Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

a black and white sign with letters

My Amazing Experience Interacting with the Park Hyatt Butler Service Team

There’s been a lot written about Hyatt lately, especially with all the changes in the Hyatt elite status program. And oddly enough, much of the blogging about Hyatt and all the changes took place while I was enjoying a stay at a Park Hyatt! So I couldn’t help but think about why I like Hyatt so much and why I bother maintaining elite status. Rather than just adding my voice to the pro or con discussion about the changes and whether maintaining status is worth it, I decided to explore and write about one of my most favorite luxury amenities of Hyatt hotels and especially the Park Hyatt’s: butler service.

My seven night stay at the Hotel Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt in Buenos Aires gave me the perfect opportunity to do this. This was my fifth stay at a Park Hyatt, but in the past, I’d never stayed at one for more than a few days. This stay in Buenos Aires gave me the chance to experience getting to know the butlers, and I sat down with three of the five-team member butlers and had fun, engaging conversations with them about their roles, how they see us (the guests), and other questions of mine they answered. If you’re like me and you enjoy getting to know how hotels operate behind the scenes, you’ll enjoy reading about the butlers!

Image source: https://buenosaires.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Image source: https://buenosaires.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Continue reading

a red arrow pointing to the right

Should I Convert my Chase Freedom to a Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card?

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I am struggling to make a decision regarding the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  I really want the credit card and sign up bonus, but due to the Chase 5/24 rule, I am not getting any new Chase credit cards anytime soon.  I also have a few Chase business cards that I don’t use much.  Should I convert my Chase Freedom Credit Card to a Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card?  Here are the facts in my situation:

  • I am way over the Chase 5/24 rule, so I am not getting a new Chase credit card anytime soon
  • I am not a Chase Private Client and have not been pre-approved for the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Ink Preferred
  • I currently have a Chase Freedom, Chase Ink Cash, and Chase Ink Plus
  • I do not have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Freedom Unlimited
  • I do not max out my Chase Ink Cash or Chase Ink Plus 5x categories
  • I do not max out my Chase Freedom 5% rotating cash back categories
  • My Chase Ink Plus annual fee is due in March 2017
  • You can only convert a Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Sapphire, or Chase Sapphire Preferred to a Chase Sapphire Reserve.
  • You need to have a credit line of at least $10,000 to be approved for the conversion (my Chase Freedom has a $25,000 credit line).

Continue reading

a logo of a company

How to Transfer/Combine Hyatt Gold Passport Points to Another Account

Good morning everyone, greetings from Orange County, home of the Frequent Traveler University this weekend.  A few days ago, a friend of mine needed 12,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points to book an award, so I transferred some points from my account to his account.  In this post, I will show you the process for combining or transferring points.  You can only transfer or receive points once every 30 days.  The process is old school and involves printing out the following form (Hyatt form, my mirror), filling in your account info, your transfer partner’s account info, how many points you want to transfer, getting 2 signatures, and then emailing goldpassport@hyatt.com (just print out the form, take a picture of the completed form, and send it to the email address).

hyatt-combine-points-form

Continue reading

a blue credit card with white text

3 Ways to Calculate Progress Toward Chase Freedom Q3 Restaurant Spend

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is off to a great start.  If you are anything like me, you eat out a lot.  Luckily, the Chase Freedom Credit Card is rewarding my love of eating out this quarter by offering 5% cash back on all restaurant purchases.  Unfortunately, some restaurants, fast food places, and online orders (using ApplePay in-app) do not code as restaurants.  So how do you know how much you have spent on restaurants in Q3?  In this post, I will show you 3 different ways.  Use the way the works best for you.

The first approach is the old school way.  Log into your Chase online account, go to your Chase Freedom Credit Card account and click the Search Transactions link.

Chase Freedom Account

Continue reading

a logo with blue dots

Using Points.com to Exchange JetBlue TrueBlue Miles into Amtrak Guest Reward Points

Good morning everyone.  In today’s super long/boring post, I will show you how to use Points.com to exchange miles/points from one loyalty program into another loyalty program.  Before I go on, let me explain that Points.com is somewhat similar to Award Wallet because you can add loyalty programs to your account and track their balances.  You may be familiar with Points.com if you have ever looked into buying airline miles or hotel points, since Points.com is the broker for most loyalty programs.  I am not going to talk about buying miles/points today.  Instead, I am going to talk about exchanging miles/points from one loyalty program into another loyalty program.  First things first, you need a free Points.com account and you will need to add your loaylty programs.  Here are a few of my accounts that are currently tracked by Points.com.

Continue reading