My week in journey, made higher by ultra-premium playing cards

Over the previous 12 months, I’ve lamented the truth that rising ultra-premium card annual charges have made me soften. Over the previous week and a half, I’ve loved a number of the advantages of these ultra-premium playing cards immensely, reminding me that though the price of admission has elevated, the advantages of ultra-premium playing cards could be extremely priceless in the appropriate circumstances.

Two journeys final week

For context, I used to be on the highway for 2 separate journeys final week:

• From Monday, May 18 to Wednesday, May 20: I traveled solo from Albany, NY to Reno, NV (outbound on Southwest, return on United) to make a run for Caesars Diamond in a Day.
• From Thursday, May 21 to Tuesday, May 26: My household and I flew from Albany, NY to Orlando, FL to spend the Memorial Day weekend on the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress (booked earlier than it moved up in class) and the JW Marriott Grande Lakes

Below, you’ll discover how I/we benefited from ultra-premium bank cards when it comes to lounge entry, flights, elite standing, and a coupon ebook profit.

Lounge Access

American Express Sidecar Lounge, Las Vegas (LAS), entry by Platinum card (shopper or enterprise)

At the start of final week, I had a connection at Las Vegas International Airport (on my method to Reno/Lake Tahoe). While my connection was initially solely scheduled to be about 1.5 hours, my connecting flight was delayed, first by 20 or half-hour, after which progressively by one hour, two hours, three hours, after which greater than 4 and a half hours.

As quickly as I landed, I headed to the Chase Sapphire Lounge, which is in Concourse C at Las Vegas International Airport (the terminal primarily served by Southwest Airlines), however there was a large line of individuals ready simply to get on the waitlist to get in. I added my title to the checklist, however didn’t anticipate that I’d really hear again. As I anticipated, I by no means did clear that waitlist.

However, since I had 4 and a half hours, I headed over to Concourse D by way of the airport prepare. Concourse D homes the Capital One Lounge, the American Express Centurion Lounge, and the brand new American Express Sidecar lounge. Both Amex lounges have been accessible to me by way of my Amex Platinum playing cards (each enterprise and shopper).

I used to be notably occupied with testing the brand new Amex Sidecar Lounge. The Sidecar Lounge is a mini-restaurant-style idea lounge with very restricted seating. On my means over to Concourse D, I pulled up the American Express app to go to the lounge finder and see if I may be a part of the waitlist from the app.

Sure sufficient, I used to be in a position to be a part of the waitlist from the app, although it did require importing a duplicate of my boarding move for the reason that Sidecar Lounge solely presents entry as much as 90 minutes earlier than departure. I uploaded the unique screenshot of my boarding move that I had taken when checking in for my flight (which confirmed my authentic flight time), moderately than a duplicate of my boarding move that confirmed my new delayed departure time.

That turned out to be a sensible resolution; as I used to be sitting within the sidecar lounge, after ordering my meals however earlier than having obtained it, I bought my seventh Southwest notification of the day, indicating a brand new departure time.  Unlike the earlier six notifications, which every indicated an additional delayed departure time, the seventh notification indicated that our departure time had been moved up considerably. We went from being about 4 and a half hours delayed to solely forty minutes delayed. Boarding was now resulting from start in simply seventeen minutes.

Luckily, inside just some minutes, I obtained each my drinks and my meals. Food choices have been comparatively restricted, although drink choices abounded.

I ordered a charcuterie board, Parmesan truffle fries, and what was primarily a fancy-sounding rooster sandwich. I don’t know whether or not it was the sandwich itself or the centurion branding it to the highest of the bun, however I discovered it fairly pleasurable.

The Parmesan truffle fries have been a scrumptious accompaniment, fairly a pleasant complement to the rooster sandwich. The charcuterie board in all probability would have made a superb various should you’re solely searching for some gentle bites. A close-by desk ordered one after seeing mine.

As my time was restricted, and I hadn’t eaten a lot but that day, I did my greatest to eat as rapidly as attainable. To drink, I ordered a Grenache, which was nice, however I solely bought just a few sips of it earlier than leaving. I left the lounge 9 minutes earlier than boarding was resulting from start.

