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Episode 4: New CC Applications, Plans for 2H 2024, and a Japan Trip Report
374 Plays10 months ago
In this episode, we discuss some new cards we’ve recently applied for, and our churning strategy for the rest of 2024. Raymond also talks about his recent trip to Japan. Enjoy! -TPP
AMEX Connect Website (link AMEX offers to 3rd party AMEX cards): https://global.americanexpress.com/card-offers/view-all
Patreon Feed: https://www.patreon.com/ThePointsProject
Intro / Outro Music Credits:
"Vibing Over Venus"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
In this episode of The Points Project, we talk new applications, planning out the rest of 2024 and a Japan trip report.
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello and welcome to The Points Project with your hosts, Christoph and Raymond. Hey Raymond, how have you been? I heard you just came back from a long Japan
Raymond's Japan Trip Highlights
00:00:23
Speaker
trip. I want to hear all about this.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yes, Christophe, we just came back from Japan. ah We spent about eight days, you know, gallivanting, as you could say, throughout Japan. And, you know, I have a lot of stuff to talk about, but not only that, you know, I think there's a lot of stuff going on in the churning world. And, you know, it's been a while since we've done one of these free shows. So, you know, I thought we'd give our public show a little update here.
00:00:47
Speaker
It's really about
Clear Membership Promotions and Benefits
00:00:48
Speaker
time. yeah First off on today's show, k Clear has released another promo where you can sign up for a Clear account and get an Uber $75 voucher. Right now, the Clear memberships are going for about $199 a year, but you know if you have an Amex Platinum card,
00:01:03
Speaker
You know, that is basically free, right? So why not go ahead and sign up for a $75 Uber voucher? I did receive some reports, right? Like this does work with an account you may have closed in the past. And um I've also seen some other reports where, you know, you could get that Uber voucher on and a ah new signup and it comes through, you know, regardless of whether or not you actually complete the enrollment at the airport. So.
00:01:27
Speaker
ah you know my My brain here is you know basically churning, right? Like what should I do? How many accounts should I go with if I should do that at all? It's funny, like Clear to me has been the strange service where you know we have TSA pre-check and we have Clear and I'm like, what's the what's the real benefit of Clear? Like half the time it takes longer than a TSA pre-check. So, Iqrisov, what are your thoughts on Clear as a service and and how about ah how about this promo?
00:01:56
Speaker
Well, I've signed up for Clear many times, but I'll also be the first to admit that I never actually completed the enrollment at the airport. ah That said, I really appreciated the $75 Uber vouchers in the past, and guess what? They're back. So I'm glad to hear that they're still working. Other than that with Clear, I know yeah depending on the airport, sometimes folks have a really good experience with it.
00:02:21
Speaker
For me, especially us like flying out of San Francisco airport, really TSA pre-works just fine. So I really didn't need to clear so far. And well, I might sign up anyways for another $75 voucher.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, same here. I'm thinking about signing up, you know, maybe P3 for one of these and using one of my MX Platinum's to go ahead and pay for that. Definitely something to look into. Christophe, do you know this for sure? Like I'm unsure on this, but that $75 voucher, is it a one-time use voucher or can you chip away at it with ah like two or three orders?
00:02:58
Speaker
I always used it in one go. I also know that the the there were always slight differences in how they worked. At some point, it was a thing like literally just cache, and now it's a voucher that is just ah like a discount code. So I would plan on just using it in one go. That has worked for me in the past. If ah it works differently this time, great, but I wouldn't set my hopes too high.
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, that that's actually my experience with other types of Uber vouchers is like their one-time use. And so, you know, I was thinking, think of, you know, family dinner night where you're in charge of picking up food, you know, that that might be a good use of the Uber vouchers. But yeah, my experience would clear, right? Like, ah depending on the airport and the time of day, sometimes clear is just a pure waste of time. Like I've seen it where I've gone through clear and there's like the regular TSA, you know, non pre-check line. And it's actually ended up being slower than that line, usually because the regular TSA line is, there's not that many people in there. But like I've gone through and like 25% of the time I get those random ID checks. I hate those.
00:04:03
Speaker
And you know like those random screenings, it it totally defeats the purpose. Nowadays, you know when me and P2 are going through airport security, you know we're like, oh, how long is TSA pre? Because we might just go ahead and do that. you know um If we have to pull out our IDs anyways through clear, any benefits are really negated. so So yeah, I'm going to take a look at this clear promo and see if I can see which Amex Platinum's that I still have that promo credit to use up.
Credit Card Strategies and Experiences
00:04:28
Speaker
And you know we'll see if we can get a couple of these super vouchers coming our way. Speaking of random things to do, by the way, I signed up for a credit card, but not just a random credit card, an issue that usually does not come up when it comes to credit cards and miles and points. And that would be credit one. Whoa.
00:04:49
Speaker
Yes, not Capital One. I literally mean Credit One. yeah Like, yes, that one. So Credit One came out with a new card and that is referred to as the ah Wonder America card. And that card was interesting mainly because it returns five acts on travel, dining, gas. And of course, my first thought when I saw this was, well, these points are probably not worth it. And they're yeah know it was probably just a ripoff.
