, but you also have a business platinum and maybe you have a personal platinum card, um and then your P2 has the same thing, or maybe there's other family members, and now suddenly you're talking about dealing with, you know say, $1,000 or $2,000 worth of airline credits, then guess what? Suddenly that knowledge that you've gained um well has much higher value, right? Because whether you liquidate those $50 in airline credits or $2,000 in airline credits,
00:19:44
Speaker
or two thousand dollars in airline credits It is about the same amount of effort involved in learning the skill and and having the knowledge. ah But then, you know, just clicking the button a few more times is, well, very scalable.
00:19:58
Speaker
And I think that applies in general to buying groups or to many things in this hobby, right? Where it has many different areas or like pockets where you can have specialized knowledge that really gives you an edge. And acquiring the knowledge is often the difficult part, and then scaling it is usually a bit easier.
00:20:14
Speaker
Usually a bit easier. Yeah. I, man, I couldn't agree more with you. I was actually just explaining this to a family last night. I was just like, cause I talked to some family about this hobby and they, they don't think it's that crazy. Like they're like, Oh, we're kind of on board with you. So we'll listen.
00:20:30
Speaker
But I was like, yeah, you know, like some of these things it's, it's way more profitable to take that specialized knowledge and then just apply it multiple, multiple times. And you tell family about a deal you're just like, go do this. Like I already did all of the research for you. Just do what I'm telling you to do.
00:20:45
Speaker
And you get to reap all the benefits. And um yeah, it's just frustrating when, you know, certain people are just like, I don't know. It seems a little bit crazy to me, but I'm just like, ah like, fine. I get it. It's not for you.
00:20:56
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I do agree a lot on the, you know, that issue where taking that specialized knowledge and just scaling it up. I mean, that's really, really where you start to see the the economies of scale here.
00:21:07
Speaker
So speaking of specialized knowledge and scaling it, how are you doing with Amex? ah Yeah, I mean, if if we're talking about end of Q1 and all of the quarterly credits and the monthly credits this month, I think I'm good to go.
00:21:23
Speaker
i think like maybe... like one or two more that I have to do, like a dining credit. But like, yeah, I did all of it. I even did my Dunkin' credits. Are you proud of me, Christoph? I'm very proud and I still refuse.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, how are you doing? Yeah, well, it's the same thing here, right? There's like monthly credits on Uber and I don't know, my $10 phone bill credit.
Maximizing credit card benefits
00:21:47
Speaker
i'm I'm happily churning away, but Dunkin' Donuts is unused.
00:21:50
Speaker
Like ah maybe, yeah you know, ah just give me the login to your app. Maybe i can just load it for you and then you can read the rewards of my Dunkin' Donuts credits. Just give me your card number. I'll just load it. I promise I'll only spend $7 per card.
00:22:04
Speaker
And then, you know, when we when we meet up in person, I'll buy you a beer return. Sure you will. And and you'll be so you'll be surprised. The moment you try to use it the second time, it's already canceled.
00:22:16
Speaker
And so I know Amex isn't the only, you know, issuer that has these types of credits. I think also like in general, right, there's end of Q1, you know, you're talking about your B of A 3% category spend. I think you have like, you know, 5% cards like Chase Freedom, Discover It. so you know, just as a reminder, public service announcement, know, make sure you get those done before the end of Q1.
00:22:37
Speaker
Christoph, what else am I missing here? are we missing anything else yeah i mean, of course. Okay, that's the spending categories, right? Especially Amex. All right, let's look at the coupon book. um So the annual credits, well, we have plenty of time for that. That doesn't matter.
00:22:50
Speaker
ah One thing that is new this year, these are the $50 Hilton credits, right? So there's this rumor that that will replace ah Dell in the long run, but let's see what happens there.
00:23:01
Speaker
But yeah, bottom line is most of the business platinum cards ah have this $50 quarterly credit now. I'm not really sure how to use it reliably. um I guess we can either go on a date night on a Hilton restaurant somewhere or hopefully ask the front desk and get some gift cards there. Maybe that works.