The anticipate the airport prepare again to Concourse C was so lengthy that I couldn’t even get on the primary prepare. I needed to hustle to get to the gate, solely to seek out out that we have been brief a flight attendant, so it ended up being one other hour. I used to be upset to have rushed by way of on the Sidecar lounge, however glad to get a style of it.

The backside line is that the Sidecar Lounge is only a restaurant-like expertise with QR code ordering. It’s well-decorated, and the small measurement makes it really feel considerably “exclusive”, however in actuality, it’s the identical factor you’ll get inside a Chase Sapphire Lounge or in lots of the premium airline lounges around the globe. Frankly, I’m shocked that Amex hasn’t made that sort of expertise out there of their Centurion Lounges prior to now. Still, I’m glad to see the Sidecar created, notably in such a small footprint. That provides me hope that Amex may create different very small lounge eating ideas like this in airports that don’t in any other case have out there lounge house.

Escape Lounge Reno

Reno airport is kind of small, so the lounge scene is understandably restricted. However, Amex has an Escape Lounge at Reno/Tahoe airport. That Escape Lounge is just not out there to Priority Pass members, however it’s to Platinum cardholders, so I used to be in a position to entry the lounge earlier than my flight and seize lunch. The Escape lounge was tiny (perhaps even smaller than the Hartford, CT location), and it was so crowded that I didn’t get any photos, nevertheless it served its goal. They have been serving a scrumptious pork loin dish with mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini. I handed on the turkey sandwiches, however nonetheless left moderately full and prepared for the journey residence.

Flights

JetBlue standing for the win, because of having used Membership Rewards factors to finish 25 for 25

This one could be very oblique, however final summer time, my household accomplished the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion, which gave us a boatload of factors and 25 years of Mosaic 1 standing. We did that largely as a result of we have been ready to make use of Amex Membership Rewards factors at a worth of simply over 1.5c per level, because of having an The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, because it presents a 35% pay-with-points rebate when utilizing factors to fly in your chosen airline (as much as 1 million factors again per 12 months). I beforehand wrote about primarily turning 600,000 Amex factors into 1.4 million JetBlue TrueBlue factors and 25 years of elite standing for my household of 4. Last week, that paid off.

I flew United from Reno to Albany, NY by way of Denver. My connection in Denver was solely scheduled to be 42 minutes. That meant that boarding could be scheduled to start proper across the similar time I used to be scheduled to land from Reno.

I used to be actually grateful that the United/JetBlue Blue Sky reciprocal elite advantages lastly went reside final week, as a result of that meant I used to be in a position to choose Economy Plus seats at check-in when flying United utilizing my JetBlue elite standing. I settled for a center seat on the primary flight to be within the first row of economic system class on the best way into Denver. That turned out to be a terrific resolution, since that flight was delayed, shortening my connection even additional.

Group 2 boarding was additionally big on this case. I flew United simply final month, earlier than reciprocal advantages went reside, and I needed to gate examine my bag. That would have slowed me down greater than I assumed I may spare. Thankfully, with Group 2 boarding, there was no thread of needing to gate examine.

I reached my subsequent gate simply a few minutes earlier than boarding was scheduled to finish for my flight from Denver to Albany, although we ended up delayed after boarding, spending almost an hour and a half on the bottom. That labored out wonderful for me, as I had an emergency exit tow seat and an empty center seat on the ~3.5hr flight to Albany. Again, that was because of the BlueSky partnership with JetBlue and my Mosaic 1 standing; I used to be in a position to choose Economy Plus at check-in, which meant an exit row that United had been providing for $104 earlier than check-in started.

If I weren’t ready to make use of American Express Membership Rewards factors at a worth of simply over 1.5 cents per level, because of the Business Platinum card, I in all probability wouldn’t have paid out of pocket for my household to pursue the 25 for 25 problem. As such, I wouldn’t have had any explicit advantages on this United flight. Although it’s an oblique stretch, it’s actually an ultra-premium card profit that made that attainable (or at the very least believable) for me, and I’ll be reaping the advantages for a very long time to return.

Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite for a small win onboard United

I ordered a snack field on my second United flight of the day, however I used my Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa in order that I may ship a safe message afterwards and ask for the cardboard’s airline incidental charge credit score to be utilized towards the acquisition in order that I wouldn’t come out of pocket for it.

Southwest: Extra Legroom, Priority Boarding (combined success)

The Southwest seat choice and boarding course of continues to be an entire mess, in my expertise.

On the one hand, issues labored out properly for my flights from Albany, NY to Reno, NV. As a Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business cardholder, I used to be in a position to “upgrade” to Extra Legroom seating on all 3 of my segments from Albany to Reno at 48 hours previous to departure, and I had Group 2 boarding for all of these flights. My solo travels went easily.

My household’s journey to Orlando over the vacation weekend wasn’t fairly as clean.

Southwest has made what was in all probability a change to its boarding course of, which now occurs within the following order:

• Preboarders (of us who want further time taking place the jetbridge)
• Priority Boarding (those that have paid further for Priority Boarding)
• A-list Preferred (top-tier standing) and Active obligation army
• Groups 1-8 (A-list members are imagined to be in Group 1, and Southwest bank card holders get no later than Group 5; the boarding profit is similar throughout all playing cards)

I assume perhaps my Group 2 boarding place on the flights to Reno was resulting from my further Legroom seats, although we’ve discovered that to be inconsistent (generally getting Group 3). I used to be pleased sufficient with Group 2, although I used to be annoyed that the primary few economic system class bins have been full of issues like snacks, crew baggage, and security tools. Since I used to be within the bulkhead row on certainly one of my flights, I needed to put every thing in bins. The first bin that would accommodate my rolling bag was in Row 6, regardless of my having Group 2 boarding. That’s actually annoying as a result of it’s fairly a ache to combat backwards by way of 5 rows of individuals to get to the bag on the finish of the flight.

Later within the week, I flew to Orlando with my household (after which again residence yesterday). As Southwest credit score cardholders, my spouse and I every obtained Group 5 boarding (the boarding profit is similar no matter which bank card you maintain). We had chosen seats close to the again of the aircraft. Just as on the entrance, the final couple of bins have been full of flight attendant baggage and kit. We managed to get every thing we would have liked in overhead bins close by, fortunately, so Group 5 boarding got here in useful in that regard.

Seat choice was once more a snafu. My spouse and I are each Southwest Companion Pass holders, and our sons (ages 8 and 5) are our companions. Credit card advantages are supposed to lengthen to others in your reservation, together with linked companions. I beforehand wrote concerning the inconsistency of seat choice between my spouse and me and our sons on a Southwest journey underneath separate PNRs.

This time, we used the tip on this submit to ebook my spouse and me underneath 1 PNR whereas including each of our sons utilizing the Southwest app (Southwest Companion Pass companions are at all times underneath separate PNRs as that’s simply how Southwest does it).

About every week earlier than the flight, all of us obtained emails notifying us of an tools change on our Southwest flight from Orlando to Albany that modified our seating assignments. I went to verify our seats have been nonetheless collectively, however my 8yr outdated had been assigned a center seat 9 rows away, and I used to be unable to alter it. It mentioned that as a Southwest Companion, seat choice would open for him at check-in. That wasn’t proper, so I in the end needed to name Southwest. The cellphone agent regarded on the reservation and instantly noticed what was mistaken — she mentioned that his reservation wasn’t correctly linked. It solely took her a few minutes to hyperlink that up correctly, which enabled me to pick seats.

But that wasn’t fairly the tip of it. I chosen him the seat subsequent to my spouse, however then I went to examine the seat choice for my five-year-old. He was assigned the identical seat. In truth, I used to be in a position to examine in with each of them assigned to the identical seat, and each of them have been issued boarding passes for seat 28E.

I ended up fixing that, nevertheless it wasn’t intuitive. I in the end needed to have my eight-year-old choose a seat in another row, put it aside, full check-in, after which return and alter his seat and full check-in once more to ensure that it to assign him a unique seat from my five-year-old.