00:05:19
Speaker
But when I looked in the terms and conditions, it seemed like these 5X should be usable. And really, you should be able to cash them out at one cent each, which makes it more interesting. Because now if you have a 5X card that is, in addition to this from an issuer that is not really widely used in the joining community, maybe there are some interesting angles on this. And 5X on gas or dining, hu there are ways to spin you know quite a bit of revenue on this card. So I figured, OK, I'll try to sign up. And ah to my surprise, when I submitted an application, I actually got approved. I thought my credit score might be too high ah in that case. ah But no, it did get approved. And I also got a very interesting comment saying, well, you know we approved you, but only for a small credit line of about $1,000.
00:06:11
Speaker
which is not very much considering that the card is a $95 annual fee. right So essentially 10% of the credit limit is taken by just the credit card. So that this reminds you that you're talking about credit one. ah But ah regardless, ah so I got approved and it said, well, ah your score was negatively affected by the number of bankruptcies on your credit report. And I found that entertaining because at least last time I checked, which was literally six hours before I signed up for that card, there was no bankruptcy on my credit report. So I wonder if they're expecting me to have at least one bankruptcy in my past there.
00:06:48
Speaker
It's credit one. Nevertheless, yes, I got a card and it's a 5x card for a couple of interesting categories. The credit limit is low, but maybe there's a way to bump it up. ah Nevertheless, one other interesting aspect about this card is that it's a third-party Amex card.
00:07:06
Speaker
So sometimes these third party MX cards have some small benefits and among those are also the ability to add MX offers actually on these cards. So maybe there's some interesting ways how these 5X can then be further to stacked with some offers.
00:07:25
Speaker
But yeah, certainly very random, ah but an interesting new card issuer to investigate. And um you know, if Credit One doesn't like me anymore after a few months, then that's fine too, because I don't think I really miss this issuer. But yeah, an interesting card. So we'll look into it and I'll keep you posted on how the adventures go with my new Credit One Wonder America card.
00:07:50
Speaker
I never thought I'd hear you say credit one. like I really ah really love the fact that you're you know probing. That's a great characteristic to have in our hobby. And um I love the fact that you're the first person, probably in our community, that has ever said, oh, I'm really excited to start spending on this credit one card.
00:08:11
Speaker
um There may be some you know interesting things about this card that make it useful for us. and so you know i'm I'm looking forward to hearing some of your findings there. and Yeah, that Amex Connect website, man, it's been awhile. I remember using the Amex Connect website. This is that website where you can add basically like Amex offers, but to third-party cards. and I'll drop a link in the show notes for this um just to you know be real specific about the website we're talking about. But basically you enter your card number,
00:08:39
Speaker
and it'll pull up any Amex offers that you're eligible to sign up for. And that's different than like you know your Amex online profile where you add Amex offers at the bottom there. Yeah, it's always interesting to see you know even why some of these you know issuers come up with a new Amex card to issue. And um other times, like other banks are also removing Amex co-branded cards. like It's just an interesting ah space in our in all of the ah banks out there. yeah The only constant is change. By the way, speaking of change, I think you applied for a bunch of cars as well, right? Yeah, that's right. you know As you may know, if especially if you're listening on our Patreon feed.
00:09:16
Speaker
So a plug for our Patreon, where we have been doing episodes a little bit more regularly, um and we have, you know, a growing Patreon community where, you know, we really just dive deeper. And so yeah, um if you've been following, you know, we recently, me and P2, we just bought a house and so I had been really been on good behavior mode with my with my credit report recently and so you know as soon as we closed on our house i thought it might be you know this is a great time to apply for new credit cards right my my report quote unquote is clean yeah so context here before i even get into the specific cards you know depending on who you'd ask my score was somewhere in the high 700s to low 800s and in the last year you know i didn't have more than i'd say six inquiries
00:09:57
Speaker
and my utilization was pretty low, is you know no card reported greater than 10%. Christophe, what do you think? That should be a good setup for you know getting some approvals, right? Well, that depends on who you apply to. Do you apply to a created one as well? I should have. yeah so Let's get into these. ah The first one, you know a really good bonus came up very recently on the Capital One SparkCache Plus Mastercard.
00:10:24
Speaker
um So the bonus was up to $4,000 in cash bonuses. And by the way, this is a business card. $30,000 spend and will get you a $2,000 cash bonus if you spend that in the first three months. And then if you can spend a whopping $500,000 in the first year, they'll throw in another $2,000. And every subsequent $500,000 that you spend on this card, you'll get another $2,000 cash bonus. All that for a $199 annual fee.
00:10:49
Speaker
Now, the issue is that Capital One pulls all three credit bureaus, but you can freeze one. And I believe that one is Experian and they will still process your application. And so, right, keep in mind, like this card also earns 2% cash back on its own. So that $30,000 in spend will get you $600 plus that $2,000 cash bonus. So you're getting $2,600 for $30,000 in spend. So that's basically an effective return of 8.67% on that first part of the signup bonus. And then, you know, the second half of that.
00:11:19
Speaker
that 500k spend. I mean, that's really just if you have a business that's just spending like crazy. And to my knowledge, the cashback can be transferred to a venture card linked to the same user profile. So effectively like these cash bonuses, they can basically be turned into capital one points if you have any of those venture cards. And that also includes a $0 annual fee venture one card. And so you can just transfer, you know, $2,000 worth of points or cash would be transferred over into 200,000 Capital One points. If you want to you know leverage airline redemption or a hotel redemption with those points, you know that might make that $2,000 worth quite a bit more. and One other point about Capital One right is that you can transfer your points from a venture card to any other venture card holder. so i mean Basically, if you had cards from you know two, three, four different accounts, you can consolidate that all into one.