00:23:22
Speaker
But surely there has to be some kind of way to ah stock up on these Hilton credits. ah Worst case, ah you may actually plan to stay on a Hilton property and then you know just pay in $50 increments.
00:23:33
Speaker
So that's the $50 credit. I think if I remember correctly, the Hilton business card also has $60 quarterly credit, right which is just a little bit more for the dedicated business card than for the business platform.
00:23:47
Speaker
But yeah, if you have one of these cards, and I happen to have one and so does my P2, so I also need to ah dig into this and see what I do with these credits. And I guess the bonus points if you liquidate the first set of credits on March 31st and the second set of credits on April 1st. So maybe just ah have a short overnight stay somewhere.
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure, but I'm hoping there is a reliable way to get these credits out of these cards and then stockpile them. Because, well, eventually this will add up, right? And then and maybe if you're going on a vacation somewhere, well, yeah, Hilton hotels are nicely booked with points, but usually breakfast still takes cash, right?
00:24:27
Speaker
Because the grades are not enough. And then these Hilton gift cards come in very handy. I actually just recently burned one of these cards in Vegas just to wipe out my folio. So that was good. Oh, nice.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, I do have a story. We'll get to it later. But um we'll talk about how I used probably. I think like when you add in the Amex credits plus the Hilton gift cards over time, I mean, I think I stockpiled them for for a year now. And i think it was like in the neighborhood of $900 that I was able to use up.
00:24:54
Speaker
So um we'll get into that later. So Christoph, I just wanted to talk about, you know hey, i have an Amex min spend that I'm actually working on with P2. um This was one of those 250,000, 15,000 min spend requirement Amex business Platinums.
00:25:10
Speaker
And I've been thinking about like you know how am I going to meet this min spend? And, you know, hey, it it is a challenge to meet min spend sometimes. And I've been looking at my options. And I think what I'm going to do this year, you know, we we have our tax payment due, I think it's like April 10th.
00:25:26
Speaker
And so I think we have, I don't know, $10,000 more min spend to hit. And our tax bill, it is it is quite hefty. But luckily, like the BizPlat has that 1.5x multiplier on, ah you know, tax bills over, or any bill, really over $5,000. And so I'm planning to go with tax payments for the min spend here um just to get that out of the way. And yeah, we it's conveniently we have this bill coming up. And so I'm planning to meet min spend on my business plan with that.
00:25:56
Speaker
ah Do you have any Amex min spend that you have to meet? Actually, I do. um For me, it's interestingly not really a signup bonus, but it's about the same size as a signup bonus. So to rewind a little bit here, I actually had a business gold card, or I still have a business gold card, um and ah that business gold card recently came up for renewal.
00:26:18
Speaker
actually I actually ended up getting a retention offer on it, so this is like 40 key points, but you know you still spend all the junk of money for it. So the interesting part here really was that on top of that retention offer, I actually also got targeted for an upgrade offer.
00:26:33
Speaker
And the upgrade offer is, I think, $120,000 or so for $10,000 in spend. So not quite a $250,000 like ah your sign-on bonus. But you know together with the retention offer, and that's actually pretty nice for a card that you know I'm keeping anyways.
00:26:49
Speaker
And well, the interesting part is, well, because I didn't really sign up for a card here, ah should I still get the chance to maybe ah exp expand my relationship with MX or be targeted for another platinum card, then I might actually be able to take that too.
00:27:05
Speaker
But regardless, of course, this whole thing, the retention offer and kind of like the upgrade offer, they both have a spent requirement, but it actually overlaps. And so both of those are actually 10K in spend that they require.
00:27:18
Speaker
And so for me, it's also going to be a mixture of property taxes and income taxes. but As you said, like, okay, also California property taxes due in, well, due earlier, but you know, the the absolute deadline is essentially mid-April.
00:27:34
Speaker
So that's going to be one part of it. And then, well, shortly after, we'll pay the rest of the income taxes as they are due. And that should take care of both the retention spend and the upgrade spend. And so essentially every dollar spent counts against both of these promotions, which is very nice.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. So you had 40K and 120K. So you're working on getting basically complete the spend for both and you get 160, right? Yes. And then actually I'm hoping, so sometimes there's also these targeted offers for employee cards.