We did in the end get free seat choice for all 4 of us, and that had labored as anticipated on the flights to Orlando. I assume this was all a web win, however the course of nonetheless isn’t as clean as I’d prefer it to be.

Lodging

Marriott 85K Free Night Certificates (and factors) for the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes

We stayed at (and reviewed) the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes throughout final summer time’s JetBlue 25 for 25 journey. We went again once more over Memorial Day weekend, partly as a result of it was an honest (if not fairly full) use of a Marriott 85K free night time certificates (we additionally used factors for a few nights).

I consider the factors value for the night time we booked with a free night time certificates was 72K factors per night time, which isn’t fairly a full use of the 85K free night time certificates. However, with commonplace rooms operating north of $600 per night time, I used to be glad to make use of a Ritz card free night time certificates. I just lately used the $300 in airline incidental charge credit on one of many playing cards to cowl charges for a Ryanair flight in just a few months, so getting that $300 plus a free night time on the JW Marriott for the $450 annual charge looks like a pleasant win!

My youngsters had a blast as soon as once more within the swimming pools, lazy river, and waterslides, together with the Aqua360 moist ropes course. This time, my 5yr outdated was tall sufficient for the entire waterslides, so he was thrilled that he may even do the “fast” one (although as soon as was sufficient for him).

Unfortunately, Marriott nonetheless prices a resort charge on “free” stays, so we needed to pay the $55 every day resort charge plus $42 per night time for self-parking (which was full once we arrived, so we needed to wait a bit to discover a spot for self-parking regardless that there have been a few empty a number of empty valet areas out there). Food is resort-priced. However, I redeemed Capital One Shopping rewards for a Marriott reward card that coated our meals and many of the charges.

We had a small challenge throughout our keep: an ice machine from the hallway leaked water into our room. We had observed within the morning that the carpet in our entryway was soaked, and we didn’t perceive why. The resort proactively reached out to us to say that that they had extracted the water however to supply a room change if we needed it (fortunately, none of our garments or belongings bought moist, so it actually wasn’t an enormous deal aside from the moist carpet).

We determined to maneuver to a room with a balcony so we may benefit from the fireworks present you see above, however we bought again to the resort simply earlier than the fireworks, and I related with the rooms supervisor and I informed her that since we didn’t have a lot time to modify, we’d watch the fireworks from our window after which change. To my shock, a employees member knocked on our door a few minutes later and provided to usher us by way of an worker space to the employees elevator as a way to get us to our balcony room simply in time for the fireworks to start. That labored out completely. I used to be actually impressed with the follow-up, each from Judy, the rooms division supervisor with whom I spoke on the cellphone, and the supervisor on obligation who helped us transfer.

We additionally stayed a few nights on the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and really a lot loved our keep there once more this time, however the JW Marriott represented a superb use of an ultra-premium card profit within the free night time certificates.

Sixt Platinum by way of match from Hertz

We rented a automotive in Orlando by way of Sixt utilizing a Capital One Shopping provide for 45% again. I haven’t but seen that monitor, however I’ll monitor it to see what occurs.

From a premium bank card standpoint, we loved Sixt Platinum advantages on this rental. We booked the rental automotive immediately by way of Sixt in my spouse’s title. We did that as a result of she normally prefers to drive, however my spouse didn’t have any elite standing with Sixt. I remembered that Sixt presents a standing match, and she or he has Hertz President’s Circle standing because of her Capital One Venture X Rewards card. I went to the Sixt standing match kind (a link is found on this page) and stuffed out her info, importing a duplicate of her Hertz President’s Circle standing. Sixt immediately authorised her match to Platinum standing.

That Platinum standing got here in useful as we booked a full-sized automotive and have been upgraded to a Ford Expedition, which was large.

We didn’t actually need fairly that a lot house on this journey, however all of us loved a really snug journey for the value of a full-sized automotive. Additionally, I used to be impressed as we drove out of the lot, and the attendant offered coloring books and coloured pencils for each of my youngsters. That was a very nice contact.