00:12:07
Speaker
Let's say you're closing the card, you can do that prior to closing. At least in my experience, I applied through a business banker and in my somewhat small sample size of two, this has resulted in, let's say, an increased chance of getting an approval. and What do you think? What happened here? Do you think I got approved or denied? Well, your credit score is fairly high.
00:12:29
Speaker
um so ah probably I'll say yes. Okay. And I was denied. ah yeah Yeah, of course. Right. Like it's capital one. Of course you're getting to that. So I thought like my, you know, my back door way in here was applying through a ah business banker and that has been successful for me in the past. And before that I have applied for capital one. And yeah, I had capital one a long time ago. I've i've gotten like a Quicksilver card in the past long, long time ago. I got a venture card.
00:13:02
Speaker
in the past and I even got ah another business card in the past without the help of a ah business banker and um after that when I was trying to get approved for other cards I just kept getting denied, denied, denied and so I heard a little tip that if you apply through a business banker you know you have a better chance of getting approved.
00:13:19
Speaker
And so that actually helped me get an approval, you know, I would say like 2021 ish. And, um you know, I did have I did actually, you know, I have some information to disclose here. I did have a smart cash plus visa closed early last year. You know, that was due to some spending that I was doing. And I basically, you know, when I saw the writing on the wall there that my business card was in a restricted status.
00:13:41
Speaker
and gonna be closed pretty soon. I just went ahead and closed out all of my other Capital One cards and my Capital One banking accounts. you know Hopefully, you know me proactively shutting all my accounts down and ending my relationship, you know that might you know get in front of any black marks that might be on my user, on on my account with Capital One.
00:14:03
Speaker
And so when I looked at the reason I was denied, it actually said that I just had too many recent inquiries and too many new accounts. So I'm not exactly sure if my recent history with Capital One had anything to do with it, right? Like if they closed my accounts, the reason for the denial wasn't really related to that. It was more so like just general activity on my credit report. So I'm not sure what to think about this decline. um And I don't like the fact that Capital One pulls so many reports, right? Like you can get away with two hard pulls. And perhaps like Capital One has also tightened up their approval standards, even through business bankers.
00:14:39
Speaker
And so I don't know what to say here, but maybe, you know, 12 months down the line, like usually capital one business cards, they offer really juicy signup bonuses, especially for high spenders. And I think, you know, I might come back and with fresh eyes, 12 months down the road, hopefully.
00:14:54
Speaker
um I'll have a better better chance to get approved down the road. Yeah, bummer that the application didn't work out, but on the other hand, as you mentioned, the decline reasons sound very similar to the ways that I usually get declined with Capital One. so um yeah Well, maybe next time we get lucky. I know in my past, I had applications for me and for my P2, and we have virtually identical profiles, and it was simply a roll of the dice. like One of us would get approved for the VentureX when it came out. The other person just flat out denied. Then I think the the now VentureX business card originally came out as I think the travel elite or something like that. We also applied for those through a business banker and that's how both of us got approved. But yeah, yeah in the meantime, there have been quite a few other applications for you know ah maybe some of the sub-or cards or saver cards. I'm not even sure how to pronounce that correctly.
00:15:53
Speaker
But yeah, all of those ended up being denials or just outright rejections. And usually for exactly those reasons. be Too many inquiries, too many ah new accounts. But whenever we got approved, that there was virtually no difference in our activity. So the credit profile, at least to me, looked virtually the same.
00:16:12
Speaker
So applying to Capital
Raymond's Travel Card Application Journey
00:16:14
Speaker
One, yeah, it's rolling the dice. It doesn't hurt to save an inquiry by freezing Experian or TransUnion, I think, at least in California, as far as I know. Equifax is required, but then you can freeze one of the others to just save one of the three hard pools. Oh, nice. I didn't know you can freeze TransUnion. I thought it was just Experian. Yeah, small tip here, but I don't think it makes a really big difference.
00:16:38
Speaker
Well, yeah, let's go on to the next card that I applied for and that is the Wells Fargo autograph journey. And so the bonus here was right. It's the same bonus that they came out with maybe three months ago when they first launched this card. It's a 60 K signup bonus. So about 600 bucks there for spending 4,000 in the first three months, $95 annual fee here. And really, the interesting aspect of this card that I really wanted to you know pry into a little bit more was the 5x on hotels and 4x on airlines. That's uncapped. And according to the terms and conditions, right as long as the merchant MCC is classified as a hotel or airline, it should be good to go and spend away on you know basically a lot of travel. And what do you think I got here? right Applied same day as the Capital One card. What do you think?
00:17:25
Speaker
um So, for me, when the card came out, I applied it also with P1 and P2. One of us got the card, the other apprenticeships got rejected. So here... Yeah, I'm not sure. that Sometimes Valspager is a bit of a relationship bank.
00:17:43
Speaker
um oh Let's say it got declined. Yep, you're absolutely right. I got declined and I know have no idea why. Wells Fargo is still you know living in 1800 and they're going to mail me the reasoning, which I find kind of funny, right? Like capital on, they're like, here's a link to a PDF with your application status. Wells Fargo is like, we're going to snail mail it to you. They're just like, come on, Wells Fargo. I mean, the logo is the carriage, right? yeah they're still living in those the pony express the oregon trail days yeah oh man so okay i'm over two last but not least i applied for a barclays windham business earner and to note i have applied for this card twice in the last 12 months i've been dying to get this card um the bonus here was 45 000 windham points after spending three thousand dollars in three months
00:18:38
Speaker
$95 annual fee. So not the best bonus that they've had. The last time I applied was like March, and they had a hundred thousand point bonus. I think it was a tiered bonus structure. Yeah, for this one, I froze my Experian and my Equifax just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure they were going to pull TransUnion, so that's what I let them pull. And I will say that my TransUnion kind of has been the the hardest hit, I guess, with inquiries in the last 12 months. So what do you think I got here?