00:28:07
Speaker
I'm still hoping to maybe find one of those, ah you know, some of these offers where, you know, maybe, I don't know, 7,000 or so ah for, i don't know, maybe 4,000 spent. There some floating around that might be like 15,000 points for like 4,000 spent.
00:28:21
Speaker
um you know they're online uh if you get one of these links and it works for you i think it's up to five au's per card so that would be nice right then maybe you can also knock out uh two or three of those if possible ah that would really make this uh well sign up bonus level stuff uh even though it's essentially an ongoing card so you might still be able to add a sign up bonus on the side ah if you can take care of more spend But yeah, so that's my my current MX story here.
00:28:50
Speaker
and Not quite at two hundred and fifty k but I'm happy with it Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like for keeping a card open another year, i mean get another double dip of the benefits and ah yeah, I'm waiting for one of those AU offers to come back because it's been a while since I've seen one.
00:29:04
Speaker
I checked mine and P2's logins and yeah, we haven't been targeted in quite a while. I really hope they do come back um because those are very valuable to have. And, yeah you know, it being able to overlap that with a retention and an upgrade, man, that just really, you're just triple dipping at that point. So.
00:29:21
Speaker
I just had one more thing on Amex here. And um I don't know if you have this card, Christoph, but I have a Surpass that I opened last December. And ah yeah my my goal this year was to really like hit the 15K free night certificate for 2025 early in the year. But I kind of just like you know dragged my feet
Strategies for hotel certificates and travel changes
00:29:39
Speaker
on this.
00:29:39
Speaker
And i'm I'm at about 13,000 spend done for this year. But I really want to get this free night certificate posted because it's I think I've mentioned this before, but like, I'd like to have my free night certificates kind of have similar expiration dates. So that way they're, I mean, yeah, I can push a trip forward and, you know, hopefully that means that, you know, I don't have to worry about the expiration date on these free night certs, but, um,
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, I just want to get this done. It's just another chore. um I love the free night certs, but yeah, just getting to these 15k, I need to get to it. yeah are Christoph, what's your Hilton strategy right now? And are FNCs a part of that strategy? yes so I can tell you about my strategy, and I can also tell you about how it terribly failed literally just days ago, ah in the sense that I actually so have a huge pile of Hilton points right now.
00:30:29
Speaker
We yeah took advantage of Transfer Bonus just a few weeks back and actually booked a nice little trip for you know family extended family. right so and We had a bunch of things booked, everything lined up, and then we had to cancel pretty much last minute ah because you know people got sick. So that's very unfortunate.
00:30:50
Speaker
ah But besides this pile of Hilton points that I still have to deploy because, well, everybody's still waiting to go on this vacation, I also have an Aspire card for my P2.
00:31:02
Speaker
And my P2, well, the Aspire card comes with a Hilton free night certificate anyways. And technically, you can spend on the card to get more free night certificates. But the spend requirements are pretty high. I think $30,000 and $60,000 over the course year.
00:31:17
Speaker
ah over the course of a year I mean, it's doable depending on you know what your expenses are, but usually the spending might be used better, right for example, for an upgrade bonus or a new signup bonus.
00:31:30
Speaker
And so I'm actually thinking, well, the card has a retention offer on it, and I think it's just expired. So I might actually downgrade the card to a surplus as well and then go for the 15K certificate ah similar to what you've done.
00:31:48
Speaker
ah That might still work out. We have plenty of expenses that kind of will hit categories there in both dining and restaurants are options. And then, of course, there's grocery. So, yeah, I think I'll go for one of these free night certificates.
00:32:01
Speaker
Also use the one that we got ah from the re-annual of the Aspire. And that together should give us two certificates. So that might be nice for like a one night or two night stay somewhere.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah, that was ah the upgrade downgrade strategy with the Surpass and the Aspire cards. I think that's the reason I reopened this Surpass card. I had a Surpass card like, I don't know, three, four years ago. And it was one of those cards where it just kind of went up and down, the you know, the upgrade downgrade game.