Speaking of driving out of the lot, I observed the Sixt has an AI scanner arrange that appears the identical as what Hertz is now utilizing in lots of airports. It didn’t appear to be operational but, however that is clearly coming quickly.

Coupon Book Activity

Cirque du Soleil Drawn to Life because of StubHub credit

We went to see Cirque du Soleil – Drawn to Life, a Disney collaboration that performs at Disney Springs. I purchased our tickets for the present by way of StubHub, utilizing a mix of StubHub reward playing cards I bought by redeeming Capital One Shopping Rewards and the $150 semi-annual StubHub credit score on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (out there as soon as from January to June and as soon as from July to December, enrollment/registration required). I opened the cardboard a few months in the past and hadn’t but used my January-to-June credit score.

This is one thing we in all probability wouldn’t have completed if not for the power to make use of these procuring rewards and the $150  StubHub credit score, however we have been enthusiastic about it, because of the power to do it with out spending money out of pocket. It was a terrific resolution. We completely cherished the present. We had incredible seats, simply 4 rows again from the stage, which meant we may see the entire performers’ expressions and stunts up shut and private.

The theme of the present follows a younger girl whose father was an animator and handed away when she was younger. Now, she needs to complete certainly one of his animations, however she is struggling between her goals and self-doubt. It was a very nice theme, and it was very well completed. My spouse and I loved it at the very least as a lot as our children, if no more. That’s saying lots as a result of our children actually cherished the efficiency. At one level, my son leaned over to me and mentioned, “Wow! You really can do anything!” I feel he was referring to the unimaginable athletic feats of a number of the performers, however I used to be glad that the theme was getting by way of on some stage :-).

My spouse and I’ve seen a number of Cirque exhibits in Las Vegas through the years, together with “O” at Bellagio, “LOVE” (the Beatles present) at what was the Mirage, “Ka” at MGM Grand, “Mystere” at Treasure Island, and “Michael Jackson ONE” at Mandalay Bay, and we’ve seen some cirque-adjacent exhibits like La Reve, which performed at Wynn years in the past. My spouse mentioned Drawn to Life is likely to be her favourite, and we aren’t overly into Disney. I’m unsure I’d put all of it the best way on the prime, however I’ve problem rating these exhibits.

CLEAR because of Platinum playing cards

I ought to point out that Clear got here in useful on the best way out of Orlando. My spouse hasn’t but up to date her license to a “Real ID”, so we’ve been having to hold her passport for home flights. When we dropped off our checked bag earlier than our Southwest flight, I requested if she had her passport useful. She started to fish by way of her bag to seek out it after I remembered that Orlando Airport has CLEAR. I knew they’d scan her eyes, and until she bought chosen for a random ID examine, she wouldn’t even must undergo the effort of fishing out her ID from her bag.

Sure sufficient, we went by way of the Clear lane and didn’t even have to tug out our ID. That was a small win, nevertheless it’s one which we’ve been in a position to get pleasure from because of sustaining Platinum playing cards that cowl the CLEAR membership charge. I don’t know that we’d pay for Clear if we didn’t have bank cards that reimburse the charge, nevertheless it’s usually good to have it as a way to skip the road, and notably on this case, so she didn’t have the small problem of discovering her ID in her carry-on.

Bottom line

Over the final week and a half, I took a run to Reno/Lake Tahoe for Caesars Diamond, then instantly rotated to get pleasure from a weekend in Orlando with my household. Along the best way, we have been in a position to make use of quite a lot of ultra-premium bank card advantages. I’m nonetheless melting on the ever-increasing annual charges and the heated competitors to see who can add probably the most coupon options, however I’ve to confess that we loved a variety of these things over the previous week (and we do many occasions over the course of a 12 months, generally with out fascinated with the sources of the enjoyable). Do I feel that everybody ought to have all of those ultra-premium bank cards? Absolutely not. They received’t be price it for everybody. But this week, a few of these playing cards pulled their weight in offering advantages that proved very helpful.

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