Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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PSA: Check Existing Southwest Airlines Flights for Price Drops, then Rebook

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Good morning everyone, greetings from rainy/windy Super Bowl City (San Francisco).  I just got an email from Southwest Airlines regarding their current flight sales.  In most cases, Southwest Airlines flight sales would not be newsworthy, but if you are an experienced/savvy Southwest Airlines flier, you know that Southwest Airlines lets you make free changes and cancellations to existing reservations.  I keep a spreadsheet on my computer (saved to OneDrive and available on my iPhone) that shows all my upcoming flights.  I book a lot of flights and sometimes I forget when I book flights (and I accidentally booked 2 trips for the same weekend #facepalm).

SWA Last Call Email

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Hotel Review: Hotel Indigo Paris (Located near Opera & Vendome)

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Good evening everyone, greetings from Nice, France (Nice is pronounced “niece”).  I always seem to be a day late and a city behind in my trip reporting.  Before reviewing the Radisson Blu Nice and my day trip to Monaco, I want to share my thoughts on my recent 2 night stay at the Hotel Indigo Paris.  I used 2 anniversary night certificates from my Chase IHG Credit Card to book the stay.  In essence, I “paid” $49 for each night since that is what the annual fee is for the Chase IHG Credit Card.

Getting from CDG Airport to Paris is easy.  For €10 per person, you can go from CDG Airport to Châtelet Les Halles station (I have no idea how to properly pronounce this station) on the RER B (blue line) and connect to Opéra/Auber on the RER A (red line).  From Opéra/Auber station, the hotel is a short 5 minute walk.  Just make sure you know which street to turn on to so you don’t wheel your suitcase around Paris aimlessly like I did.

Getting around Paris can be kind of tricky since there are 2 overlapping train networks (RER and Metro) that share most of the stations. When in doubt, ask the information booth for assistance and they will be happy to help.

Paris Metro Map CDG to Opera Station

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Hotel & Flight Bookings for LHR, CDG, NCE, MUC, VCE, and DUB

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Good morning everyone, happy TGI Friday!  First, I wanted to thank everyone for voting in my poll (Reader Feedback Needed: Which Blog Posts Should I Write First?).  I was busy this week with 2 free movie screenings in SF (13 Hours and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) and the SF Travel Hackers Meetup, but I’m finally getting around to writing about my upcoming trip to Europe.  That was the overwhelming winner and since my trip starts tomorrow (1/16), I better write about it before I fly out of town.

Blog Topic Poll 1-14-2016

I will share my thought process and booking experience with my flights and then about my hotels.  Since I planned most of this trip back in March/April/May 2015, I was able to find award space to/from SFO very easily.  Here is an overview of my paid and award flights:

  • SFO-LAX (AA First) and LAX-LHR (AA Business) = 50,000 AA miles + $5.60 in taxes/fees
  • LHR-CDG (British Airways economy) = 2,500 BA Avios + $57.50 in taxes/fees
  • CDG-NCE (Air France economy) = $56.76
  • NCE-MUC / MUC-VCE (Lufthansa economy) = $99.99
  • VCE-LGW-DUB (British Airways / Aer Lingus economy) = $138.60
  • DUB-SFO (Aer Lingus economy) = 25,000 BA Avios + $106.76 in taxes/fees

GCM Eurotrip 2016

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Chase Freedom Q1 Transportation for Uber/Lyft/Bart, Chime Card Offers & BankAmeriDeals

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Good morning everyone, hopefully you had a fun and safe New Years Eve.  January 1 marks the beginning of Q1 and the new Chase Freedom categories are now live (gas stations and local commuter transportation).  According to Travel Codex: “Local commuter transportation includes the following ride share services and nearly any public transit agency: Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Taxis, Local and suburban passenger commuter train and subway fares (excl. Amtrak), Local commuter tickets, and Local commuter ferry tickets.”

Chase Freedom Q1 2016 Home Page

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Travel Predictions for 2016 Part 2: Credit Cards and MS

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you enjoyed my insightful/crazy ramblings in Travel Predictions for 2016 Part 1: Airlines and Hotels.  If you liked that post, you will surely love my crazy predictions about credit cards and MS.  Full disclosure, I wrote most of this post on my iPhone standing in front of a dryer at my local laundromat, so the train of thought might be kind of strange.  I apologize.  Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Credit Cards

Chase – with the loss of Amtrak and the addition of Singapore Airlines in 2015, I think we will see some more changes to Chase’s transfer partners in 2016.  I think we will see some more international airlines added (like the Citi Thank You Points program).  A few guesses?  Air Canada, Qantas, Air China, and Lufthansa (insert your favorite international airline).  Chase Ultimate Rewards will continue to transfer 1:1 to all programs and there will be no transfer bonuses.  I think there will be a newsworthy announcement for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, maybe adding free Gogo WiFi like the US Bank FlexPerks Credit Card or perhaps a new 3x category to compete with Citi Premier/Prestige Credit Cards.  What about our beloved Chase Ink Bold/Plus Business Cards?  I am worries that the 5x category might change to something less lucrative or the yearly cap might be lowered.  I also predict Chase will launch a completely new travel rewards credit card in 2016.  Maybe the Airbnb/Uber Credit Card?  Lastly, I hope Chase loosens up on the 5/24 rule or completely eliminates the rule altogether.   Continue reading →