00:32:31
Speaker
And i closed it up because I started focusing more on the business Hilton card. that card was very useful, especially when it had that um you know that free night certificate. But when that died, I started looking for these free night certificates again. And I looked back on the personal side. I was like, let's just let's just open one up. And the thing about the Surpass card is that I can't upgrade it to an Aspire you know until the card's a year old.
00:32:56
Speaker
That's the thing. It's like my only options for getting more of these free night certs. um with the spend obviously is like I need to wait until the card's a year old and then I'll upgrade it to an Aspire and then I think the way that timing works out is that I think like the card open date or the anniversary will be like December 8th and so all of a sudden i have like from December 8th to December 31st to you know liquidate some of the other Aspire level credits. And so I don't know that feel I might be really busy at that time of the year. And so I don't know if I'm going to be able to complete that, but that's kind of what I'm having to do now.
00:33:31
Speaker
But yeah. And then, you know, take advantage of the Aspire credits in the next year and then maybe potentially downgrade. And yeah, like the the free night certs are really good. I actually have a feeling, I don't know, this is kind of like me, um,
00:33:44
Speaker
theorizing here, but like, I don't know, the free night certs are really useful and I feel like Hilton might actually devalue these. you have any thoughts on that ah that theory? so i Yes, I understand your feeling, right? So the free night certificates, they are already pretty valuable, right? I mean, ah we've used them happily at some high end properties.
00:34:01
Speaker
And now with the addition of the small luxury hotels of the world, this has become like even better. And also know some folks really take advantage of free night certificates for all inclusives.
00:34:12
Speaker
and So they're kind of the free night certificates right now where there's like no restrictions on which weekday you can use them at or essentially which property you can use, them at essentially any standard availability is fair game.
00:34:26
Speaker
The certs are very valuable. And so if you say like maybe they're thinking about devaluing it, yeah, well, I can see that happening. On the other hand, the Hilton program really has been trending up right in terms of the value that you can get out of the points and I guess the FNCs as well, especially with high end properties.
00:34:44
Speaker
If it's going to stay like this forever, I don't know. But right now, well, at least I don't see the writing on the wall. Well, Hilton is not hired right now. Yeah, at least every year in February, you're going to get you're going to see the writing on the wall. And you know it's usually bad, right? Yeah, speaking of which, right? So there's a whole lot of devaluations coming or maybe category changes, not devaluations. Yeah.
00:35:08
Speaker
um For Hyatt, the category changes, of course, usually are inflationary. and There are some properties that become cheaper, but yeah most of them are going up. And I know there's a few really painful ones.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah For example, one of my favorite properties is the Grand Hyatt on Kauai. Of course, that's probably a famous resort for any family traveler. So any P3s are very, very welcome there.
00:35:34
Speaker
But yeah, so that one is going to be a category eight, I think. Right. So that's a quite steep one. Yeah. Anyways, but, you know, I'm not really a complete expert in this. I think we can head tip Frequent Miler here because they ah made a very detailed list of what categories went up and down.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like if I tried to dive into Hyatt right now, i would be totally lost. So it's it's good to have friends like you, Christoph, who knows what is going on with the Hyatt program. And hopefully maybe you can guess. This is specialized knowledge. And hopefully maybe you can guess the Bonnery. don't know. We'll see. let let's Let's talk about that.
00:36:12
Speaker
It's like specialized knowledge, totally unscalable. You only get so many of those. Now, speaking of things that are devaluing, i think we're ignoring probably the elephant in the room here and probably every travel related, you know, points related blog is really, you know, kind of dunked on.
00:36:31
Speaker
on Southwest here. ah But I think we have to we have to touch on this, right? Like, at least we have to like mention it, right? Like, I don't think we have all the details yet, but yeah, Southwest had a bunch of negative changes.
00:36:44
Speaker
And I don't know what you think. like I'm going to tell you how I feel about it, like just as an overall perspective. And then I kind of want you to do the same, Christoph. And I just want to see if we agree here. Okay. Just hot takes.