00:19:05
Speaker
um So the sign up bonus is a little bit lower. So I think yes, you got approved. Yeah, you would think so, right? like Oh no. 0 for 3 declined a third time. And the reasoning was on TransUnion, too many recent applications and number of bank cards opened in the last 24 months. So I'm like, are you guys Chase? Like what are you guys doing here?
00:19:29
Speaker
But yeah, apparently Barclays they're inquiry sensitive and you know, I don't know but like five to six heart polls in the last 12 months doesn't sound excessive necessarily and you know, my score at least on this letter was like 830 it was around there give or take five points. So I was like what's going on? Like I I have a decent credit report. The only thing that really are hurting me are these inquiries and I don't think they're that excessive and and the fact that you know maybe I have I don't know 10 cards open in the last 24 months so I don't know what it is about like bank standards recently with new approvals and maybe it's just these three banks that you know are kind of a little bit tighter but um these are banks that I you know is trying to get back in with or at least you know expand my relationship with
00:20:12
Speaker
And they just didn't work out. So I don't know. I think I'm going to probably get one more application in. I'm just trying to find like a good card to apply for. What do you think, Christophe? Is there anything else lately that has been interesting or has caught in your eye? Well, you know there is always Amex.
00:20:32
Speaker
That's true. That's very true. We could always go back to the to the well, right? Yeah, we always wonder, does a new MX card even count as a credit card application by now? Yeah, MX is generous as always. And now with their newly, I don't know, remodeled cards, refreshed cards, tuned cards. Anyways, MX just increases the fee, adds a couple of coupons, and then hands out a new high sign-up bonus. So that's the recipe.
00:21:00
Speaker
I guess ah if you really don't know what to do, then yeah, there's a certain dynamics card for you. I wonder if that 15x Rezi offer is still around. It probably is, yeah. I mean, you know, when every other bank shuts the door on you, TAA, there's always Amex. Cue the heart emoji. Oh, cue the, there we go. So um I think, you know, this kind of brings up, right? Like we, I went through these applications and I'm like, what's next, right? Like I probably am going to throw in one more application. And I think this ties back into, I guess, what's my, what is your, what is mine?
00:21:33
Speaker
What is your game plan for the rest of the year, right? We're in August. Usually this means you're in the middle of Q3. So if there's anything Q3 related, you know, you're you're you're working through those spend spending targets. um It also means you're in the second half of the year, right? So you've got, you know, obviously a bunch of Amex credits and stuff. That also means like you should start probably thinking about how how are you going to prepare to end the year, right? For me, I feel like my credit reports ripe for the abuse right now. And, you know, I kind of want to take a signup bonus approach. Are you looking at, you know, maybe, Christophe, are you looking at, you know, opening up new cards towards the end of the year? this year, you know, maybe you're focusing on experimenting with new methods of MS or, you know, are you planning to hit a play, you know, an MS play that's sort of long standing, just a little bit harder. Just wanted to, you know, explore the space, if you will.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think when it comes to cards, there's definitely quite a bit of potential in a new signup offers. I mean, even just thinking about the various issues here, I mean, ah US Bank, Chase, Citi, MX, of course, all of them have juicy signup bonuses available.
00:22:42
Speaker
I know that Wells Fargo has been a bit fickle with their new card, but yes, like this 5x card, which also transfers but to a different ah mouse programs has the potential to be a very good all-in-one travel card. 5x on hotels and 4x on the airlines and then a bunch of 3x categories, that should really replace virtually any specific airline card unless you really care about the checked bag.
00:23:07
Speaker
Now, that said, actually, when it comes to transferable mouse currencies, I ah really need to look for a new alternative for Starlines flights, because lifemiles devalued somewhat recently. So some of the flights that used to be 63K in business class from the West Coast to Europe, they're now at 90K, and even first-class flights are even more expensive. right so It was possible to book Lufthansa first with some 80 to 90ish K points, and that's now 140. So LifeMiles really took a hit here, and I'm debating and contemplating how I'm going to replace this. Because with all the 15% transfer bonuses that LifeMiles has, it's probably not fully worth it at this point. Maybe I'm going to book it something like Aeroplan instead.
00:23:58
Speaker
And so anyways, based on where I end up, I might tune my credit card strategy accordingly. For example, Aeroplan has quite a few options with Chase, of course. Chase has the Aeroplan card, but then also all the other Chase business cards, they have very juicy and very easy to hit sign up bonuses. And they also then directly transfer to Aeroplan. And then Chase tends to also offer these increased transfer bonuses for aeroplane with up to like 30% rather than sometimes another 10% on top for aeroplane card holders. Anyways, so long ramble about chasing aeroplane here, but bottom line being, I think I will look for a new strategy to book Starlines flights.
00:24:43
Speaker
And then what else is there? um Actually, over the past month or so, I kind of found joy again, if you will, in, let's say, in-person or on-the-street game sometimes. Maybe just ah buying some money orders somewhere or maybe doing some bill pays.