00:36:55
Speaker
Hot takes, basically. Okay, let let me first, let's talk about what the actual changes are. So um if you're familiar with the fare buckets, you know, the the pricing tiers for Southwest fares, um you have want to get away, want to get away plus anytime and business select. And of course, want to get away is normally the cheap fares.
00:37:13
Speaker
And they're changing that down to basic. So I don't know, just think of your basic economy on like United or Delta. That's what it's becoming. Now Southwest is introducing bag fees.
00:37:25
Speaker
And so, you know, this is the thing that kills me the most is the airline has lived on this motto of two bags fly free and that is going away. And anyways, okay. So that's the second change. The third change, no more open seating.
00:37:39
Speaker
This again has been one of those things that I grew up with. I grew up flying Southwest and that is changing. I mean, it's a complete change from what I've loved about Southwest.
00:37:50
Speaker
Number four, ticketless travel funds are going back to carrying an expiry policy. So if you remember like 2022, they switched that, I think probably due to pressure from COVID because no one is traveling, but um they're reintroducing ticketless travel fund expiry policies. And so um that's one of the changes. And then like a couple other miscellaneous, I'm not even going to really include these in the big categories, but like they're ending free drink coupons and like basically devaluation on points earning at the low tier fares.
00:38:18
Speaker
And um the higher tier fares, you know, you get a slight bump. And so, Christoph, I'm going to tell you how I feel and then I want to hear it. I'm going to completely rag on Southwest for a minute here.
00:38:29
Speaker
but Okay, bags dying on Southwest and now I'm having to pay for this. This is the number one reason i would actually recommend flying Southwest to my family.
00:38:40
Speaker
Okay, so a little bit of context here, but my mom's side of the family is Filipino. And if you've ever seen Filipinos flying to or from the Philippines, They bring these huge boxes called Bollock Buy-in Boxes.
00:38:51
Speaker
And these things are huge. And many times when I had family traveling to and from like Northern California to Southern California, they were bringing tons of goodies with them to, you know, share with family. And ah that never changed. When they came to America, they brought that cultural tradition with them.
00:39:06
Speaker
And so, man, like being able to bring those boxes like back and forth, like that was something that we did as growing up. And we don't, I don't see, you know, I don't see my family wanting to pay for that. And so, I don't know.
00:39:18
Speaker
Okay. That's one thing. And then the other thing is like growing up, you know, open seating Southwest, you get on the plane, you have no idea where you're going to It's like a little game, right? Like, okay. Should me and my co-traveler pick A and C and then like hope that nobody takes the B seat right in the middle? right like I think we've all played this game flying with ah with a P2, right?
00:39:38
Speaker
So these are the two things that I'm really angry about. And um I don't know, to me, it just feels like a complete killing of their culture. And yeah, okay, that was my hot take. I'm sorry.
00:39:50
Speaker
I went a little long with that. Kristoff, what are your thoughts here? Yeah, i think the the overall heartache on my side is very similar to your conclusion. right I know that Southwest makes these changes also kind of like under the pressure of kind of like the private equity that they brought on board a while ago. right I'm on the one side hopeful that maybe they pull a delta in the sense that her Fingers crossed they will get the feedback and maybe change their course of action here.
00:40:23
Speaker
And maybe we get some of our benefits back. ah But the the other side of me thinks that maybe it's ah just ah lost its soul and it's going to be like all the other low-cost carriers.
00:40:36
Speaker
And I actually say this while actively holding a Southwest companion pass. And actually, the last time i flew Southwest was literally just a few weeks back. Yeah, so I ah frequently fly with Southwest and you know I like using their points and also their they have flight credits, right some of which are transferable depending on what fare bucket you use and so on.
00:40:57
Speaker
So I'm actually a pretty active user of this. And I'm, well, yeah, disappointed, I guess is is the right word. I know profitability has been an an issue in that industry for a while. But yeah, um I think the things that I associate with the brand of Southwest kind of got it here.
00:41:14
Speaker
And I'm not sure there's much left. um we'll We'll see. You know, I don't think this is... ah the final word yet. I'm pretty sure like things will still shuffle around.
00:41:25
Speaker
But yeah, we'll find out. like Honestly, we should probably have like a special episode about this because while we are kind of like active Southwest users, there's people who are very much experts on that area too.
00:41:37
Speaker
That's for sure. Yeah, I mean, like I think you know there are some there are there's like one nice change here, which is like they're going to introduce like extra legroom seating. I hope that's good. like I think like elites probably get first dibs on that.
00:41:51
Speaker
But I really hope, like okay, yeah, if you're going to introduce something like basic economy, hope that really means that like Southwest, their fares come down because they have you know they I think they were like born you know and perceived as a low-cost carrier.
00:42:04
Speaker
That's how I grew up perceiving them. And they really were low-cost carrier for the most part. But like in the last 10, 15 years, I've noticed that they weren't competitive on the lowest fare. And actually, united the legacy carriers were consistently beating them you know, when when they were competing on a single route, um United would either match Southwest or undercut them by a little bit, especially in the basic economy. And so, I don't know, I hope this means that Southwest's fares actually do come down, but I'm not holding my breath because but in what instance have you ever seen, hey, we're introducing basic economy, but really it's just a relabel of their cheapest economy ah with, you know, less benefits.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see. I'm still hopeful that some of these things will change. But yeah, I agree with the sentiment, especially your comparison of United and Southwest is something that I've seen frequently, right?
00:42:49
Speaker
ah Where I sometimes look at the Southwest fairs and, well, again, we have a companion pass in the household, but even still with the companion pass, sometimes it's more expensive than flying United.
00:43:00
Speaker
That said, I actually like the quote unquote extra legroom that exists in Southwest today compared to United basic economy. So um maybe this is just a luxury and the the price to pay.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, I know what seat you're talking about. It's the ah second row on the left side of the emergency exits, right? United is a little bit rough when it comes to seating in in the back rows.
00:43:24
Speaker
But yeah, on the other hand, United has international business products too. So they this is something that you will never find on Southwest. Yeah, well, enough ragging on Southwest. um I'm still hopeful.
00:43:36
Speaker
and So we'll we'll see how this turns out. But um speaking of flying and traveling, I know you, Raymond, also had a very, very nice baby bonding trip ah recently to kind of like ah round out the start of P3, so to say.
Raymond's road trip experience
00:43:55
Speaker
How did things go? Did you like the trip? Yeah, I mean, little context here. i had been on baby bonding, right? P3 was born around Christmas. And um I wanted to go on a trip. you know like I wanted to test things out with P3 and see how would do on you know a longer trip. And I started thinking about what we were actually going to be able to do. And you know kind of seeing him grow kind of gave me a good idea. Like, OK, six hours on a plane to Hawaii might not be the best idea right now. So let's make it a little bit more digestible for you know me, P2, and P3, really.
00:44:25
Speaker
And so I thought about what are my options. And at the same time, I was also noticing, looking back on my spreadsheet, like, hey, I have some free night certificates that I need to start using up. And I don't have you know travel plans for them before they expire. So let's just put that, you know let's create demand and put it right there on the books, especially with you know the realization that I have to go to work eventually.
00:44:45
Speaker
And so I wanted to get a trip on the books. And so you know we decided on a road trip down to LA. i was looking, you know hey, I have some free night certificates that are about to expire. I don't have a use for them. Let's, you know, let's make that happen. And so I was looking like, what are some of the nicer properties that I could actually use free night certs?
00:45:00
Speaker
You know, and in California, like free night certs aren't really known for their really high value aspirational uses. But, you know, this was the best I could do here. And so I decided to um book two nights at the Waldorf Astoria in Monarch Beach.
00:45:14
Speaker
Christoph, have you have you looked at this property ever? Like it's a decent property. I actually enjoy it. I have. I've never stayed there. So tell me. Yeah, I mean, it's this like kind of sprawled out property.