00:25:01
Speaker
And it was actually nice and because I've now ah gone outside and you know you start meeting people and interacting with them and they get to know you. so you Also, like some of the the friction is gone and it's it's getting it easier to just ah keep keep it rolling. So that was fun. But of course, regardless, with all of that said, I've spent a lot of time on like family i and like ah with our little one and our parents and in-laws and so on.
00:25:29
Speaker
And that, of course, always comes first. So I'm not sure if I'm going to have too much time to go and just collect mouse and points, but I might actually go and take a very similar approach to yours and say, hey, maybe just sign up for a bunch of new credit cards, collect a nice sign up bonus here or there.
00:25:49
Speaker
and maybe just hit the spend by, say, paying property taxes or maybe estimated tax payments, maybe just some organic spend. And that alone can be very juicy, right because even your average sign up bonus is still 10 to 20% in return just on a cash basis. And then if you transfer them to points at miles, sometimes you have much, much more uplift, especially if you buy business class fairs or you book some nice and fancy hotels.
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, but anyways, you asked me about my plan. What is your plan? So sign up bonuses, but what else? Yeah, I think like obviously i'm I'm looking into getting some new cards and, you know, I made some some ah some attempts there without much success. I think other than signup bonuses, I think I'm going to start focusing really on just optimizing for cash back. That said, right, like I found a couple of plays recently where the margins are really low, but the volume has been really high and I've been able to, you know, really increase some spend there.
00:26:51
Speaker
as far as hitting a play that that I have and so I think I'm really looking at just like trying to make this game more cashback focused and I feel like also with the you know in my repertoire of all my frequent flyer accounts I'm pretty like well stocked for at least a year of award travel and so I think there's not much utility right to keep on focusing on earning more Hilton points on more Marriott points. And while you know I'm still going to be doing those things, um I really would like to start focusing on you know generating as much cash back as possible. So that could be in the form of a new sign up bonus, but also like focusing on cards where the cash angle to a particular play really is just you know it's the right play to go through. right like You could take the cash and pay for travel. You can invest that money at the end of the day.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, it's it's it's really just a cashback focus. I've also looked at um sort of expanding on Player Two's portfolio of accounts. I mean, I've really been, you know, i've I've held her accounts with white gloves so far. Like, we've done a little bit of stuff, but nowhere near the same level of activity that I have on my side.
00:27:57
Speaker
so I don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but ah you know she has way more upside and way higher ceiling than I have in terms of signing up for new cards. That said, you know there's always Q3, Q4 grocery store promos, so I'll be ah on the lookout for any deals that really are scalable there. I do love you know my Safeway Just For You account, and having multiple of those is really useful sometimes. So I'm sure you know a gift card deal will come down the road.
00:28:25
Speaker
And ah probably the last thing, you know like thinking about the rest of 2024, I'm starting to plan some exit strategies for a couple of cards. I'm basically trying to like liquidate certain benefits. like For example, right we talked upstream about clear benefit. We've talked about Dell benefits on you know the podcast before. um Airline credits, right trying to use up every little last drop on some of these Platinum cards and close them out right and prepare yourself to get new cards, you know potentially for like a triple dip.
00:28:54
Speaker
by the end of this year. So just a couple thoughts there. It really gets my gears turning about like thinking about what am I going to do in the next two to three months to best set myself up for success for, you know, like going, you know, going into 2025 with a fresh strategy and, you know, new things to work on. So I think, you know, that kind of wraps it up. um And we'll see, I mean, new promos come up all the time. And so I'm, you know, we'll play it by year, so to speak.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah, well, new Amex promos come up all the time. I think last time when I was debating how I'm going to wrap up the end of the year, suddenly another crazy Amex offer came around and essentially all my plans just blew up and it was Amex, Amex, Amex all day long.
In-Depth Japan Trip Review
00:29:34
Speaker
That's what ends up happening. And it was good. Lots of miles and points. Speaking of which, by the way, miles and points, you promised me a long story about a Japan trip with lots of classy flights and lots of classy hotels. So tell me all about it.
00:29:49
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I mean, we've been talking about this chip Japan trip for a while and, uh, you know, you finally took it. It's, it's been a few weeks since the trip occurred, but, uh, you know, I still still have a lot of memories. Um, it really helps to go back to your photo album to remind yourself about what exactly happened on what days, right? I love using Google photos for that. Um, and even, you know, shout out to like the Google maps, I guess, like integration to Google photos. So there's a little button where you can like.
00:30:16
Speaker
click on the magnifying glass on a map and it'll show you what photos you took when. And that's been really useful. Shout out to my my buddy Jay, who's definitely showed me that feature and it's been super useful for trying to figure out or trace back your steps, especially on nights where you don't remember everything. um But yeah, so me and P2, we went to Japan for eight days, right? And we flew out of SFO on ANA in business class. It wasn't the room.
00:30:44
Speaker
But I would i would argue like it's really not that bad either. like The room is it looks great, but I think you still get the same level of service with any ANA business class flight. And so you know we initially went to the Polaris Lounge upon arrival at SFO. And I would say like we got there 9.30, 10 a.m. for like a 12.30 p.m. flight around there.
00:31:05
Speaker
and um I would say like the Polaris Lounge was decently crowded for the early morning Bank of Flights. right I think there's like an Asia bank that leaves, and then there's also like a Europe bank. and That place was like very busy for the more you know late breakfast hours. and so i don't know It still feels premium in the Polaris Lounge, but I also can tell they're coming up to capacity over there.