00:45:24
Speaker
Actually asked the front desk staff, like, you know, how old is this property? And apparently it used to be the St. Regis Monarch Beach. And um i didn't I didn't realize that. But yeah, I mean, it's a it's a very nice property complete with golf course. It's reasonably close to the beach if you want to walk. And there's a nice little trail.
00:45:40
Speaker
But it really is conducive to like, you know, family travel. ah they're They're also very dog friendly. I think they're actually really nice. Like they they They said that my dog was like ADA a eligible or whatever.
00:45:53
Speaker
you know They just made me sign a little form, but they were really nice about that. And I was like, wow, this is great. And they put us into a room on the first floor. And the nice thing about being on the first floor is that you get this like little fire pit. like Not all the rooms on the second, third, fourth, fifth floor have that fire pit, but it's nice because like you can also jump over the fire pit. like There's a little spot to jump over. You're not jumping over fire.
00:46:14
Speaker
But yeah, you could relieve your dog like right there. There's grass. And so it was just a really nice little getaway service was really impeccable. I think that the only thing with this property is like, I don't know if you're sort of anti like, you know, kind of like, what's the word I'm looking for, but like super high class, like you could see all the, you know, the the Bentleys in the parking lot, like It felt like i was a little bit like a fish out of water staying there.
00:46:41
Speaker
But overall, like the staff was great and they treated us so well. And it was a nice kickoff to this road trip. So, you know, two free night certs. I think like ah these are a night rooms, but yeah, two free night certs being able to be used there.
00:46:54
Speaker
Great experience. You know, on the on the downside is really just the pricing of the food. Like I noticed. Breakfast was like $75 for like two, two plates. And then like a little side and two drinks. Like it was very expensive, but Hey, when you have Hilton gift cards and Hilton benefits to use on your Amex cards, you know, go wild.
00:47:14
Speaker
I was just about to say. Yeah. So we spent two nights at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach. um I would definitely go back. I think once, you know, baby's a little bit older, we'll be able to use that up.
00:47:26
Speaker
And then ah we spent like three nights with family. We actually brought P3 to Disneyland. And I think he was like one of the youngest people at Disneyland. We brought him on a jungle cruise.
00:47:38
Speaker
ah What's the one of the one of those like trackless rides at Toontown. it's It's a newer ride. I've never been on it, but I was actually a little bit worried because, you know, two and a half month old doing this. I was a little bit worried that this would be too much action for him. But.
00:47:52
Speaker
ah worry not. he was He did really, really well, um actually. And yeah, it was it was a great time. like We didn't really get to do a lot at Disneyland. you know We did a lot of walking, but hey, I mean, it was just one of those memories that I'll have forever, like bringing your kid to Disneyland for the first time. They're not going to remember anything, but i took all the pictures and videos and I'm I'm going to value those. So I think, yeah, it was a it was a heavy it was a heavy price tag.
00:48:16
Speaker
I didn't really plan this out that well, but um yeah, I'm really glad i went to Disneyland. I know I'm definitely going to cherish that memory for a long time. So from Disneyland, we actually went to San Diego.
00:48:27
Speaker
We didn't actually stay in the city of San Diego, but we stayed at the famous Hotel Del Coronado. And Christoph, I know that you're familiar with this property. Oh, yes, I am. I actually also brought our P3 to the Del Coronado.
00:48:42
Speaker
I think that was at five months old. So, yes, it sounds very familiar. Yeah. And man, this hotel is um just let me go over Coronado real quick. Like I've never actually been to Coronado, even though I've been to San Diego many times and I've been on the waterfront and I've always wondered, hey, what's that?
00:49:00
Speaker
What's that like island looking thingy? just to across the bay and what's that big bridge that goes there and i you know I didn't really pay attention but yeah this is that's Coronado and Coronado is like this kind of beachy feeling town like I would think it's it has the laid-back vibe like I don't know San Luis Obispo or like a Pismo beach and I really liked the laid-back atmosphere that you have in Coronado um I think the only downside with Coronado is that it has like a active military base.
00:49:26
Speaker
And so like in the daytime, you'll see like Navy training, like really loud, like F-22 fighters just landing. And it's just like a mile away from your hotel. So that was the only downside. But back to the hotel, I think this is like a historic hotel, you know even like their elevator, it's probably, i think it's from the eighteen hundreds if if I'm not mistaken. And um it was just like a really old but well-kept hotel. And yeah, to book this, I used two more free night certificates.
00:49:57
Speaker
And um I don't think that this property is really worth the 115,000 points per night if you're booking as a standard Hilton Award. ah How did you book this, Christoph, when you actually stayed here?
00:50:09
Speaker
Free night certificates. We really used that same unscalable knowledge here. Yeah. Oh, man. So, yeah, I mean, I think this is really where you get more value for the free night search because you don't have to, you know, front the extra 20K points if you were paying points.
00:50:26
Speaker
But, yeah, I think it was a great stay, you know, reasonably well for P3s to come. You know, the breakfast situation is a little bit iffy. They they were going some renovations and like I think half of the resort was kind of like basically under construction. And that included like a couple of restaurants. I think they're adding like a Nobu.
00:50:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think we'll come back. For sure, we'll come back. Like, i just, I want to wait until all of that's done and really come back and see like, okay, what is this property able to give you in a family? And um yeah, I think when we come back, we'll be able to really like get a better feel for the property because we only stayed two nights. And um one of those nights we had just came from Disneyland. So we were like dead tired when we arrived.
00:51:05
Speaker
The nice thing here is that they accept Hilton gift cards up the Ying Yang. So I think, um, Their their whole hotel staff, I think, is trained or whatever because they knew the deal when I came up to pay and I had eight cards to swipe through.
00:51:18
Speaker
And whoever was working that morning just knew the knew the deal. And yeah, swiping eight Hilton gift cards takes about 15 minutes um from start to finish just because of...
00:51:30
Speaker
whatever they do on their POS system, it's a lot of interaction. But it was funny because like swiping multiple cards, Christoph, we all know that feeling, swiping multiple cards to complete a transaction. Well, there have it. I guess I'm going back to the Del Coronado very soon, maybe on March 31st.
00:51:50
Speaker
I think you'll have to, right? like ah Do you have the Southwest flights already booked, Christoph? And are they basic? I'm already contemplating. There you go. Southwest flights ah from San Jose to San Diego are usually very cheap because there's many, many connections daily. Quick, beat the devaluation. Come on, we got to make sure we get the max value before everything just goes to crap.
00:52:10
Speaker
Of course, use the companion pass as maximum efficiency. There we go. Yeah. So ah that that was the that was the whole road trip. I mean, like think about it. You have a two and a half month old on a road trip.
00:52:22
Speaker
How much are you really going to achieve? So really, i don't know. Looking back, I don't want to pat myself on the shoulder too much here, but I think like for what it was, like a week-long road trip, visiting family, going to Disneyland, being able to check out Hotel Del Coronado, Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach, like two properties I definitely will go back to in the future.
00:52:39
Speaker
And the added benefit of burning all these free night shirts, man, i think I think we did okay. I think the next challenge is gonna be like, are we gonna be able to travel on a long plane? Because that seems to be the next big thing that we need to see if we can surpass, especially with some of the trips that we're you know we're looking to book in the next you know few months.
00:52:58
Speaker
Is it gonna be a trip to Japan with Avios? I promised that I wouldn't go back to Japan, but I think I'm gonna have to break that promise.
Conclusion and community engagement
00:53:06
Speaker
Well, there you go. I think this is a good way to break a promise. Japan is awesome, too.
00:53:10
Speaker
Well, Raymond, I think we covered a lot of ground here. I think it's a show. Yeah, I think that's a show. Thanks, everybody, for listening to this episode of The Points Project with your hosts, Christoph and Raymond.
00:53:21
Speaker
Have a good one, everybody. See you next time. Hey there, Points Project listeners. If you enjoyed today's episode, we also have a Patreon feed where we expand upon many of the topics we discuss on this show.
00:53:33
Speaker
If you'd like access to the enthusiast member-only content and Slack group, please consider subscribing to our Patreon.