00:31:28
Speaker
But that said, with the ANA not room configuration, I would say, you know, decent flight, ah you know, soft product was really nice. You know, they they hit all the points that, you know, you should have with any business class flight, right? Like the the service, the attentiveness.
00:31:44
Speaker
the Also, like the speed of service was really good. like The lunch service was done in under 90 minutes, which I appreciated right because I didn't sleep that much the night before and I wanted to get you know as much sleep as possible on this flight so I could kind of you know hit the ground running once we landed in Tokyo. and One thing I really started to notice on this flight was that it wasn't a you know like usually, I think people like the reverse herringbone setup.
00:32:10
Speaker
And in ANA, they just have like that straight-up, you know staggered setup, but you're facing head-on with the direction of travel. And I actually like that. I think there's something about the you know the the foot cubby, where it's not a little compartment. um It is still a compartment, but it doesn't like narrow or taper off towards the edge of your feet. like That actually helps with sleep, and you can move around and get into different sleeping positions. and I really appreciated that. And so um yeah, overall business class flight was great. I think the redemption at 71,000 miles plus $250 cash via Lufthansa miles and more. I think that's a decent option if you just happen to have those miles. And the fact that you can book ANA premium availability, right? Savor level awards with these miles versus I think Air Canada for some reason is locked out. I think LifeMiles is also locked out. So I think
00:33:02
Speaker
It's just another way to get into some of these flights that you can't really get into with other types of miles. one thing One thing to note, right, is Narita Airport is really far away from Tokyo. So I would suggest like look up what's known as the friendly airport limo to your hotel or at least the district that you're going to be staying in Tokyo. So we are staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay.
00:33:22
Speaker
and um It just worked out perfectly with timing and you know just 20 minutes of waiting, but you get a direct shuttle to your to your hotel and that really matters. you know You'd really hate to be in the Tokyo heat with a bunch of luggage you know walking to a hotel. So that or you know taxi service if you can afford it.
00:33:40
Speaker
The whole point was we'd stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for two nights. And, you know, the first full day that we're in Tokyo, we'd go see, you know, real the real highlight of staying here was going to Disney Sea to visit Fantasy Springs. And Fantasy Springs is like a brand new area of the park. And some of the highlights here.
00:33:56
Speaker
of fantasy springs is you're going to need a standby pass or you're going to need Disney premiere access and so the standby pass is free but you get limited times throughout the day we're able to access fantasy springs. Disney premiere access you pay for and it's really reasonable it's like 10 bucks for each person and you get like entry into fantasy springs to one of the rides and you can basically stay in that area of the park for for as long as you want. And so I thought fantasy Springs, it's a very nice addition to DisneySea. Some of the rides are actually pretty short compared to you know some of the older rides in the park. I think like for some reason while the theming you know is on point and they really make you feel like you're in a different world, I feel like they just made these rides kind of short. you know It was like 90 seconds for one ride and you just waited 45 minutes for the ride. So it didn't feel, super worthwhile, but I'd say like it looked really nice. I think that like you know they're just trying to make as much money as possible with the limited amount of space they have and get you know the rides moving as much as possible with short ride times. so I don't know, I feel like that's just capitalism just working its magic. um But yeah, overall, I really liked Fantasy Springs. so
00:35:07
Speaker
I find it interesting, the your takeaway with Fantasy Springs. I had a friend as well who went and they said like, hey, yeah, well, they just saw this thing there and well, they didn't go. and So they really felt like they're missing out because it looked very nice. So getting your, well, your insider review here is actually very interesting, ah saying that, oh, the rights are short. too So, well, I wonder though if it really makes a difference. If you pay something like what, $10 to get access, well, might as well, right? yeah You get to that area and you still get to enjoy the theming. I guess that's also one of the bigger parts of the theme park anyways, when it comes to Disney.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And especially DisneySea, they have the best theming of any park I've ever been to in the world. And they just really transport you into whatever land you're in. And so I think that's really the big upshot in terms of visiting a place like DisneySea. So some thoughts on the Hilton Tokyo Bay itself, right? We booked a cash rate. I think the rate was like 180 a night. And I would say Like, one of the reasons I booked a cash rate, because I could have easily booked this on points, but one of the things I really wanted to do here was use my Hilton gift cards that I've been slowly accruing since, I guess you could say, end of Q1. I brought like $450 in Hilton gift cards and I was planning to just use them all up.
00:36:26
Speaker
on whatever i could on this trip yeah and i was actually thinking about buying hilton gift cards from you know friends like oh yeah you know this will be a great use of them um you know if you sell at a discount it you know it's totally going to be worth it especially with the exchange rate for japan and man like at checkout i would have sold you quite a few Yeah, I would have bought them, but not after this experience. um Yeah, at checkout, you know, and it's funny, I had like a stack of 12 gift cards, maybe 16, I don't know how many. And it was just, you know, with the language barrier, it was just really confusing. um But yeah, like first $50 gift card swipe, didn't work. Second, you know, I tried a different $50 gift card, but didn't work. And so I was just like, what is going on with these gift cards? And, you know, I was like trying to show them like, hey, it's accepted at any Hilton property worldwide.
00:37:13
Speaker
And they're just like, well, sorry. So it's just a frustrating experience. But yeah, um I really wish that you can use your Hilton gift cards worldwide, as it says on the back of the card. So I don't know what to do here. Maybe file a complaint with Hilton gift cards or or what what i don't I honestly don't know what I'm going to do here. But other thoughts on the hotel is, you know, I think they do treat their elites pretty good. Like we were upgraded into an executive room type top floor and you're able to use the executive lounge on the first floor. And so, you know, that plus being right next to Disneyland, Disney Sea, it's it's a perfect, you know, hotel to base yourself at if you're ever planning to go to, you know, the the Disney parks in Tokyo.
00:37:54
Speaker
So going on to our next stop on the trip here, we went from Tokyo to Hiroshima on a, you know, it was one of those 5,000 mile awards on United. And I would say flying out of Haneda Terminal 2 is pretty uneventful. There was nothing very interesting to see at Haneda.
00:38:13
Speaker
other than a couple of convenient stores. We stayed at the Grand Sheraton and we actually burned two 50k certs from P2's platinum account. I would say elite treatment here is pretty good. They did honor the free breakfast which was definitely expected in Asia for P2's platinum status and they even upgraded us to an executive room type.
00:38:32
Speaker
Um, we were directly across from the executive lounge. So that was really nice to like literally in a robe, hop over to the executive lounge and grab like some soda and bring it back to the room. And some of the highlights here were that, you know, we really wanted to go to the peace Memorial museum. And, uh, you know, that was actually really heavy stuff. Cause the stuff that they show you there, it's like, they go like second per second. What happened on on the date back in, I think 1945.
00:38:59
Speaker
and ah you know they show a lot of pictures and a lot of you know like actual clothing that people were wearing when the bombing happened. and It's just really sad to see, but I do think it's something very important. you know If you have any interest in history and you know things like World War, definitely go here. I think it's definitely worth you know the trip over, especially if you're already in Japan. Other things I liked about Hiroshima is I probably found the biggest round one I've ever found in my entire life. And when we go to Japan, we like to go to round one and do all the claw claw machine games. And it was funny, like this round one was like nine floors a deep. Like they had a batting cage and a pitching machine on the roof and it was like 95 degrees out. And I was like, let me let me try my hand at the batting cages.
00:39:42
Speaker
And apparently like i didn't read the and I couldn't read Japanese, write so there's no English instructions. And so I thought like the button on the left side would be the slowest pitching, and that's the one I wanted. And apparently like when I held up my phone after I did the first round of batting,
00:39:57
Speaker
the camera said this is the fastest mode and because like it was literally like a video of Shohei Otani pitching and these balls were like 80 miles an hour and I was just whiffing on all the balls. So yeah ah it was it was rough right um but it was it was really cool experience to like you know randomly find a batting cage and just like go at it you know you know me I love baseball.
00:40:21
Speaker
um We did take a half-day trip to Miyajima Island and it was cool. like There are things up there like you can do hiking, temples, even the boat ride to the island from the train station. It was pretty nice and there's a lot of good shopping there. and so yeah I would definitely recommend going to Miyajima and then if you're the active type,
00:40:39
Speaker
make it You know you could could really make this into at least a one-day trip, and I do know that there are hotels on the island, so you can even stay you know overnight, ah which may be appealing to you, and you get sort of like that more calm vibe, you know that more like temple vibe that you might get from a place like, say, Kyoto.
00:40:56
Speaker
I ah actually saw a friend from the churning you know community, Marsha. I met her in a group called Miles to Memories. And so she was also there at the same time. And you know we just hung out in the executive lounge at at that Grand Sheraton. So it it was pretty cool, like um just catching up and you know talking. you know Just like that one time that we caught up at the Conrad Tokyo Lounge in Tokyo. We were just chatting about miles and points in the in the lounge. I just wanted to say that's the thing that is guaranteed to happen that somebody out of the hobby is somewhere in Japan at the same time and you'll meet in an executive lounge and just have drinks for free and talk about the hobby.
00:41:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's really right. Things pay off as free drinks. We don't have to pay for them this time. And then, um, so yeah, we we stayed a couple of nights in Hiroshima. Cool city. Definitely recommend going. We rounded out the trip in Tokyo. And so to get back to Tokyo, we took the Hello Kitty Shinkansen, which I've mentioned before on the podcast.
00:41:53
Speaker
I really enjoyed that. um It is literally filled with a lot of like backpackers, like expat backpacker types, where you know they're they're you know as the train comes into the station, everybody's got their phone out and they want to get a picture of like the the pink Hello Kitty bullet train. And I was doing the same thing too. It was pretty cool. like I was really glad that we did this and P2 was very happy and she spent a lot of money on that train buying a bunch of Hello Kitty merch.
00:42:18
Speaker
So ah we, we ended up, you know, taking that bullet train plus another bullet train to get back to Tokyo. So we stayed at the Conrad and I think this is like my fourth time staying here. I burned three free night certificates. And this was the first time where I actually got a free upgrade, you know, not just to like a better room type, but an actual suite. And so I actually really enjoyed this three day stay that we had like this past trip. um Obviously you get the free breakfast as a diamond and it It was just a great experience. I will say that the lounge situation, I think everybody and their mom has gold or diamond status with Hilton. And so from 6 to 8 p.m. every night in the lounge on the 37th floor, that thing is like packed to the gills. And it's gotten to the point where you need reservations to go to the lounge. And so I just said enough with this, like there's actually it's it's not a pleasant experience. It doesn't feel exclusive anymore.
00:43:10
Speaker
and let's just skip the lounge and let's just go out to dinner. I mean, yeah, it just doesn't feel the same. It doesn't have that same feeling as it did from years ago. And I don't know if just the points world has gone crazy about this hotel, which I think it's a great hotel, but I think it is getting a little bit too notorious for being a points hotel.
00:43:28
Speaker
I think you're by now a real elite at the hotel, not just a diamond elite with Hilton, but you've been at the Conrad often enough as so that you actually get upgrades now. So kudos to you for this, because I have not gotten free upgrades ah ah to this day. On the other side, I guess many people have this MX Aspire card and have their diamond status or at least gold status with their MX Platinum card.
00:43:55
Speaker
And all the travelers are there in that one hotel, right? So you can meet the entire American tourist community that has MX cards.
Future Travel Plans and Family News
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, um it's just funny. like I feel like I could just look at who's eating breakfast right now and be like, are you are you one of are you like me? Are we the same? like Or are you just here randomly and I'm just ah i'm just the outlier? But yeah, Tokyo Highlights, right we we did a we did the Tokyo Giants game. A lot of fun cheering in the bleachers, even though I didn't understand what anyone was saying.
00:44:27
Speaker
But I love baseball and it was fun to go to a Giants game. We took a day trip out to Yokohama and we visited a Cup of Noodles museum where you can make your own Cup of Noodles. So I thought that was you know pretty cool. And actually I learned a lot about Cup of Noodles, like more than I thought about Cup of Noodles and how it was made and the ideas behind it and just like how they developed you know so a simple idea into something that was mass produced and became like, you know, I don't know if it's a billion dollar industry, it probably is, but it's just like it was cool to see the origin story of that.
00:44:57
Speaker
That said, I think we've gone to Japan quite a few times in the last three years, like, we've gone three times in three years and we haven't really seeked other places to go. And so I think, you know, you know with family changes, you know, hint hint, we've got somebody on the way. We've got a baby on the way. um We might seek, you know, a different type of travel. So, thank you. Yeah, me and P2, you know, just news to... Everybody listening. We're just making the formal an announcement here, but we're expecting a baby in December. And so I think with that comes you know new types of travel, you know a different style of travel, probably a lot more research on like where can we get free lap infants on award tickets, and you know which banks allow the new real P3 to open a car. Well, you will be a big fan of Aeroplanet, so will be I, I guess.
00:45:50
Speaker
Oh, Aeroplan is, yeah, I remember that. That's like one of the best programs to use for flap infants. So yeah, and last but not least, we we took Air Canada on the way home. So it was a one stop through Vancouver. So Narita, Vancouver SFO. This was a flex award on Air Canada. And, you know, I was hoping that the Close-In Award Availability trend would actually pan out this time. It did not.
00:46:11
Speaker
and um I was trying to pull this stunt with a flex awards on Air Canada where you add a saver level leg onto a flex award so that should be a free change and you just downgrade it to a saver award when you're sure you're going to take it. That didn't end up panning out and there was so much other stuff.
00:46:26
Speaker
happening um at the end of the, you know, the Tokyo trip that I was just like, I was just defeated at that point. Like, whatever, it's booked. Let's just get back home. You know, we have other obligations to tend to when we get back home. So it was like a low priority. Like, as long as we get back home, that's all that matters. We don't care that we paid double the business class price for the flight. Like, I just, I sort of dollar cost average that with all my other awards that I've saved points on and move forward from there.
00:46:52
Speaker
It's certainly worthwhile to have a trip set up and ready to go. I know I'm also ah one to usually try and optimize every last bit out of a trip. But yeah, if it doesn't work out, it's sometimes good to just save your energy if you need it for something else and take the flights as booked. I mean, that's why you have them in the first place. Got to have your anchors because sometimes you actually end up taking those anchors.
00:47:17
Speaker
But yeah, ah I think that wraps it up. I mean, any other travel coming your way, Christophe, that you wanted to go through? or Yeah, for us, it's mostly travel that we book for in-laws and parents. Half of these trips are booked at the old life miles rate, and now I'll have an adventure finding an alternative so that I can book the rest of those trips. But yes, ourselves, I don't think we'll be traveling a lot. Maybe go to a city here and there.
00:47:43
Speaker
ah But yeah, and now listening to your Japan story, again, I feel the urge to go back to Japan sometime this year. I wonder what our little one will say, but maybe something opens up and then I can actually book a trip there
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
00:47:57
Speaker
as well. I certainly enjoyed your story here. Yeah, yeah I mean, like with your little one, she's not going to really remember much, right? I mean, I don't remember a lot from when I was traveling as a baby, but I know definitely you and your P2 will be remembering those like those memories for a long, long time. So definitely if you do go, take a lot of videos, take a lot of pictures because I'm sure you're going to cherish those for for the rest of your life. I agree. I guess we're going back to japan Japan. Stay tuned. Let's see if it's an MX promo or a Japan trip.
00:48:27
Speaker
Or both. At the same time. at the same Yeah, you'll be doing them while you're on on vacation. I kid. I kid. All right. Well, um I think that wraps it up. Anything else left on that you wanted to say?
00:48:40
Speaker
I think that's a show. All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening to this episode of The Points Project with your hosts, Christoph and Raymond. Have a good one, everybody. See you next time. Hey, Points Project listeners. If you enjoyed today's episode, we also have a Patreon where we double click into some of the content that we talk about in our free show. Please consider becoming a patron if you'd like access to our member only content.